Setting up first tank... Any advice?
- Thread starter gajeep94yj
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This will be primarily a fish tank, not coral tank.
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Hey, buddy-
I was exactly where you are a few months ago. Salt water has always been a dream of mine.. so I guess, in my case, I'm a mixture of you and your son put together... except I'm sure you have a bigger budget
PLEASE please hit me up if you need any advice. I have done just about everything wrong you can do and I've paid for it. Plus, depending on your personality and the types of questions you ask, some folks on here are SUPER cool and some are not.. I generally believe everyone's trying to help, but it might not seem so... so... anyhow..
Tips:
1) Get a skimmer.. the bigger, the better. I avoided getting one. Some folks will tell you that you don't need one, but, especially being a newbie.. it will help tremendously. You can even MAKE one (look on youtube) as a temporary trial and error thing just to see how it works. You're going to make mistakes stocking the tank and feeding too much and all that.. a skimmer will help keep your water crystal clean and it will truly remove SO much gunk. I have a 10 gallon tank as my training ground before I jump to a 40 or 55 gallon... and I have a 75 gallon-rated skimmer on mine.. Overkill? Maybe, but I'll tell you what, it keeps my water CRYSTAL clear, keeps odors at bay and pulls a LOT of gunk out. When I clean my glass of algae or stir up my rockwork and sand.. all of that floating gunk goes straight into the skimmer and out of my tank. Plus, I can keep it with me and keep using it until I cross over the 75 gallon threshold into big-boy territory. Trust me on this, dude.. get a skimmer.. all it is is a big device that will remove crap you don't want in the tank, keeps your water SUPER oxygenated and clear. It's worth it.. and then, when you move to corals.. you'll be set.
2.) DO NOT go with fine grain sand. My god, man- if I could give you any advice at all, it would be to NOT go with fine grain or 'sugar' sand. It looks amazing, it seems Caribbean and beach-y and fun, but it's an unbelievable pain. You'll learn more about water flow and pumps and all that in the future, but man.. this stuff blows around everywhere. It's like dust. You can't keep it off of your rocks.. or your corals.. and some fish won't pick up food that's fallen on it.. plus, it's impossible to vacuum. In every tank I have from here on out, I'm going with something bigger- maybe even gravel or crushed coral. I have this sugar sand right now and it STINKS. Can't wait to get rid of it. In fact, I may be consulting members soon to see how I can "swap out sand" to a bigger grain.
3.) Stock slowly. Seriously slowly. When you think you're being agonizingly slow, go slower. It will help SO much in the long run. Also, choose wisely. If you know your family wants clowns, well, heck.. go with clowns first.
4.) Become just as familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle as you are with the curves of a loved one. It will be your friend, but will also MURDER you if you don't respect it. I've had more crashes in my cycle and more swings than Lindsay Lohan leaving a night club. Add a fish.. let it get settled, add another a few weeks later. Now, you said your son wants Nemos. Clowns are about the only exception I can think of to this rule- if you want a pair. If you want a pair, and you want them to mate and swim around in anemones and corals and all that fun stuff, add two of the smallest ones you can find at the same time or pretty close to one another. The more juvenile, the better.. that way, your tank is the "only" home they'll really ever "know" and they'll do well since they haven't adjusted to anyone else's setup.. plus, the smaller they are, the less hard they are on the nitrogen cycle.
5.) Leave some swimming space in your aqua-scape.. but the more rock, the better. The rock is key. It is crucial. IT IS the filter.. it's also the home for your future friends like starfish and crabs and snails and stuff... fish in reefs don't need as much swimming space as you think.. caves and tunnels are awesome, but just use a ton of rock.. the lb per gallon rule is usually pretty good, but honestly, just get what you think looks neat and then add more. Like the old rule: when you think you've gathered enough firewood, gather more. It will never fail you.
6.) Buy stuff on craigslist and this club/forum. Local fish stores will ruin you. Sometimes you find a deal, and members here can tell you when/where to get the deals, but for the most part, just shop online if you have the patience and get your gear on here or craigslist... some of the guys on here have spent YEARS building GORGEOUS tanks out of scraps from craigslist. There are a ton of people here who can help you with that.
7.) keep your phone charged and handy when you're looking at buying a new fish or crab, or snail, or... and google it. Read reviews and check websites. It will save you a LOT of hassle from buying something that is beautiful but is really satan and eats everything and destroys your reef.. yes. This can happen.
