Advice and/or help with set up stocking and equipment.

[BigG10905]

Hello I'm just starting up in saltwater but have been into fish for awhile now keeping discus and varies other creatures. Now a friend of mine convinced me to try my luck at saltwater. So from my previous experiences I decided to go big due to the fluctuation in water due to salinity. So I have obtained a 220 gallon marineland pre-drilled aquarium for a ​

FOWLR

tank. Its 72" X 24" x30" i think. Im also think of doing a 125 gallon sump but not sure if thats to big or too small. So now I am getting 40 lbs of base rock and curing it in a 37 gallon tank that will in the future used as a QT/hospital tank. Ok, equipment I am looking at is the Reef Octopus 250 skimmer, some kind of external pump (don't know what kind), vortech power-heads, ​

T5

lighting, a turf scrubber, and what ever else is needed. So I could use some help in were to go. This all was recommended to me my the same friend who talked me into this mess in the first place. So my fiancé and I have been looking at fish and this is a little list we have come up with and what some opinions and comments on this to see if they are good choices or not. Black & white ocellaris clowns, gold stripe maroon clowns, flame angel, copper band butterflyfish, orchird dotty back, springeri dotty back, green mandarin, flame hawkfish, yellow tang, chevron tang, a chillies tang, harlequin tusk, and some big angelfish. Now i want an eel of some sort and she wants a golden puffer. Are either or any of therse this going to have problems? Am I missing any equipment? Are there any sweet fish we haven't thought of? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Gregg​

 

[fragmatic]

Hello and welcome aboard.
I think anyone that has had success with discus has the mind set to do salt water. They are about as difficult as it gets in fresh water. Your sizes are good (220 and 125) but, nix the base rock. Base rock too often contains traces of heavy metals that will be a disaster in a salt water tank. We work our rears off to avoid and keep those removed. You will find the recommended pounds of "live rock" to be at least one pound per gallon of display tank water. Live rock is the filtration system of a salt water tank. Sorry, ...your fish list has several compatibility problems. Even too many to discuss in one posting. However, you have plenty of time between now and the time you are able to add fish to work that out. In the mean time you should be setting up the plumbing, sand, live rock, and getting the tank cycled.

A pair of clowns is a perfect first fish placement. Start with two but wait until your salinity, chemistry, live rock, & such are in and stable. You will be wanting to study up on: cycling a saltwater tank; clean up crews; live rock and seeding dry rock; salt water fish and incompatibility; plumbing a sump; testing salt water tanks (chemistry); skimmers; turf scrubbers (AKA algae scrubbers);

No problem, we are here to get you through the whole process. You just have to be sure to ask first and do second. And that is harder than it sounds. Mistakes in a salt water tanks are often very expensive in $$, time, lives of critters, and stress.

Being you have kept discus, I have faith you will want to do the background study on these items and get it right. I look forward to following your build! I know it will be a good one!

 

[BigG10905]

Hello I'm just starting up in saltwater but have been into fish for awhile now keeping discus and varies other creatures. Now a friend of mine convinced me to try my luck at saltwater. So from my previous experiences I decided to go big due to the fluctuation in water due to salinity. So I have obtained a 220 gallon marineland pre-drilled aquarium for a ​

FOWLR

tank. Its 72" X 24" x30" i think. Im also think of doing a 125 gallon sump but not sure if thats to big or too small. So now I am getting 40 lbs of base rock and curing it in a 37 gallon tank that will in the future used as a QT/hospital tank. Ok, equipment I am looking at is the Reef Octopus 250 skimmer, some kind of external pump (don't know what kind), vortech power-heads, ​

T5

lighting, a turf scrubber, and what ever else is needed. So I could use some help in were to go. This all was recommended to me my the same friend who talked me into this mess in the first place. So my fiancé and I have been looking at fish and this is a little list we have come up with and what some opinions and comments on this to see if they are good choices or not. Black & white ocellaris clowns, gold stripe maroon clowns, flame angel, copper band butterflyfish, orchird dotty back, springeri dotty back, green mandarin, flame hawkfish, yellow tang, chevron tang, a chillies tang, harlequin tusk, and some big angelfish. Now i want an eel of some sort and she wants a golden puffer. Are either or any of therse this going to have problems? Am I missing any equipment? Are there any sweet fish we haven't thought of? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Gregg​

Thanks for the advice. I thought from all the research I had done that going with dry rock was better and curing it so that there were no tagalongs that would be nasty, such as aptaishia. I did know we were going to need more rock just thought I could make this one live and seed more dry rock to get it to become live as the tank cycled. I was thinking of using Carbisea Moon beach black sand but I'm really not sure. Just in the process of obtaining everything before I start building the sump. So can you give me some tips on creating my list of fish and any thing else for equipment. Like a UV sanitizer or what chemicals to use? Thanks for all the help!!!

 

[Mike2112]

There are a good number of books that you can read. Robert Fenner wrote The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists (Microcosm/T.F.H. Professional): Robert M. Fenner, Matthew L. Wittenrich, Scott W. Michael: 9781890087999: Amazon.com: Books That bookwould be a great source of information. Also read Mike Paletta's Amazon.com: The New Marine Aquarium: Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide (0097818900875): Michael S. Paletta, Edward Kadunc, Scott W. Michael, John Goodman: Books . Both of these books were recommended by fellow reefers on Reef Frontiers forums. Keep us posted on what you build.

