Rookie Advice Needed

[Ral]

Hi

After keeping fresh water tropics for a few years, with out to much trouble i've decided to take the plunge into marine
The research i've done points me in the direction of a pair of captive bred clown fish as good for the beginner (no need with a anemone so i'm told)
I have a 120litre tank which i belive is big enough, with a internal filter fitted with a 400l/p pump (i'm going to pack this with sintered glass and a carbon filter ontop)
I'm going to also run a protien skimmer aswell but i'm a total loss as to what type and capacity i will need

What i need to know will this set up be okay and what type of skimmer i should get

Hope you can help me

[Ninong]

Hi Ral, welcome to Reefland!


Yes, a 120 liter tank is large enough for a pair of most clownfish but the larger species really require a little more room -- something like 150 liters would be a better MINIMUM size.

Does your tank come with a built-in filter? If so, is that taking up space in the 120 liter volume or do you have a full 120 liters without considering the built-in filter?

If you use a protein skimmer, you could get by without any other filtration device. A good protein skimmer plus good live rock and some nice sand would take care of all your filtration requirements.

I assume you are talking about a hang-on skimmer, right? If so, there are several good brands that would work quite well on your relatively small size tank. I'm just not sure which ones are available to you in the U.K. at competitive prices.

[Ral]

Yes i have the full 120 litres
If i go for the sand,live rock and skimmer set up and forget about using a built in filter, i've read that i will need a pump with a flow rate of 1000 l/ph for my size of tank, what do you think about this?
Also how deep should the sand (i take it you meen aragonite) be and how much rock will i need aswell
Thanks for the help so far - Gareth

[Ninong]

Your pump would need to be the correct size for the skimmer. Whether it needs to be 1000 lph or not depends on the skimmer. I am assuming that you are considering a hang-on skimmer and not thinking about setting up a sump under your tank.

If you are planning this as a fish-only aquarium (with maybe one small anemone for the clownfish), you might be able to get by with the built-in filter system without a skimmer if you also use some good live rock. While it is true that a skimmer is better, you could try it without one first to see how things go. You would want to test your water for nitrates and if you can keep the nitrates below 50 ppm after the tank has been running for several weeks, you should have no problems keeping the anemone. At least no problems as far as nitrates are concerned. Anemones are not that easy to maintain and should not be attempted until the tank is relatively stable and mature. I wouldn't add one to a new tank of any size until it has been running for at least six months.

The best anemone for your size tank would be an Entacmaea quadricolor (Bubble Tip Anemone). That's assuming you are going to get one anyway. The best clownfish for that particular anemone would be Premnas biaculeatus (Maroon Clownfish), but your tank is a bit on the small size for that particular clownfish. You might want to consider something like Amphiprion ocellaris instead. Even though it does not associate with Bubble Tip Anemones in the wild, it usually accepts them as a host in captivity.

How much live rock you need is a subjective decision. For your size aquarium I would suggest anything between 10 - 20 kg. Try 15 kg to start. You can always add a little more later on if you want to.

The depth of the sand bed is difficult to recommend without knowing the height of the water column in the aquarium. It would be nice to have at least 8 cm of fine particle sand but I don't know how that would look in your tank. You can get by with less but it wouldn't be as effective. The other option would be to go with a shallow substrate of crushed coral. (Both crushed coral and aragonite sand are aragonite, just different particle sizes.) I'm not a big fan of crushed coral but some hobbyists use it in fish-only aquaria. Because it traps detritus, it is best to not make it more than about 1 cm deep. It also needs to be siphoned regularly. If you use aragonite sand, you should not siphon it. The sand bed itself (assuming it is at least 8 cm deep) will process the detritus.

[Ral]

If i understand you right about the pump matching the skimmer, i would not need my exsisting pump from my built in filter unit put the pump that powers the skimmer will circulate the water in the tank?

i was planning to use a hang on skimmer but the more i read on the forum i get the impression that i need a bigger tank with a sump just to make life easy for my self when just starting out. By the time i've got 8cm of sand and 15kg of live rock (my tank is only 16inch deep) i will have a lot less that 120litres of water in there which is only going to make keeping the tank stable a nightmare.

Concering the Anemone i was not even considering it (to much trouble to start of with)

Cheers for all your help

[Ninong]

The hang-on skimmer would provide a certain amount of water circulation in the tank but you would still want at least one or two powerheads for additional water movement.

It's certainly possible to set up a 150 liter (40 US Gal) tank with a nice hang-on skimmer and no sump. This size is sort of the minimum that I would recommend for a beginner because it's actually easier to maintain that something smaller in size and it can be lit with 3' VHO or T5 fluorescent lamps.

After that, the next size up that makes any sense at all would be 282 liters (75 US Gal). (I don't care for the very common 207 liter (55 US Gal) tanks because I don't like their narrow front-to-back dimension.) This tank can be lit with 4' VHO or T5 fluorescents, assuming it is going to be a reef tank. If it is going to be a fish-only tank then normal output fluorescents would be fine as long as you aren't planning on keeping an anemone. If you were planning on keeping SPS corals and/or Tridacna clams, metal halides would be nice. This size tank is best set up with a sump.

You should get a good beginner's book to read before getting too far into this hobby so that you will know what you are doing. Robert Fenner's Conscientious Marine Aquarist would be a good one. You can also gets lots of free advice from his website: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/