[Ds4x4]

(Instead of hijacking OWA's thread)


I just started setting up my 55gal marine tank.. got the water/salt in and just put the live bahama sand in and waiting for it to settle out a little.. I also have a few pieces of live rock and a couple pieces of rock for more stuff to grow on.. if any of you "pro's" got any pointers that would be great!





here's the setup. and pics when i find the camera..

55 Gal tank
Coralife hood with 2 10,000k 65 watt flourescent and 2 450mm 65watt lights
60 lbs of live bahama sand
Marineland Emperor 400B filter with bio-wheel
Marineland penguin 150 filter with bio-wheel
250 watt stealth heater (marineland)
i have another elite heater also, but not in the tank..
basic floating thermometer.
digital thermometer.
Salinity is at 32ppt/1.024 spg.
temp 83.1 F
i have 4 pieces of live rock and a few other pieces of rock along with a few snails and a starfish or two that tagged along

[GeneralDisarray]

Tips? Run like hell! Run while you can!!

But seriously.........

Do research. Marine stuff is expensive. Do research. There is usually a cheaper way. They sell marine silicone sealant for $10 a tube. GE silicone 2 is the same thing. $2.00 from home depot.


Run like hell from a slatwater AQ. What do you have invested on the 55? Over $1,500 I would guess. And it doesn't stop.

[Indy]

1. Never buy "live sand", it's a ripoff. Buy "playsand" from Lowes for $2/bag and build a sandbed 3-6" deep. Never use construction grade sand.

2. Don't stock the entire tank with 'live rock'. It's expensive. Stock 80% with base or lace rock and then fill in with some nice live rock. The life in teh live rock will spread throughout and you'll have a tank full of live rock for $50 instead of $30/piece. Figure 1lb per gallon minimum.

3. Use at least 2 heaters set to the same temp. This will spread the load out and also provide a backup should 1 fail. A temp swing in a fresh tank can be bad, a temp swing in a marine tank can wipe it in short order.

4. Make sure your water flow turns the tank a minimum of 10x an hour. Unless your fish are plastered to the side of the tank, you can't have too much flow in a marine tank.

5. Get a RO filter off of ebay, roughly $90. Use it for filling and all your topoff. Using pure water from the get-go will head off 75% of your future water problems.

6. Build a refugium and stock it with macro-algae.

7. Get a good supply of detrivores. Snails, crabs, and worms to populate the sandbed.

8. Ditch the mechanical filters. With the RO filter, sandbed, live rock, refugium, detrivores and good flow you'll end up with 100% biological filtration that should keep your nitrate/nitrite/ammonia levels at or near 0.

9. Never use live fish to cycle the tank, a couple shrimp from safeway will do the job better and faster and without torturing live fish.

10. Be patient in the process. Nothing good happens fast in a marine tank.

Originally Posted by Ds4x4

(Instead of hijacking OWA's thread)


I just started setting up my 55gal marine tank.. got the water/salt in and just put the live bahama sand in and waiting for it to settle out a little.. I also have a few pieces of live rock and a couple pieces of rock for more stuff to grow on.. if any of you "pro's" got any pointers that would be great!





here's the setup. and pics when i find the camera..

55 Gal tank
Coralife hood with 2 10,000k 65 watt flourescent and 2 450mm 65watt lights
60 lbs of live bahama sand
Marineland Emperor 400B filter with bio-wheel
Marineland penguin 150 filter with bio-wheel
250 watt stealth heater (marineland)
i have another elite heater also, but not in the tank..
basic floating thermometer.
digital thermometer.
Salinity is at 32ppt/1.024 spg.
temp 83.1 F
i have 4 pieces of live rock and a few other pieces of rock along with a few snails and a starfish or two that tagged along

[GeneralDisarray]

Indy.

Good advice!!! I hate PETA, but there is no need to cycle with live fish. A dead shrimp will do it without a fish needing to breath amonia.

A note I would like to add to your post, he can make his own rocks. He should google it.

Also, join a local saltwater forum. It will save him a lot of money when it comes to equipment and stock, whether it is fish or corals. This is done through trading.

I got out of the hobby last year.

