Couple of Questions / Saying Hi!

Riverserver · Apr 16, 2007

Greetings! This is my first official post so, yay me. I'm putting together a 58 marine aquarium. It will be my first marine tank so I'm full of questions. I know it's only a 58 gallon but I'm probably going to want to upgrade my tank in the future, possibly a 75 or 125 gallon so I'm buying things a bit larger this time around.

Here's a rundown of my current equipment list:

Coralife Lunar Dual Aqualights Compact Fluorescent Strip Light
I got these in the other day and they're absolutely beautiful!

Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel Protein Skimmer (125 Gallon)
From what I've read about protein skimmers, it would SEEM you don't have to use an air stone if you have one, is this true?

Coralife Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer (18 watt)
The 9 watt is rated up to 125 gallon but only at 100-200 gph - my filter is rated at 275 gph so I upgraded to the 18 watt.

Eheim Pro II Filter Kit 2028
Provides mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration at a good price with a 3 year warranty and is silent. Sounds good to me

I'm also upgrading to their "better" intake strainer and spraybar.

Coralife Pure-Flo II RO Unit 50 gpd 4-stage
I don't really trust our water supply (because I know the lake it comes from

) so I think one of these would be a good idea

Jäger TS Heater (150 watt)
Big enough for my tank? It says it is but I've heard you should have 3-4 watts per gallon.

Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer
Fairly simple and straight forward (idiot proof?) - as long as its at the right temperature.

Tonga Deepwater Live Rock (60lbs)
Very pretty rock that I think will go great with the Fiji pink sand.

Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Sand (120lbs)
It should make an attractive and beneficial addition to the aquarium.

A rather short list, I know there is a bunch of nick-nack stuff that I'm going to have to purchase (hoses, salt mix, test kit, air pump?, thermometers, etc). But all of that stuff can change with the wind without effecting the "main" components.

Anyway thanks for your time, comments / suggestions are more then welcome.

LordsSoilder · Apr 16, 2007

Sounds like you are more prepared than the average first timer which is good...

what do you want to keep in your tank? that will make a big difference in how many / what size (watts per gallon) lights you will need

Needle wheel skimmers use a different system to make the bubbles than the older airstone skimmers... They chop the air pulled in from the pump into small bubbles and uses that... A Venturi Skimmer uses a "venturi" valve (who woulda guessed) to inject air into the water...

Not sure if too much sterilizer is a bad thing or not... I'm not sure I'd want to kill everything that past through the pump but maybe someone else can illaborate more on that.

Good filter from what I know... you might think about a fluidized bed filter to run with it... It'll add a little more biological filtration so you can run less chem...

RO is good and people will tell you not to use anything else... but if you do use it, you may want to use a RO/DI supplement to reconstitute the water before you add it to your tank... I'm sure others can give a good recomendation

If you want to add a bigger heater, it won't hurt... It'll just run less often than one that matches exactly.

sounds like a good hydrometer (never used one before) so as long as you know how to use it it should be good... I personally use a floating hydrometer/thermometer, its probably not as acurate as yours...

Nice rock... you may want more... but you may want to get different kinds for a variety... Maybe some togna branch (I really like it..) maybe get some kadavu live rock... looks like theres alot of life to these rocks (never got any myself, but I plan too)

That sounds like alot of sand to me... but if you are doing a Deep Sand Bed maybe thats how much you need...

I did a DSB on my 55g and I think I only used 50lbs... I moved my sand from the 55g to my new 125g and it covered the bottom nicely... but I might have to get more to make it a DSB

Hope that helps...
-LS

Riverserver · Apr 16, 2007

LordsSoilder said:
what do you want to keep in your tank?

A Radiata Lionfish, a Snowflake Eel, and possibly an Angler fish. I would like to introduce the eel first, then the angler, then the lionfish. That way I can get the smaller "less" agressive fish on a feeding schedule before the Lionfishy gets there

. From what I've read these fish are pretty messy eaters, so I don't want to crowd the tank at all.

LordsSoilder said:
Needle wheel skimmers use a different system to make the bubbles than the older airstone skimmers...

So I still need an air stone since my skimmer uses a needle wheel?

LordsSoilder said:
Not sure if too much sterilizer is a bad thing or not... I'm not sure I'd want to kill everything that past through the pump but maybe someone else can illaborate more on that.

It wasn't really that I wanted to kill everything, its just I don't want the filter performance to be effected by the max gph of the UV sterilizer.

LordsSoilder said:
Nice rock... you may want more... but you may want to get different kinds for a variety...

Well I don't want to overload the tank, I want plenty of room for the Lionfish to swim.

LordsSoilder said:
That sounds like alot of sand to me... but if you are doing a Deep Sand Bed maybe thats how much you need...

I don't remember where I read the formula for figuring out how much sand to use, but I remember thinking that it was a lot of sand too. I think some of the weight is because the bag is wet. So I'll order less, it's easier to order less and order more later then to find out what to do with extra sand I suppose.

Thanks for your input!

5xevy · Apr 16, 2007

Welcome to AC!

I also received Tonga live rock (ridge/shelf) from Drs. Foster and Smith and love it.

I was going to write my opinion on UV sterilization but this thread has some differing opinions you can read:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103686&highlight=royal+gramma

As far as the hydrometer- it seems like a decent one. I'm usually a strong advocate for refractometers myself. First I want to admit that I don't know much about the hydrometer you chose. It seems a lot better than those plastic swing-arm types that I'm completely against. Is this one made of glass? I'd just be nervous if it ever broke or if that tiny needle-like end broke off. It seems as if it would be pretty accurate though and it's great you don't always have to calibrate it. The only thing I'm thinking is if you ever want to go below 1.018- for hyposalinity treatments down the road, or to get brackish results for some reason, you may want one with a larger range. Just my .02.

Again, welcome and please don't ever hestitate to ask any questions on these boards!

jojo22 · Apr 16, 2007

Sound like a good start, WELCOME TO AC!!!!!!!!!

Riverserver · Apr 16, 2007

Ah! Question! What would you classify my lighting as ? (Low, Medium, High) I've got a 10,000°K 96W and a Actinic 96W. Thanks!

jojo22 · Apr 16, 2007

LOW your only at 3.3W per gallon and it's PC light.

Germanman · Apr 16, 2007

welcome to the marine forums! ur set up looks great other than the lighting...thats if u want hard corals and so on.

Riverserver · Apr 19, 2007

Would a frogfish (angler fish) or lionfish eat a hermit crab? Kind of a silly question but I don't want to get one if they're going kill themselves trying to digest it.

Germanman · Apr 19, 2007

Riverserver said:
Would a frogfish (angler fish) or lionfish eat a hermit crab? Kind of a silly question but I don't want to get one if they're going kill themselves trying to digest it.

sometimes they will do weird stuff like that but usually they leave the hermits alone.


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Couple of Questions / Saying Hi!

Riverserver

i r 2pro4u

LordsSoilder

Armageddon outa here!

Riverserver

i r 2pro4u

5xevy

Member #62,749

jojo22

Salt-aholic Xtreme

Riverserver

i r 2pro4u

jojo22

Salt-aholic Xtreme

Germanman

My fish are my babies

Riverserver

i r 2pro4u

Germanman

My fish are my babies