55 gallon salt

[Zebvance]

I am posting this for a friend. He just moved into a new place so he wont have internet for a little while and until he could get some he asked me to post this for him.

He just bought a standard 55 gallon and Is going to try out salt It will be FOWLR. And he gave me a list of stuff to ask MFK

1. Filtration- He is thinking of going this weekend and picking up a 30 gallon tank to make a sump.
He wants to know
---- whats the best design for this


---- Should he do a submersible pump or a drill it and go with a external. (the reason he questions this is because he doesn't know if the heat given off by the submersible will be a problem)

---- should he add a canister?

2. Lighting--
------ how many watts are needed
------Is there a such thing as low light corals
---he was looking at a 260 watt light on ebay for 140 or this light( http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-4...le-p/52305.htm) which is 216 watts for 100. Is this enough wattage and what are yall opinions on these lights.

3.Skimmer- Whats a good one for cheap

----- And suggestions on a in sump skimmer

4.Rock-- How much?

--- can he go with lets say 30% of the rock being live and the other not live to save money.

---- Will the live rock seed the dead rock?
---- How long will it take?

5 Coral-

---- What are some good beginner corals?

6. Flow rate--

---- How many GPH should the sump and skimmer be.

---- Wave makers/power heads-- How many how many gph?

7. Inverts-- He wants to get some crabs, starfish, and shrimp for sure but what else should he get? Clams?

----are there inverts to watch out for that will damage the coral?


I think that is it and let me know if there is something im missing?

[RocketSurgeon]

Filtration = Sump, 55 lbs (or more) of live rock and skimmer. (70% dead rock is ok, but limit bio load till established).
Water and lighting are the most critical parts of a salt water system. Don't skimp here. Having said that, I use an odyssea fixture and my house hasn't burned down yet.
Return pump will be between 3 and 5 times display volume. I'm running a mag 9.5 on my 75 gallon. A mag 5 or mag 7 may be more suitable.

Lights for saltwater is based more on Par, than wattage. Clams require plenty of light, and probably not suited for the beginner.

Set up the system and do not get in a hurry to add livestock.

RO/DI water is essential. Do not use treated tap water.

[Zebvance]

Filtration = Sump, 55 lbs (or more) of live rock and skimmer. (70% dead rock is ok, but limit bio load till established).
Water and lighting are the most critical parts of a salt water system. Don't skimp here. Having said that, I use an odyssea fixture and my house hasn't burned down yet.
Return pump will be between 3 and 5 times display volume. I'm running a mag 9.5 on my 75 gallon. A mag 5 or mag 7 may be more suitable.

Lights for saltwater is based more on Par, than wattage. Clams require plenty of light, and probably not suited for the beginner.

Set up the system and do not get in a hurry to add livestock.

RO/DI water is essential. Do not use treated tap water.

would you suggest a certain RO/DI system that is inexpensive?

[Zebvance]

Also can somebody tell me what species of zoanthidsare are toxic?

[RocketSurgeon]

http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/showproducts.asp?Category=170&Sub=166

Again, water and lights is something you don't want to skimp on. This is what makes a salt water aquarium. Link above is the brand I use.

http://marineaquariummonthly.com/begginerscorals.html

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=597+2856

http://www.corals101.com/Information/Beginner_Corals.htm

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/softspeciesprofiles1/tp/easysoftcorals.htm

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/coralcare/ig/15-Easy-Corals/

http://www.azfishkeeping.com/content.php?c_id=67

[RocketSurgeon]

Most fish only tanks do not require special lighting. The odyssea lights will provide adequate lighting for low light requiring coral. To keep delicate coral, better lighting will most likely be required.

[Zebvance]

Is there no
Way about getting around a ro system. That is a big unexpected cost.

[RocketSurgeon]

Is there no
Way about getting around a ro system. That is a big unexpected cost.

Sure, but you will regret it. You could always buy RO water, but by the time you did that a time or two, you could have bought your own filter.

I purchased a used RO/DI system between $75 and $100. Most would not recommend it. If you have to replace the filters, it would cost as much as buying a new filter system altogether.

Tap water may contain many elements that is not suitable for reef systems. If it is truly a fish only system, then tap water may work, but you have already mentioned corals. Saltwater systems are not cheap, nor are they set and forget like fresh water systems. Saltwater systems are daily, if not twice a day maintenance systems. Many individuals purchase or DIY auto top off systems, or dosing pump and reactors, or controllers for pumps and lights.

[Darbex]

I am posting this for a friend. He just moved into a new place so he wont have internet for a little while and until he could get some he asked me to post this for him.

He just bought a standard 55 gallon and Is going to try out salt It will be FOWLR. And he gave me a list of stuff to ask MFK

1. Filtration- He is thinking of going this weekend and picking up a 30 gallon tank to make a sump.
He wants to know
---- whats the best design for this This will depend on whether he wants a sump or fuge. In a fuge set up you want an area for the water coming in and the return separate from the area where the sand and macros will be. Best idea is look at sumps on the net and design it similar.

---- Should he do a submersible pump or a drill it and go with a external. (the reason he questions this is because he doesn't know if the heat given off by the submersible will be a problem) I cant imagine the heat would be significant. It all depends on space. Obviously submersible pump saves a lot of space in the stand however it takes up space in the sump for filtration. I prefer external for this reason.

