Trying to become a salty..

D

Dhillon14

AC Members
Aug 10, 2008
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Hey guys,

I've been reading more and more about saltwater and the fish are just too beautiful so looks like I'm going to have to go saltwater.

I currently have a freshwater setup but the fish are going back to the orignal owner so I'm going to have an empty tank pretty quick.

I understand the cycling and such but the equipment part is a little confusing to me. I have a 55 Gallon, a Rena XP2 Filter, Heater and some normal lighting. I'm looking at going FOWLR for the time being but can see myself in the future doing reef aswell. So where should I start? I'm trying to research as much as I can but wouldn't mind some help along the way :)

Can I go salt with my 55 gallon without doing a sump or is that a must? and can I incorpate my Rena filter or no? I know i'm going to be needing a protein skimmer aswell.. how is a Coral Life Skimmer 65g?

(I know about getting Live rock and how it needs to be cured and such.. also water current so power heads are a must)
 
Dhillon14 said:
Hey guys,

I've been reading more and more about saltwater and the fish are just too beautiful so looks like I'm going to have to go saltwater.

<<Superb, always great to have a new salty keeper>>

I currently have a freshwater setup but the fish are going back to the orignal owner so I'm going to have an empty tank pretty quick.

I understand the cycling and such but the equipment part is a little confusing to me. I have a 55 Gallon, a Rena XP2 Filter, Heater and some normal lighting. I'm looking at going FOWLR for the time being but can see myself in the future doing reef aswell. So where should I start? I'm trying to research as much as I can but wouldn't mind some help along the way :)

<< The filter itself is more than capable, but i would replace all media with new media. With marines, you will have to keep a good maintenance routine on it to stop elevated nitrates.

You also need flow in there, about 25 x the tank volume. So, your looking to have around 1375 GPH flow. You can easily achieve this with powerheads like hydor koralia's.

You'll need a skimmer, rated about twice your tank volume.

You need to think about RO water, whether it be buying yourself an RO unit or by purchasing the RO water from a LFS. The reason we have RO water is because normal tap water is usually high in nitrates and phosphates which cause nuicience algae.

You'll also need a hydrometer, or if you can afford the extra bux, a refractometer.>>

Can I go salt with my 55 gallon without doing a sump or is that a must?

<<Sure you can. Sumps are a great thing to have, but are not a MUST HAVE piece of equiptment.>>

and can I incorpate my Rena filter or no? I know i'm going to be needing a protein skimmer aswell.. how is a Coral Life Skimmer 65g?

<<The filter above should be good enough. The coralife skimmers are not bad at all, in my opinion.>>

(I know about getting Live rock and how it needs to be cured and such.. also water current so power heads are a must)
Click to expand...

Hi there...added a few starter comments above in red..Hope this helps.
 
Thanks reefscape, I'm looking at buying an RO unit as it's just better for me in the long run. So using my canister filter and the Live rock i'm looking to add I should be good? (Is the protein skimmer a must? I'm hearing contradicting views) I will be going reef in the future it could be 6 months from now or a year from now, would I still be able to sustain that system with the canister filter?

If I did go the sump way...
How hard would it be to incorporate a sump into my system? It's an undrilled 55 Gallon, I was viewing some DIY blueprints and see that I can make a corner overflow in the tank and drill the holes leading into my sump. (my canister filter would be useless with the sump right?)

Hope you dont mind the questions, I just want to take this project nice and slow and do it right.
 
You know that you'll have to drill the back of the tank instead of the bottom, right?

As far as your skimmer, I'd go for the CSS 125 if you're looking at the Coralife. That's the one I got for my upcoming tank, and mine is 50 gallons, drilled for a sump. I'm not a big DIYer so I paid someone to drill my tank.

If you are going reef with this project in the future, make sure the tank has not been treated with copper.
 
Dhillon14 said:
Thanks reefscape, I'm looking at buying an RO unit as it's just better for me in the long run. So using my canister filter and the Live rock i'm looking to add I should be good? (Is the protein skimmer a must? I'm hearing contradicting views) I will be going reef in the future it could be 6 months from now or a year from now, would I still be able to sustain that system with the canister filter?

If I did go the sump way...
How hard would it be to incorporate a sump into my system? It's an undrilled 55 Gallon, I was viewing some DIY blueprints and see that I can make a corner overflow in the tank and drill the holes leading into my sump. (my canister filter would be useless with the sump right?)

