Thinking of setting up my first salt tank

[kwirky]

Welcome to canreef and welcome to the addiction

If you want to keep it simple, I'd say focus on these important things:

• your lighting
• good skimmer
• sufficient liverock
• a sump
• either the dedication to dose your calcium/alkalinity daily, or a system to do it for you
• a sump

or you can run a sumpless and skimmerless system if you feel daring enough.

those are the most imporant things and you can keep those simple as well.

Lighting your tank, because of it's long and narrow dimensions, would be best with T5 lighting. I'd recommend a sunlight supply fixture. If you're planning on softies and LPS (like my own tank), I'd recommend a 4 bulb fixture (four 72" lengths of bulbs). Make sure they're High Output (HO) driven and have individual reflectors for each bulb (so in other words, NOT the coralife fixtures heh). The PCs you have now are not enough, and if you were to add more, I'd just recommend a new fixture. The 6' length would make finding a proper length fixture hard. You COULD run two 250W metal halide bulbs if they're up high enough with a good reflector (a PFO parallel or something). They should be good for most softies. It would be cheaper to DIY. Some stuff would have difficulties in the far bottom corners though, and the middle bottom.

Next to your liverock, your skimmer is your most important means of filtration. Do your research and don't skimp on it. Go for something a little bigger than what you need too. I recommended the sump, because it opens up your choice of good skimmers drastically. Be careful, some brands are truthfull in their rated values, while some are enourmously overzelous in their skimming capabilities. (unless you go with a skimmerless system, explained later)

I'd recommend getting in touch with reefers in your area, or maybe keeping an eye on any local buy&sell papers for people selling liverock, or selling entire systems. You can get liverock for much cheaper than the store from a fellow reefer (or ex-reefer if they're selling or piecing their system out). If you can find some of good quality though (not overgrown with macro algae, covered in undesireable polyps, etc).

Like I said, a sump is VERY beneficial for a reef tank. You can put a skimmer in it. It keeps the display tank's water level even. It just makes everything so much more simpler. Plumb it off the back, instead of the bottom. You can keep it even simpler by drilling for your drain, instead of an overflow.

As for dosing, you'll have to maintain your calcium. You can go cheap, and mix kalk or two part mixture every day. I hated the daily chore of top-off, so I made a ghetto style DIY air driven top-off that doses kalkwasser mix for me. Plenty enough calcium for soft corals and LPS. You can spend the moolah on a litermeter to do it for you if you want, too. Just keep in mind it gets tedious to do it every single day, and if somone misses their dosing the animals feel it. If you're looking at something automatic, dosing pumps are the simplest to run, and for the same price as a high end calcium reactor, you get something MUCH easier to setup, and very easy to adjust down the road as your calcium demand changes. (no dosing required in a skimmerless system. more later)

And a sump. Did I mention a sump? lol

(i know some of you run sumpless and go you; i just know there's so many others that swear by their sumps. unless you have a skimmerless system. more later lol)

Whatever you do, you'll wish you had done some things different 6 months after you set it up

The gung ho attitude is great

You probably have an RO system if you have a planted tank, unless you have soft water in the first place. If you do have the RO, add a deionizer on a valve you can turn on for your saltwater, and turn off for your freshwater.

Oh!

Oh yeah! skimmerless systems! If you want to go REAL simple, you can do some research on skimmerless systems. They do weekly water changes, and it's quite doable if your bioload is kept way down (fewer fish, more inverts). You'll go through a lot more RO/DI water, and a lot more salt, but you'll have a more natural system, and dosing would be almost unimportant because your salt mix will maintain everything. Weekly 10-20% changes are usually sufficient to run skimmerless. Your liverock will take a lot longer to cycle though if it's not cured in any way in the first place.

[Renegade]

hey I've been in this hobby for almost 2 years now. And its not until the last couple weeks that i have been truly happy with my tank. I to "budgeted” to ensure that I only bought the essentials. And that turned out to be ALL the wrong things. Like you I just wanted to dabble in it, get my feet what keep just a few corals. But my set up did nothing but kill things over time and made me spend way more money then doing it right the first time.

Oh BTW My first tank was a 44g corner tank 2ft tall as well with some corallife PC 50/50 to light it with a hang-on skimmer. As well I ran a XP1 for filtration.

Mistake 1: XP1, let your live rock filter your tank, this caused nothing but problems for me and I could never keep up with maintaining it b/c it was so much work cleaning it, once a week just never seemed enough.

Mistake 2 Hang-on Skimmer: b/c your tank is constituently change level’s you can never really dial in the skimmer to properly skim, so you must have some kind of top off IMO to truly make a HOS work.

Mistake 3: lights tank is too deep. There nothing else to say really buy the write on the first time b/c otherwise every time I bought a coral it would just die not write away but in time it would slowly wither away.

So what I’ve done now and in 2 weeks and I’m not even kidding my tank is a whole new tank I have never seen it this way before. I added a overflow, put in a sump, took off my hang-on skimmer, bought a decent in-sump and in the process of buying 250w MH.

One of the biggest things with salt I’ve notice and this is just my opinion but some of the nicest tanks out there, water changes are done once to every 3 months the maintenance on salt is a whole different kind. Remember you are creating a sum-what self-sustaining ecosystem. Mechanical filtration just creates dumping grounds for waste.

