How about a little help for a newbie

[heavydc2]

Hey guys I am a newbie to the saltwater tank world, and I have spent the last month gathering information and stuff for my tank. I have a 58 gallon (36"L 19"H forget how wide) oceanic systems tank/stand combo. I have a 125 gallon wet/dry filter, 2 powerehears (one 800 series one 300 series), I haev modified the hood to accept 3 bulbs (so far I haev 1 blue and 1 full spectrum). I am going to be getting a bakpak 2r protein skimmer in a few weeks. I have 1 150 watt heater and 1 200 watt heater. I will have a 20 gallon hospital/quarntine tank setup.

And here comes the questions.
How much live rock would you suggest?

How much sand (I have 40 pounds of base sand, and I was going to get 20 pounds of live sand)

I still have room for one more bulb I was thinking a coralife 20000k bulb, would that be good?

as for the inhabitants:
I want to get some cleaner shrimp (they seem really cool) and some crabs and snails. I am more interested in the inverts, but have to have some fish to make the girlfriend happy :lol: as for fish I was tinking a couple Percula Clowns, a longnose hawk fish, and a yellow tang, maybe after a year or more a manderin. Do you think this would be a good mix to have with the inverts? And would the lighting I have be enough to have an anenome?

I know about all the cycling and stuff so that part I am ok on, but what I am fussy on is the lighting and fish. I know the MH lights are the best but it is just not in my budget now, maybe when I have enough money saved up I will go there, but until then I will have to deal with what I have.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Gatortailale1]

General rule of thumb is 1.25 lbs of rock per gallon.

Sandbed. 4-6 inches. Not sure how many # that ='s.

DON'T buy the 20 lbs of livesand- waste of money in my opinion. 5 lbs max will work. quality live sand is super expensive to ship and you don't get much per lb. You would be better off finding local reefers to give you a handfull.

Lights, I'm no expert there. Get what your budget allows.

Not much help, but it's my $.02 worth of an opinion.

Craig

 

[Anonymous]

Hey guys I am a newbie to the saltwater tank world, and I have spent the last month gathering information and stuff for my tank. I have a 58 gallon (36"L 19"H forget how wide) oceanic systems tank/stand combo. I have a 125 gallon wet/dry filter, 2 powerehears (one 800 series one 300 series), I haev modified the hood to accept 3 bulbs (so far I haev 1 blue and 1 full spectrum). I am going to be getting a bakpak 2r protein skimmer in a few weeks. I have 1 150 watt heater and 1 200 watt heater. I will have a 20 gallon hospital/quarntine tank setup.

And here comes the questions.
How much live rock would you suggest?

How much sand (I have 40 pounds of base sand, and I was going to get 20 pounds of live sand)

I still have room for one more bulb I was thinking a coralife 20000k bulb, would that be good?

as for the inhabitants:
I want to get some cleaner shrimp (they seem really cool) and some crabs and snails. I am more interested in the inverts, but have to have some fish to make the girlfriend happy :lol: as for fish I was tinking a couple Percula Clowns, a longnose hawk fish, and a yellow tang, maybe after a year or more a manderin. Do you think this would be a good mix to have with the inverts? And would the lighting I have be enough to have an anenome?

I know about all the cycling and stuff so that part I am ok on, but what I am fussy on is the lighting and fish. I know the MH lights are the best but it is just not in my budget now, maybe when I have enough money saved up I will go there, but until then I will have to deal with what I have.

Thanks in advance for your help.

get a better skimmer-your tank is a bit small for a yellow tang-and did you mean that you have a sump that holds 125 gallons? or one that processes 125 gal/hr?for most anemones-you'll prob'ly have to add halide lighting-start doing searches using the key,and you'll get a wealth of opinions and information here-plus people will chime in to help!

luck!

 

[danmhippo]

Sandbed, if on the other thread people are putting 150# to a 75, I would guess you need about 100# for the 58, and some more for the sump.

Did you said your main tank is 58, and your sump is 125? Plus another 20G for the refugium? Hmmm...........Do you think the 125 sump looks good enough to make it the main tank instead?

For a reef tank, we do not recommend using wet/dry. If you can, strip out the trickle plate and Bioballs. Let the LR and LS be your primary biological filtration.

Yellow tang would be too cramped in your 58. Pick another fish. To be able to maintain a mandarin healthy, you need to have tankfull of pods plus there are no other competitors for pods other then the mandarin. We seldom see mandarin takes prepared food. There are reports of it, but extremely rare.

Bulb wise, I personally does not like a very blue look, I would get just one 20,000K plus 2 6500K or 2 10,000K.

