Have patience?

[mseepman]

One thing to add from my opinion...the Bubble Magus BMQQ nano skimmer is really quite good. I bought one that I plan to add to my nano (as I have a prizm right now and I plan to burn it as soon as I can) The BMQQ is running for me as a second skimmer (while I break it in) in my main display and it's still pulling a lot of skimmate.

It will take some real estate in your tank though so make sure you understand that.

[leezard]

It will take some real estate in your tank though so make sure you understand that.

Sorry, do you mean some of the living inhabitants? I didn't quite follow (See: "Newbie" comment!)

[Snaz]

He means tank space. The skimmer presumably would have to fit in the display area and thus less room for rock and it of course would make an already small tank more cluttered.

One advantage of an "all in one" is the false wall where skimmer and return pumps can be hidden away.

[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by Myka

Personally, I would also replace the aquarium gravel with sand. Look for aragonite sand like the Caribsea Select. It doesn't have to be "live", which I think is a very well done marketing scam.

+1 on the replacing gravel with sand... it just looks more natural. Specially if the gravel is that epoxy coated colorful junk

Originally Posted by leezard

Ok here's another question -- do I need to get an aerator or airstones for air flow? There's lots of water flow and such, so how does the air get into the water? Or is that part of the point of the "live" rock?

Quick lesson on O2 in water...

Water diffuses oxygen in and carbon dioxide (among other gasses) out passively across air to water intersections... so any air to water contact will provide gas exchange.

For our purposes this includes the water surface of the tank itself, and to a lesser extent the millions of tiny bubbles in your skimmer, if you decide to run one. This is why you can put more fish in a larger tank, not because the volume of water itself is larger (though a larger water volume is more stable, in regards to temperature, salinity, etc.)

Just a quick question leezard, have you checked the salinity of the tank water to see exactly what it is at? Or tested any of the other levels for that matter (Calcium, Alkalinity etc.)? If indeed the tank was set up for a year without water changes (or by the sound of it, any form of livestock including liverock) I'd be curious to see what everything is sitting at.

[leezard]

I've checked the salinity, but the rest is just off the Mardel "5 in 1" (turned "4 in 1" for saltwater) strips -- I'm picking up a test kit from a friend of mine ASAP -- just need to find the time to drop in.

Salinity is throught the roof, so I topped it up yesterday. Still really high, so tomorrow I'll do an actual water change. Nitrates and nitrites are zero, alkalinity is higher than 300 and pH sits between 8.0 and 8.4.

Otherwise, I need to pick up that test kit. I have a freshwater one, but I don't that will have everything I need.....

Thanks for the O2 lesson!

[BlueAbyss]

I figured something would be out of whack.

Hey, glad to be of service... further to the O2 thing, be careful with the inches of fish per gallon recommendations that are sometimes made. There is some sort of calculation you can do to figure out how much fish you can have with a given surface area of air to water contact, but I can't find the book I used to have with that stuff in it. It is different depending on the fish you are planning on keeping ie: cold or tropical temperatures, freshwater or marine.

To be safe, understock. I have a 20 gallon that will eventually house a pair of Bluestripe Pipefish and a Yasha or Griessinger's Goby. Total length between all fishes will be about 6 inches, probably less, and that still seems like too much... I'll likely only get the pipefishes.

[leezard]

That's it?? Do you have to count starfish and cleaners, as well, or only fish? I know for freshwater it's generally an inch of fish per gallon, but if done properly a person can cheat.... I'm overloaded in the freshwater by about 6 inches, but they seem to do very well nonetheless. I don't do water changes as often as I should, though.... that whole time dilemma.....

Oh well. Looks like I'll have lots of corals and shiny things! It'll next be a matter of finding out who's compatible with what. Speaking of which.... where's the best place to look for that info?

[BlueAbyss]

Yes indeed, you must count invertebrates to an extent... but probably because of total bioload, in the respect that they will eat and produce waste. I doubt most are big enough to consume much oxygen, and indeed the photosynthetic types ie: most corals, are considered to be oxygen neutral, at least during daylight hours. I don't think anyone takes into account the extra critters in live rock and sand, but just assumes that these will use some oxygen all the time.

I think I'd actually be stretching it a bit for my planned tank, as I intend to include about 5 Bumblebee Shrimp. These guys only get to 1" max, I've read, so I would count them to be 2.5" of fish total... 1/2 of what their actual length is. Not overly sure if this is a safe bet, but its what I'm using as a calculation. I intend to run a 15 gallon sump which has the same dimensions in terms of surface area, effectively doubling the amount of fish I can keep in this tank.

As far as compatibility with each other, you could do what I did... find something you like in pictures, and find out what it will take to make it grow and thrive. Build a tank plan ahead of time (what I'm doing now), and find things that fit into your grand image. Read heavily before buying ANY livestock... don't go out and buy a bannerfish that looks cute when small but starts eating polyps later, or a spotted filefish that will eat ONLY coral polyps. These sort of purchases rarely work out for the better, and we as responsible aquarists have a duty to provide the best environment for our captives as most marine animals are wild caught.

[leezard]

Build a tank plan ahead of time

That's what I want to do.... the friends of mine who I got the tank from lost alot of animals, many due to what I may now be considering poor hubandry, and many others because of the eel they purchased without knowing anything about it. Yep, really cute, but they've lost alot of things to it.

I think, then, I'm going to start my reading on seahorses. They're awfully dumb, but neat to watch.... dont' know if it's feasible or not, but nothing like looking into trying while I get everything switched over!

[Snaz]

http://www.seahorse.org/

Seahorses are not begginer species but if your interested this is the website to start. Read EVERYTHING before you go with seahorses.