Starting Twenty Gallon Salt, few quick qeustions

[Henry22]

I know you see alot of newbs saying what do i need for a saltwater tank(me included) but had a few quick qeustions. I have a twenty tall and know a twenty long is better for SW. It is the current setup in my signature that i will be turning into salt. My friend is taking the fish off my hands in a week so i wanted to start a saltwater tank. I plan on getting one powerhead(maybe 2) and removing all media from my eclispe filter. I plan on using play sand and maybe some live sand and mix it so it will spread(not sure if that will work). I also plan on some live rock for biological filtration and no protein skimmer since this tank is rather small in terms of SW fish keeping. I also plan on buying and reading the New Marine Aquarium by Paletta if im currect before i start anything. The live rock i plan to buy is hopefully going to be uncured which will help start the nitrogen cycle in my tank and is also cheaper than uncurred. As of a cleanup crew i plan on something along the lines of what OCCfan got for his 16, now 20 gallon tank. I hope to put two false or true perculas in their and maybe a goby or starfish or shrimp. Im not going to upgrade my lighting from the orginal one the tank. This tank is less than a yr old. Wondering if i could keep my biowheel on the filter. I defiantly dont plan to buy or keep any corals at all. Thanks
Any comments please

 

[OCCFan023]

Glad to see youve done some good rumaging through the forums.

I would reccomend two powerheads, one on each side for maximum water movemoent onto the rock, but with the eclipse you could probably get away with one.

You can mix the sand, although play sand can cause algea problems, some have said it doesnt effect it too badly, but Lordroad can answer that better than I can, but play will work.

Reading the New Marine Aquarium will benefit you greatly so thats a good idea.

As for the rock, cured rock will start the cycling progress, but yes uncured is cheaper. With the uncured you should cure it before you put it in your tank so that the dieoff wont stay in your tank, and when it is cured put it in your tank and it will start the cycle.

Two percs and would work fine in a 20 and if you stay on top of weekly water changes and top offs a goby should do well. I personally would reccomend a skunk cleaner shrimp for a shrimp or maybe a brittle star (some other people have them in their nanos)

As for the biowheel you should take it off because it wont benefit you at all and will cause a nitrate problem, so just take that off and your fine

 

[Henry22]

Ok. Thanks but for starting off the tank i was gonna use uncured rock to start the cycle and one ammonia and everything else is zero then i would introduced cured rock. The uncured rock would only be introduced at the very begining of the tank to start the nitrogen cycle. Thanks though. I might do two powerheads at diffrent hights since it is a taller tank. I was wondering if live sand and the creatures could live and mix in play sand or do i need that argonite sand. Thanks

 

[Henry22]

Also wondering if there were some reliable but kinda cheap powerheads because i cant find the one i had and how much gph flow i need. I might get two maxi-jet or is peguin better(penguin has sponge in there, is that ok?) and if there were some pH, ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, and salinty test kits taht are also reliable and relativly cheap. Thanks

 

[OCCFan023]

Im not sure if the two sands will mix, someone else can answer that for you, sorry.


As for the powerheads: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=27207&category_id=3863&pcid1=2181
i use two of these and a hagen 10.

and for test kits:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19395&category_id=3111&pcid1=3233
this is a good master test kit for about as cheap as they come.

for salinity:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19281&category_id=3233&pcid1=
this is a good hydrometer. Although their not as accurate as a refractometer, unless you want to spend some money, this is your best bet.

 

[Henry22]

Thanks, although i think i might go with peguin because i heard aquaclear isnt very good, Should i do one rated up to thirty gallons or two up to ten gallons.

 

[DustinKeating]

two powerheads is a good idea, it's what i'm running on my 20. It's not too hard to get good water movement in a 20 so don't stress it too much, two powerheads of almost any gph will get you going. Oh and i'm running two aquaclear ones and i haven't had any problems, someone else might have some more critical advice but they're cheap and do the trick for me.

I also have two percs (false percs to be exact) and they have a very low bioload. The two clowns and a goby would do fine in my opinion.

 

[Henry22]

Thanks
once my friend takes the fish off my hand im taking down my FW tank and converting it.
Here is the list of what Im gonna get
-Two small aquaclear pwr heads-$26(give or take)
-Instant ocean smallest salt bucket-$11
-Aquarium Pharmeuciticals Test Kit-$16
-Roughly 15 lbs live rock(uncured or cured,not sure yet)-around $75
-10lbs Live sand-$15
-Hydrometer-$6
Total:$149
I have rocks that i found in my garage from my brothers old saltwater tank from a few yrs ago and of course im gonna clean and boil them but was wondering if i could use taht with live rock and if the creatures would eventually live in the rocks to. The rocks are a sand color and some are dried corals i believe. I will also get some more sand because i believe ten is not enough. Wondering still if you can mix live sand and play sand and if the creatures would live in teh mixture?
Thanks

 

[Henry22]

Still need to know if you can mix live sand and play sand and the creatures would spread and if it realy dosnt look great from someones experience then please commnet. Are there anyother sands i can get to mix with live sand?

