A small reef tank...

[William]

I have read your posts and appreciate you think bigger is better and I understand that, however I reckon the biggest tank I would be able to get away with would be a 30 gallon...

I would like to know the approximate startup costs also, I know its going to be high!

I won't be even thinking seriously about this for about 4 months or so but would like to have the information

In my tank I would like a lot of liverock and probably sand also, I love the little critters that come free :laugh: :laugh: In fact for me a tank would be great with that and just a few easy to keep fish. Might sound boring to you reef experts but there is something soo relaxing about the little fellas

Anyway how much rock would I need, I have heard sumps being mentioned and presume that is for the filtration ?

Thanks

 

[Great Lakes]

William. I must admit. Even though I said bigger is better, here is what I'm a gonna do.
 I have a brand new skilter system. This is a pump, filter system, and skimmer all in one. I paid $45 brand new. I have a 29gal tank I'm not using
  I'm going to put two 25lb bags of live sand in it, about $50.
This should give me about a 3 to 4 inch base, which is recommended. Fill it with 25 gallons of water, turn on my filter with some floss, and let everything settle for a day or two. Then I am going to add a 45 pound box of live rock,($99 incl. shipping), and a couple damsels, along with some charcoal to my filter. I will carefully monitor it for a couple months, then add my moray eel

  I am not sure about the lighting yet. Have to work that one out. probably compact flourescents.
  This help?
  Few hundred bucks more or less. Not too bad. You will have a powerhead to buy here and there, but you might have some of the stuff you need already.
  And william, if you really want to do seahorses, I don't think they use much in the way of liverock.

 

[William]

Hehe, I think I gave up on the idea of the young seahorses . Although they are cute there are several complications which I have found when keeping them

For my tank I plan to have liverock and as many of the little critters as I can fit in. Only a few fish, I would like to have some suggestions for that actually because other than the goby I don't know which would be suitable....

Thanks again

 

[Great Lakes]

William, don't cycle with damsels like some suggest. I'll do it because they will become fodder for the Moray eventually. Damsels can be some of the hardest fish to get out of a tank.
If I was going to be able to have only one fish, maybe two, one of them would be a fire angel. This is the most beautiful red fish I have ever seen. And if I could have two, the other would be a goby.
The bummer about a reef William, is the limited amount of fish you can have. But the cool thing is you can have all the shrimp, snails, brittle stars, and other denizens of the deep, within reason, that you want. You will sit with your face pressed to the glass searching out all the little creatures there are, scarcely noticing your fish at times.

 

[William]

Thats what i plan to do! 8)

 

[Crimson Ghost]

I have to agree with GL, you really do sit with your face pressed against the glass searching out new things (and you will find new things all the time even if you dan’t add anything for a year!!)

As for the 30 Gallon William – many people run reefs this size and smaller. Actually, I might set up a 20 gallon simply for cycling and growing new corals before adding to the large tank.

Try this link for some information on the reef set up:

http/www.threestepstoareefaquarium.com/

here is a link to a yahoo site for nanoreefs

http/pages.yahoo.com/nhrp?o=....uariums

a lot of the nano owners are going to be 10 gallons, you can probably learn a lot from reading what they have experienced.