New to salt water. Help please.

[comsubin61]

Suggest you keep an eye out for equipment for sale on R2R. You can also check ebay, facebook groups and craigslist. Also, Bulk Reef Supply videos on Youtube are a great source of education material. Read Ron Reefman's articles here on R2R. The most important thing is to go slow and have patience. There is a lot to learn and study in this hobby. You will be challenged! But to me, that is part of the fun.

That is a large tank to use a canister filter. I used one at first with a 29 gallon and upgraded to a 40 breeder with a sump and am so glad I did. The protein skimmer really keeps the water cleaner. Can you put a sump on a side table?

I don’t have room for it and my dear wife wouldn’t be thrilled with that. I have a FX4 that someone gifted me yesterday and I’ll try that if it doesn’t work maybe I’ll do a sump on a sliding tray.

 

[comsubin61]

This is a 65g, just rock, sand, Aquaclear HOB filter, Coralife HOB skimmer, 2 Jebao wavemaker, two Visparspectra 165watt lights, an optical ATO.

While there’s always an advantage to have been in fresh, that’s not a requirement at all.

First step is to get your tank, rockwork and sand in.
Carib-sea makes a good sand
Make and use RODI water, the salt of your choice, and mix a Batch to 1.026, repeat until tank full
Add a full bottle of bacteria.
Add heater.
Add filter.
Start wavemakers.
Leave lights off.

In one week, add your first or two, start with least aggressive first or a clown pair.
Let that settle.
Repeat slowly until you have a few fish in your tank.
You can add some light, just remember light brings algae.

keep a very close watch on your nitrate and phosphate during the first 9 months, gotta keep them in the ranges. Nitrates running in the 5-15ppm and phosphate in the 0.05-.1ppm range is good for a mixed setup.

when you can stabilize both those and salinity, try a couple of softies.

When we move to Stoney corals, we need to maintain ALK, CA and MG, in addition to salinity, temp, nitrate, phosphate.

When you can maintain all those stable, feel free to add all the corals you want, just be mindful of the space, each requires to grow out.

Great luck and have fun.

Thank you very much for the response. Much appreciate it. I will look into the lights. Right now I am just acquiring the equipment as it becomes available. It will probably take me 3-4 months before I can set it up because we are retiring and moving to the sunny areas of USA. So I have all the time to research. Thank you again.

 

[comsubin61]

Well if everyone took your LFS advice, this hobby would die out pretty fast, I think. I'm guessing your LFS is primarily a freshwater store?

I don’t know but I would think not. They used to have a very large round tank in the middle of the store with a fairly large shark in it. They do have a good selection of salt water fish when compared to other local stores.

 

[comsubin61]

Well my 120 gallon tank did not work out. So now I have a 84 Gallon tank still 24” deep as I wanted but only 36” wide, but it fits better in the space I have. The plan has not changed. Here is what I came up with so far. Suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

 

[anthonygf]

Well my 120 gallon tank did not work out. So now I have a 84 Gallon tank still 24” deep as I wanted but only 36” wide, but it fits better in the space I have. The plan has not changed. Here is what I came up with so far. Suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

That is a lot of rock, takes away from the water volume but does look good. Just make sure the rock is not up against the glass in the back, try to keep the same distance from glass all the way around. You will need flow behind the rocks and will be easier to clean.

 

[Rmckoy]

For a first tank I would recommend t5ho lights .

easy to setup , and you can keep any corals under them .

the best advice I could offer . Take your time , research everything and ask as many questions as possible .

I will say canisters are ok . But once you use a sump the maintenance is a lot less also adding more room to hide objects such as heaters and. Skimmer . No filter tubes and hoses hanging over the back , if a skimmer overflows as we all know happens it’s contained inside the sump and not on your brand new hardwood floors .