Is this enough to start?

[t27countryboy]

55 gallon with glass canopy
48"strip light [40watts]two seperate bulbs making up the 48"
emperor 400
200watt heater
1 test kit
1 hydrometer
instant ocean aquarium salt
thermometer
salt water conditioner
If this is enough to start making a cycle,what should I put on the bottom......Live sand or crushed coral or what?They sell bags of live sand at my petstore.How much do i need for a 55?
I do not have the money to set up a big fancy aquarium right now like I wish so What would you suggest to get me started?Thank you very much in advance.
MARC

[Jermz79]

Your initial equipment looks good for a basic FOWLR setup, I am new to this hobby as well and like you did not want to spend a fortune on my learning experience! But have slowly realized that even the basics are getting expensive ... I think I have hit $500 and don't even have my LR yet !!!!!!!! 8O 8O 8O

If you plan on keeping any corals that need extreme light, you may want to go ahead and check into some PC/MH lighting. If not then just check out www.hellolights.com and look into getting a NO 10,000k & a NO Blue Actinic! Both of these are a tad better than your normal florescents. This is what I did!

You should check out www.premiumaquatics.com for your substrate, they have some real good prices on sand. From what I have read on this board and doing research on my own ... sand substrate is the best thing as it will help with the filtration! There is a link to "calculators" up top, put in your numbers and how deep you want your sand bed and it will give you the exact amount of sand you will need! a common number everyone agrees to is 3.5/5 inches deep ... I know for my 29 gallon I needed 65 pounds of sand to get a 3.5inch DSB.

I don't know if you plan on going with any LR, although I would suggest it ... again this will help with the biological filtration! LR can be pretty expensive depending on if you follow the 1 or 2lbs per gallon rule ... check out www.hirocks.com for some nice base rock and www.liverocks.com for some nice live rock! With LR you need some real hefty water flow. Get some PowerHeads to do the job, everyone here seems to agree that MaxiJets are the best and try to get at least 10 to 15X the amount of your tank in GPH. to give you an idea again in my 29 gallon I am running 2 MaxiJet 900's rated at 230gph flow ... so that adds up to 460gph almost 20 times the size of my tank!

Read into the "fishless" cycle method in the articles at the top of the forum, there is some good knowledge in there! Research, research, research and then when you think you couldn't possibly know anything more Research again! Trust me there is more than meets the eye in this hobby!

If there is anything I missed, I'm sure someone after me will catch it and give you a heads up ... good luck!

HTH,
Jermz

[seaham358]

Salt water is not a cheap hobby. IMO I would wait and buy things as you can and when you get enough $$$ then jump in with both feet. You can start out without all the things needed but the tank may suffer.
IMO skimmer, at least a canister filter a few power heads at least 1lb per gallon of Live Rock these things are needed IMO to have a sucessful tank.
Sure you can set something up cheap and quick but is it going to be good for the fish? Read up on the hobby more before you jump in.... I read for a few months before i jumped in and had a good LFS giving me advise.

[Oceanicsublimat]

I'm at 2000$ and haven't even got the first fish...

[Abiathar]

I was up to nearly $1000 on my 29 before a drop of water hit the tank. At first I was thinking of how cheap I could do it, but after reading a few books and watching this site for a couple of months I decided to spend the money and do it right even if it took longer to set up. My tank has been up and running now for 6 months and going good and strong now.

Steve

[t27countryboy]

ok people,I guess that I will be running another freshwater setup.hahahah!!My wife will absolutely divorce my but if I spend that kind of money!!!!Thanks for the info!!

[lando]

I hate to see you give it up based n money. You can jus take your time and collect things as time goes by. There are come ways to get by a bit less exspensive. Go to Home Depot or your local home improvement store and get some aragonite based tropical play sand. Do not waste your money on "live sand" in a bag from the LFS. That will save you about $75 right there. Put that money toward LR. Source it out online or locally. To cycle it does not have to be "top shelp" LR. Get something cheap to start off. Once hte cycle is complete and you have some more money saved up and some more nice rock (Keys rock from liverocks.com) to add to the tank. the rest of your list looks good, but I would add a couple of maxi-jet 1200 powerheads. IYou should also consider a skimmer down the road. Don't give up on this, just take your time.

[Jermz79]

Take it slow, buy things here and there and then your wife will not see the BIG chunk of money gone from the account 8O !

Trust me my fiancee was like HECK NO we are buying a new house and have to do some work on that and, and, and, and, and .... and then I showed her "Nemo" and gave her the good 'ol and she said awwwwwwww O.k.!!!!!


***** disclaimer *****
Not liable for any injuries recieved from wife beating you for spending unknown amounts of money.