 

[1979camaro]

the sand will not be a problem. you can seed your sandbed with as little as a cup of live sand and it will spread. shouldnt be an aesthetic problem either as long as you like the way the sand looks

 

[aresgod]

I wouldnt mix play sand, just buy some dry sand from the fish store, way cheaper than live sand, and will become live, works just as well, get a friend to give you a cup of their sand bed. I dont know where your going to get 15lbs live rock for 75$, even uncured, unless your having it shipped, or maybe it is really crappy base rock, i dunno, but it should be more than that.
good luck though

 

[lordroad]

Concerning play sand. That is all I use and it has not done me wrong, so far. I did have an algae build-up, but it was not the brown diatom algae that is said to come from silica, which makes up the cheap play sand. However, I also use reverse osmosis water and know I have zero phosphates, so who knows.

Personally, I'd go with the argonite sand or any at the LFS if you're using tap water. However, if you're going to use R/O--some LFS's sell this and you can get it in grocery stores, sometimes at vending machines but usually in plastic gallon containers--I would just use playsand.

Here are a couple articles about the use of sand:

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen9.html
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

 

[Henry22]

Thanks alot, that helps me, but what about mixing play sand with live sand and mixing argonite sand with live sand?
Thanks

 

[1979camaro]

again: mixing the sand is fine

 

[Henry22]

Ok sweet i might do 50/50 live sand and play sand and see how that works before i add live rock and such. Thanks

 

[Henry22]

Or actually more along the lines of 90/10 with the non live sand being ninty
If i use tap water then im gonna buy the argonite sand but if i decide to use Ro then ill jsut use the play sand i have.

 

[Henry22]

Wondering if Two percula clowns and a Royal Gramma Basselet would be ok in a 20gal high. If not hten ill prob go with two percs and a yellow watchman goby maybe?
Thanks

 

[stagger19]

Hi Henry22, I did the same setup you are planning. I started a 20 Gallon Salt on Memorial Day Weekend. I added a combo of live sand, and argalive sand for my sand bed. I got about 10 lbs of live sand from my LFS so along with that I picked up a few hitchhikers (Snails). I added about 20Lbs of live rock.
Let sit for a about a month to cycle. For filtration im using 2 Aquaclear power heads (Model 201) and a canister filter. The guy a my LFS said I will need some kind of filtration, Most here say to just let the live rock do the biolagical filtering. I may take out the canister filter if it causing nitratres to hang high. I also heard its good to use a mechanical filter but you have to change the media like once or twice a week to prevent nitrates from elevating. I just have some filter floss in there now, I did this when I first set the sand up to get rid of some of the cloudiness from the sand. I do change the filter floss every week. Tank water is crystal clear and like i said, Im looking to get a pair of Perc's this week after I change about 50% of the water. Hope this helps. Good luck to you..

 

[Henry22]

Thanks alot. I plan on two aquaclear, one at first and then another when i get the live rock. Im gonna do a combo of live sand and agralive but not sure what water i will be using or where im gonna get it. My brother hasnt done salt for a few yrs and dosnt know how much its changed and said i should cycle with damsels but then he is a noob so its ok. But i plan on doing what your doing. So anyone still know aobut he Royal Gramma Basselet
Thanks

 

[supahtim]

you might want to change the bulbs on your eclipse hood if you haven't already done so. a 10,000K bulb with an actinic bulb would look really nice and it will bring out the colours in your fish.

royal grammas (although i have never owned one) look amazing and yes people do keep them in smaller aquariums. because they are a deepwater fish, they like to hide out in the rocks so make a few caves for it. it's also a carnivore, so feed it meaty foods like brine shrimp or mysis shrimp. it should also do fine with your clownfish because they'll eat the same type of food.

yellow watchman gobies are also really nice. i had one with a pistol shrimp. it was amazing to watch them together. the pistol shrimp would dig all day, and the watchman goby would act as the "eyes" of the pair and warn it whenever somebody came too close or whenever i was feeding. dang...now i want them again. and the royal gramma... and a nano! AHH!! lol

Tim