Starting up Saltwater! Woo!

Haydn24

Haydn24

Boo!
Jun 28, 2010
944
0
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Australia
Real Name
Haydn
Alrighty, I've wanted to do this for EVER so I decided I may aswell since it's holidays here :)

I have been researching for well over 2 weeks now :irked: SO much to learn. lol.

But this is what I have:

2ft high 80L tank (20g).

2x 24W T5 with one 10,000k and one atlintic bulb.

AquaClear 70 that will be modded so it contains a fuge

150W heater

Crushed coral substrate (or aragonite - cant decide)

600l/p/h powerhead

3000l/p/h powerhead

12kg of Red Sea salt.

So thats about it. Theres bound to be something missing that I have.

I know some of you will say that it's too small for a starter and I should have a skimmer. Yes I know and I'm looking into a skimmer but it just doesnt seem worth it. Does anyone have any that would work well as a HOB skimmer?

I will have around 5-10kg of live rock in there.

It wont be running a sump due to noise and room issues.

I think I have EVERYTHING planned out but I will definatley make mistakes but I'm going to take this very slow.

All I have planned for it is a pair of clowns and corals such as mushrooms and zoas. What do you feed the zoas? I have iodide supplement for them aswell to add.

Can anyone suggest something i'm missing?

Thanks! :)
 
Oh and I have all the test kits.. and activated carbon and phosphate eliminator course pads to go in the filter aswell :)
 
I might would add more LR, the biggest thing is to be patient and just wait on the cycle, I had a heck of a time waiting to stock mine.
 
Haydn24 said:
Alrighty, I've wanted to do this for EVER so I decided I may aswell since it's holidays here :)

I have been researching for well over 2 weeks now :irked: SO much to learn. lol.

But this is what I have:

2ft high 80L tank (20g).

2x 24W T5 with one 10,000k and one atlintic bulb.

AquaClear 70 that will be modded so it contains a fuge

150W heater

Crushed coral substrate (or aragonite - cant decide)

600l/p/h powerhead

3000l/p/h powerhead

12kg of Red Sea salt.

So thats about it. Theres bound to be something missing that I have.

I know some of you will say that it's too small for a starter and I should have a skimmer. Yes I know and I'm looking into a skimmer but it just doesnt seem worth it. Does anyone have any that would work well as a HOB skimmer?

I will have around 5-10kg of live rock in there.

It wont be running a sump due to noise and room issues.

I think I have EVERYTHING planned out but I will definatley make mistakes but I'm going to take this very slow.

All I have planned for it is a pair of clowns and corals such as mushrooms and zoas. What do you feed the zoas? I have iodide supplement for them aswell to add.

Can anyone suggest something i'm missing?

Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

The 20tall is not the best tank you could start with, but its still a decent tank. Recommend a skimmer (just try google, or go to you LFS and check out your options). Besides that, sounds good to me, but don't trust me with the corals, never kept them :(

Good Luck!
 
Awwww, Good Luck Hay!!! (LOL, soon we could start a Mafia "the salty version")

I'm so excited for you, can't wait to get going on mine...unfortunately I have to wait till AFTER the holiday (having a herd of kids and all...darn kids take all my fun).

I vote aragonite....cause well I like it best, and I have heard crushed coral in the long run is not such a good thing (not sure how true it is, no personal experience there).

Being in the states I am not good with KG and all that, but from what I have read you should have about a lb of LR/ Gallon...so a 20g tank would need about 20lbs LR. I could be wrong, just what I have read....I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm wrong ;).

Anyway, just wanted to say good luck and have fun...OH AND POST LOTS OF PICS along the way!!!!!
 
Sounds good, no supplements or skimmer is necessary. Good water flow combined with regular water changes is all you need for that setup (just don't be a slacker :)). Once your water changes get going I think I would consider vaccuuming the sand bed with each change on this tank. If you want the skimmer for insurance, AquaC, CPR Backpaks, Reef Octopus, eshopps, SWC and many others make decent HOB skimmers. Proabbly run you $150 to $200.

The one thing I can think of is dealing with surface scum. Do you have any way to skim (not protein skim) the water surface? There are a few ways you can do this but Hagen makes a surface skimmer attchment for the Aquaclear filters that is a bit ugly but works very well IMO. They're like $15 to $20.

Definitely do a "build" thread so others can see what's going on and will be able to help better.
 
Thanks guys! Well water here where I live is very pure with no additives except for chlorine. I spoke to the LFS (kat in fact) and they said if I kept up on water changes a skimmer wouldnt be nessacery, especially with macro in the fuge. So I guess i'll be fine there with weekly water changes and the stocking won't be much at all.

I'm really quite excited. Everything will be arriving friday or next monday. I literally bought everything off the internet in one night.. My savings account cried. lol.

Thanks for the support :) It will be a fun adventure because I will be doing marine biology at university in Cairns, QLD (which is directly on the barrier reef :D) so yeah, a good learning experience.

I will be posting pics when it arrives. I also bought reef buffer by seachem and seachems iodide supplements for the mushrooms and zoas down the track :)
 
Yeah, I'm think of buying the surface skimmer for the AC 70, would it be worth while?
 
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