I was exactly where you are a few months ago. Salt water has always been a dream of mine.. so I guess, in my case, I'm a mixture of you and your son put together... except I'm sure you have a bigger budget
PLEASE please hit me up if you need any advice. I have done just about everything wrong you can do and I've paid for it. Plus, depending on your personality and the types of questions you ask, some folks on here are SUPER cool and some are not.. I generally believe everyone's trying to help, but it might not seem so... so... anyhow..
Tips:
1) Get a skimmer.. the bigger, the better. I avoided getting one. Some folks will tell you that you don't need one, but, especially being a newbie.. it will help tremendously. You can even MAKE one (look on youtube) as a temporary trial and error thing just to see how it works. You're going to make mistakes stocking the tank and feeding too much and all that.. a skimmer will help keep your water crystal clean and it will truly remove SO much gunk. I have a 10 gallon tank as my training ground before I jump to a 40 or 55 gallon... and I have a 75 gallon-rated skimmer on mine.. Overkill? Maybe, but I'll tell you what, it keeps my water CRYSTAL clear, keeps odors at bay and pulls a LOT of gunk out. When I clean my glass of algae or stir up my rockwork and sand.. all of that floating gunk goes straight into the skimmer and out of my tank. Plus, I can keep it with me and keep using it until I cross over the 75 gallon threshold into big-boy territory. Trust me on this, dude.. get a skimmer.. all it is is a big device that will remove crap you don't want in the tank, keeps your water SUPER oxygenated and clear. It's worth it.. and then, when you move to corals.. you'll be set.
2.) DO NOT go with fine grain sand. My god, man- if I could give you any advice at all, it would be to NOT go with fine grain or 'sugar' sand. It looks amazing, it seems Caribbean and beach-y and fun, but it's an unbelievable pain. You'll learn more about water flow and pumps and all that in the future, but man.. this stuff blows around everywhere. It's like dust. You can't keep it off of your rocks.. or your corals.. and some fish won't pick up food that's fallen on it.. plus, it's impossible to vacuum. In every tank I have from here on out, I'm going with something bigger- maybe even gravel or crushed coral. I have this sugar sand right now and it STINKS. Can't wait to get rid of it. In fact, I may be consulting members soon to see how I can "swap out sand" to a bigger grain.
3.) Stock slowly. Seriously slowly. When you think you're being agonizingly slow, go slower. It will help SO much in the long run. Also, choose wisely. If you know your family wants clowns, well, heck.. go with clowns first.
4.) Become just as familiar with the Nitrogen Cycle as you are with the curves of a loved one. It will be your friend, but will also MURDER you if you don't respect it. I've had more crashes in my cycle and more swings than Lindsay Lohan leaving a night club. Add a fish.. let it get settled, add another a few weeks later. Now, you said your son wants Nemos. Clowns are about the only exception I can think of to this rule- if you want a pair. If you want a pair, and you want them to mate and swim around in anemones and corals and all that fun stuff, add two of the smallest ones you can find at the same time or pretty close to one another. The more juvenile, the better.. that way, your tank is the "only" home they'll really ever "know" and they'll do well since they haven't adjusted to anyone else's setup.. plus, the smaller they are, the less hard they are on the nitrogen cycle.
5.) Leave some swimming space in your aqua-scape.. but the more rock, the better. The rock is key. It is crucial. IT IS the filter.. it's also the home for your future friends like starfish and crabs and snails and stuff... fish in reefs don't need as much swimming space as you think.. caves and tunnels are awesome, but just use a ton of rock.. the lb per gallon rule is usually pretty good, but honestly, just get what you think looks neat and then add more. Like the old rule: when you think you've gathered enough firewood, gather more. It will never fail you.
6.) Buy stuff on craigslist and this club/forum. Local fish stores will ruin you. Sometimes you find a deal, and members here can tell you when/where to get the deals, but for the most part, just shop online if you have the patience and get your gear on here or craigslist... some of the guys on here have spent YEARS building GORGEOUS tanks out of scraps from craigslist. There are a ton of people here who can help you with that.
7.) keep your phone charged and handy when you're looking at buying a new fish or crab, or snail, or... and google it. Read reviews and check websites. It will save you a LOT of hassle from buying something that is beautiful but is really satan and eats everything and destroys your reef.. yes. This can happen.
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Wow! Thanks for the info. Is that sand I listed considered fine?
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GaJeep94YJ;982424 wrote: So my boy wanted nemo.....
