new reef tank help pls

marvik

marvik

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Nov 5, 2008
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Hi, All
i need help please i have a 4l.x.2.5w.x2h all measurements are in feet and i have 5xt5 florescent light in it 4 white one red i know that i need blue also now i need to know first if the bacteria from fresh water well it still good when i put sea water in the aquarium ?, second .i am going to keep clown fish and damsel only live rock plus anemones also would like to know how many fish and anemones can i put the tank thanks for any help
Regards
MaRvIk
 
marvik said:
Hi, All
i need help please i have a 4l.x.2.5w.x2h all measurements are in feet and i have 5xt5 floresent light in it 4 white one red i know that i need blue also now i need to know first if the bacteria from fresh water well it still good when i put sea water in the aquarium ?, second .i am going to keep clownfish and demsel only live rock plus enemonies also would like to know how many fish and enemonies can i put the tank thanks for any help
Regards
MaRvIk
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No, you cant use bacteria from a freshwater system, and put it in a saltwater system. You'd have to cycle this from scratch or by transfering some media from another saltwater tank to start the cycle.

Yes, ditch the red tube, and replace it with marine actinic blue.

I would not keep clowns and damsels in the same tank, as they are related and damsels are very territorial and "can" become aggressive towards the clowns..

Anemone wise, well, it depends on the wattage of your lighting and the specific type of anemone you want. I would also add that i would not put in an anemone untill the tank has at least started to mature ( 8 or so months after the completion of the cycle ).
 
hi,reefscape
thanks for the help the florescent are 54w each because right now i have a planted tank and to mature a friend of my is going to give me 120l of his tank and some calupera what can i put with clownfish please and how many can i put in a four feet tanks please
 
marvik said:
hi,reefscape
thanks for the help the florescent are 54w each because right now i have a planted tank and to mature a friend of my is going to give me 120l of his tank and some calupera what can i put with clownfish please and how many can i put in a four feet tanks please
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There are many species of fish you can house with clownfish. Your best bet would be to read species profiles here...

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=15

...and review..Make a list of fish that you would like, review each fish's needs and compatibility and ensure they are right for your given tank size ( 74 US Gallon )
 
ok, the freshwater "rule of thumb" says 1 inch of fish per galon of water, but this does NOT mean you can put 7, 10inch fish in a 75 galon tank, lol!
as far as i have ever learned, you need to base the number of tank inhabitantson more factors than tank size. Personaly i use tank size, filtration, bio-load, lighting, type of fish or corals, etc. i saw several carpet anemones ta other day that there is NO WAY i would try to put in my 40 galon tank..lol. the things were absolutely beautifu, but they were about a foot one way and about two feet tha other..lol! also the maature size of the specimins should be considered.(im a big ol' redneck so spellin is not my fortay! rofl!) IF ya plan to keep them to maturity. my reef is a 40 galon and ive had great success with it but i started slow with only 2 freshwater lyretail mollies to do the cycling, then i added more live rock. (what i had was dead when i got it) then i took out the mollies n added 4 damsels. this was a bad idea in retrospect..lol lol but i was scared to start out...not knowing SQUAT about marine tanks.....with some hiiiiii-dollar fishes! i ended up having to dismantle most of it to get the lil buggers out! GRRR! my advice is to research your stuff u want verry good first, (unlike me! lol) the add stuff slowly after tha cycle is over. good luck!
Beaux
 
thanks beaux
the thing is that fresh water for me don't have any secret but going in to the dark that's worrying me that's why i am asking help for not to spend hard earned cash and throw it in to the toilet and this tank is going to be for my wife and she likes clown fish i just brought a aqua medic skimmer and 36w UV light for it i also ordered the class for the sump is going to be 3'lx2'wx1.5'h and now that i am going in to it i don't know if i am going for cheato or caulerpa but i thing going for cheato
 
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I don't think you need the uv light. If you use RO/DI water there really isn't a need for it. Just my opinion, but the money could be better spent. The best piece of advice that was given to me when I started my reef tank was to forget everything I thought I knew about freshwater tanks and focus on learning about sw tanks.

The rules that we use all the time in FW simply do not apply to SW. For example, the stocking "rules" are out the window in a SW tank because there is a much higher emphasis on water quality and a pretty small margin of error. Keep the bioload lower than you would in a fw tank.

As for cycling, if you are using an appropriate amount of cured live rock your tank will cycle pretty quickly. But you can expedite the process by putting a piece of dead shrimp in a net bag and let it start the process for you. Please don't use a live fish to cycle (even if it is a damsel or a molly or any fish). Not only is it a waste of money, but it gives you bad fish kharma...

Since you are already experienced with FW I will spare you the lecture on testing your water. But I will say that you need to test your water more often than you think. The parameters can change pretty quick on ya. Good luck. There is a lot of great info on this site.

FYI, In my tank (which is a 24 gallon nano) I have a mated pair of clowns, a royal gramma and lawnmower blenny. One condy nem and one feather duster worm. Just know that clowns can be mean mean fish and are very territorial. Imagine nemo with a switchblade.
 
marvik said:
thanks beaux
the thing is that fresh water for me don't have any secret but going in to the dark that's worrying me that's why i am asking help for not to spend hard earned cash and throw it in to the toilet and this tank is going to be for my wife and she likes clown fish i just brought a aqua medic skimmer and 36w UV light for it i also ordered the class for the sump is going to be 3'lx2'wx1.5'h and now that i am going in to it i don't know if i am going for cheato or caulerpa but i thing going for cheato
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I would stay away from caulerpa, i never put any in my tank but some was growing and i tried to take out what i could now 4 months later i can’t stop it from growing. I pull out what i can but it is taking over some of my live rock. It can also go sexual and make a mess of your tank, i would stick to cheato.
 
thanks dsr and cjtabares
here they use caulerpa in the sump not in the tank it self and leave a compartment for it only so there are no problems like yours but as i am hungry for info and do search here and there it starting to learn something and catch up thanks a lot to all of you trying to help me out
Regards
MaRvIk
 
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