Brand new, first post, seeking advice

[autofish]

Hello,

I am setting up my first saltwater tank. My background includes over 12 years of freshwater experience, but I have zero saltwater experience.

The tank: I'll be using a 60 gallon hex. It is a relatively deep tank. Lighting is (3) 15 watt full spectrum fluorescents, this is the "basic" lighting that came with the tank. Filtration is wet-dry with mechanical on top (I use pillow stuffing from the craft store, it's cheap) , bioball trickle under that & my pump (Danner Supreme Mag-Drive) pushes about 750gph. Sump holds about 30 gallons of water.

What I want: A basic, newbie saltwater tank. Some clown fish & various other easy to keep fish to get me started. Lots of live rock to stack would be cool.

Questions:

- What sort of substrate? Sand with critters that dig around and play in it would be fun so long as it doesn't end up looking terrible after awhile.

- Any advice on setting up/cycling the tank for the first time?

- Any advice on the type of fish to put in it, what to feed 'em, etc?

- Hardware, is there anything else I need? Do I need a powerhead circulating water underneath? Do I need an air pump of any kind? (please say no. They're loud and I don't want one if I can help it) Anything else?

- A little odd, but I'll ask anyway: Has anyone used electric valves for their plumbing? If so, what'd you use? I want to automate water changes as much as possible. The idea was to do all changes in the sump so as to not disturb the tank. I'd shut down the overflow, flip a switch to route sump water to a drain, refill the sump & add salt and other chemicals, flip a switch to mix the sump water (essentially drive the pump right back into the sump, using the sump as a mixing chamber), then switch back to normal operations and circulate the (now fresh) sump water to the tank. I already do something similar with my freshwater, but I use manual valves and they're a little more of a hassle.

- Any other advice?

Thank you for your time!

[mustang51js]

i would suggest different lighting if you want lots of live rock

[imholte]

Do a search of the site. Also check out and read all the posts. I learned more just by viewing than by asking questions. If your starting a new tank 99% of your questions probably have been asked, you just have to find then. Good luck.

[houston220]

Everything depends on what you are going to keep in the tank.

For every tank owner the "pivotal species" will be different. It may be a fish or a coral. Once you decide that, everything else revolves around it. Corals require lots of light and more flow and tighter water parameters.

When you start cycling the tank one suggestion is to have your live rock and your sand in place. This way it will all cycle together and not require cycling your tank multiple times.

You may want to look at a protein skimmer and look at eliminating the bio balls. The bio balls tend to drive nitrates higher.

You don't need an air pump unless you use it for the protein skimmer.

Although I did not use automatic valves on my tank, I use them alot at work. There is no reason that they could not work. However, I would definately not mix the salt in my sump. You want to try and minimize any fluccuations in the water quality and that is going to be very difficult to do if you use the sump as your make up tank.

It's all opionions but my take is read alot, talk to hobbyist more than pet store owners or equipment sellers and go slow.

Good luck

[H2OLUVSME]

welcome to RC,
check out this article (http://reefcentral.com/modules.php?s=&name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1) on beggining a reef tank. take a look at the picture gallery also and get a feel for what you want to do. you could search here and google to see what others have done woth their hexs. ive seen quite a few nice ones on this site.

hope this helps.

landon

[autofish]

Thank you all for your replies, I have a lot of reading to do. ;)

You want to try and minimize any fluccuations in the water quality and that is going to be very difficult to do if you use the sump as your make up tank.
Why is that? Let's say I use several 5 gallon buckets. I mix the salt in and get everything just right, then drain the sump and pour the contents of the buckets into it. How is that any different from draining the sump and mixing the salt there? It seems the results would be identical.

As for the bio-balls - great! I'd be happy to eliminate them. They take up a lot of space. Is there anything I should use in their place? Simply dumping the water into the sump and pumping it back into the tank doesn't seem adequate... but again, I have zero saltwater experience, that's why I'm here getting advice from you folks. ;)

[H2OLUVSME]

most people like to mix their water a day or two prior to using it, to make sure all the salt is disloved. if you place it in your sump, youll have to leave it disconnected from the main tank for a while to make sure the water i fully mixed and stable for the display. also, for extra fitration ive added about 20 lbs of LR to my sump. you would not be able to do this if you planned on mixing the salt in the sump. im really interested in this and if you get it work i want to try it, but ive been thinking of these few problems.

hope this helps

landon

[Andrew]

welcome to Reef Central!

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I agree with these guys - it will be cumbersome to use the sump as a mixing chamber. At the least, the system will have to be offline for quite some time as the salt mixes and stabilizes. You'd have to heat the water in a seperate container before putting it in the sump to speed the process, and by that point, you might as well mix it in another container.

Electric valves for water changes would be really cool, but so expensive it wouldn't be worth it IMHO. A suitable, saltwater-safe actuated ball valve would probably cost at least $100-$150 each for 1" plumbing, much more if you want bigger plumbing. You'd probably need three or four of them at least, which is a good chunk of change.

[jaiden]

Just use light switches and powerheads.

You can put LR rubble in there instead of bioballs.

[H2OLUVSME]

Originally posted by jaiden
Just use light switches and powerheads.

You can put LR rubble in there instead of bioballs.

youd kill the LR every time you put FW and salt in there. youd end up pumping ammonia and who know what other death right into the display.

lt

[autofish]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to think up something different for the mixing then. Question, all I want are fish and live rock, I don't care to do a reef right now - will the current lights (45 watts total - 3x15 watt full spectrum fluorescents) be enough?

[H2OLUVSME]

they should. allthough, more light would probably help the LR flourish more.

[ratherbediving]

Welcome to RC! :D


Questions:

- What sort of substrate? Sand with critters that dig around and play in it would be fun so long as it doesn't end up looking terrible after awhile.

- Any advice on setting up/cycling the tank for the first time?

- Any advice on the type of fish to put in it, what to feed 'em, etc?

- Hardware, is there anything else I need? Do I need a powerhead circulating water underneath? Do I need an air pump of any kind? (please say no. They're loud and I don't want one if I can help it) Anything else?

- Any other advice?
....


1. I think sand is an excellent substrate. A lot of people like crushed coral, but that needs to be vacuumed more often. Sand which is denser, tends to keep some of the detritus from sinking into the substrate, making cleaning a bit easier.

2. For cycling the tank-- when you add the live rock, there will probably be some die off... after the ammonia and nitrite have been reduced to 0, the tank should be cycled. It's probably good to plan on not adding any fish until a month or so after the live rock is added.

3. You may want to consider purchasing a RO/DI filter. It isn't mandatory for a FOWLR tank, but isn't a bad idea. This is especially true if you think you may want some corals or invertebrates down the road.

[Detritivore]

[welcome]

firefish are cheap and hardy...mine survived the cycling period (i didnt know at that time not to put fish in...oops)...i feed mine flake in the morning and brine shrimp at night...only a little of each though