Need Advice for new 16 gallon bow (kinda long)

[anememonemone]

ok i am totally new to the saltwater gig. i have a 29 gallon freshwater that ive had great luck with, one pleco, one yellow angelfish, one silver dollar, one bala shark, one albino rainbow shark, and one rainbow shark. my dad has a 55 gallon freshwater with convicts and albinos, (cichlids) maybe 15 of em, the tank has been running for 19 years, we take out about 30 fish a year and give them away. i have a 2 gallon octagon acrylic that i use to quarantine fish and to make sure the ones i get from the pet store are ok before they get in my tank. at my girlfriends house she has a mini-bow 2.5 gallon acrylic with a beta and a couple fancy guppies.

ok so thats how deep i am in this game (dig the pun?) and we just bought my girlfriends mom a 16 gallon bow thats all glass and a stand from the local pet store. at the time we thought it was gonna be freshwater tank but since then sw has been more and more appealing to us. so we went to the local pet stores and asked around, there was actually a little privatley owned shop that the guy was really helpful, the big chain store type places didnt want to be bothered with newbies.

anyhow now on to the reason im posting. the tank came with a hood, that holds one bulb. if we plan on having an anemone and fish, do i need a 50/50 and a 10,000k bulb. thats what the one guy said was the best, but id hate to have to buy a new hood that holds two bulbs and not be able to use this one.

next, we also bought a starter kit thingy with a filter, the bio bag kind that hangs on the back, a net, a heater and stuff like that. is this kit no good because all of the stuff will have to be sw specific?

will i be ok if we dont use an undergravel filter? what is the best alternative? a canister or a trickle or can i use the thing that came in that kit? i plan on starting the tank out with just a couple simple decorations, and one or two fish, probably a blue damsel with the yellow tail. so if i start out with just one or two fish will just a trickle or canister or the one i got filter be enough to keep up?

this is a long post thanks in advance to anyone who made it all the way through.

 

[anememonemone]

oh by the way anyone ever seen a lionfish??!! 8O i saw one at the pet store, holy crap

 

[JohnNLuc]

Anememonemone It's good to see you are very interested so im going to cover as much as I possibly can. Being new and im sure many will agree a 16G tank is quite small to begin with. Water volume is limited and if you don't know what your doing things can go wrong and go wrong quickly. I would suggest getting something bigger since even experienced people have trouble keeping such a small tank. Next I would not suggest an UG filter. The best filtration for a SW tank is live rock and figure you would need 1.5-2lbs a gallon. Lastly Anemone's although nice to look at require a mature tank and a lot of lighting. I suggest having a tank up and running atleast a year before getting one. I hope I didnt shoot all of your ideas down remember this is an expensive hobby and also one where patience and knowledge come in very handy HTH

 

[austinsdad]

I'd recommend using the 16g for a QT and trying to get a bigger tank. Can you swing it? I'll bet your dad would help decide on a bigger one too - even though he's a freshie . Maybe the same as his (55g). If you're doing this because you want an anenome, you might be better off with a larger, more stable, and of course mature tank.

 

[anememonemone]

ok i get that the invertabrates are a long way down the road, but what is the best way to go about keeping two fish, probably a damsel and something else in a new 16 g tank. which light do i need? which filter do i need besides lr? im not doing the tank simply for an anemone, i would much rather have fish than invertabrates. can i use the common filter that hangs off the back like in my freshwater tank? can i put the normal element with the activated carbon?

 

[JohnNLuc]

Live rock will be all you need as a filter. I would also suggest getting yourself a somewhat decent protein skimmer for a small tank i would suggest possibly a bakpak or a aquac. As far as lighting it depends on what you want to keep FOWLR you can get away with using a regular stip with a 50/50 bulb in it. If your looking to keep corals than go for PC lighting your goal is to have around 4.5-5 W per gallon in order to keep hardy corals such as mushrooms, zoo's etc. But for an anemone I would suggest intense lighting such as Metal Halide.

 

[klam]

Yes you can use a hang on back filter to run media in it, it's very common practice to run floss and carbon. a lot Anemomes do require intense lighting but there are some that do not require intense lights like the Bubble Tip Anemone(Entacmaea quadricolor) which can surivie with PC lights, imo you should still have around 6-8W/gallon of lights of PC lighting.

I've noticed that a lot of people advise against starting a nano tank. Sure it's a little harder to keep stable and might require more maintenance and attention. But if you read and research you will be alright. I have never kept fish im my life and I started a 10g tank. It was going strong for over a 1 1/2years, than I upgraded to slightly bigger tank. Reading, research, patience,money, and listing to others advice can help greatly. Also beware of some fish stores because their bottom line is the all might dollar and they might sell you something that you don't need or something that just wont survive in your tank.

 

[anememonemone]

yeah see im lucky to have a real small aquarium shop here where the guy is really cool. he knows a ton and he doesnt just want to sell me stuff, he's helped alot. so at least i dont have to deal with big chain store morons.