new to sw few questions

[haydenholgate]

hey guys, i am new to this site and salt water. i am on mfk and i have done fresh water for a couple years. today i got a 29 gallon tank with hood and lights i also got instant ocean salt and ocean direct live sand about 25 pounds worth.

i need a skimmer a filter a salinity tester and a heater and what ever else i am leaving out.

how many watts do i need in a heater?
what filter should i get? ac70?
what skimmer? do i need one right away?

[Blown 346]

Your best bet would be to avoid a hang on the back filter all together. Get a sump, which is another smaller fish tank below the main tank. This way you can place all of your equipment in there instead of in the main tank. Plus the extra water volume will help out in case of any type of water quality changes.

Water chnages become easier as well with a sump, once water evaporates the main tanks water level wont change, the sumps will.

You dont need a skimmer right away, but it does help out alot. Remeber you dont have get the best of the best, there are skimmers heaters out there that do just as good of a job as the 3 or $500 skimmers do etc.


You will be fine using a heater that is between 100 to 150 watts for your size tank.

[bertoni]

[welcome]

Most often, a 150 watt heater is fine for that size tank. Most people here use live rock as the basic filtration, along with a skimmer. I would recommend a skimmer from the start, although people keep nice tanks without them. The skimmer can be a great safety net. Having a small filter just for running carbon can be useful, as well.

This thread might be worth reading:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=239848

[kau_cinta_ku]

for your filter use LR and use about 1-2lbs per gal. that will be the only filtration you will need besides the skimmer. you don't need a skimmer right away as long as you do your weekly waterchanges and maybe a little more. for a heater i would say a 100watt will do fine.

also don't forget test kits. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH for fish only. and add calcium, mag., alk, phosphate for if wanting corals.

also add in some powerheads to help move water around. most ppl like around 10 times turnover so you will want about 290 gal. per hour or 2 maxijet 900's or a couple korlillas(sp.)

if your gonna want corals then you will also need to upgrade your lighting, but depending on what corals you want will depend on the lighting needed.

[haydenholgate]

well i have a hob over flow and a 10 gallon sump with a media holder. in a trade i got an old ehime i think it was ehime skimmer the guy said he had it on a 40 do you think i should just replace it?

[bertoni]

Well, the skimmer might be okay, hard to say. I haven't heard of an Eheim skimmer, though. Can you get the brand and model, or perhaps post a picture.

For salinity testing, I prefer a conductivity meter. The PinPoint Salinity Monitor is the one I've used. A refractometer, if calibrated carefully, is fine as well.

The HOB filter might be fine for activated carbon, and it'll add a bit of flow, which is important.

[haydenholgate]

the skimmer is a oceanic plus model six

[bertoni]

I've never seen or read about that protein skimmer and have no idea how well it might work.

[haydenholgate]

what about filtration? i dont want to do a sump but i guess i could i would prefer a canister or hob. i am going to find a stand tomorrow what about filtration? i need more opinions

[Lotus99]

You don't need a filter the same way as you do in freshwater. Live rock and some powerheads will handle the biological filtration. A protein skimmer will help with organic wastes. You don't really need mechanical filtration for your tank.

[shuturhole316tx]

Sound good so far, and at least you are doing resurck prior to setting it up. The other cost saving thing that I would recomend is that you only get aroung 15 to 20 lbs of live rock, and then use base rock or another dead rock for the other 15 to 20 lbs. This rock will also over time become live rock and it cost a lot less. Wow, I wish someone would have told me that when I started this hobby! As I have bought well over 120 lbs of live rock.

[haydenholgate]

how long do you think it would take say 10 pounds of lr to make 30 pounds of dead rock live? with live sand also? any body know an good web sites for lr and dr? and skimmers?

[bertoni]

No one really know how long it takes dead rock to start functioning as a filter, but something around six weeks or perhaps less is a reasonable guess.