Newbie here! Please help me put together a 75G SW setup!

T

tmnterminator

Medium Fish
#1
Oct 29, 2005
66
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#1
Hello All. As you can see, I'm new to the forums. I have been reading posts on here for about 2 weeks though (including the stickies) but still would like some specific advise on how to proceed. Any help would be most appreciated!

First, some background. I have a 75G tank w/ stand that has been used for freshwater turtles for the past 3 yrs. They are so big now, I constructed an artificial pond in my backyard to put them in and now what to set up a saltwater tank, a dream I've had for a while now.

Now to the point. Other than the tank itself, I have basically have nothing other than a few nets. I also have a small 10G that I plan on using as a QT tank, that already has a small penguin biowheel 125 on it and a heater. Due to great success with my FLuval 404, which somehow managed to keep these EXTREMELY messy eaters from destroying the tank, I feel the need to get another one since that one will stay with the pond. Again, the Fluv kept that tank virtually spotless so thats why Im thinking of going with that.

I know LR seems to be the way to go, but in my estimate to stock up enough of it to provide adequte filtration will break the bank. I do plan on getting some, slowly but surely, but to begin with I thought a fluval would be sufficient. Any opions would be great! :)

Now let me tell you what Ive been thinking about getting. PLease feel free to chime with either positive or neg opinions as I want to try to do this right....

1) Marineland Penguin 1140 Powerhead (300 gph), which from I gather, is needed for circulation...?

2) SW tests (amm, nitrat,nitrite, & pH)

3) Rena cal 300 W heater (keep in mind my house is normally about 75 deg anywys and I live in central florida...)

4) Python No spills setup- from I've read elsehwere (im not sure If i saw a thread on this in here), this seems to work pretty good. Since I'll have to be doing quite a bit of water changes I thought it might be a nice convience...agian your opinons please!

5)hydrometetr/thermoter

6) Substrate- still up in the air; not sure sure what to go with. Again, I will get LR as time goes on.

7) Tap water filter system- just want opinions here. Is this necesssary to reat with before makin SW. If so, please some brands that work.

8) Lastly Skimmer- the one thing I'm most unsure. There seems to be a huge gap here, with about 50% saying its neccassry, and the toerh saying its not, with very few in b/w. (not just in this site, but in others I have visited). These seem to be fairly expensive items so please if you could, please tell me some popular brands if you don't mind.

Well, sorry for the long post but your comments will be greatly appreciated. PLease be as deteailed as possible and assume I'm an idiot cuz I want to learn as much as possible before jumping in. Thnx again!
 

1979camaro

1979camaro

Ultimate Fish
#2
Oct 22, 2002
5,862
2
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42
San Ramon, CA
#2
the fluval will be bad; the media in them creates nitrates very efficiently and they are not the most efficient way of creating water flow...it would be better to spend that $100 on some live rock

i wouldn't buy the filter either. instead, get a bunch of powerheads. you need to be turning over at least 10x the water volume per hour...so all together your powerheads need to put out about 800gph minimum

personally, i would skip the python simply because you can't effiecently use it to re-fill the tank.

substrate: depends on your preference: bare bottom, shallow sand bed, or deep san bed (DSB). there are advantages and disadvantages of each so you should probably research them all a little

the tap water filter depens on your water in your area. get a water report from the local water company and see what is in it. if you've got phosphate, nitrate, etc you will want to use RO water at minimum.

on a 75g tank i would definitely get a skimmer (especially if you aren't going to have much LR). your tank poses is a bit of a problem because it is not drilled for an overflow/sump setup so you will have to get a couple beefy HOB skimmers

the other thing you must consider is what you ultimately want to do with this tank: reef, fish only, inverts, etc. this will effect lighting and stocking
 

T

tmnterminator

Medium Fish
#3
Oct 29, 2005
66
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#3
Thnx alot for your thoughts. Now, instead of "spending the $100 on the fluval and get some live rock", won't that NOT be enought to adequte filter my entire tank? That was my concern.

As far as substrate I definately do not want to go bare bottom and will get something: what , I dont know. And I will be going fish only , with maybe a few small inverts, and ultimately some live rock so I guess some lighting opinions would be great as well....

Thnx again!
 

1979camaro

1979camaro

Ultimate Fish
#5
Oct 22, 2002
5,862
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42
San Ramon, CA
#5
i would say you are best off getting the $100 worth of live rock and some base rock and letting it seed...or just go with the 15-20# or so of LR you can get for that $100 and add to it as you go. LR is, as kahluazzz says, the best biological filtration you can buy and even a little bit goes a long way. you will be stocking this tank slowly anyway so if you get a little rock at a time it should be ok provided what you end up buying is cured
 

OCCFan023

OCCFan023

Superstar Fish
#6
Jul 29, 2004
1,817
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#6
as for the powerheads, try to get a couple of 200-300 rated and stick em around the tank rather than one monster one


a good idea with the rock is get some base rock, and then add some high quality (as much as you can afford) and let it seed the base rock.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_protein_skimmers__index.asp?CartId=
that has alot of skimmers, rummage through em and shoot out some ideas and people can comment on them


I think for substrate your best bet is to go with a small 1-2cm deapth.


