Newbie to marine

[eschimpf]

Okay first off a little intro.

My name is Erin, I'm a mother of 2 (soon to be 3). I have two freshwater tanks, one is a planted white cloud tank and the other is a goldfish tank.

I have two 10g sitting around doing nothing. And with baby due July 10th I thought, I should do something different. So I thought, why not make a nano? A 10 g with a 10g sump.

I've been doing lots of reading and have been lurking on the site for oh about 24 hours. I talked with my hubby and hes ok with the idea, well wasn't at first but after some "but its for the baby" talk he agreed.

I've got my sump idea and how I'm going to go about that. I still need a pump, but I have to wait as my hubby goes to school for two months every year at NAIT (edmonton). He'll be done at the end of Feb and back at work. That'll leave me a few months to get this going before the baby comes.

I'm still reading up on things that I need to know, like how to feed corals and what not. I plan just to have a few cleaner shrimp and a hermit crab or two, nothing fancy.

I do have some questions. For my sump and tank idea what kind of pump would I need? I'm going to be pricing out live rock tonight. That wat I'll have some idea on what I'm looking at for LR price.

Anyway hi! and thanks for any advice as I'm a total NOOB at all this.

[Jessie55]

Just my 2 cents but why don't you grab a 20 gal it would be a bit easier to take care of. More water volume=more forgiving also you can add a fair bit more equipment without taking to much room up in the tank. You could instead use the 2 10gals together as a sump/refuge and hide them in a stand.
The 20 gal will give you more stocking options as well cause lets face it this hobby is addicting once you get started your only going to want more.

[eschimpf]

Thanks for the suggestion. Right now I'm trying to save on the cost and I don't have an empty 20g around. But I totally understand what your saying.

[Jessie55]

You can usually find someone on here that is getting rid of one for cheap sometimes free just got to keep an eye out for it. Also kijiji sometimes too.

[eschimpf]

Originally Posted by Jessie55

You can usually find someone on here that is getting rid of one for cheap sometimes free just got to keep an eye out for it. Also kijiji sometimes too.

I am I've got a month and a half before I start it.

[rjengen]

Originally Posted by eschimpf

"but its for the baby"

I'm going to have to try that one on my wife...when we had our son I took up learning how to fly to "Stay out of trouble" I'm sure I could convince her a 300g would be great for our next kid.

Oh Welcome to Canreef...stalking this place is fun isn't it!

[Chase31]

well first off welcome
and for your pump, how are you getting water from the display to the sump? if your going to get an overflow check the rating for GPH make sure your pump is under that, never exceed your overflow, just make sure your pump is rated for under the amount of flow into the skimmer

don't know if any of that made sence kinda looks like a wall of gibberish to me but i tryed

[eschimpf]

Originally Posted by Chase31

well first off welcome
and for your pump, how are you getting water from the display to the sump? if your going to get an overflow check the rating for GPH make sure your pump is under that, never exceed your overflow, just make sure your pump is rated for under the amount of flow into the skimmer

don't know if any of that made sence kinda looks like a wall of gibberish to me but i tryed

I think so... What your saying is, if I plan on doing a overflow make sure the GPH is under the set amount of water in my sump. Or am I way out in left field.

[Chase31]

not quite lets say you go buy and overflow or drill the tank and get one rated at 100 Gallons per hour, in this case your pump must be under 100 GPH thats accounting head pressure, when you get the pump it will be rated for 200 GPH at 0' head pressure and at 4' 150 and 100 at 6' (or something like that, the pump will have a chart) so your pump has to be under 100GPH or your tank will overflow (bad ) so make sure they match up, as your overflow should always be more then your pump

[Chase31]

calcium is what corals use to build there skeleton structure not sure about how they eat, pretty sure you still feed them, more of absorption though (dont take my word)
dont have my tank set up yet getting it going if you look at my tank journal but i understand some of it