 

[fragmatic]

Thanks for the advice. I thought from all the research I had done that going with dry rock was better and curing it so that there were no tagalongs that would be nasty, such as aptaishia. I did know we were going to need more rock just thought I could make this one live and seed more dry rock to get it to become live as the tank cycled. I was thinking of using Carbisea Moon beach black sand but I'm really not sure. Just in the process of obtaining everything before I start building the sump. So can you give me some tips on creating my list of fish and any thing else for equipment. Like a UV sanitizer or what chemicals to use? Thanks for all the help!!!

You are correct dry rock is dried live rock, it is cheaper because it is lighter and ships and stores easier. Yes you will need some live rock to seed it. Your first post said you were going with base rock. I consider base rock as too good of a possibility to be confused with river rock. You have to be careful and be sure you do not get any rock that is not actually from the ocean and it is better if it came from a reef. There is one thing to realize that makes the decision a little tougher on the rock issue. Live rock has loads of hitch hikers that you DO want, too. IMO it is best to bring in some of it to get as natural of a seeding of the dry rock as is practical considering the rock has to be shipped and cured to let what life forms died decay out. However, there are many who do start with nothing but dry rock, but you can expect the time it takes to mature a bacteria and cycle the tank into a stable state to most likely take considerably longer. And yes, they do it to get a more pristine tank. If your friend has a thriving reef tank or live rock tank you may exchange some dry rock for some live rock from his/her tank. I realize your friend may not have actually recommended you put those fish together. However if they did recommended those fish combinations I have some serious concerns about the skills on that end. So, consider that if it applies before you accept any thing from that tank. Many new tanks get a "kick start" by asking a friend to leave a sponge in their sump for a few days. Then they take that sponge and some of their tank water in a jug and pour the water in their tank and squeeze the sponge in their sump or tank. This brings in a healthy crop of water borne bacterial and such to aid in the process. But be sure you can trust that friend' skills and give that tank a HARD look first.

Black sand is nice, some on here use it, but I'm not sure what it is and where it comes from, do the research first.

If you have a used book store in you area, be sure to check it out for books. Learn that shelf location and stop back by often for a while. Reef tanks have come along ways in recent years so watch for the more current books.

You're really doing good. Keep it up.

I'm betting on your ability, but you are going to have to relearn much of your fresh water theory. It just does not apply. I too was a fresh water tanker before. I like your attitude and thought process.

 

[BigG10905]

bump

 

[Reefing Madness]

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[TD="class: xl24"]#1-Dry Rock, there are a few hitchhikers on Live Rock that people want to stay away from, so they opt for using Dry Rock, or Dead Rock. Macro Rock is a good place to start looking for that. Either way you go you will need a minimum of 1lb per gallon. You can use Fully Cured Live Rock, and have the tank cycled in just a few days also. Other way is to use just a couple of pounds of Live Rock and the rest Macro or Dry Rock.[/TD]

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[TD="class: xl26"]#2-Replacement filter media like filter floss and activated carbon (if you get a filter) Which is really not necessary.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#3-Multiple Power heads (2 or 3) 10x your water volume for just a Fish Only With Live Rock, and at least 20x your water volume for a Reef Tank. So lets say your going reef, and you have a 100g tank, you would need flow in that tank at minimum of 2000gph, or 2 1000gph power heads.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#4-Protein Skimmer, rated at 2 times your water volume. Unless your tank is under 30g, in which case you can do 10% water changes a week to rid the system of detrius. But, you'll have to watch the water parameters close, if things go haywire, you'll have to do more water changes.[/TD]

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[TD="class: xl26"]#5-Saltwater Test Kits. Reef Test Kit. Test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Phosphates, Calcium, ALK and Magnesium.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#6-Saltwater fish food. Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Cyclopease, Algae Sheets, Romaine . Flake food is not really a good food to feed your marine fish.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#7-Aquarium vacuum. This one is iffy. Most don't use one, if you have enough flow in the tank you won’t need one[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#8-Rubber kitchen gloves[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#9-Fish net[/TD]

[TD="class: xl24"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#10-Two, clean, never used before, 5-gallon buckets[/TD]

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[TD="class: xl26"]#11-Aquarium thermometer, digital being the best.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#12-Brush with plastic bristles (old tooth brush) - needed for cleaning the live rock if you don't get Fully Cured Live Rock.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#13-Power Strip, possibly GFCI outlets by the tank.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#14-Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water, and a barrel for storing the water.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl25"]#15-Possibly a Quarantine Tank for your new fish. They sit in here for a few weeks to kill off parasites and bacteria, to keep it from getting in your main tank[/TD]

[TD="class: xl24"]#16-Heater rated for your size tank.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#17-Saltwater Mix. Marine Salt. Instant Ocean is the cheap Salt that beginners and Advanced use alike.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#18-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a Refractometer, which is more accurate. There is also a Digital Meter that is way advanced if you have the cash.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#19-Aquarium filter (not absolutely necessary if running with adequate amounts of live rock, but nice to have if you need to use a mechanical filter or activated carbon, or GFO and such)[/TD]

[TD="class: xl26"]#20-Aquarium substrate such as live sand or crushed coral. Some go bare Bottom, others choose the 2-3" bottom, others, more advanced will try the Deep Sand Bed, which is over 6" deep.[/TD]

[TD="class: xl27"]http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=aquarium+heater&_sacat=20754&_odkw=power+heads&_osacat=0[/TD]

[TD="class: xl27"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"] Live Rock and Live Sand: Live Saltwater Aquarium Rock and Sand [/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]

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[TD="class: xl28"][/TD]