Like Camaro said it would be a good idea to think of where you wanna go with the tank (reef, fowlr) that way you will need to know if you need upgrades on lighting or more filtration
 

1979camaro

1979camaro

Ultimate Fish
#8
Oct 22, 2002
5,862
2
0
42
San Ramon, CA
#8
live sand is, imo, a waste of money. if anything, get dry sand and a cup of live sand to seed the stuff...it doesn't make financial sense to buy a bunch of LS; that money is better spent on improved skimming or LR
 

KahluaZzZ

KahluaZzZ

Superstar Fish
#9
Jun 12, 2004
2,778
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Montreal, Quebec
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#9
yep useless..i started with "dead" crushed coral..now it's filled with pods, spagetti worms and zillions on tiny creatures. I think it's pretty well live sand, and the same bacteria will be found on it.
Don't waste your money...live rock contains what the sand needs
 

RockingCricket

RockingCricket

Large Fish
#10
Jul 29, 2005
443
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46
Sunny Cali & Rainy England
#10
Terminator. If you are interested in how successful a tank you might have if you use a fluval to take a big chunk out of the amount of live rock you need, you may be interested to hear that I have been running a similar cheaper setup as the one you have been considering, for about six months now (my first SW tank) and certainly with success.
I have about 5lbs of live rock and 50 lbs of dead bleached coral to aquascape with. 50lbs crushed coral mixed with 100lbs of play sand for substrate. A fluval 404 (with sponges rinsed every 10 days) pumps water from my 10 gallon sump back to the main display and the sump contains an Emperor 400, a $100 CPR BakPak Skimmer and the heater. Water is sucked to the sump via a couple of clear litre water bottles,a simple syphon and 1 inch pvc tubing. My water sparkles and all fish (apart from some cycling chromis) are doing well. Only problem has been some inverts becoming somewhat underfed due to the cleanliness of the tank.

Live rock does give your tank a deeper level of interest, as well as make it a more natural and balanced ecosystem, BUT you can succesfully house some beautiful fish and inverts in a clean looking tank without it (check my signature for my list of tank mates).

Thought you might like a different opinion.
 

RockingCricket

RockingCricket

Large Fish
#11
Jul 29, 2005
443
0
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46
Sunny Cali & Rainy England
#11
tmnterminator said:
Skimmer- the one thing I'm most unsure. There seems to be a huge gap here, with about 50% saying its neccassry, and the toerh saying its not, with very few in b/w. (not just in this site, but in others I have visited). These seem to be fairly expensive items so please if you could, please tell me some popular brands if you don't mind.
Click to expand...
Neccassary or not, this is a good deal for less than $40. It appears to be EXACTLY the same as the $130 CPR Bak Pak Simmer which I have and am well pleased with.
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=207
 

T

tmnterminator

Medium Fish
#14
Oct 29, 2005
66
0
0
#14
Thnk you all again for all of your input....

So it seems I should get more than 1 powerhead...how about 2 powerheads rated at 300 gph (penguin 1140)? And how should I place them in the tank? Next to each other, other sides of the tank, etc.

And as far as LS goes, I was thinking of just getting a bit to seed the rest of my sand.

And thn RockCricket for your input on using a Fluval and getting decent results. I am still thinking of going that route, but I will definately get as much LR as I can manage as well...

So what is this talk of a "sump"? I hear it frequestly, and have read about it, but don't really understand how it works...

What is consdiered a decent price for a quality skimmer? That link someone gave me showed some lika a Red Sea Prizm Deluxe Protein Skimmer for $99 and a Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel for $88...are those any good? or CPR Bak-Pak 2 Protein Skimmer 127.95? Again any opinon on these or others would be good ( and those prices dont inlcude shipping of course...)

Lastly, I've been readin about getting some sort of timer to have the pumps turn on/off at different times and to control lighting...any thoughts on this? Do any of you employ some sort of timer? if so, what type?
Again, thnk you all for all of your advice and opinions. Please keep it coming!!
 

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OCCFan023

OCCFan023

Superstar Fish
#15
Jul 29, 2004
1,817
5
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New Jersey
#15
AS for the powerheads, I would get 3 of those 300gph powerheads, and position on on either side of the walls and then one in the middle, they should be placed facing into the live rock to create water movement on the rock for optimal filtration

Good idea with the live sand

A sump is a smaller tank plummed into the big tank to create a area for added water volume, a place to hide equipment, and makes it easier to do top offs and water chnages without effecting the display tank. It will be hard to do on your tank because the tank isnt drilled (you could use a HOB overflow but that will be more challenging)

A good skimmer imo is anywhere inbetween 150-700 dollars (aqua c being the higher end I guess) but there are certainly cheaper skimmers that will do a decent job. As for that coralife one, Kahula just got one of them he may have some usefull info on it
 

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W

wayne

Elite Fish
#16
Oct 22, 2002
4,077
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#16
I wouldn't skimp on the skimmer - economising there will cause you endless bother down the road. I wouldn't spend a single cent on live sand.
I'm using an IKEA timer switch to turn my lights on and off. These are ok unless you get powerful metal halide lightiing (whch fuses them on). I do not currently bother with a wavemaker timer for my powerheads, and nor should you. I will do for my next tank , but then I will have much more movement (probably 4000 gph + on a 200 gallon tank) - if you, like myself and yourself have comparatively small amounts of flow, keep it on
 

OCCFan023

OCCFan023

Superstar Fish
#18
Jul 29, 2004
1,817
5
0
35
New Jersey
#18
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...x=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=2004&Nty=1
I think thats the one your talking about right.


That is rated for a 60 gallon tank, so you "could" get by, but I think your going to be creating more problems for yourself down the road with water quality, fish health, and other things by going for a lower rated skimmer coupled with less rock.



http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=31842;category_id=3043;pcid1=3203;pcid2=
I would suggest something like this, it isnt that much more but should be more useful than the Back-Pak 60 gallon rated imo
 

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T

tmnterminator

Medium Fish
#19
Oct 29, 2005
66
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#19
thnx for the info...i saw that on fostsmith also for the same price but didnt know if it was any good or not..

when looking through the "what in your tank" thread I belive, i saw that quite a few had the seaclone 100...is that any good? I'm not sure if it was in that thread (but I know it was on this forum somewhere!) but that was my observation...
 

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