But the RO filter is the only thing I kept. No more bottled water!!

Oh, and he should run like hell!!! Don't do it!!!

[shoeless]

I'm laughing at GeneralDisarray, or rather with.

I just started a 3g pico about 4 months ago. I started with a JBJ 3g tank I bought for about $40, I've since bought at least $200 worth of other stuff before I even put anything into it. It's not cheap.

That's why I haven't started the other tank I got for free from my friend, a 39g Cadlights bow front. For that one I have to buy everything still, lights, pumps everything.

Ds4x4, what do you plan to stock it with?

[Ds4x4]

well i got the tank and an oak stand along with the big filter air pump and heater for free but it came with a piranha. fish went to the fish store and i bought the live sand, about 3 live rocks and about 5 pieces of lace rock.. I built what little i could see, a small hill with hiding spots and caves.. the small filter and heater i bought for a 20 gal tank someone gave me for the piranha.so i have about $200 invested at the moment

I was told the live sand will pretty much cut the ammonia cycle out, and theres a couple small snails and a tiny starfish that was on the rocks in the tank already.. I planned on getting a couple small damsels, then getting rid of them and getting some cleaner shrimp, a few snails and maybe get some tangs or such. i haven't really decided yet. I have a neat book that has each fish and it's traits, aggressive/non aggressive, which fish to keep away and how they will interact.

edit* forgot to mention i plan on adding simple soft corals -maybe- and a few anemone's. also a power head or power sweep.

[cheap5.0]

Whoever that was, your hooked up

Links gone.

[JumpinJen]

Wow their are some reefers on here! Good advice everyone, but for god sakes man, get a foam fractionator (protein skimmer.) The refugium is a good start.

As for message boards there are a few I can think of Reefcentral is a good one as is hardcoreaquatics. Just add the dot com.

But www.wetwebmedia.com is still my favorite.


It's still not to late to put everything away and RUN LIKE HELL! Frikken exspensive hobbies.

[Ds4x4]

Originally Posted by JumpinJen

Frikken exspensive hobbies.

uhh.. it's gotta be cheaper than wheelin the jeep and using it as the DD.. Break-it = Fix-it fast..


and a skimmer is on the list for later.. this is more or less the test b/c i would like to get a big tank down in the basement

[shoeless]

A friend of a friend owns this place http://www.austinaquafarms.com/index.html

Some of this stuff is expensive, but it's unlike anything I have ever seen in any of the local stores in Houston and Austin. Some very nice corals. The guy that owns it flies to LA every so often to hand pick the stuff. His setup is unbelievable.

[cheap5.0]

Originally Posted by shoeless

A friend of a friend owns this place http://www.austinaquafarms.com/index.html

Some of this stuff is expensive, but it's unlike anything I have ever seen in any of the local stores in Houston and Austin. Some very nice corals. The guy that owns it flies to LA every so often to hand pick the stuff. His setup is unbelievable.

Very cool! Its hard to find a store that really does a good job like that (ok....its RARE).

[dawnskaybug]

I concur with everythign except Idy says
Except throw a damsel in there and see how he does..

[shoeless]

Originally Posted by cheap5.0

Very cool! Its hard to find a store that really does a good job like that (ok....its RARE).

Yeah, his aim is to essentially be the high end coral guy. He sells essentially online only.

[GeneralDisarray]

Originally Posted by Ds4x4

well i got the tank and an oak stand along with the big filter air pump and heater for free

You think you got it for free!! That is because the previous owner decided to cut his losses and run like hell!! LOL

Here is a good site for reading.... http://www.garf.org/ It has a lot of good info.

As for the anemone. There are a few soft corals that will do the same thing for your clown fish(which I am sure is why you want an anemone) without the risk of having a poisonous anemone in your tank.

But good luck with the tank. The corals are beautiful as well as many of the fish. Purple Tangs are awesome as well as false Perculas.

If you want freaky crap, get a mantis shrimp.

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[GeneralDisarray]

And don't buy coral. You will get raped.



Join a local club. You can trade cuts of corals. They want something you have. You want something they have. It is a hell of a lot cheaper. And you know if the coral is coming from an established/stable tank.