Few Questions About SW Tanks

[Ice Prince]

My Dad And I Are Thinking About Setting Up SW Tank When We Move. Since I Know Nothing About SW Tanks And Only Have Experience With FW, I Have A Few Questions. Since The Fish Cost More Than FW Fish I Want To Be Well Informed So I Don't Lose Fish And Money. So Any Way....How Much Does It Normally Cost To Set Up A 55 Gal Tank. How Many Fish Can You Get In A 55 Gal? I Know It Would Be Less Fish Than A FW Tank.Whats The Ideal SG For A Tank? I Heard Its About 1.024-1.026. Is This Correct? Can You Cycle A Tank With Ammonia Like You Can With A FW Tank? Can You Convert A Cycled FW Tank Over To A SW Tank? Is It A Good Idea To Get Live Rock And Live Sand? Can/How Could You Make A Regular Rock Like Lava Rock A Live Rock? Could You Use The Filter From A Cycled FW Tank To Seed The Tank With Bacteria. Yes A Lot Of Questions. I Know, I Just Don't Want To Lose Fish And Money.

[Gump]

Price and how many fish you can hold are different depending on what you want. Do you want to do a fish only with live rock/reef/just fish? i kept my FOWLR tank at 1.023 and it depends on the type of tank/fish you are keeping. You can do a fish less cycle with a salt but you can NOT use FW bacteria in a SW tank. you can make regular rock live rock by leaving it around live rock for a long time, same with sand.

Read as much as you can and be objective to what you read since a lot of it will be peoples personal opinion. Best advice I could give is read read read, and don't skimp on your equipment. If you have to worry about dropping X number of dollars on a quality piece of equipment id say stay in FW.

[Ice Prince]

Originally Posted by Gump

You can do a fish less cycle with a salt but you can NOT use FW bacteria in a SW tank. you can make regular rock live rock by leaving it around live rock for a long time, same with sand.

Read as much as you can and be objective to what you read since a lot of it will be peoples personal opinion. Best advice I could give is read read read, and don't skimp on your equipment. If you have to worry about dropping X number of dollars on a quality piece of equipment id say stay in FW.

That Is Good To Know. But How Long Is "A Long Time"? A Few Months? A Year? I Just Don't Want To Lose A Bunch Of Fish Being New To SW Tanks, Like I Did When I Started FW. I Probably Won't Have To Worry About Spending A Lot Of Money On A Good Piece Of Equipment Because My Dad Will Have Extra Money After Selling The House. Besides Its Better To Get Expensive Good Quality Equipment Than Have To Keep Paying For New Fish Because Of Cruddy Ones. I Plan On Reading Whatever I Can To Be Successful.

[Apotheosis]

Some good books for those new to saltwater fishkeeping:

http://www.amazon.com/Conscientious-...3441904&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/New-Marine-Aqu...3441958&sr=1-2

[Bear]

Originally Posted by Ice Prince

My Dad And I Are Thinking About Setting Up SW Tank When We Move. Since I Know Nothing About SW Tanks And Only Have Experience With FW, I Have A Few Questions. Since The Fish Cost More Than FW Fish I Want To Be Well Informed So I Don't Lose Fish And Money. So Any Way....How Much Does It Normally Cost To Set Up A 55 Gal Tank.
Believe it or not that is really a question that we can't answer. There just too many variables that have not been filled.

How Many Fish Can You Get In A 55 Gal?
Same problem here as with the cost, too many variables to tell.

I Know It Would Be Less Fish Than A FW Tank.Whats The Ideal SG For A Tank? I Heard Its About 1.024-1.026. Is This Correct?
Yes that is correct. I usually try to keep mine as close to 1.025 as possible.

Can You Cycle A Tank With Ammonia Like You Can With A FW Tank?
I guess, but there is a much better way.

Can You Convert A Cycled FW Tank Over To A SW Tank?
Perhaps, but not really. To do this the right way you would need to start out SW.

Is It A Good Idea To Get Live Rock And Live Sand?
This is not only how you would cycle the tank, but would become the most important filtration for the tank.

Can/How Could You Make A Regular Rock Like Lava Rock A Live Rock?
Put it in the tank with Live Rock

Could You Use The Filter From A Cycled FW Tank To Seed The Tank With Bacteria.
No. The bacteria is different and all this would do is cause unnecessary die off

Yes A Lot Of Questions. I Know, I Just Don't Want To Lose Fish And Money.

Like gump said, this hobby requires a tremendous amount of knowledge, research, and patience. There has been may that have begun their first SW tank on this site. Do a quick search, look through old threads. Read, ask questions (like u did, good job!). There are still too many things you have never even heard of to just jump into it, but you are on the right track!

Good Luck!

[Bear]

I feel that most don't usually take me seriously until they see my reef so...

go ahead and look through these threads

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/user...om-reef-6.html

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/fish...s-my-reef.html

[Ice Prince]

Thanks For The Information, Guys. Love The Pics Bear. Im Thinking About Having Some Coral With A Few Fish. Bear, Are Any Of Those Coral In Your Pics Good For A Beginner, If Not What Would You Recomend?

[Bear]

Most of them would be fine for a beginner. I would say Zoanthids and Mushrooms would be a good thing to start with. Now your thinking! this is good!

So now you know you want a reef. Now you know what kind of set up you want now there is just learning about it, finding exactly what u want, getting the stuff, and putting it together!

