Coel
Aquarium Advice Freak
So a few of you might have seen my lighting post about a 38 gallon on the inexpensive side to start and then I may upgrade lighting down the road. Here is that thread. But I feel obligated to make a full post. Also if you see any seemingly random questions that is me getting spaced out I'll put them in a different color.
My friend and I are both going to be building saltwater tanks together. I have a 38 and he has a 40 breeder. I figure the equipment will be very similar.
What we have:
Me:
spare heaters x2 100w
AC 50 eventually a spare AC 70 and some pos aqueon.
thermometer
air pump
saltwater liquid test kit for basics (will expand)
Buddy:
heater/filter/thermometer/airpump
needs full testkit.
Likely neither of us will be running sumps to start.
My thoughts were this. We both need new lights cool things is they are both 36" tanks so I can shop for identical fixtures. I know that my tank is deeper and I need the stronger fixture but they should be close. We both need sand and live rock. I was thinking of ordering 100lbs of each from someplace like marcorocks.com or bulkreefsupply.com and that way we can save more doing a bulk order together. Atleast equipment wise we should be able to hit the free shipping total for most websites if we order together. My real questions are to make sure I am on par with my expectations of what we will need. I know the common things like the refractometers and protein skimmers.
Power heads and flow were something I wanted to ask about. How many and how should they be angled?
And suggestions for equipment are always welcome.
As for set up here were my thoughts since will both be taking it slow. Once we have a bulk of the equipment set it up and do the shrimp cycle method. leave this running for a few months with constant ammonia sources to truthfully cycle and build the bio load up. Do you need a light to cycle the tank? The only reason I ask is that I was hoping to seed with a little cured live rock and hopefully spread some coralline algae.
So I think that is it for now, any tips, tricks, hints would be super welcome. ALso the eventual plan for the HOBs was to use purigen.
Thanks
My friend and I are both going to be building saltwater tanks together. I have a 38 and he has a 40 breeder. I figure the equipment will be very similar.
What we have:
Me:
spare heaters x2 100w
AC 50 eventually a spare AC 70 and some pos aqueon.
thermometer
air pump
saltwater liquid test kit for basics (will expand)
Buddy:
heater/filter/thermometer/airpump
needs full testkit.
Likely neither of us will be running sumps to start.
My thoughts were this. We both need new lights cool things is they are both 36" tanks so I can shop for identical fixtures. I know that my tank is deeper and I need the stronger fixture but they should be close. We both need sand and live rock. I was thinking of ordering 100lbs of each from someplace like marcorocks.com or bulkreefsupply.com and that way we can save more doing a bulk order together. Atleast equipment wise we should be able to hit the free shipping total for most websites if we order together. My real questions are to make sure I am on par with my expectations of what we will need. I know the common things like the refractometers and protein skimmers.
Power heads and flow were something I wanted to ask about. How many and how should they be angled?
And suggestions for equipment are always welcome.
As for set up here were my thoughts since will both be taking it slow. Once we have a bulk of the equipment set it up and do the shrimp cycle method. leave this running for a few months with constant ammonia sources to truthfully cycle and build the bio load up. Do you need a light to cycle the tank? The only reason I ask is that I was hoping to seed with a little cured live rock and hopefully spread some coralline algae.
So I think that is it for now, any tips, tricks, hints would be super welcome. ALso the eventual plan for the HOBs was to use purigen.
Thanks