Yet Another Noob Thread...

[fluttermoth]

Hello salty people!

I'm a long-term freshie (and have no intention of changing!); my 14 year old son, however, has fallen for marine tanks in a big way. He's been looking after a shoal of tiger barbs and some zebra loach for a year and is well acquainted with all the 'normal' fish-keeping skills of water changing and the nitrogen cycle etc.

Now, I have an empty 48x15x18 tank that I've been thinking about setting up as a tank for some angels (freshwater angels, lol) and my son is casting longing eyes in its direction

I've tried to get him to go with a FOWLR system, as that seems to be the easiest, but no; he wants corals and is not interested in having any fish at all

So, what kind of equipment would we need (bearing in mind I'm on a fairly limited budget)? Would just lights and powerheads be enough, or do we need to run some kind of phosphate remover or other chemical filtration (we have an external filter we could use for that)?

Also; do you have to add all the live rock at once, or can you build it up over a few weeks?

 

[woody88]

Hello salty people!

I'm a long-term freshie (and have no intention of changing!); my 14 year old son, however, has fallen for marine tanks in a big way. He's been looking after a shoal of tiger barbs and some zebra loach for a year and is well acquainted with all the 'normal' fish-keeping skills of water changing and the nitrogen cycle etc.

Now, I have an empty 48x15x18 tank that I've been thinking about setting up as a tank for some angels (freshwater angels, lol) and my son is casting longing eyes in its direction

I've tried to get him to go with a FOWLR system, as that seems to be the easiest, but no; he wants corals and is not interested in having any fish at all

So, what kind of equipment would we need (bearing in mind I'm on a fairly limited budget)? Would just lights and powerheads be enough, or do we need to run some kind of phosphate remover or other chemical filtration (we have an external filter we could use for that)?

Also; do you have to add all the live rock at once, or can you build it up over a few weeks?

Hi mate, welcome to the salty side of life.

I'm only a noob my self when it comes to saltwater, so I dont really want to advise you in case I give you the wrong advice. What I will say tho is read the journels, especially the ones involving first time setups. You will find all the answers you will ever need and by going by the journels it will give you a very good idea on how to go about setting up a saltwater tank properly. It certainly has helped me out, in fact i would go as far as saying that if it was'nt for the journels and the helpful advice by our fellow saltmeisters on this forum then my tank would have been stripped down and sold on fleebay for cold hard cash.
One thing I will say tho is it is very addictive and very expensive.

overall from what I've experienced so far it aint that much more difficult or different from tropical setups.
Regular water changes and water tests are the key [weekly in my book].

Phosphate remover- yes
Live rock, can do it gradually, but get it all at once if you can [saves possible mini-cycles] go for cured live rock [quicker cycling process]. Is expensive [roughly £8.50 per KG on-line, £10 in lfs]
Live rock is your main source of filtration [biological]........I think!

Protein Skimmer- highly Recommended [ but not a must] can be run without [good weekly water changes]
Good lighting- T5 ho [10000k actinic, Metal Halide etc]
Live rock rubble as part of filter media
Activated carbon [crystal clear water]
2 good powerheads for random flow [I'm running 2 Koralia Nano 900lph] There brill.
Good heater 200w [26 degrees]
aragonite sand [don't fall for 'live' sand gimmick [It a'int live when you buy it from lfs].
RO water
Reef salt mix [I personally buy ready mixed RO salt water 1.025]

Last but not least........PATIENCE!....And a lot of it!

GOOD LUCK MATE!



PS- Anyone want to correct me on above.........feel free!

 

[Uriel]

I'm a marine noob also and i'm not sure that marine is viable on a shoe string. You can save money in a lot of ways. Live rock from other salties that are breaking down there reef. Skimmers ect from ebay. But it still comes to quite a hefty bill.

Also a more experienced saltie may contridict me but i'm pretty sure you should wait until you start getting coraline algea before you start adding corals 6 months +.

Like i say i'm sure someone more experienced will be along but just thought i'd comment quickly.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm a marine noob also and i'm not sure that marine is viable on a shoe string. You can save money in a lot of ways. Live rock from other salties that are breaking down there reef. Skimmers ect from ebay. But it still comes to quite a hefty bill.

Yeah, I know it's not cheap I just want to avoid things like having the tank drilled for a sump and buying metal halides...

Also a more experienced saltie may contridict me but i'm pretty sure you should wait until you start getting coraline algea before you start adding corals 6 months +.

Now, that's interesting and something I didn't know! Would it be possible to run a system with just live rock and possibly some CUC for a few months as my lad doesn't want fish, only corals and inverts?
Would 4 t5s be enough if we make sure we only keep low light corals?

There's no rush to reply; this is going to be a long term project

 

[seffieuk]

bet you just knew it would be me to come along and contradict you!!

You may add corals to your tank as soon as your parameters are correct, some people add coral before fish

4x t5 would give you enough light for all but the most light hungry of corals and if the tank is big enough, sorry i cant remember, even a bubble tip nem about eight months after the tank is established.

So, get your live rock, cycle the tank, add your cuc and then start adding your coral - I quite like a tank that only has a few fish in, makes you look harder at the whole tank

Seffie x

 

[ozzie2011]

I agree with Seffie

 

[Uriel]

bet you just knew it would be me to come along and contradict you!!

You may add corals to your tank as soon as your parameters are correct, some people add coral before fish

4x t5 would give you enough light for all but the most light hungry of corals and if the tank is big enough, sorry i cant remember, even a bubble tip nem about eight months after the tank is established.

So, get your live rock, cycle the tank, add your cuc and then start adding your coral - I quite like a tank that only has a few fish in, makes you look harder at the whole tank

Seffie x

Lol I can claim to be a lot of things in my life, Marine expert is not one of them

 

[seffieuk]

Ozzie that is just so funny

Seffie x

Lol I can claim to be a lot of things in my life, Marine expert is not one of them

Me neither - I have been called many things (mostly rude ) but never a marine expert and I most certainly would not claim to be

SEffie x

 

[fluttermoth]

So, get your live rock, cycle the tank, add your cuc and then start adding your coral

Dear god, that makes it sound so easy!

Thanks everybody for the advice; it's much appreciated; we're going to make a start getting all the equipment together and I'll be back with my next lot of questions some time in the future