Be aware, reef lights are very expensive, but if you only want to keep corals like zoanthids and mushrooms you could get our pretty well where lighting is concerned. I would recommend going, what would be in ur mind, way overboard on lights The stronger ur lights the better you are able to keep more light demanding animals.

[Ice Prince]

For A 55 Gal How Much Live Rock/Sand Is Best To Get? Do you know of any websites that sell live rock/sand and corals. Also What Equipment Is Absolutely Needed To Have A Successful Reef Tank. And What Equipment Is Optional But Recommended? What Brands Do You Also Recommend To Get?

[musho3210]

there is no absolutley needed equipment from what i have known, except the tank itself, and maybe the salt mix.... But there are some that would help out a lot

RO/DI unit (invest in one)
Protein skimmer (complicated thing made simple: makes bubbles, bubbles are magnets to fishy poop and other stuff, bubbles leave the water)
Lighting (variables, you want a full blown sps clam tank, MH, many tubes of T5 or LED would probably be great but they are expensive. If you only want softies like shrooms and zoas, go with a few tubes of T5, you could go with PC but im not a fan of pc after i switched to T5 on my fw tank.

To convert dead rock to live rock can take a few years if you want high quality, but about 6 months to get it maybe lower quality depending on how the tank is. But i would never get base rock to make up for live rock. Here is what i would say about this: Get 1 1/2 pounds of live rock per gallon. If you feel there isnt enough rock use base rock to get the desired amount for looks.
As it was stated before live rock is the base of your filtration.

Freshwater and saltwater bacteria are different.

To cycle a sw tank, get live rock, uncured or cured, either one works, let params stabalize, and your cycled. Some people like to add a dead shrimp in there to raise ammonia higher but IMO it is not needed, slow stocking is always better than raising ammonia for more bacteria so you dont need to slow stock....


I think the best rule there is out there is dont go for cheaper low quality stuff since your just going to have to spend even more when you upgrade since cheap low quality stuff almost never works well. You may find a visi-jet skimmer rated for 70 gallon tanks (30 bucks) is cheap while the euro reef RC80 rated for 50 gallon heavy stocked or 80 gallon average stock is 500 dollars, and im sure you would want to get the visi-jet but i think it is understood now that euro reef is a better skimmer. But you wont need to be using 500 dollars for a skimmer, you'll probably be around the 200 dollars for a skimmer.

Dont go for cheap in price and quality stuff.

[Bear]

Originally Posted by Ice Prince

For A 55 Gal How Much Live Rock/Sand Is Best To Get?
I would say about 85 lbs of LR and 2" of LS.
When it comes to Live Sand, to make it cheaper you could just use argonite sand, which is LS w/ out the stuff to die off in it.
Where the Base Rock is concerned it would not take 6 months for them to get bacteria on them...that just doesn't make sense. I would do maybe 1/4 Base Rock and 3/4 Live Rock. This will save you money and by the time the tank has cycled all should be fine.

I would only use LR and LS, but I can get them rather cheaply...If I were in your shoes I would go for the argonite sand and the 1/4 base rock.



Do you know of any websites that sell live rock/sand and corals.

There are a ton of places that sell LR LS and corals. For the most part for LR and LS I would try and buy from a local shop because of shipping prices.

For corals, considering you want some easy hardy corals, I would go to Liveaquaria and get a couple polyp packs and a couple mushrooms packs. You will get a nice variety of easy, pretty, and hardy corals.

Also What Equipment Is Absolutely Needed To Have A Successful Reef Tank.
The list of equipment....hmmm

Well would this tank have a sump?
This would change what kind of skimmer you want and may add a couple pieces to the list.

You are going to need some powerheads, I would suggest around 25-30x turnover for ur tank so I would go with a couple of SEIO M820s.

You will need a heater, standard rules for heater size.

You may need a chiller depending on how hot it gets where u r, these can get very expensive.

For a 55 and those corals for lighting I would get
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_...bs_by_ReefGeek

These are not absolutely necessary for those corals (meaning they are more of a high end lighting), but they will help show fantastic colors and growth.

Now it just really comes down to if u have a sump or not...do u?


And What Equipment Is Optional But Recommended?

A phosphate reactor would be something I would put in this category....not sure what else. Really alot of stuff could go in here, but it would prove pretty difficult without a lot of stuff.

That help?

[musho3210]

the 6 months is not for the bacteria to go on the rock, its for the other rock to come alive, like other life on the rock and coralline growth etc. depending on nutrient levels, bacteria can take over the other rock within weeks, but that doesnt mean other micro life will inhabit base rock that fast.

[Bear]

If it takes 6 months to make base rock into LR, w/ coraline and such, you are having problems.

[Ice Prince]

Thanks Bear. It Does Help.

[Fishfirst]

A quick example of what you'd need for a basic 55 gallon low light reef setup.

- 55 gallon tank
- glass top
- stand
- 150 watt heater
- 3X 150-200 gph power heads such as maxi jets (10-15X turnover)
- around 40lbs of argonite sand (1.5" sand bed)
- 60-90lbs liverock/baserock (50/50 ratio would be fine)
- Coralife super skimmer rated for 65 gallons or larger model
- a clean up crew (snails, hermit crabs, brittlestars)
- power compact or t-5 h.o. lighting around 200-300 watts total
- a 10 gallon quarentine tank for all inhabitants that will go in the 55 gallon. (this includes light, filter, heater, and pvc pipe for cover)