Marine Ideas

Hi Mike, I'm pretty new at this myself, but maybe I can help a bit.
From what you said you want, here is what I'd get as a bare minimum-

2 powerheads
1-2 Emperor 400s (I would remove the media and replace it with live rock rubble)
Quality heater(if you don't have one already)
Substrate
Live rock
Salt mix
Source of RO water(you may even be able to use tap water since you don't want corals)
Hydrometer or refractometer(for measuring salinity)
Good liquid test kit

Live sand and live rock are just sand and rock that have tons of small and large organisms living in and on it. Their benefits are that they help filter the tank, and they make it interesting.

A skimmer isn't necessary if you're not keeping corals.

With your live rock, you may end up with a bit of a reef anyway...I know I have like 5-6 mushroom corals that I didn't buy just hanging out on my rock. It's not blasphemy not to keep a reef-lots of people don't. The setup you want is called FOWLR(fish only, with live rock). It's pretty popular.

To save money, keep an eye on Craigslist. Lots of people are getting rid of tanks, and they often sell tons of live rock at a great price. I've seen it for $1-$2 a pound, and it's usually $5+.

I'd recommend reading this thread for the minimal things you would need:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115394&highlight=minimum

Check out this very informative article on your questions and benefits regarding live rock:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/cav2i3/Live_Rock/live_rock.htm

MikeInOrlando said:

I've been doing fish long enough to know that for sure I do NOT want to get involved with reefs. That might be blasphemy to some in here, but it's just not for me. I want things in my tank that LOOK like reef, but not the real deal.

Click to expand...

I said that multiple times too.

for your tank i would get the live rock and live sand but get a skimmer the best one is the mce600 and get 2 powerheads you could get 2 seio M110 and that all you need for filtration

here get,

a skimmer

75-125 lbs LR

Sand (doesnt have to be live, although it can be... it becomes live easily on its own, i use normal sand with a few lbs of LS to seed it)

Sump- this is not mandatory.. but it is a good thing to have. (I'll explain more later)

Powerheads- in normal marine tank FOWLR (fish only with live rock) you would want to turn the 75g of water over 10-15 times, so get enough flow rate from a few powerheads to do that. If its a reef, you want 20-25 turnover rate, so for instance you would want

FOWLR-1125 gph water movement (15x turnover)
Reef-1500 gph water movement (20x turnover)


A sump is not needed, but not only does it give you a place to put equipment such as skimmer, and heaters so they don't have to stay in the tank, but it gives you a higher water volume. A higher water volume is never bad because the lower the water volume is, the more likely the water is to change quickly and decline rapidly in condition.

A sump also makes the water level in your main display tank constant, so you don't have to deal with evaporated water in your display tank, but only in your sump. This again adds to the simplicity of the tank and adds to the beauty as well.

No other filtration than LR and a skimmer is needed in marine aquaria. Some people use Wet/Dry filtration systems and still others use canisters and more, it really depends on how much money you would like to spend. If you opt to use the Emperor 400's, i would take ALL of the media out and either fill the back with LR rubble, or just run them empty for extra flow. Bio-wheels are said to be OK in saltwater, but all they do is the same thing as LR but in an unnatural way.

On the powerheads, models are up to you... they all work... favorites are the Koralia water pumps, and the Maxi-Jet 1200's. Keep in mind that it is better to have multiple smaller powerheads then 1 or 2 big ones.

Hope this helps,
Jay

Just because the tap water is good for your FW tanks does not necessarily mean that it'll be good for FW.

I say this because I have used tap water on a FW before as well as a SW. The FW seemed fine but, eventually, enough phosphates built up in the SW that a massive cyano bloom exploded all over the tank. It soon became more of a hassle and less enjoyable. It's a pain to clean.

After using RO water on my 10g, I'll never go back to tap water again. You may want to consider investing in a unit. It will more than pay for itself by saving you time and frustration.

SigPiPup said:

Just because the tap water is good for your FW tanks does not necessarily mean that it'll be good for FW.

I say this because I have used tap water on a FW before as well as a SW. The FW seemed fine but, eventually, enough phosphates built up in the SW that a massive cyano bloom exploded all over the tank. It soon became more of a hassle and less enjoyable. It's a pain to clean.

After using RO water on my 10g, I'll never go back to tap water again. You may want to consider investing in a unit. It will more than pay for itself by saving you time and frustration.

Click to expand...

ooo i forgot to mention an RO unit... they are really important too 8)

-Jay

joander123 said:

ooo i forgot to mention an RO unit... they are really important too 8)

-Jay

Click to expand...

No worries.....I got your back.

I would say NO to tap. It can also have other things that you might not know about like copper. RO/DI unit will pay itself as you will never have to buy water, just salt. You dont really need a skimmer, as its a FOWLR tank. I would get a sump to hide things like heaters and you could possible put a refuge down there to help controll Nitrates or to put a pesky hermit crab or two. LR is going to be the bulk of your bugget. BUT you can cheat a lil and get a ration of 60-40 LR to BASE ROCK as the BR will eventually seed to LR, DONT buy Live sand thats a waste of money as well. Use Arogonite sand as that will become LS. Lighting you can use what ever you got know as LR and fish dont really care what kind of light you have on them. Get either a hydrometer or Refratometer for measuring you Salinity of your water. Other than that you should be able to get everything for maybe 300-500 bucks.