I'm Hooked. What should I do???

[wingnut]

First off let me say Hi to everyone. This forum looks like a great place to get started in my new quest.
First off I've had a brackish tank for 3 months now and I am very pleased with my choice to go brackish, the biggest issue I have with it is my selection of fish is limited. I currently have 2 spotted puffers and 2 monos in a 55 gallon tank. All is well but I'm not leaning in the direction on a marine tank. I know this is not going to be easy and is going to take some time. I want to piece together this marine tank due to limited funds, in other words I can't go out and drop a grand on lights, live rock, sand etc. My question is can I start adding live sand now, then live rock and so on. Thanks in advance. Any helpful links for a noob would be great to.

[leebca]

The piece-by-piece method is one of the worst things you can do in the marine aquarium hobby. The marine lifeforms need stability throughout their captive care. This doesn't happen by adding sand and rock over time. The additions and changes may seem small to the hobbyist, but they have a major negative impact on marine life.

You would do much better -- have greater success, kill less marine life, enjoy the hobby, etc. -- r to save up your money until you are financially prepared to start and complete the setup of the aquarium at one time, then follow these guidelines: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

[wingnut]

leebca…. I agree, I've done a lot of reading over the past two weeks and have learned a great deal of information. What would be a good size sump for my 55, just base size L,W and H. My 55 sits on a factory wood stand.
Thanks for the help

[leebca]

The answer is simple -- the larges possible. Whatever size will fit your space and budget. The larger the better. In general, you want the size that will hold all the overflow water should the return pump shut down. So it depends on the layout of the overflow.

A sump that holds no less than 15% of the total volume of the [U]system[/U ]would be the minimum size. So, a 55 gal aquarium plus about 10 gallons in the system = 65 gallons. So the total volume of the sump should be no less than 10 gallons.

[wingnut]

I could go as long as 4' x 11" x 12-14". But I would have no room for storage, equip etc. What I was thinking is 32"L x 11"W x 14"H. Not sure at this point how many gallons that is. Should I go longer? Than 32"

[leebca]

There are 231 cubic inches per gallon of water. Just multiply all three numbers and divide by 231 to get the gallons:

inches x inches x inches = cubic inches
cubic inches/cubic inches/gallon = gallons
32 x11 x 14 = 4928
4928/231 = 21.3

21.3 gallons is about twice the minimum. So that size is fine. You can shorten it a few inches if you need to, in order to make room for other equipment. However, with that sized sump, you can now put the skimmer inside the sump and not worry about the displacement.

[ToddTT]

wingnut, if I'm not too late, you can save a lot of money, and have great success going this route:

Foolproof Aquarium Strategies