Forty Fathoms

[aquakid]

Hello, I am Shereen, I teach in Lansdowne and I live in Brockville. My 11 year old son and I are ready to try our first saltwater tank after about a year of freshwater tanks. We have just cleaned out our 45-gallon tank and are doing some research on how to get started. We will be taking it very slowly. Our goal is to start with live rock and fish and eventually have a reef tank. My son wants to have a blue-green chromis, a clownfish, a domino damsel, and a blennie.

Would the steps below seem like a good plan? I want to be sure I understand the process. (We will be contacting Jim to come to Gan and get some advice and supplies soon.)

First, fill with salt water , set temperature, and run for a while with our aquaclear filter (we need to know what local water source to use: we've read tap water is not ideal; my parents have a reverse osmosis filter on their well, but it may be softened, where do people around here get their water?)

Add live rock (is 40 lb. what we need?) and run for a while longer (weeks? months?).

Add a hardy fish, wait a while, continue slowly adding fish and "clean-up creatures" over several months. Get a protein skimmer. Upgrade filtration system to a canister or a sump.

Last, upgrade lighting and start to add reef creatures such as anemones and corals.

[Dozerman]

Well it sounds like you have a good start on what to do. A couple of things I would suggest, definitely use RO water, you can tee off after the filter before the softener at your parents, or possible invest in an RO unit of your own. (jim has these and they aren't really that expensive, you'll be using a lot of water over the life of the tank and it's really worth having one)

I would suggest getting a good protein skimmer right off the start rather than using the aquaclear. The aquaclear won't really be enough to do the job.

40 pounds of live rock is good, more is better depending on what kind of look you want, but a minimum of 1 pound per gallon is a good place to start.

If you are planning on using a sump I would suggest having the tank drilled and setting it up right from the start. Its harder to do after the tank is up unless you use an overflow box. These can get plugged up or lose their siphon easily and you end up with a flood.

If you set up the tank with lots of cured live rock and a protein skimmer right from the start you can greatly reduce (and in some cases avoid) running the tank through a full cycle. Just remember to test the water for ammonia nitrate and nitrate closely in the beginning to see if the tank does indeed go into a cycle.

I would stay away from damsels, they can be very aggressive and it's hard to remove fish from a tank with lots of rock in it.

Lighting is a must for corals, I like metal-halide, but t-5s are more economical and create less heat, it really comes down to what you like/want to spend/corals you keep etc.

Good luck with your new adventure!

[kenny]

It can be great fun to start out slow and build as you learn, but many people like to jump right to the end game too. People often feel that all the equipment from the startup days is wasted $$ and time. I think it all depends on what you are aiming for at the present time. but what the previous poster is saying about starting off with a drilled tank is good advice. It does make sense to have a sump fed by an overflow for any serious aquarium project.

I ran a basic 20 gal for 6 months, then a 40 gal with a bit more equipment for a couple years, before I got a 90 with some of the mid range equipment.

When I started I bought some pretty raw rock. That stuff takes weeks/months to cure and can be full of unknown marine life. It was fascinating to watch the rock come alive and learn about the weird creatures crawling out of it. Thats the slow exploratory way. A faster more controlled method is buying Cooked rock or fabricated rock, which as gone through the cycle and had unknown hitchhikers from the ocean removed.

If you think just fish and some rock for now, and even some simple inverts, you can do fine with your basic system. You may not need a lot of rock provided you keep up on water changes. But you would be better to do a complete tear down/rebuild when you want to move to a reef tank as a full Reef has considerable equipment cost. Personally I don't feel A 40 gal fish only tank justifys a grand worth of lighting and filtration equipment. but I'm cheep too

Reef tanks rely on a great deal of LR and quality protein skimming for total filtration. Fish only tanks with hardy fish can get buy with a bit of rock for habitat and remote filters. The nitrate accumulation that comes with using mechanical filters is not as important to fish only systems with hardy fish. Many Exotic fish however are much harder to keep in even the best of systems.

Good luck in whatever you do. There are some great resources not to far from you and Jim is one for sure!

Oh btw I use the water right out of my well before the softener. it's low enough in phosphate for me to get away with, and it gives me a great Mg/Ca source for top-up in my corals. RO water is dead so its great to keep down pest algae.

[joeyt66]

ya have the tank drilled. I f you dont use a sump right away it can be plugged until your ready. The greater the water volume the more stable your tank will be . Stay away from the damsels. They look nice but become very aggressive.
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"There now I shouldn't need to buy anything else thats expensive " Ya right!!!!

[aquakid]

Thank you all for the advice. There is a lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming.

[joeyt66]

ya the key is take it slow. Do lots of research and ask lots of questions, then do more research lol.
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"There now I shouldn't need to buy anything else thats expensive " Ya right!!!!