Newbie - Starting/Attempting a New Salt Water Aquarium

[ico]

Hi all,

I stumbled upon the site in search for tips on hopefully being able to successfully start a new salt water aquarium. I don't have much experience so this would be a first time but I was fortunate enough to receive a tank and stand for free. I figured I can tell you guys what I'm working with, what my plan of attack is, and turn to you guys along the way to help troubleshoot when problems arise, and makes some friends along the way. So here's what I'm working with:

- Eclipse One (12 gallon) Tank. (has a built in light and bio-wheel filter)
- Stealth 50watt Heater
- (1) 10lb bag of Nature's Ocean Agragonite Sand (may pick up another bag)
- 25 Gallons of Instant Ocean Sand
- 4 Small Pieces of Sculptured Tufa Rock
- Salt Hydrometer, pH and Nitrite test kits, fish net

So, after doing a little research a 12 gallon tank sounds like it is not ideal for a salt water tank, I here the bigger the better/easier, but hopefully I can pull this off as a starter tank and eventually graduate into something bigger. Once the tank is up and running I only plan on having a few (2-3) small fish, and some bottom feeders a crab or something.

My plan right now is to rinse the sand and tufa rock in a five gallon bucket, put them in the tank, fill up the water, add salt, and wait...I here a few days to a couple weeks. Make sure the salt reads around 1.020 and hopefully no ammonia in the tank. Then add my first fish down the road.

If anyone has any advise or tips it would be greatly appreciated. BTW, mappa, love the youtube video. Nice tank/fish. Sorry for the long thread. Thanks, everyone!

[Original Fin]

Hello and welcome to Reefland.

You can actually do a nice little soft coral reef tank with a 12 gal. Small leathers, zooanthids and palythoa, mushrooms, green star polyps are all fairly easy to do. Reef tanks require excellent water quality to thrive. The biggest challenge with water quality IMO is bioload. In other words, the more fish you have, the more work and the harder it becomes to keep the water clean, clear and balanced.

A 12 gallon tank is only good for one very small fish, especially if you intend it to be a reef tank as well. Check out live Aquaria.com and look at the fish recommended for nano tanks.

You will need to establish a biological filter with 1-1.5x system volume of live reef rock, so hypertufa is not really what you want. The rock should be porous, and calcium carbonate/limestone based so you have a natural PH buffer. The duration of your cycle is anyone's guess. You'll need to regularly test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph temperature and salinity durring the initial cycling phase. It's the only way to know when the tank will be ready to support higher life.
BTW, if you intend to go reef, you should run a higher salinity...1.025 to 1.026. Also, be forewarned that you cannot medicate fish in a reef tank without also harming/killing corals and other invertebrates. For this reason, it's crucial to quarantine all new fish adds every time. You'll also need to test for phosphates and have a plan/method in mind for phosphate export/control. Same with nitrates. Finally, reef water needs to be balanced in terms of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels, so plan on having those test kits on hand too, and have a plan/method for supplementing them in a balanced way.

What sort of lighting do you have, or do you plan on getting? What kind if flow does your stock tank deliver? Are there provisions for a protein skimmer and/or refugium?

[ico]

Thank you for the quick response. liveaquaria.com, nano fish. That's actually what I had in mind, a clown/firefish/goby are all beautiful. I was hoping to have room for 2 but it sounds like this will have to be a bachelors pad. I was also hoping the tufa rock would work but it looks like I'll have to find "porous, and calcium carbonate/limestone." Forgive my ignorance but I'm not sure exactly what lighting I'm working with, Eclipse natural daylight, is what's on the bulb. As for the filtration it's built into the Eclipse One System. I also should point out this tank was in use prior to me using it, bio-wheel is used, not sure if I should replace it? As for the tank itself I was just going to rinse it clean the best I can before I add to it. It's apparent I need to read more on reef tanks, you were listing names and I'm googling away. ha. I need to gather more test kits and pick up new rock.

[Original Fin]

Forgot to mention about your heater. Those stealth models don't have a good track record. They are supposed to be shatterproof, but these forums are are full of stories of people having them explode in their tanks. Not sure if it's all stealth models, or what...might be worth a call to Marineland just to be sure.

[Original Fin]

Ok, so there's a built in bio-wheel...that makes sense.

Thing about those, is they are suited more towards fish only tanks. They work great as biofilters, but there is almost always a byproduct of high nitrate production associated with them because of the way detritus gets trapped in them. In a FO tank, that's not really a problem. In a reef tank though, it is.
Fish can tolerate much higher levels of nitrates than can invertabrates. In fact, you want to shoot for undetectable levels in a reef, which is why live rock/live sand with a good protein skimmer is the preferred filtration method for reef systems...doesn't have that issue with nitrates.

What you can do if you want to go reef, is just remove the biocartridge and let your live rock/sand do the biowork. Some people even go so far as to create a macroalgael refugium in the space the biowheel used to take up. Macro fuges are a very popular and efficient way to export nurtrients from reef tanks. Several RL contributors have recently done low $ DIY fuge mods to small tanks like yours , so if interested in that just post a new thread in the equipment forum when you get to that point.
Also, there are a bunch of good hang on the back nano skimmers out there that you could add that would really help a lot.

[Original Fin]

About the lighting...More than likely, the stock lighting would be just marginally effective for most soft corals. LPS, SPS, anemones and clams would probably be out of the question though without an upgrade of some sort. Pics would help if you're able?

