Fowlr Setup Question

[donny7]

I want to convert my 20g tropical tank into a FOWLR. I understand I should start with a bigger tank size, but I'm unfortunately restricted to this 20g long tank. I believe it's 12" x 30", so it is a long tank. I just have a few questions. I have NO knowledge on saltwater tanks, so bare with me


Do I need to recycle the tank, or can I add my saltwater filters and the media from the tropical tank?

Can I use tap water? RO system is expensive, so is buying the water itself. I live in arizona, and from what I hear our water is pretty hard and contains a good deal of calcium.

Speaking of, I do live in arizona, so it gets really hot. What is the stable temp for a SW tank? My FW tanks fluctuate 1-2 degrees a day, going for 74-76, depending on the weather. Should I invest in a fan?

Lightning. I don't need to go crazy for live rocks, do I?

What equipment is vital? I'm going to buy a new filter, a powerhead, a hydrometer, some salt obviously, live sand, a better water test kit, and anything else that is recommended.

I'm dying for a SW tank. I'm working at petco as a freshwater aquatic specialist and today they let me completely redo the saltwater tanks and it is SO AWESOME!

 

[woody88]

Hi, you wont need the filter/s as the live rock is your biological filter. I wouldn't use any filter media out your freshwater tank either tbh.

Cycling wise, the live rock will cycle your tank so no need to add fish or dose with ammonia.

Just mix up salt water to correct sg (1.025) get it up to temp (25c) add your live rock and test for amm,nitrite,ph every 24 hrs or so.
You will need powerhead/s to produce flow around the rock to keep it alive. You need to aim for 20x turnover per hour so on a 20g tank you will need a 400gph powerhead. Netter to have 2 x 200gph for random flow.
If you get cured LR and it stays in water or at least moist during transport then die off will be minimal resulting a mini cycle or maybe a not even a cycle at all.
You will need around 10kg of LR min. 15kg would be better.
Stock wise you might just squeeze a couple of clown fish in there but that would be it I'm afraid.
Or you could go for a shrimp/goby pair.
Lighting wise, if its gonna be FOWLR system then lighting will just be for viewing pleasure, although adequate lighting does help with coraline algae growth (lovely pink/purple patches on LR).

You need to use plain RO water and a good brand of reef salt to mix. Don't bother with hydrometers as they're inaccurate. Get a refractometer instead.

Temperature swings will cause a tank probs so you made a cooling fan to get the temp stable if your in a hot climate.

Equipment wise maybe a protein skimmer to act as your mechanical filtration and you could use a filter to house carbon/phos remover to act as your chemical filtration.
On a tank that size then weekly water changes are a must as it will be a much more unstable environment. Constant monitoring of water params will be required also.

Welcome to the salty side mate!

 

[Donya]

I live in arizona, and from what I hear our water is pretty hard and contains a good deal of calcium.

Have a look at what your area's water quality reports are like and a think about what you're going to keep. Short answer is that if you don't want to look at those reports and don't want to have potentially a lot of bother, RO will be the easiest way to go.

Still, not everyone uses RO (me lol on half my tanks anyway - I'm so bad ). But, if you're going to keep something really finicky and sensitive to trace elements like certain stoney corals, then I would never recommend tap - just because the cost cutting you can do there is not worth it, particularly when you stand to lose umpty bajillion dollars of livestock just because you didn't tweak the tap water right one week. That said, other simple setups like FOWLRs and those with just a few hermits and snails are not going to care so much about tap vs. RO as long as your water quality isn't insanely bad. Needless to say, if you ever worry about drinking your tap water for checmial reasons (like a strong metallic taste or other really strange after taste), or can't keep fw inverts in it for mysterious reasons, don't use it for a marine aquarium.

Really hard water can also be a PITA to use for marine, if for no other reason that sometimes you put the salt mix in and a bunch of "snow" can suddenly precipitate out - that being calcium carbonate triggered by the extra Ca in the mix. When that happens, you get to have a bunch of fun tweaking the KH and Ca levels manually. If snow doesn't happen (which can sometimes just be a matter of switching salt brands) then you're really just down to finding ways to deal with metals, the usual ammonia/nitrite/nitrate combo, and sometimes phosphates (which is the same as for fw invert tanks really). There are chemical methods of handling all of that. There is some debate as to whether the cost of doing it that way vs. just buying the RO or RO system will be greater. It will vary, but for me, unless I've made a massive miscalculation, I'm pretty sure it's been cheaper to run most of my tanks on tap. That doesn't mean I won't eventually go for an RO unit one day just for the extra convenience of not having to periodically bother about with KH and the like, since I do use some RO. I use it to mix salt for one tank and for topoffs on all the others now (but I used to be tap-only for everything before I had that one special tank).

Speaking of, I do live in arizona, so it gets really hot. What is the stable temp for a SW tank? My FW tanks fluctuate 1-2 degrees a day, going for 74-76, depending on the weather. Should I invest in a fan?

If your fw tanks don't go above 76, you are probably alright, since it sounds like your AC is doing a good job. A lot of people run their marine tanks higher than that in the 78-82 range. But, if you're ever going to go coral crazy, you may need to keep an eye on the temp since the extra lights can dump a ton of heat into the tank, and even the room sometimes. The sw show room from one of the stores I used to go to in TX was always a sauna because of that. Fans will only work well if the tank is open-topped and the room's humidity is kept in check. Small tanks can also sometimes get by through short heatwaves with the ice bottle trick, but big tanks with massive amounts of light in a really hot environment can require a chiller, which is non-trivial from a monetary standpoint.