Anyways do it write the first time to the best of you ability go to local stores or fellow reefers houses and check out there systems ask about filtration, check out what the use filter canisters for if at all, (some people empty them and fill them with crushed coral) honestly I wish someone just told me this is what I needed and there was no other way b/c even though skimmer less systems are possible, as someone new to this if you look at the people that run skimmer less systems that are truly remarkable have a lot of experience in my opinion and know exactly what there doing

but honestly GO SLOW and save your money nothing says you have to build it overnight, as you mentioned you have lots of tanks, so what if this one takes you 6 months to set b/c you buying the quality system that you’ll be happy with in the end

Kyle

anyways Good luck keep us posted

[Manny]

You should check out the pictures area of this board (top left of the home page) and have a look at some of the systems on there so you get an idea of what things look like in astablished tanks.

The best advise I can give you is do your reasurch, and buy the right equipment that is to the right specs. for your tank. Don't cut corners, this will only give you more trouble than it is worth and you will have trouble keeping things alive or healthy. Also TAKE YOUR TIME... Don't rush things.

If done properly this is a very rewarding hobby. Good luck

[Manny]

I use a Coral Life Super Skimmer that is rated up to 200gal on my 65gal tank. Thay can be used as hang on or in sump. I am very happy with it but the skimmer is rated for a tank that is almost 4 times larger than the one I am using it on, so keep that in mind.

[Ephraim]

Well i've decided that i will drop the money on some MH. I'm interested in the Coral Life hang on tank mounts w/ 150W 20K. What's better 20K or 14K?

http://www.esuweb.com/cardfile.asp?I...lationship=332

Anyone have experience with these? I ws thinking of maybe 3 spaced down the length of the tank. Also i was thinking of the fixtures that Marcingo mentions in the product review forum. I realize these will need a little bit more work on my part, is it worth it to save a few bucks?

Back to skimmers...The hole in the wall where i am putting the tank has a clearance of 3.5" on each side. So i would have the room for putting a slim skimmer on each end. Would this suffice?

On the topic of the sump, does anyone know anyone in the Calgary area that could drill holes for me(not Bow Valley)? Any idea on cost?

Do anyone have some good links for DIY dosing systems. I'm fine with daily dosing maually(i do it with my plant tanks), but I'd like to explore my options.

I'm so amazed at how helpful you all are! This forum rocks!

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hey! I started into this hobby a few months ago, and it's definitely a huge learning curve. This website will teach you more than any book or LFS ever will!

One thing: I spent $400 on live rock, and since that time, I've seen members online here selling theirs for a fraction of the price! Already cured! *sigh* I think you should be patient in acquiring the live rock, because you will then have more money to spend on better lighting and a better skimmer (as everyone has advised already).

Two things I feel I want to add:

1) If you don't go with a sump, think about some auto top-off system. You're right about the crazy evaporation here in Calgary. Check out this site (http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html) for a seemingly easy DIY system.
2) Factor in the costs of things like: calcium, iodine, strontium, micro-plankton, etc.

Good luck! And remember...everyone has their own way of doing things, and you'll hear 10 different versions of the "best way"! Figure out what works for you and go with it. And let us know how it goes

[kwirky]

way to go on deciding on the sump

most glass shops can do it. call the glass guild up, they're pretty good people.

As for the coralife light, 150w MH would be a little dim for your tank. I have a 150W HQI bulb that I've hung over my 24" deep 120 gallon to see how it would look, for curiousity's sake, and it doesn't look bright enough to me. And that's a geisseman 13000k bulb. those coralife bulbs are not that great, I've heard. Albert at Gold's Aquariums has before and after pictures of when he took all the coralife bulbs out of the fixture on his main reef show tank. It's like night and day.

This is an excellent site for MH bulb research (requires Internet Explorer)
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

If you really want MH lighting, with the depth of your tank, I'd recommend 250W mh though. Like I said earlier however, your long and narrow tank would be much better lit with T5's compared to MH's. MH reflectors are tuned for 2'x2'ish areas, otherwise you'll be wasting 50% of your light in most cases. You would need 3 metal halides to light it, or 4 six foot bulbs of T5. Replacing the T5 bulbs would work out cheaper in the long run, even if you account for their 9 month life (compared to MH's lasting 12 months when run on electronic ballasts). Not to mention the power savings. 150W of T5 versus 750W of MH for similar light outputs .

check these out:


http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=SL2413
you can get 4 of these. I'm sure Albert at Gold's can order them, because he deals in sunlight supply. It would cost you about $460 for the light system, and about $200 or less for the bulbs, i'm guestimating.

Your light spread would be MUCH better over your tank. Much better light output than three of those coralife fixtures for sure. just make sure you protect your frags initially with window screen on top of egg crate on the top of the tank to prevent them from bleaching. I bleached some of my own softy frags at the BOTTOM of the tank with my own T5 fixture.

Oh and if you properly ventilate your hood, you can get crazy PAR outputs from T5's. I'm probably going to be carving up my own T5 fixture this weekend to put in some computer fans. Read you get like 75% more output just from cooling it!

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

Hey! I started into this hobby a few months ago, and it's definitely a huge learning curve. This website will teach you more than any book or LFS ever will!

One thing: I spent $400 on live rock, and since that time, I've seen members online here selling theirs for a fraction of the price! Already cured! *sigh* I think you should be patient in acquiring the live rock, because you will then have more money to spend on better lighting and a better skimmer (as everyone has advised already).

agreed... I've spent way too much on my rock heh. I'm looking to get the last of my rock through the bargain finder or the buy/sell forum on here. I read of a dude who set up a 400 gallon tank and only paid like $1000 for all his rock because he got it bit by bit "used"