20 Gallon First Build

[laxb0rder]

Hi I am looking to do a 20 gallon salt water tank i would like to start FOWLR and possibly add some coral later on. As of now i have a 20 gallon tall tank and a 300w heater as of now.

I am looking into getting a filter and would like some help on what to choose. My ideas so far are the Aquaclear 50 or 30, most likely the 50 just because it will filter more water and then maybe i wont need a skimmer, am i correct with this? I am trying to stay on a budget. Or a Marineland 150gph, or 200gph. Any help here would be great because i really have no idea which way to go.

I also plan on getting a hydor koralia circulation pump to get some water flow through my tank. Would this be a good idea or should i look towards something else.

I was also wondering if i need live sand and 20lbs or live rock or if i can go with normal sand and like 10 pounds live rock and 10 or 15 pounds dry rock. As a college student im on a budget and trying to not spend too much money.

Thanks in advanced.

 

[qb6fire]

You can do i piece of live roch then the rest base but your cycle will be much longer and the base rock overtime with become live

 

[Sniperhank]

A skimmer and a filter are not the same thing. If you are starting fish only, you won't need a skimmer til you go reef. A skimmer pulls really nasty crap out of the water where a filter just...well, filters it.

As for the sand and rock, you need 1-1.5 lbs of rock and 1 lbs of sand per gallon. It doesn't really matter if it is live or not because after you cycle your tank it will all be live anyway. The only reason for getting live rock is to either help seed dry rock or for the excitement of looking for hitchhikers. I would suggest an agragite based sand, it will help buffer your pH. But, pool filter sand is a much cheaper alternative.

Koralia's are good powerheads. They are cheap and effective. You won't need much flow in your tank until you go reef, but having one powerhead will be good enough for now.

 

[laxb0rder]

Thanks for the quick replies. As for the sand i dont know if it would be possible to get sand from the beach and put it in my tank as i live right by the water and just let that cycle some or is that a bad idea.

 

[qb6fire]

Prob a bad idea but im sure if you rinse it all really really good it.might be ok but let someone else answer that one ha