I have a 100 gal tank that I want to use to start a saltwater aquarium. It use to be a chiclid tank. I wanna do a reef tank with fish, shrimp and whatever you guys and girls think is best. I have been reading and there are so many opinions. Where do I start? Hang on the back filter, canister filter, sump and skimmer... any good models suggestions. heaters...any suggestions. Crush coral, live sand, sand....and suggestion. live rock. I wanna get started with setup before I add any water and I know it takes patience the hardest part for me. I will be working on a budget but would still like to purchase some good reliable equipment and products. Can I use anything from my old freshwater tank? I have a couple penguin 400, a Eheim ecco canister, some conch shells, some hard rocks. I have a couple of powerheads ... any help would be great. I must admit I'm a little nervous just wanna do it right....Thanks
Totally new to saltwater
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Welcome @hebrewdiver!
At 100 gallons I'd highly recommend a sump....and the sump I'd recommend is a 40B...which could be purchased when Petco has their $1/gallon sale.
So nothing HOB!
I'm also assuming the tank is not drilled, and would recommend a 1500 gpd Glass-Holes overflow kit. The kit included the drill bit to drill the glass....pretty easy....just need to verify your back/side glass isn't tempered....and that's easy to determine.
The penguin 400 can be used on your QT tank and the cannister filters, if you want to use them, use them as a reactor for carbon.....but not as a filter. And certainly the powerheads. As far as heaters, I'm sure you have one from the freshwater setup, but if not, I really like Eheim Jager heaters. The glass on these heaters is twice as thick as other brands.
Start a "members tank" thread to tell us what you have and ask any additional questions.
At 100 gallons I'd highly recommend a sump....and the sump I'd recommend is a 40B...which could be purchased when Petco has their $1/gallon sale.
So nothing HOB!
I'm also assuming the tank is not drilled, and would recommend a 1500 gpd Glass-Holes overflow kit. The kit included the drill bit to drill the glass....pretty easy....just need to verify your back/side glass isn't tempered....and that's easy to determine.
The penguin 400 can be used on your QT tank and the cannister filters, if you want to use them, use them as a reactor for carbon.....but not as a filter. And certainly the powerheads. As far as heaters, I'm sure you have one from the freshwater setup, but if not, I really like Eheim Jager heaters. The glass on these heaters is twice as thick as other brands.
Start a "members tank" thread to tell us what you have and ask any additional questions.
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twilliard
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That is where you will get stuck.. options
First decide what bottom you are looking for. Sand, cc, bb...
then find a good source for rock. Don't underestimate the weight you will need it.
Fill with your choice of rodi salt mix and wait
Sump fuge will help you
First decide what bottom you are looking for. Sand, cc, bb...
then find a good source for rock. Don't underestimate the weight you will need it.
Fill with your choice of rodi salt mix and wait
Sump fuge will help you
Oceansize
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I too got started with saltwater via freshwater, and aside from the aquarium itself, not too much transferred over: my rock and wood flotsam didn't look appropriate, nor did the gravel or plants. My airstone became obsolete with the addition of a protein skimmer since it oxygenates the water so well. I did keep the heaters, powerheads, and the big 4-stage canister filter and am so far having success without feeling the need to go to a sump. My tank is 92 gallons, almost as big as yours. I am doing a mixed reef tank and therefore did not want my mechanical filtration to be too efficient (my filter feeders should now be handling the mechanical filtration) so I took all of the filter pads out of the canister filter and am only using it for biological filtration via bioballs and active carbon. The downside to not having a sump is that my protein skimmer needs to be HOB, but personally I can live with that. Nobody looks back there anyway, they're always mesmerized by the tank itself, as it should be.
Also, if you're going sumpless and without an overflow box, you will probably need a surface skimmer once your tank is fully cycled and producing a good amount of nitrates. I was not aware of this at first and after a few months I was getting a really nasty layer of scum on the surface. That surface layer is more distinct with saltwater than fresh (due to the different specific gravity), resulting in more organics getting trapped there and therefore never going through your other filtration systems, so you'll probably be unaccustomed to how much nastier the surface layer can get compared to what you're used to with freshwater. Surface skimmers (I use the TOM one) are designed to flow directly into a canister filter, however since most of this scum is protein, I figured it would be better to have it flow directly into my protein skimmer instead. Fortunately I was able to do this with just a minimum of retrofitting. I personally consider a protein skimmer to be a necessity with saltwater, but then again I knew from the beginning that I was going to do a reef tank so I knew that water quality would be extra important. Some people get all of their filtration from their live rock which they keep circulating through the use of powerheads, I'm personally not brave anough to try that.
I recommend using live rock and live sand for your substrate and aquascaping, although to save money, not every rock needs to be live. But these two items make cycling your tank much easier (it will cycle without needing to add fish).
As always, make sure the fish and inverts you are considering can co-habitate peacefully. Many are not appropriate for a reef tank, but could be appropriate for a FOWLR (Fish-Only With Live Rock) tank. Right now it sounds like you're building a FOWLR tank, but you may find yourself wanting to branch out into coral (no pun intended), at which point you may be stuck with fish that are incompatible with a reef tank. My point being: plan ahead before getting attached to certain fish species. For example I absolutely love triggerfish but they eat coral and break off big chunks of live rock so I had to square my want of triggerfish with my want of coral. Coral won, LOL.
Also, if you're going sumpless and without an overflow box, you will probably need a surface skimmer once your tank is fully cycled and producing a good amount of nitrates. I was not aware of this at first and after a few months I was getting a really nasty layer of scum on the surface. That surface layer is more distinct with saltwater than fresh (due to the different specific gravity), resulting in more organics getting trapped there and therefore never going through your other filtration systems, so you'll probably be unaccustomed to how much nastier the surface layer can get compared to what you're used to with freshwater. Surface skimmers (I use the TOM one) are designed to flow directly into a canister filter, however since most of this scum is protein, I figured it would be better to have it flow directly into my protein skimmer instead. Fortunately I was able to do this with just a minimum of retrofitting. I personally consider a protein skimmer to be a necessity with saltwater, but then again I knew from the beginning that I was going to do a reef tank so I knew that water quality would be extra important. Some people get all of their filtration from their live rock which they keep circulating through the use of powerheads, I'm personally not brave anough to try that.
I recommend using live rock and live sand for your substrate and aquascaping, although to save money, not every rock needs to be live. But these two items make cycling your tank much easier (it will cycle without needing to add fish).
As always, make sure the fish and inverts you are considering can co-habitate peacefully. Many are not appropriate for a reef tank, but could be appropriate for a FOWLR (Fish-Only With Live Rock) tank. Right now it sounds like you're building a FOWLR tank, but you may find yourself wanting to branch out into coral (no pun intended), at which point you may be stuck with fish that are incompatible with a reef tank. My point being: plan ahead before getting attached to certain fish species. For example I absolutely love triggerfish but they eat coral and break off big chunks of live rock so I had to square my want of triggerfish with my want of coral. Coral won, LOL.
Daytonareefing
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The first thing that comes to mind when switching from freshwater to saltwater is if it had been treated with copper med.s and it has silicone seams sometimes copper leaches into the silicone then can leach back in the saltwater giving your corals problems other than that everyone else seams to have it covered.