Hope you dont mind the questions, I just want to take this project nice and slow and do it right.
Click to expand...
My tank is old (15+ years) so it was not drilled, and the thought of trying to drill it frankly scared the hell out of me:D. I use a HOB overflow for my current filter set up which is a trickle filter. I am building a 30g sump and will use the same style overflow, only rated at 1200 gph instead of 600. If you think you might want a sump, then I would highly recommend going with it from the beginning....I didn't and now I'm stuck with a 30g sump/fuge because that is the largest tank I can squeeze through the doors in my stand. If I had went with it from the beginning, I could have put a 55 or 75 under there as a sump.
I also have two canister filters that I use with my wet/dry and will continue to use with my sump. I have Phoslock in one and the other is empty, but I keep it running for flow. It comes in handy for running carbon or the occasional micron filter too. My goal is to eliminate the mechanical filtration (bio balls in the filter) and have nothing but the protein skimmer along with the biological filtration (LR, macroalgae, etc). So far so good!
I have the Coralife Super Skimmer (225) and I'm pretty happy with it. I have no experience with other skimmers, but I like mine. The CSS is not top of the line, but it's pretty good for the money.
Hope this helps!
Robbie
 
Hmm, I don't know. You haven't gone through the ceremonial hazing process, yet. To start, you'll need a bag of salt, a sharpie, an aquarium, and your computer. Write "I am a Salty" on the bag of salt and place it on your head. Then sit (or stand in smaller cases) in the aquarium to be. Water is optional. Then proceed with posting on AC. We will acknowledge your saltiness after that.














(J/K :D).
I highly recommend protein skimmers. While they aren't really 100% necessary, they make things much easier and cleaner in the long run. You will thank yourself for it later. If you go with the coralife brand, get the larger models. Most of the manufacturers grossly overstate the capacities of their skimmers, so you'll want to oversize it. I'd look into the various Octopus skimmers.

I also recommend a sump (instead of the canister filter), since it gives you more water volume and a place to put equipment. Most of the better skimmer must be installed in a sump. You can use media reactors to achieve much of the same purpose as the canister, with less hassle.
 
Alright, I did some thinking long and hard and currently in the situation I am in and with what I have at the moment drilling/modifying and all the DIY stump simply isn't an option maybe in the future for a bigger tank but for now I'm just going to use the canister filter.

So I got a 55 Gallon tank, heater, Rena Xp2 Filter, looking and open to any skimmers.. (know that I need some sort of RO source and a hydrometer) and very confused about lighting.. but for now that isn't my main concern. For the powerheads am I better off getting two 600GPH power heads or maybe just one 1200GPH power head?

Any favorite skimmers out there? or some good recommendations?
 
Dhillon14 said:
Alright, I did some thinking long and hard and currently in the situation I am in and with what I have at the moment drilling/modifying and all the DIY stump simply isn't an option maybe in the future for a bigger tank but for now I'm just going to use the canister filter.

So I got a 55 Gallon tank, heater, Rena Xp2 Filter, looking and open to any skimmers.. (know that I need some sort of RO source and a hydrometer) and very confused about lighting.. but for now that isn't my main concern. For the powerheads am I better off getting two 600GPH power heads or maybe just one 1200GPH power head?

Any favorite skimmers out there? or some good recommendations?
Click to expand...


I would go with 2 powerheads, this way you can get more of a random flow in the tank....Will let other chime in on skimmer recomendations..
 
Dhillon14 said:
Alright, I did some thinking long and hard and currently in the situation I am in and with what I have at the moment drilling/modifying and all the DIY stump simply isn't an option maybe in the future for a bigger tank but for now I'm just going to use the canister filter.

So I got a 55 Gallon tank, heater, Rena Xp2 Filter, looking and open to any skimmers.. (know that I need some sort of RO source and a hydrometer) and very confused about lighting.. but for now that isn't my main concern. For the powerheads am I better off getting two 600GPH power heads or maybe just one 1200GPH power head?

Any favorite skimmers out there? or some good recommendations?
Click to expand...

Don't waste your money on a hydrometer as they are not very accurate. You would be better off, especially if you plan to go reef, getting a refractometer.
 
I couldn't agree more with the refracto idea. I didn't realize quite how inaccurate my hydrometer was until I got a refracto for myself... and this was after I "calibrated" the hydrometer against a friend's refracto. Do yourself a favor and spend the extra money as soon as you can. :D
 
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