New to saltwater

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Rsquared333

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
287
Location
Phoenix, AZ
I have been a freshwater hobbists for years but now want to try my hand at saltwater. I have seen so many amazing saltwater tanks, and I would love to have one of my own. Here's what I 'm thinking. Please fill in the blanks and comment, there are several things such as protein skimmers and uv sterilizers and refugiums (would i need one?) that I am not accustom to in the freshwater field.

Tank: 46 gal bowfront

Filter: Rena filstar XP3

Heater:2 150watt or 1 250 watt tronic or ehiem jager

Lighting: not sure of the demands of coral I use about 2.5 watts per gal for plants

Protien Skimmer: don't know about them. looking for quality that is resonably priced but I value quality over price

UV Sterilizer: don't know about them. same as protien skimmer

Substrate: live sand

This will be a reef tank housing inverts and small fish and lots of corals and anemones. I have seen the new nano tanks and I love the fish they have for them so I am going for a large-scale nano tank look (oxymoron).
 
If your buying the tank new and don't want to hassle with reto'ing something to fit it, I would start with a standard 29, 55 or 75 gallon tank. There are alot more 'plug and play' solutions for lighting. (you planning on pc, vho (my fav) mh or some combo of these?) You mentioned corals. 4w/gal is the 'standard' as a min but surely you can place shrooms and maybe zoos up higher with less lighting. For lps and others, much stronger (About 2 x as much) is going to be needed for lighting. Always remember, your trying to emulate the very sunny, warm environment they come from, not easy to do with a pair of 50w lights ; ) Heaters, GL, I have yet to find something reliable and I have 2 in the tank 'just in case'. Skimmer is a must in most cases if your keeping coral. They thrive in very high water quality tanks. UV sterilizers..Im not trying to start a war, but I completely disconnected mine after nearly a year. They are useless imo and most folks that use them do not clean them properly. In turn they become caked (internally) with sand, grit and other trash and are a waste of time money and energy..again, just my opinion. (But they do make a great marketing ploy..) Filtration can be as easy or as complex as you want. Some folks use cannisters for chem/mechanical and rely on lr or other media for bio. The live sand will help and thats probably a good choice for your 1st sw tank. As for nano's, if it's your first, you've made a wise choice, lots of 'other' issues staying on top of nano tanks. One thing you did not mention is circulation. Corals and most reef loving fish like current, so you'll want to put in 2 or 3 powerheads. Refugium..I don;t have one, less you count the algea that grows in my show tank. I have read a lot about them and some folks have great success with them. Not at all a requirement, however, imo best suited for someone with some experience. Its not that its complex, just that you may find depending on feedings and stock, its not needed. If I reconsidered anything I would consider a sump for mechanical/chemical filtration. You can place media in it for those nitrate and phos outbreaks (If you have them) and they increase the over all volume of water available to the system. You'll also find that you do most maint tasks in the sump (Water changes, sponges, top offs, etc) Overall, I think thats probably one of the best 'out of tank' buys anyone can make. For that, you'll need a sump (Something that fits under your tank, or if your single, where ever the h e double hockey sticks you want it) an overflow (Or drilled tank) a return pump and associated tubing. You should research the sump thing as there are many variations, but they all boil down to one fundamental task of taking water from the tank and dumping into your sump for return to the main tank.

GL
-PC
 
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