new tank setup, need advice.

[LisaJill]

Hey everyone,

Been a long, long time since I posted here!

A few years ago I moved back to the states from Aus. I'm finally situated in an apartment where, if my landlord approves it, I can setup a tank. I'm waiting for him to call back - but I suspect things will be ok. He already lets me have cats, anyway. =)

This place has a great area for a tank. It's a 4' wall, however about 11" out from the wall is the door to the boiler room. I use that for storage a bit, so need to get in and out (though the door needn't open up all the way, some way is important. =) )

So, what I was thinking is perhaps a 3' or 3'5" tank. I suppose if it's less long I can go with wider, so 12" or 16". I don't know what gallon-age this would be, I'm pathetic at math. I think somewhere in the 40-50 gallon range?

I can budget probably a grand to this, for now. Not including livestock. I'd prefer to keep it much lower than that, of course.

Ultimately, my goal would be to have some live rock, live sand, inverts and some low-light corals. Mushrooms, maybe some of the lower-light, long polyp hard corals. As far as fish, I envision a pair of clowns (I'd love gold-stripped maroons but I have a feeling they'd be too big, so perhaps some black percs or something else all together). I have this absolutely fascination with jawfish, which were totally unavailable to me in Aus. I know I'd need 4-6" of live sand for that. And perhaps a gamma or other type? Or a dwarf flame angel (I know they peck at corals). I think I'd probably be restricted to 4 fish max, this setup? Or could I, eventually, go with 5? Obviously I'd add them at least a month apart, if not more. =)

And it'd be a long time before fish go in. Get the live sand and rock setup first and let things settle in.

My question here, is, I don't even have any hardware, at all. So say I wanted a stand with doors (keep the cats out!) and a glass tank (no acrylic, or should I not worry about scratching so much?). What kind of lighting (vho?), filtration, heating, etc would I need? I saw some tanks with built-in skimmers, I never even ran skimmers on my previous tanks (I believe, at the time, there were debates about keeping the water too clean, or some such?).

So, I live in Northampton, MA right now. What is my best bet for locating the equipment and having it delivered (and if a stand, assembled if necessary). Or shouuld I just go get some stuff from Petco?

Also, how does one begin the cycle these days? Grab some live sand and go for it? Or dump in ammonia (or was that freshwater only?) or what? I'm so behind. =)

So, basically, starting from scratch - help? ;)

I hope this was a somewhat sensible message. thanks for any and all help!

[scubadude]

Hi Lisa-Jill

Welcome back ;)
While alot of your questions center around the tank. My first reaction is getting the exact dimensions of what you want your tank size to be. We can calculate what the gallonage will be once we have exact dimensions. Length x width x height is the specs you want to give to us. I gathered that you wanted the length to be 3-3.5' long and the width to be 12-16" the height is? I will throw an example in lets say the height is 2' and the length 3.5' and height 12". The formula is lxwxh = cubic ft.

cubic ft x 7.5 = total gallonage

So a 3.5x1x2 = 7

7x7.5 = 52.5 gallons

[LisaJill]

It could go as high as the ceiling, but I suspect that I couldn't afford that. The glass thickness (in mm right?) goes up mostly with height and width, I thought?

Whatever standard height is, would be ok. Or if it's not expensive to add a little height, but I am trying to avoid a custom job. =)

[dougc]

Take a look at the standard reef-ready tanks available from AGA and Oceanic. That will give you an idea of the geometry of various sized tanks. If at all possible, go with a reef-ready tank. They are much easier to manage in terms of plumbing and offer the most flexibility going forward. Given your budgetary limitations, though, you could go with a standard tank and use a hang-on-back (HOB) skimmer and possibly an HOB refugium. Keep in mind that you will need to leave room behind the tank for all the hanging stuff with a standard tank. With a reef-ready tank, you can put the tank closer to the wall, but you will need some sort of sump, which you can usually put in the stand under the tank. It is probably best to purchase the tank and stand locally. You can use a smaller glass tank as a sump. You will need to have the sump tank drilled for a bulkhead. The trick is to find a local store that offers that service. In my area, the Hidden Reef will drill a tank for $20 a hole.

For low-light corals, you could use power-compact or VHO lighting. Reasonably priced power compact fixtures seem to be more readily available. For a few more bucks, check out T5 lighting fixtures from vendors like Sunlight Supply.

By all means, get some nice live rock, but dead sand will serve you just as well as the live sand that stores sell and is much cheaper. Find a local club and someone will surely give you a cup of sand from an established tank to seed your sand. As far as cycling, the live rock will provide the nutrients and the bacteria to cycle your tank. Even rock sold as "cured" will experience some die-off in your tank, which will fuel the cycle. Get an ammonia and nitrite test kit and run the tank with just the rock until both are zero. Then you can introduce some livestock.

Above all else, haunt the reef boards (like this one) for a while and get a feel for what others are doing. It also can't hurt to grab a basic reefkeeping book. The classic is probably still Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums". Mike Paletta's "New Marine Aquarium" is not a bad primer, either.

As far as hardware (other than the tank), I have used Premium Aquatics, Ocean Encounter, and Champion Lighting and have been happy with all of them. I am from Southern New Jersey, so I cannot help you with local resources in Massachussetts.

Good luck with your project. It is always fun planning a new tank.

[LisaJill]

*nods* A lot of that sparked the things that I remember but are deeply hidden *winks* I kept marines for 2 years before I came home, would have been longer, but y'know, life happened. Or something like it.

One thing, though, is that I didn't run a sump on any of them. If I remember correctly, I ran a canister and a bio-wheel or two. My tanks were successful like that. Is a sump really necessary? If so, would a reef-ready one come drilled/setup that way? I'm in a rental and if I screwed this up and got a leak I'd be in deep .. uh.... jello. ;)

Mmmm a local club. That could help. Thank you. =)

What about the planned population? Does that seem reasonable?

[The R/C Man]

Coral Magazine is a fairly new publication in the states translated from German. Excelent articles from people such as Daniel Knop. Worth the subscription!!!! On that note one of their articles mentioned that the Ecosystem style of filtration seemed to be the best they tested to date. Of course that is subjective. So yes I would run a sump/refugium. A canister filter will act as a nitrate trap and if not tended to regularly could be a bad thing. The bio wheels are just going to do what the live rock is doing so you shouldn't need them. The key is the macro algae, live rock and a good skimmer. I know you are on a budget but don't skim (pun intended) on the skimmer. I good skimmer is worth its weight in gold..... For the lighting you could always buy a parabolic reflector and hang it from your ceiling. Install VHO's and you are good to go. With that set up you can always add a MH bulb and ballast later if you want SPS corals...