Mr. Crabs
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- May 29, 2011
- Messages
- 346
My daughter (3) and I recently set up a 30 gallon reef tank. We wanted a smaller tank that would fit nicely in our living room; not breaking the bank on initial set up.
So we bought the following:
1 30 gallon glass aquarium $60
1 150 Watt Submersible Heater $16
1 Berlin Airlift 60 Protein Skimmer (on sale $11 )
1 Air Pump for the skimmer ( had it )
1 Power Sweep Power Head ( had it )
10lbs of dry sand--we only used 7lbs $7
50lbs Fiji Live Rock $60
1 Rena HOB Filter ( had it )
1 box of reef carbon $8
1 bag to hold the carbon--filter sock $1.49
36" of aquarium backing $6
1 Twin T5 10000k fixture $70
We set everything up and stared at the tank for a week--monitoring the temp (79 degrees) & SG 1.026.
We held off on adding the skimmer because, well, there wasn't anything to skim. We used tap water, prime, and Instant Ocean Sea Salt. We may switch to RO if I find a problem with the municipal water. I have used the area water in the past for a larger reef, without much trouble. We will be topping off the tank (Evaporation) with distilled water from Wally World.
After a week, we added the sand and let the tank sit with pumps off overnight. The next day we added the live rock. We had the live rock setting in a bin for 2 weeks. I changed the water (5 gallons of 10) every three days. It was aerated and heated. After adding the sand and live rock, we started up the protein skimmer.
We let the tank sit for 3 weeks and monitored the levels; ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I only had a mini cycle, even when adding a cocktail shrimp. First we added 3 green chromis. We waited two weeks and added the flame angel. We waited another 2 weeks and added 1 gold barred maroon clown.
We also added a coral banded shrimp and five blue leg hermit crabs last night. The tank is doing well and we will be only adding very low light level corals, probably just a few. The idea behind our tank was a simple reef on a budget. Surprisingly, the Berlin Airlift skimmer is running very well. I read a lot of negative feedback on it, but found once set up properly and left alone, it does its job.
We are going to wait another couple weeks before trying a couple more inverts: thinking featherdusters and mushrooms. Thanks for looking.
So we bought the following:
1 30 gallon glass aquarium $60
1 150 Watt Submersible Heater $16
1 Berlin Airlift 60 Protein Skimmer (on sale $11 )
1 Air Pump for the skimmer ( had it )
1 Power Sweep Power Head ( had it )
10lbs of dry sand--we only used 7lbs $7
50lbs Fiji Live Rock $60
1 Rena HOB Filter ( had it )
1 box of reef carbon $8
1 bag to hold the carbon--filter sock $1.49
36" of aquarium backing $6
1 Twin T5 10000k fixture $70
We set everything up and stared at the tank for a week--monitoring the temp (79 degrees) & SG 1.026.
We held off on adding the skimmer because, well, there wasn't anything to skim. We used tap water, prime, and Instant Ocean Sea Salt. We may switch to RO if I find a problem with the municipal water. I have used the area water in the past for a larger reef, without much trouble. We will be topping off the tank (Evaporation) with distilled water from Wally World.
After a week, we added the sand and let the tank sit with pumps off overnight. The next day we added the live rock. We had the live rock setting in a bin for 2 weeks. I changed the water (5 gallons of 10) every three days. It was aerated and heated. After adding the sand and live rock, we started up the protein skimmer.
We let the tank sit for 3 weeks and monitored the levels; ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I only had a mini cycle, even when adding a cocktail shrimp. First we added 3 green chromis. We waited two weeks and added the flame angel. We waited another 2 weeks and added 1 gold barred maroon clown.
We also added a coral banded shrimp and five blue leg hermit crabs last night. The tank is doing well and we will be only adding very low light level corals, probably just a few. The idea behind our tank was a simple reef on a budget. Surprisingly, the Berlin Airlift skimmer is running very well. I read a lot of negative feedback on it, but found once set up properly and left alone, it does its job.
We are going to wait another couple weeks before trying a couple more inverts: thinking featherdusters and mushrooms. Thanks for looking.