SW Newbie. Need Suggestions

H

Hungriee

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Jan 24, 2008
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Hi All,

So I'm a newbie to Saltwater, but would like to learn and begin my first SW tank. I plan on beginning this project once everything is nicely planned out.

I would like to have a 48" long tank or larger where this tank will be a room divider in the apt. It can be viewed from 3 sides; and fish I would like to have some inverts, clownfish(nemo), some cardinals, Clown or Picasso trigger? or lionfish? ( i heard they eat smaller fish and shrimp) or one tang (naso or blue)?

The tank will have live rock/live sand - and I'm unsure if I should do reef? Any suggestions?

The tank size I have not decided but I would like to be at least 48" Long (either 75 or 90g tanks). The tank I have not decided to be either acrylic or glass. Any suggestions on pros and cons?

Filter wise, I've seen alot of people have wet/dry, sumps and refugiums? I don't know anything about this nor where to begin to learn about this.

Protein skimmers - Any ideas of the necessity of this?

Recommendations on Light?

Any websites or forums you recommend me to do some research?

What else do I need?


I'm in no rush in completing this tank since I would like to make it into a real nice display tank. Please Help!
 
Welcome to Marine Fish Keeping. What size of tank are you planning on keeping? As for your trigger, Picasso are really good, and he gets along great with my Maroon clown, but a Ocellaris Clownfish could get eaten by the trigger, and as for the Tang. A blue tang can get ich quite alot, just so you know.
 
Hi eLowther91,

I'm completely new to SW. Thanks for the advice on the Tang.

I like your picasso. He looks real colorful. For now I haven't decided on a tank size but I'm looking between a 75G Tank or a 90G Tank (48-60"L x 18" W x around 20"-22" Tall).
What filtration would be best? I'm very new to the Wet/Dry, Sump, Refugium filtrations - but I've been using Power and Cannister Filters on my freshwater tanks and had success.
 
I'd recommend getting the 90g between a 75g and a 90g. You'll be glad later on that you have that extra little bit of space. I prefer glass tanks over acrylic.

Protein skimmers are not an absolute must, but definitely an absolute recommendation for beginners. In a very lightly stocked tank that is diligently maintained, a protein skimmer isn't completely necessary.

When you say inverts, what do you have in mind?

Since you want inverts, I would generally recommend not having a wet/dry. They are incredibly expensive to buy new considering what they are. A sump or a sump / refugium combination can be DIY-ed for a fraction of the cost from an old (or new) aquarium.

Lighting recommendations will depend on what you want to keep in your tank other than the fish.

I wouldn't recommend putting a naso or blue (Pacific blue / blue hippo?) tang in a 75g or a 90g.
 
HI FSN77,

Thanks for teh advice. Inverts - I wanted some snails & a bunch of shrimps. Are there any resources I can seek on building a Sump/Refugium?
 
I agree with fsn77.
We have a 90gl with 20gl sump and a skimmer .
When i started it was confusing but we are ok now .
Ill show you ,the skimmer isnt in the pic but we have it in the centre with some LR and carbon
vzzvjb.jpg
 
If you want to see it now with skimmer just let me know ill borrow my friends pc lol
p.s. you need to be carefull with saltwater and eletricity......I almost started a fire with water lol
 
For some sump / refugium ideas, check out www.melevsreef.com
He's pretty skilled at building them out of acrylic, but the principles behind his sumps translate easily to building a sump out of a glass aquarium. Most places that sell panes of glass will cut the glass to whatever size you need. If you plan everything out, the only work you have to do is silicone the pieces of glass in place where you want them to divide up the aquarium into the different chambers you want for the sump.
 
Hungriee said:
Inverts - I wanted some snails & a bunch of shrimps.
Click to expand...

If you want to do inverts, a trigger or lion wont work. The only trigger that is considered reef safe is the Blue Throat Trigger, but even those are hit and miss. Sounds to me you're heading towards a reef setup, and if you dont have the itch now, you will later. I would go with a 5FT tank, it will give you more room to play with and give you a larger surface area, and most people see it as the minumum lenght to house a tang. You can have the overflow on the side of the tank against the wall so you can have an unobstructed view of all 3 sides of the tank. Have it plumbed to a sump/fuge under the stand. As for a skimmer, I would highly recommend it. Look into the ASM G2 skimmer.
 
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Hey HaKs310, Thanks for the advice. Your idea of having it on one side is exactly what I wanted to do. So the tank would be more of a peninsula. I have no idea how I'm giong to do it since I have no experience with plumbing or setting up the Sump/Refugium.

The tank itself is still up in teh air. Not sure which is better acrylic or glass. For now, I'm still thinking of what to do with the tank, reef or fowlr. I would really like to have tangs, but I'm thinking eventaully I will opt for a reef tank with more smaller fish.

What would you recommend me to plan out first? I'm definitely going to do live rock, live sand - so I have to think of ways in cycling and how to design the plumbing for easy water changes. I've read somewehre that in SW its not recommeneded to use tap water. How would I do an easy water cahnge? In FW, I use my python, in SW - is there soemthign I can do or will I have to do bucket by bucket of RO / Distilled water?
 
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