New Aquarium Setup, Need some advise!

[Dr. Bogger]

Hi Everyone!

I am going to be setting up a 46 Gallon Bow Front Tank.

I want to know what equipment I would need to get at bare minimum to be able to keep soft corals & fish?

key Points to remember:

- Soft Coral & Fish (No SPS or LPS)
- No Drilling the tank
- No Sump if at all possible (Suggestions?)
- No Metal Halide Lights
- Cheapest Price possible, but without skimping too much...

Here's a list of what i can think of so far:

- Live Sand (How Many Lbs?)
- Live Rock (How many Lbs?)
- Filtration (Any Suggestions? HOB Filters? Canister Filters?)
- Lighting (Any Suggestions? T5HO or CF?)

[Rocdoc]

Yikes. In this hobby, it's not so much about the bare minimum to get by. Most of us try to aim a little higher because we're taking these animals in most cases from the wild. Tough to be minding your business one day, swimming on the reef, then netted (if you don't get poisoned first), packed in a little bag with some air, shipped to a store somewhere, and then taken to the tank of the guy who's trying to get by on the bare minimum. Rough couple of weeks.

Having said that, you can get by with fluorescent lighting for softies, but you'll probably want T5s as opposed to CF. You certainly don't need MH. I would skip the live sand altogether (it's more expensive and generally not all that "live" anyway). The LR will seed your sand no problem.

The old rule of thumb is 1 pound LR for each gallon of water, but that isn't hard and fast. You can save a ton of money by getting mostly dry rock and seeding it with a couple of pieces of LR. It won't give you as much potential biodiversity as all LR, but it will save you a bunch.

If you aren't drilling the tank and have no sump, I'd probably go with a HOB skimmer. Much better than a canister filter, which just pulls the detritus out of the water and lets it rot, returning nitrates at best, ammonia and nitrites at worst, to your aquarium. A skimmer will at least remove some organics from the water column. Remember, though, that a HOB skimmer is prone to overflow, which means a potential flood.

If you are going to try to make this happen, remember to go VERY slow and keep a light bioload. A sumpless 46g tank without bells and whistles will go out of whack with minimal disturbance and you'll really have no good way to deal with that other than water changes (the importance of which cannot be overstated in this setup).

HTH and good luck.

[jscarlata]

Hey dude I'm doing the same tank. I have some gear I used several years ago on. 55 reef so I'm reusing it all until the tank gets going. One thing to consider is the used market for hardware, quite often you can get good stuff for a lot less than new. Especially check with the aquarium design and maintenance companies in your are they almost always have used stuff taking up space. Without a sump you will have to keep your load very light it might be a challenge. Consider looking for a used 10-15 gallon tank and use that as a sump. Bet you can find dozens used in your area. Get creative you can use strong storage containers and other large vessels to be a sump especially if you have the tank in a basement or someplace with a wet room.

[tchndie]

IMO you need to do a lot more research before even attempting to keep marine life in your tank!!!

[cubsFAN]

I ran a 40 breeder with a hob skimmer and a 2 little fishies reactor. It was dangerous, but I didn't have any overflows in over 2 years. I ran a current NEP 6x39w which I now have over my 75. My tank was pristine and my corals thrived. That tank was actually doing better than my 75 with all the bells and whistles now. I had a 10 gallon tank next to the breeder that I used a jbj auto top off with. The key to success with that tank was that I did 10 gallon water changes at least every other week. The skimmer had to be adjusted too often to bother with so that was my trick. I don't pay as much attention to my new tank and it shows.