New Beginer

[joolye]

Hi to all u people out there! Firstly, I had a fish only tank (36"x18"x18"). Been keeping 4 angel fish, 2 damsel and 1 ballon clown for abt 4 mths. I also have two corals. its ok except the color is fading!!! Right now,I just brought a 36"x18"x30" tank and intend to use my existing overflow tank. Intended to keep coral reef. What are the things i need to pay attention to??? eg. sand,lighting and whatever! Well i quite new in this marine stuff. Pls use simple terms. Thanks alot. By the way, as I will be dismantling the old tank (using overflow box) for the new tank, will the fishes able to withstand in the new tank???

TJL

 

[Terry Stephens]

hi, i suggest you checkout "reefkeeping 101" which is available on reef.org frontiers.Its a great article if you are just starting out in the reef world.

 

[Ryan22]

I won't be much help for you, but Reefcentral just opened a new forum for beginners. I think I'll be visiting it myself.

HTH
Ryan

 

[joolye]

thanks guys! By the way, what is the recommended height for the sand bed? and should I go for undergravel filter too???

 

[31-2c]

Stay away from the undergravel filter!

I think most in here will recommend a deep sand bed (DSB) and Live Rock (LR)and a good protein skimmer. A refugium is not a bad idea either

 

[31-2c]

Sand bed - Roughly 3 to 6 inches. Some will say more, some will say less.

 

[joolye]

thanks again. However its quite hard to buy DSB in singapore. Can I use small coral sand instead??? If yes, should the sand level be 3-6 inch high??? For my old tank, i use thicker coral sand at abt 1 inch...but seems quite alot of dirt settle on top of the surface!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Sand is best--take a look and see what you can find. A sand bed will develop worms and other detrivors that will take care of itself--no vacuuming is necessary. Crushed coral is a little bit too big to get the same kind of detrivors. Aragonite sand is best, but many many people use silica sand without problems.

Today's typical reef tank will have 4-6" of deep sand bed (sand grains about the same size as sugar grains), a protein skimmer, and 1 to 2 lbs. of live rock per gallon of water. That's all the filtration that most of us use, and it works great.