Complete newbie here and I am setting up my first salt water tank... Ever. So far We have a 35 gallon tank, that I have drilled it for a bean animal overflow, built a 20ish gal over flow, built a sump, built a stand, plumbed it all up, and just leak/flow tested it out. This is going to be a fish tank to begin with. Coral after I figure out better lighting.
So now that the easy part is done I need some help with the hard part. Because at this point I am lost....
I am about to drain the fresh water out and set it up on the carpet.
My thoughts was that I was just going to buy salt water from the local fish store and start cycling it before I put sand and rock in it.
But is there anything else I should do first? Everything was used tanks, so clean it first?
After that is there anything special about the sand?
I have a ~7gal refuge in the sump. Suggestions on what to put in there?
Seth
Sand and rock first. THEN water. If not, you'll be soaking wet by the time you're done and it'll be a cloudy mess for days. Do your rock, then sand.. working the sand in and around the rock. You want the rock to be touching the bottom... trust me, if you turn into a salt-nerd, addict, like the rest of us, you'll end up with a critter that digs in your sand and if the rock's not sitting on the bottom.. well, what would happen to a skyscraper if you dug holes around its base... you get the picture.
You can buy salt water from a local fish store, but I honestly wouldn't worry about it. You don't have anything living in it yet. Make your own. It's an awesome way to learn how to manage salinity... it's not that difficult and gets easier over time, but still.. I'd use this opportunity to learn how to make your own since nothing's living in there yet..
Sand... oh sand. Use large grain sand or crushed coral. Anything but fine sand. I've even seen some folks use gravel in their salt water tanks.. pretty much everything is cool, in my opinion, but if you want an enjoyable reef.. get some course grain sand (tons to choose from at PetCo or PetsMart or any local fish store, and it's usually relatively cheap)
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One thing to consider is that the courser the sand, the more detritus that can settle between the grains.
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yeah, very true.. I guess I'm just thinking about how terribly difficult it is for me to clean and vacuum. I always understood that the coarser the grain, the easier it is to vacuum and the less likely it will be to blow around the tank. I just know that when I was a total greenie, I chose the stuff based on looks and that it was live and nothing else and it's been a total pain ever since.
it's always something! haha
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the "sugar sand" Is a definate no no IMO, but going all the way to crushed coral could lead to problems if it isnt turned over and cleaned often. That being said, I run bare bottom and avoid all those pesky considerations :thumbs:
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haha! I know, man, but.. don't you miss the look of sand? Plus, what if you want starfish or something. I just, for me personally, don't love the barebottom tank because it doesn't look natural enough. But that's just me.
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of the 5 cumulative years I've had a tank I only had sand for a short time, its not as pretty, but after seeing the crap that accumulates on the bottom of my tank, Im afraid of sand beds. Especially with my extreme over feeding habits. You've just got to get enough big LPS so you dont see the bottom
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I hate to sounds completely ignorant.... But I will.
Can you send me an amazon link to that stuff? There are so many of them and they all seem to be the same product! It's driving me crazy!
Can you send me an amazon link to that stuff? There are so many of them and they all seem to be the same product! It's driving me crazy!
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absolutely hear you, bud. That's why some stuff is better, at least for me, to see and feel in person. I've always found buying things like sand online to be tricky since you can't really, truly, appreciate the grain size. I may be put in the dog house for this one, but honestly, I'd swing by a PetCo or Petsmart or another Local Fish Store (LFS) to browse and see what they have.. ultimately, in my experience (which is limited) I know what you want is a healthy compromise between stuff that looks like sugar or flour and big rocks. More like the consistence of beach sand or sandbox play sand.. more industrial in size.
Amazon is confusing because it doesn't show the bag, just a picture of the sand.
This is what the bag looks like. I have a 40 lb bag sitting right in front of me to verify.
It is NOT the Arag-alive brand, which may be the same exact thing only with bacteria but I can't say for sure.
I can find plenty of links to buy it, just don't see it on amazon.
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This, I am buying this:
CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand, 20-Pound https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DH0YO/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_y77bub10EBCM6">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DH0YO/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_y77bub10EBCM6</a>
Is this the right stuff?
CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand, 20-Pound https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DH0YO/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_y77bub10EBCM6">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002DH0YO/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_y77bub10EBCM6</a>
Is this the right stuff?
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Looks like the good stuff, why not go to the lfs and get it, it may cost you about $5 more.
