36 gallon bow-front

DrNo

DrNo

Overworked Member...
Jul 9, 2008
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One day, a certain fish shall pass of (natural causes) and my black spray-painted 36 gallon black seam Aqueon bowfront will be converted into a FOWLR. I have zero SW experience and have a few casual questions (and plenty of time to ponder them...)

The tank sits on a small cabinet unit. A sump is not possible, nor is there room for a refugium, hang-on anything. I only have room for a flexible intake/output tubing going to and from the filter unit. I was thinking a Eheim wet-dry might be appropriate (Model 2227). I'm assuming this also eliminates the need for a skimmer, correct? I really need to save space here; what exactly is the intake/output like on these guys? Similar to a regular tubing on Eheim filter for FW? Since the 2227 is rated for 92 gallons, I feel safe in knowing that the setup will be uber filtered.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3579+3639&pcatid=3639

Live rock... am I better off buying all rock live (at more cost) or trying to seed dry? When this goes down, I will be in no hurry so I won't mind letting it sit for several weeks to months before adding fish/cleanup crew.

Living in AZ, the temps get a little 'warm'. Typical water temp in a tank here can be 78-79 out of the tap. Plus lights, it is not unreasonable to think it will hover at 82-84F. Acceptable?

Speaking of water source... does RO really provide a significant advantage over tap? Our water here is blazingly hard, BUT the house has a soft water system. It utilizes KCl salt (not NaCl). Can I reliably use this water source?

Thanks all for tolerating the salted newbie questions.
 
Hi! Well it's great that you want to cross over to the salt world. It's awesome. It looks like you have putting a lot of thought into this, but first thing's first. :)

-Do you know what you would like to stock in this tank? Do you want just fish? coral? These things will guide what equipment you will buy. It this is only 36 gallons, then chances are you could probably get by without a skimmer. I have a 28 gallon and have a similar problem in that my tank sits on an old TV stand/cabinet and there is no room for a sump and skimmer.

-I would at least buy SOME live rock. If you want to seed some too, that's ok but I would give a jump start with at least a good mix of dry and live rock.

-I would definitely recommend that you use RO/DI water as you can get some serious problems that are not fun to deal with if you don't. I personally have some 5 gallon jugs I take to the RO/DI machine in the grocery store and fill them up. I can get away with this as my tank is smaller, as yours is. Ultimately the best option is just to buy an RO/DI unit.

-Also I would stay away from a wet/dry type of filter system as these can tend to be nitrate factories from everything that I have read. You could get by with just a canister filter. I use just a little HOB filter with some PhosBan and filter floss and that's it!

I hope this answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask more.
 
LOL BoCo, thanks for the bumps.

Morgan, thanks so much for the reply and the info. Greatly appreciated.

I'm pretty flexible on the stocking. Peaceful fish like a 6 line wrasse plus a basic cleanup crew and a few seastars would make me very happy. I have no time/attention to go full reef, so that is not really a consideration at this juncture.

The primary reason to skip a hang-on-anything is that the tank sits on a cabinet unit in our family room. It is very exposed, and can not have that haphazard plumbing look. If I skip the skimmer, what risks am I taking and what is the worst that can happen?

Very interesting re: the wet/dry and the nitrate; I'll look into that further. I'm an old hat at canister filters so if something that simple works, I'm sold.

I will certainly take your advice re: the RO. We have a unit at the house, so I guess I have no excuse but to use it. I'll simply run tubing from the sink faucet to a mixing bucket.

Thanks again for the reply!

DV
 
Vader meng, im in az too, in tempe, the ph out here as you know is high naturally, but not too bad. I haven't done SW but alot of people who i have talked to have said that if you do a FOWLR, you do not need a sump, the LR will be the bio filter. I was also thinking of doing SW as i havent done it before and many have suggested that canisters are a huge nitrate issue.

I would buy LR locally if you can score it cheap, check out craigslist, i regularly check out the list and LR comes up here and there. LR will be your friend. Since i am in a similr boat, i dont want to do a sump, i would try filter floss in the HOB. I think Hagen makes a surface skimmer whuich can be hooked up to a HOB, that might be ablessing. IF you just put a polyfil into the filter, that could keep your water mechanically clean and the LR will do the bio work.

As said above, i would do R/O water, from the readingsi have done and my research into SW, R/O seems to be the way to go to ensure the least problems. With weekly partial W/C's you should probably be ok.

Also, your stocking will depend on what you do ultimately, i am sure you have taken that into account.
 
DrVader said:
I'm pretty flexible on the stocking. Peaceful fish like a 6 line wrasse plus a basic cleanup crew and a few seastars would make me very happy. I have no time/attention to go full reef, so that is not really a consideration at this juncture.
DV
Click to expand...

If you don't really want to go reef then that makes things a little easier! :). You can get away with some pretty basic lighting such as compact fluorescents. Just make sure what fish are compatible with each other and start a plan there.

DrVader said:
The primary reason to skip a hang-on-anything is that the tank sits on a cabinet unit in our family room. It is very exposed, and can not have that haphazard plumbing look. If I skip the skimmer, what risks am I taking and what is the worst that can happen?

Very interesting re: the wet/dry and the nitrate; I'll look into that further. I'm an old hat at canister filters so if something that simple works, I'm sold.

DV
Click to expand...

Really... You can probably get away without a canister filter also. I have heard of some people just using live rock only. If you have 1 1/2 to 2 lbs per gallon you should be ok for no filter at all. I still like to run something for myself as it seems the water is more clear.
 
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