new to saltwater

R

Rsquared333

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Aug 4, 2004
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I have been a freshwater hobbists for years but now want to try my hand at saltwater. I have seen so many amazing saltwater tanks, and I would love to have one of my own. Here's what I 'm thinking. Please fill in the blanks and comment, there are several things such as protein skimmers and uv sterilizers and refugiums (would i need one?) that I am not accustom to in the freshwater field.

Tank: 46 gal bowfront

Filter: Rena filstar XP3

Heater:2 150watt or 1 250 watt tronic or ehiem jager

Lighting: not sure of the demands of coral I use about 2.5 watts per gal for plants

Protien Skimmer: don't know about them. looking for quality that is resonably priced but I value quality over price

UV Sterilizer: don't know about them. same as protien skimmer

Substrate: live sand

This will be a reef tank housing inverts and small fish I'm not thinking anything over 6" and that is pushing it. I have seen the new nano tanks and I love the fish they have for them so I am going for a large-scale nano tank look (oxymoron).
 
If you would like to get a reef tank, you dont need to get the UV Setrilizer, they will pull some stuff out of the water that your corals find benificial, you could use one if you wanted to I guess, but it won't give you that much of a benifit. The best advice I can give you is to leave your tank empty while you decide what you want to do with your tank. The larger the water volume the better/more stable your tank parameters will get. So... for the refugium, its a place where people put macro algae, which pulls neutrients out of the water, so they aren't in the main tank. Do you need one? No... you could put maro algae in your main tank I've seen alot of nice tanks that do that, but under some easy to match conditons they can grow everywhere and start to take over your tank. So people call it a refugium, where they place that stuff aside in a sperate tank connected to the main one. You can build or buy one that hangs off the back or side of your tank if you wanted... I think the best thing would be to build a sump and make a section of that into a refugium. To get water into the sump you just need to drill a hole in your tank and make an overflow box, or you can buy an external one that you have to manually start the syphon. I don't like the external box I got and found that starting the syphon was a pain so I never even used it. I like the overflow idea to pull water down into the sump because it gets the water right off the top of the tank, so you can't get a film of gunk along the top. If you didn't already buy a tank, you can get an all glass aquarium thats a bow front with overflows built in already, that will take all the hassle and guess work out of making one yourself. If you do go with the sump idea you can fit a protien skimmer in that, which I feel is one of the most important parts of a reef tank, you could use simply a skimmer for a filter if you have current and alot of rock in your tank (and if your making it a reef tank, you should ahve those) So... I woulnd't skimp out when it comes to a skimmer, buy the best one that you can afford, and just don't buy a UV steralizer, put some extra towards a skimmer. If you don't want to do a sump I have a canaster filter on my 29gallon tank and you can buy a skimmer that hangs on the back of a tank, the bak paks i hear are good. But now you have some things out in the open to think about. One more thing I like about sumps is that you can put your heaters in there so the only thing in the display tank is things you WANT to display. :) Hope this helped a little....


neil.
 
Thanks for the info. I have the tank but haven't bought anything yet. so the uv sterilizer is out. do you recommend any protien skimmers or sumps? how do you build your own sump?
 
I can't comment really on the skimmer, but search here or google DIY sump / refugeum / fuge. You'll find tons of plans, ideas, and info.

HTH, good luck
 
5 pices of acrylic.... some sort of shape that holds water? lol jk. You could make your own sump out of accrylic, you could use a large tupperwear bin, I have a 20gallon long tank under my 65gallon, both AGA.. you could also add another inline sump thing to a garbage can if you wanted? Lots of options. I bought a Euro Reef ES5-3, it was like $265 but you won't read any bad comment about a Euro Reef Skimmer.

EDIT: I wouldn't buy a pre built sump, they charge like $300 and its not worth it, I bought a $30 tank and that'll work wonders once I put some baffles in there.
 
thanks again. I will look into that
 
Any other comments, questions, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
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