fishers53
03/09/2005, 11:05 AM
Hi everyone.
I have a 55 gallon fish only tank, I would love to get started on a nice reef setup. The tank has been running for about 6 months, I have 6 damsels, a cardinal, 10 hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp, a perculia clown, and one candy lactus anemone. I have an aqua tech 30-60 hang-on filter that came with the tank, and I bought an aqua clear 70 power head with an undergravel filter (stupid). The guy at petco insisted that I absolutely must buy an undergravel filter. I took it out a couple of months ago after reading many articles that said they were no good for a marine aquarium. Now my power head is just hooked up to a cheap in line filter. I am using crushed coral as substrate, and I have about 50 lbs of reef rock (the cheap stuff). I don't have a protien skimmer, and the lighting isn't the best. My set up seems to be working nicely for fish, the basic water parameters are good, I haven't lost a single fish since the first month when I lost two during cycling, my anemone seems to be smaller than when I bought him 3 months ago, it probably needs stronger lighting. The algae was getting a little out of hand, I gave the tank a major overhaul last week, now there is none. I guess I shouldn't have removed all of it, but I'm sure it will come back fairly quickly. Anyway, I'd like to get started with a reef setup. I'm a college student raising a child, I want to do things as cheaply as possible. I have about $100 I can spend now, and I can spend probably $50 a month or so after that. I'll have the tank for many many years, so I have no problems building it up very slowly. What I want to do for right now is get started on the right tank environment for some really cool stuff in the future. I don't want to buy any corals until the tank is ready. Should a protien skimmer be my top priority? Can I use the power head with a protien skimmer somehow, so I can buy one without a pump? How much should I spend on lighting? Should I buy live rock? Should I replace the crushed coral with sand? Is "live sand" a waste of money? Do I really need to set up a sump? What else should I do that I haven't thought of? Thanks in advance for your help, a lot of you really know your stuff, I'm sure I'll get some good advice. I'm tired of asking pet store people, they just try to sell me stuff I don't need.
-Aaron
I have a 55 gallon fish only tank, I would love to get started on a nice reef setup. The tank has been running for about 6 months, I have 6 damsels, a cardinal, 10 hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp, a perculia clown, and one candy lactus anemone. I have an aqua tech 30-60 hang-on filter that came with the tank, and I bought an aqua clear 70 power head with an undergravel filter (stupid). The guy at petco insisted that I absolutely must buy an undergravel filter. I took it out a couple of months ago after reading many articles that said they were no good for a marine aquarium. Now my power head is just hooked up to a cheap in line filter. I am using crushed coral as substrate, and I have about 50 lbs of reef rock (the cheap stuff). I don't have a protien skimmer, and the lighting isn't the best. My set up seems to be working nicely for fish, the basic water parameters are good, I haven't lost a single fish since the first month when I lost two during cycling, my anemone seems to be smaller than when I bought him 3 months ago, it probably needs stronger lighting. The algae was getting a little out of hand, I gave the tank a major overhaul last week, now there is none. I guess I shouldn't have removed all of it, but I'm sure it will come back fairly quickly. Anyway, I'd like to get started with a reef setup. I'm a college student raising a child, I want to do things as cheaply as possible. I have about $100 I can spend now, and I can spend probably $50 a month or so after that. I'll have the tank for many many years, so I have no problems building it up very slowly. What I want to do for right now is get started on the right tank environment for some really cool stuff in the future. I don't want to buy any corals until the tank is ready. Should a protien skimmer be my top priority? Can I use the power head with a protien skimmer somehow, so I can buy one without a pump? How much should I spend on lighting? Should I buy live rock? Should I replace the crushed coral with sand? Is "live sand" a waste of money? Do I really need to set up a sump? What else should I do that I haven't thought of? Thanks in advance for your help, a lot of you really know your stuff, I'm sure I'll get some good advice. I'm tired of asking pet store people, they just try to sell me stuff I don't need.
-Aaron