 

[ReefLion]

A better gauge for live rock is probably volume, since rock weight density varies so much. Several authors recommend about 1/3 of available tank space for live rock, although with a working deep sand bed you can probably get away with much less. Note that it really doesn't matter if the rock is in the tank or the sump, so you can always toss extra rock in the sump if you want.

Regarding the livestock, the tank is too small for any tang.

Is the 125 sump really 125 gallons? Or do you mean it's a sump "rated" for a 125 gallon tank? If it's the former, you might be able to keep a single mandarin minus the hawkfish, which I think will compete with the mandarin for food. If the sump is smaller than the tank, I would skip the mandarin altogether unless you are willing to set up a separate tank to grow out amphipods as replacement food.

ReefLion

 

[Palmetto]

We need more information about your bulbs, too. Are they NO fluorescent, or VHO? What wattage are we talking about?

 

[heavydc2]

opps sorry I meant the filter is rated for a 125 gallon tank. I got it from someone who was using it on a 55 gallon tank. The filter flows from the 58 gallon through the filter which sits in a 10 gallon under the tank.

The lights are 30 watt florescent bulbs. I have 2 balasts 1 for 1 30 or 40 watt and 1 for 2 30 watts.

Gatortailale what would be a better skimmer?

Roger on the yellow tang, I like the distinct yellow color of the tang would there be another fish that could supplement that liking?

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Palmetto]

I sorta thought that was the lighting situation. You mention that you want inverts- do you mean corals? You really don't have enough lighting to have even the low-light corals.

You might be able to keep a couple of mushrooms alive, but that is even a stretch. You will be better off cycling some live rock and a couple of small fish and waiting for the lights before you add anything more than some shrooms.

I know this is not good news- but proper lighting is essential for the survival of the corals.

 

[danmhippo]

Canary wrass comes to my mind off the top. However, it's a pod hunter which also accepts prepared food (flakes, frozen) readily. If you have decided you cannot accomodate the mandarin (which I suggest you not to get one as well), canary wrass, or any other colorful small wrass will make your tank comes alive with their constant swimming action.

 

[danmhippo]

On the lighting issue, I would also suggest you upgrade your fixture to VHO. 2 10,000K VHO and one 20,000K VHO will do wonders for your tank.

 

[heavydc2]

Yeah I figured that corals would be out of the question, I guess its the price I will have to pay. but would shrimp, crabs and stars be ok?

I know a vho would do wonders but in that I already bought and built the HO I think I am going wait and get a MH fixture when I can afford that.

 

[danmhippo]

As long as the critters you want to keep are not photosynthetic, your current lighting is just fine. (meaning, no corals, clams...etc) You need to make sure the inverts (shrimps, stars, crabs...etc) are compatible to one another, as some shrimps dines on some brittle stars, and crabs are generally opportunistic predators.

 

[heavydc2]

Thanks Dan, I do need to do more research on what I can have and whats going to get along. One question I have is I have read that you can have anywhere from 1 inch for every 3-5 gallon. I know this is not a set in stone thing but whatever I can deal with that. Does that also include the inverts? like how many fish and how many inverts would i be able to have.

 

[ReefLion]

Heavy, let me just compliment you on your efforts to gain understanding before you set anything up. Don't be shy about starting different threads for each of your questions, or asking anything you think sounds stupid.

Another possible yellow-fish option is one of the pygmy angels like a Lemonpeel, although if you ever do get corals or clams any pygmy angel is a potential nibbler.

ReefLion

 

[danmhippo]

Honest, I dunno if there are any rule of thumb of how many fish to how many gallon. But for a 58G, I would probably put 2 small wrass, a pair of goby, a pair of percula (get one big and one much smaller in hope to get a pair relationship), one or 2 cleaner shrimp, some blue legged hermits and some snails. You should have enough action in your tank.

 

[wombat1]

Good Call!! The lemonpeel or maybe a heraldi angel is a good pick if you need an all yellow fish. The "1 inch per 4 gallons" is OK for a fish-only tank, but I think the concensus here is that you want less than that for corals. You're definitely being very smart by researching before buying stuff, wish I had done that

 

[heavydc2]

Thanks wombat I will keep on looking.
I know that I have to wait to get all the stuff I need, so to keep me at bay I am reading and reading and asking as many questions as I can. SO I knwo exactly what I am going to do and how I am going to do it and what fish I want and when. I may make a few wrong decisions here and there but I want to try to minimize them as much as I can. I really appreciate everyones help.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[reeferJ]

I always heard that hawkfish & inverts weren't a good mix.

 

[heavydc2]

ok I will look into that. the longnose hawk will eat shrimp if they are big enough to fit in there mouth. So I might need to completely rethink what I want for inhabitants.... maybe