Most reef setups use a combination of high intensity daylight (10K) and seperate actinic (deep blue) bulbs. The actinics are usually used exlusively for the first and last hour of the photoperiod to simulate dusk/dawn. When used in conjunction with daylight bulbs, they help to make the fish and coral colors "pop", but don't actually do much to stimulate growth. Alot of people also use low power blue "moonlight" bulbs to for the nocturnal periods.

[leebca]

We could spend a lot of time trying to guide you and still miss a lot of the details. However, all the details were captured in this one post: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

Good luck!

[chrisfont23]

Welcome!

I have a 29 g tank, still considered a nano. I went through a lot of tinkering and trial/error until I got it right. If you are interested in a HOB fuge instead of a biowheel, PM me and I will send you step by step instructions of how to build one for about $50. Let us know if we can help!

[ico]

Welcome!

I have a 29 g tank, still considered a nano. I went through a lot of tinkering and trial/error until I got it right. If you are interested in a HOB fuge instead of a biowheel, PM me and I will send you step by step instructions of how to build one for about $50. Let us know if we can help!

Thanks, everyone.

Update: Today at lunch I returned my Tufa rock. I ordered a 10lb bag of Refugium Ruble from liveaquaria.com. Also picked up a salt water tester kit so I can monitor all levels. Next, I brought back the 10lb bag of I originally purchased and piked up a 25lb bag of Live Reef Sand. Last, I picked up a Reef Light bulb at Petco (stated good for all salt water aquariums, reef tanks). I'm still debaiting on the HOB fuge, I didn't have time to read into it. I plan on it tonight.

Question: The tank I'm using was in use. What is the best way to clean it out? I did not want to ask the store employees. I will look into this myself as well. Thanks again!

[Original Fin]

Thanks, everyone.

Update: Today at lunch I returned my Tufa rock. I ordered a 10lb bag of Refugium Ruble from liveaquaria.com. Also picked up a salt water tester kit so I can monitor all levels. Next, I brought back the 10lb bag of I originally purchased and piked up a 25lb bag of Live Reef Sand. Last, I picked up a Reef Light bulb at Petco (stated good for all salt water aquariums, reef tanks). I'm still debaiting on the HOB fuge, I didn't have time to read into it. I plan on it tonight.

Question: The tank I'm using was in use. What is the best way to clean it out? I did not want to ask the store employees. I will look into this myself as well. Thanks again!

Usually, just warm well mixed salt water does the trick. You shouldn't have to worry about disinfecting. For stubborn heavily coraline encrusted areas, you can soak overnight in a 5:1 freshwater/ white vinegar solution to loosen things up. This works well for the filtration areas too.
If you need to scrape/scrub, just remember it's acrylic and scratches easily, so use the tools specific to acrylic which can be found at most LFS. An old credit card works well, but the edges will wear out pretty quick.
Where this is a used tank, you may find significant scratches once it's clean. This is par for the course with acrylic tanks...they all get that way eventually no matter how careful you are while cleaning. It's pretty hard to notice though once you fill with water. If it bugs you, there are acrylic buffing/polishing kits that will bring it back to new condition.

[ico]

Thank you!

For those curious, here is the online manual of the exact tank I'm working with:
http://www.aquariumpart.com/v/vspfil...pse_manual.pdf

After reviewing the manual I came across the filtration. I may start with the bio-wheel to see how it performs. Here is a quote from the manual,
"Total Filtration, BIO-Wheel Efficiency
Under the Eclipse hood is a 3-stage system of total filtration efficiency. The Eclipse Filter Cartridge supplies both mechanical and chemical filtration. For mechanical filtration, there’s a dual-density polyfiber filter pad to trap dirt and debris. For chemical filtration, each cartridge is packed with Black Diamond Premium Activated Carbon...the best there is. And when it comes to biological filtration, the patented BIO-Wheel is the absolute best at eliminating toxic ammonia and nitrite from aquarium water. Years of continuing laboratory tests and field evaluation prove it."

If the bio-wheel doesn't work out well, I will make the change. As for the cleaning, I'm going to use warm water, add a little salt as you recommended as well. The aquarium I have is glass. No visible scratches yet. I believe the newer ones are acrylic.

[ico]

Welcome!

I have a 29 g tank, still considered a nano. I went through a lot of tinkering and trial/error until I got it right. If you are interested in a HOB fuge instead of a biowheel, PM me and I will send you step by step instructions of how to build one for about $50. Let us know if we can help!

I sent you a PM. I think it would be wise of me to set one up. Thanks again!

[ico]

UPDATE:

I shot a pic of my nano tank. Live rock came in. I figured at least another week minimum before I think of adding my one small fish. I read the ammonia levels spike when you add live rock. Any idea on how long I should wait before I do water tests? Right now my tank is at 77 degrees and the salinity level is at 1.022. I plan on leaving the reef light on for roughly 12 hours of the day.

[chrisfont23]

UPDATE:

I shot a pic of my nano tank. Live rock came in. I figured at least another week minimum before I think of adding my one small fish. I read the ammonia levels spike when you add live rock. Any idea on how long I should wait before I do water tests? Right now my tank is at 77 degrees and the salinity level is at 1.022. I plan on leaving the reef light on for roughly 12 hours of the day.

That might be a little light on the salinity side. I would aim for 1.025. I think you should be safe to start testing the water right away. In order, you will see an ammonia spike followed by a 0 reading, a nitrite spike followed by a 0 reading and a nitrate spike. Aim to get the nitrates to 0 then add a fish. Also... do yourself a favor and put ur light on a timer - you can get one for about $7 at Lowes/Home Depot. Hope that helps