Hey! new to this: 29gallon, future corals and fish

[Anfo42]

I was recently gifted a bare 29 gallon standard dimension (30x18x12) from my cousin who has been keeping and growing some nice coral and fish for a while. I bought about 10lbs of dry live rock and 5lbs of wet. I bought a marineland 150 filter and replaced the standard filter with chemi pure elite leaving the bio wheel on, got 30lbs of live sand, had a red legged hermit from my cousins old tank (found him crawling in the tank when I was removing the old sand and cleaning it) I wanted to save him so I decided it was time to get a move on putting the tank together ASAP. got 30 gallons of sea water from the LFS. put sand in, placed the live rock in however it fit and poured the water in and through everything together which I know is wrong now that I see I have a problem, I did everything backwards.. I didn't plan all of it well enough. anyways to tell you where I'm at today (started 4 days ago), I'm building a sturdier stand for it today and I'm going to put about 90% of the water back in buckets, attaching and arranging the live rock how I want them with super glue gel and placing it all back in the tank on the new stand and filling the sucker back up with the water. am I going to be doing something dumb? I need advice I don't know when I should get a protein skimmer or what type and I still haven't purchased a light since I don't need one just yet is the advice I got. all I know is 4 watts per gallon and the rock should be 1lb per gallon as well. I want to set this tank up for soft corals (zoas, mushrooms) and fish that are not harmful to my coral (clown fish, blenny) a striped shrimp and of course a few blue/red legged hermits... maybe a Harlequin shrimp someday or some other cool compatible pets but to start when i get everything cycled correctly a clown or 2 and green starburst polyp frag. I don't want to do this the wrong way and I'm reading as much as I can. any advice? I'm open to criticism.

 

[tbass3574]

Sounds like you're on the right track. Just patience when you first start, don't rush things. The pound per gallon of rock is just a generalized rule, you can have more you can have less and your reef can function properly. As of lights the 4 watts per gallon rule is kind of the same thing if you're running a t5 setup. For the corals you listed, mainly softies they should do well under 4 watts a gallon, but you may want to look into LEDs, they last longer and are cheaper in the long run, also you don't have to replace bulbs and all that jazz. Just keep monitoring your levels throughout the cycle, but seems like you're on the right track. Good luck!

 

[Anfo42]

Thank you so much, glad to hear I'm on the right track and i will definitely look into LEDs for sure!

 

[tbass3574]

Also skimmer may be a good idea like you mentioned especially if you think you'll have a high bio load, I've run bigger tanks with just a mechanical filter and a skimmer, with no sump or other filtration and have been just fine

 

[Anfo42]

awesome! thanks, I'll prob invest in an internal skimmer for now and build a sump/refugium in the future when I'm more acquainted with the hobby.