---- should he add a canister? Not necessary a good size sump plus pumps in the tank is adequate filtration.

2. Lighting--
------ how many watts are needed This all depends on whether you have corals and what type. Softies and zoas require the least amount of light. Then its LPS followed by SPS.
------Is there a such thing as low light corals Yes there are low light as listed above. Also there are NPS (Non-photosynthetic) corals which require direct feeding
---he was looking at a 260 watt light on ebay for 140 or this light( http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-4...le-p/52305.htm) which is 216 watts for 100. Is this enough wattage and what are yall opinions on these lights. Again this depends on what he wants to keep in the tank. If its a FOWLR tank then lights arent important you just want the one that gives the best colors for viewing the fish and not for providing food.

3.Skimmer- Whats a good one for cheap

----- And suggestions on a in sump skimmer Skimmers will vary between different people. I like PM, they are decent price, local, and very good customer service. Soymilk has one he really likes dont remember the brand though.

4.Rock-- How much? Rule of thumb is 2lbs per gallon and 1 lb of sand per gallon. But again this depends on stocking, type of tank, and personal preference in scaping. In my FOWLR tank I went with 1lb of rock per gallon and 1/2lb of sand per gallon. Obviously more rock is better since the filtrating bacteria will live in the rocks so the more you have the better filtration you will have. On my reef tank I went with the 2lb 1lb on it.

--- can he go with lets say 30% of the rock being live and the other not live to save money. He can go with any combination of "live" to "dead" but as you get less and less live rock the longer the suggested cycle time is. And this is one of the most important thing do not rush the cycle time otherwise your first set of fish or corals will die and would have been a waste of money.

---- Will the live rock seed the dead rock? Yes
---- How long will it take? Depends on the combination of live to dead. I know TBS (Tampa Bay Saltwater) sells live rock packages and they say with their proven system you can cycle a tank within 1 week. But their rocks comes loaded with all kinds of bacteria and critters that most LFS do not have. I recommend about a month of cycle time with constant checking of parameters.

5 Coral-

---- What are some good beginner corals? Softies and zoas are some of the easiest. There are a lot of LPS that are pretty easy as well.

6. Flow rate--

---- How many GPH should the sump and skimmer be. Sorry to sound like a broken record but this depends again. With powerheads I like my total GPH to be in the 40-50x rate.

---- Wave makers/power heads-- How many how many gph? See above

7. Inverts-- He wants to get some crabs, starfish, and shrimp for sure but what else should he get? Clams? Again this depends on what you want to keep. If he wants clams then you need a powerful light compared to a FOWLR because they photosynthesize. There are some bad shrimps, crabs, and starfish. I would recommend looking up all the ones and seeing what ones are good and what are bad and either changing the stocking list for the inverts he wants or changing the inverts because some are bad for certain corals

----are there inverts to watch out for that will damage the coral? See above.


I think that is it and let me know if there is something im missing?

[Darbex]

RO is a must. Tap water contains to many chemicals in it for a successful set up plus all of the phosphates and so on that cause algae blooms.

[BeefyG]

You don't have to buy a RO/DI system. I bought a bucket of salt (the bigger the bucket, the better the value) and use water from the Windmill Express by my house. Its 25 cents a gallon, they have a service sticker showing it gets checked everyday, and it gets 9 stage filtering including RO/DI. Worst part is hauling a 5 gallon bucket of water from the car to inside the house. You want to keep your params stable so most of what I've read says do small water changes (10-20%). Thats why a skimmer is so important when doing saltwater fish. It removes junk before it breaks down in the water.

[soymilk]

the main reason why i bought my RODI was not having to haul around water anymore lol.

its becomes such a hassle.... after a while i got lazy and stopped doing water changes too because it was such a pain to get water.

[nightster]

Can I suggest to buy base rock from reefcleaners.org, awesome customer service and great rock. 50lbs for $80 and if it were me I would just skip buying live rock all together, less chance of getting a bad hitch hiker (apastia anems). Also, if you email John (owner) and tell him what kind of rock shapes you want he won't disapoint. His clean up crew packages are awesome as well. This is the design for a 30 gallon sump/fuge I am probably going to use. Tell him he needs to run a fuge with cheato in it, great for algae control.

[nightster]

Lighting for a reef should be any where between 3 to 5 watts per gallon, while power compact lighting boasts big watt numbers there par is not very good. Most reefers (lol) use either t5 or metal halide lighting. Only draw back to mh is they produce a lot of heat. LEDs are coming along, but are pricey. Get a skimmer rated a lil above you total gallons for DT and sump combined. Some one correct me if I'm wrong but I think gph for power heads and return pump should equal 25x the gallon of the display tank.

[Darbex]

I think it depends on preference I run in the 40x+ range on turnover. With lighting I go with 5 watts per gallon +. On my nano reef I am at 5 watts with MH. On my 150G reef that I am setting up it will be 5 watts of MH and 2.5 watts of supplemental PC lighting. I prefer MH because the par is really high and the spread is excellent. LEDs have equivalent par but its to directional and T5s spread is similar but its par is lower. You can compensate for the heat with an adequate chiller.