Boxing Day Sale! need advice before I spend, spend, spend!!

[Patwa]

Hey,

this is my first time in this forum (i'm a freshwater nut at the moment)...

anyways my lfs has a pretty sweet sale for Boxing Day...and I think it might be the perfect opportunity for me to buy a nice big tank for a saltwater setup....i've always wanted a saltwater tank, but never really found any good deals until now..

so...here's the deal.... I can get a 65 gallon tank (36"Lx18"Wx24") for $90 CDN....which is a **** good deal imo.....but i'm not sure what filter would be best

Emperor 400??? $59.99CDN (not sure if it can run in sw tanks)
Eheim 2213 $99.99CDN (I think it's a canister)
Filstar XP1/XP2/XP3 starting at $79CDN (not sure what i need...maybe an XP2???)

i basically will be seting up a sw tank with live rock, anenomies, live coral, clown fish, maybe a puffer or two......basically I want a variety of fish......

can anyone lend some advice?? what filter is best??

What other pieces of equipment should I try and buy now??? i think they have a sale on protein skimmers too.....I don't plan on setting this thing up until later next year....i just don't wany to miss this sale!

[snapcrackler]

You're FW wise so you're savvy to start with so..

You could pickup the tank deal if it is the size that you want, set it aside for a lil while and buy a copy of the conscientious marine aquarist or similar and read it in your free time, when you are done you may want to consider different filtration options, maybe go LR and berlin, go sump and fuge, etc.

THEN you will have a plan, stan, and dont fit your plan around the tank because - the cost of the tank (bare box) is pretty minimal when compared to what you WILL dump into everything else.

I have a lil skinny 55 and somehow I have sunk about 1600 into it, in less than 6 months. Live rock lighting inverts salt skimmers filtration substrate fish valium beer tequila etc.

I must say Snap has given you awesome advice.. Kudos to you snap for such awesome advice.. The one thing that I must say.. It is better to read than to waste alot of money on things that you dont need or will decide that you dont want to use it down the road.. FWIW Liverock is the best filter IMO.. Dont waste your money on other canisters or anything.. If you want I will sell you a Magnum 350 for cheap.. The most expensive thing you will find is going to be Lighting.. Dont skimp.. I did and ended up pretty much wasting about 400.00us that I believe is about 600-800cdn.. Not real up for the exchange rates.. All i can strongly suggest is read read read its the best tool..

HTH<
James

[William]

So you don't really even need any filters other than the LR itself? Is this more so in smaller tanks? [sorry for the threadjack, but it fits into Pats question about filtration :\]

[fishfreek]

Nope. The filtration capacity of those canister filters is quite honestly rather low when compaired to 70-90lbs of live rock. The added benifit of the rock is that its also your foundation for corals in the future and it give a more natural look (in compairison to bleach white sand and bleach white coral skelitons).

A DSB of 3-4" in the tank will increase the natural biological filtration several fold. Add a good skimmer to the mix and you will be set for filtration.

Instead of a canister filter adding a sump to the tank will allow you to put the skimmer and heaters below the tank keeping the tank itself free of cords, etc. The return pump on the sump can provide the bulk of the water movement for the main tank. Shoot for 700-900GPH and possibly two returns at opposide sides of the tank.

[brndfrb]

READ READ READ.... Lost of research is good. I read up on saltwater and reef tanks for about a year before i started one. And i made sure that i had everything i needed before i set it up

[Patwa]

thanks guys! lots of great info here......and of course, i'll read as much info as I can on sw tanks before I go farther

but yeah i'll get the tank and just put it in storage until i'm ready...seems like the best deal at the moment.

thanks again,

Zach.

[Patwa]

Originally Posted by fishfreek

A DSB of 3-4" in the tank will increase the natural biological filtration several fold. Add a good skimmer to the mix and you will be set for filtration.

i'm pretty sure i've read that dsb are bad in that they promote the production of anaerobic bacteria or something like that..so when the sand is disturbed, the deadly gases (produced by the bacteria) are released into the water....basically annihilating anything in the tank within hours...

please clarify.... maybe i would need some hermit crabs or something, right???

Zach.

[Patwa]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Can someone PLEASE answer my question above.......i wrote it ages ago, and still have yet to see a response...

thanks!

Zach.

[notmuffy]

Ok I'm not an expert but I can tell you by my experience....
I have a deep sand bed because i have rooted Caulerpa (seaweed, basically) and a fish that buries itself at night. The sand does give off a little gas, but guess what - gas bubbles just travel up through the water and break at the surface. I don't think it 'disolves' back into the water.

Now if you want to annihlate your tank within hours, get a Sea Cucumber or a Cowfish and make them very very angry LOL, that's the best way.

[BillyZ]

DSBs do promote anerobic bacteria. BUT, that is the whole point of a DSB. this bacteria is what performs the last stage of the denitrification process (removing the nitrates from the water). The gasses created are no different from the rest of the biproducts of the denitrfication process and only becomes bad, IMO, if it collects in large quantities, which is unlikely with given the typical amount of water movement in any SW tank.

The general consesus these days is that a DSB with plenty of LR makes SW life MUCH easier on the hobbiest.

Originally Posted by BillyZ

The gasses created are no different from the rest of the biproducts of the denitrfication process.

Actually that is not correct. Only strict anaerobes emit toxins as a result of nitrification. Anoxic forms of bacteria do not consume honorary oxygens and therefore do not emit hydrogen sulphide or methane as a bi-product of the nitrogen cycle. They instead product nitrogen and CO2.

Cheers
Steve