[What do you use to hold salt water]

Me think story pole. Basically take a stick or rod or piece of 1/2 pvc pipe and put it in the can. Add 5 gallons and make a mark. Add 5 more gallons and make a mark. etc. Stick story pole in your bucket at anytime and measure the water. Story pole also doubles as a handy mixing pole

 

That is a great idea. Thanks for the tip. Here's a dumb question, how do I know if the amount of water I initially add is 5 gal? Do I try to find a 5 gal container or bucket that have a 5 gal marker on it and use that as the inital point of reference?

 

James

[Where can I buy sea salt?]

Does anyone know if there are local FS in the area that sell sea salt that might even offer discount to WAMAS member? Also, is there a particular brand that is better than other? Thanks for your help.

 

James

[Need your input]

James, has this tank been used for copper treatments for the sick fish?

 

No. The most I treated my fish for is for ich. I've also use primafix and melafix to heal open sores but that was the extent of it.

 

James

[I am so confused...]

Will do but I actually changed from B-Ionic and have never used kalkwasser before.

 

 

All of this sound as foreign to me as can be. Lord, I know I will need help, lots of help with this stuff when the time comes.

 

James

[Need your input]

Trust me.

 

In the meantime, I would go with the biggest sump and best skimmer your circumstances allow for. At the moment, it makes sense to use what you have. I agree that you could use the HOB filter if you wanted to, I just don't know why you would. You will get all the denitrification you need from good live rock, well oxygenated water and good flow anyway, so the bio-wheel is unnecessary. You could still use the HOB for mechanical and maybe some chemical filtration, assuming you changed the mechanical filtration media out frequently (every few days), but you can do all that and more with a sump anyway.

 

Have you given any thought to skimmer selection?

 

I have a seaclone 150 skimmer that I recently bought and I think it will be fine for the 30 gal. It seems from the general concensus is to have as large of a sump or refugium filter as possible, I'll take a look at this place on ebay and order one.

 

James

[Need your input]

yeah missed the fact that you were trying to keep one freshwater. If your just planning on using the 30 and the 10 I would set the 10 up as a sump now and upgrade later if needed (or turn it into a refugium like i said before once your ready to make the switch to saltwater). The HOB filters are ok but not nearly as good as a good sump setup with biofiltration. Since you have the HOB filter you can use that in addition to your sump as well, that is what i'm doing on my 46 I like to overfiltrate as opposed to just do enough to get by. If my water isn't crystal clear I get annoyed and have to do something lol

 

I actually have 3 fresh water tanks running. At one point I had 6, but they got out of control. Spent more time doing water changes than I did enjoying them. I scaled back, now I have 3 with different types of tropical fish in them. I may eventually shut down the 55 gal and set up a 90 gal reef tank.

[What do you use to hold salt water]

I sent you a pm about the water, as far as where to put it get a big grey brute trashcan and don't use it for anything else. why do you need to know how much water is in the trashcan??

 

Don't I need to know how much water is in it so I know what measurement requires to mix the sea salt?

 

James

[Links for Beginners]

Any suggestions for information for people who just want fish only systems?

 

Reefkeeping is intimidating for people like me who are just starting out. I don't want to get bogged down in the weeds with keeping reefs. It seems everywhere I go to find out more about marine aquariums the majority of the information I find is about keeping reefs.

 

From what I've read so far, it seems the only difference between keeping fish only with live rocks and reefs only is that with reefs, you have to invest in a good lighting system and worry about the calcium level in the water.

 

James

[Need your input]

What you propose -- putting the sump behind instead of below the tank -- should work just fine. As long as the water level in the sump is lower than the water level in the display it doesn't reall matter where your sump is. The bonus is you won't have much head pressure on your return pump. Depending on the water level in your sump, probably only a foot or so. For a larger sump if cost is an issue you might consider using a simple rubbermaid container. The larger the better, IMO, but you could always start it up with the 10G and then upgrade later.

 

I like lletellier's idea also but I assumed from your post you want to keep the 55 as a tropical (FW) tank? At least for now.

 

LOL yes. That 55 gal is my first tank and I currently have my angels in it. Kinda partial to them at the moment. Also, since I'm just starting to venture into a salt water reef tank, I don't want to be too overwhelmed with the additional overhead cost of having and maintaining a salt water tank.

 

A guy at reefs central suggested that I don't even need a sump or a fuge for a 30 gal tank. He said that as long as there are plenty of live rocks, it can take care of the nitrification process. He also mentioned that if I want to use an HOB filter such as the one I have available at home, the Emperor 400, I can do it as long as I don't use any filter because that would increase the nitrate level. What do you think of this? Does this sound right?

 

James

[What do you use to hold salt water]

how big is your set up, I run nano tanks so I just got ten gallon plastic drums and store them under the sink one to store ro di water and one for saltwater mix. I also have a 30 gallon brute I am might be getting rid of soon my wife threw a fit it was taking up space in here office "kitchen".

 

I'm only running a 30 gal tank. I have another question. If I buy a 30 gal container, how can I tell up to what point is the amount of water I put into it is actually 30 gal and not 28 or 32 or something like that if the container doesn't have a measurement marker on it? This is the problem I have with my 55 gal container that I used to store aging water for my tropical fish. There is not a measurement marker on it so I can tell how much water was used or left inside in the container. The best that I can do so far is guess.

 

James

[What do you use to hold salt water]

I'm planning on buying RO/DI water from LFS and get the sea salt wherever it's on sale. What do you guys use to mix and store your salt water?

 

James

[Need your input]

Jason and lletellier,

 

Thank you for the warm welcome.

 

I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, the wooden frame in which the 30 gal sits, above it is where my 55 gal tropical fish tank will sit once I move it over. Unfortunately I'm running out of room in my basement to build another stand to accomodate the 30 gal tank and a sump or a fuge beneath it. That is why I have the 10 gal on the floor behind the 30 gal tank. There are a few glass shops within 2 miles of my home that I can take the 30 gal tank to have it drilled. That is why I thought of having it drilled on the back and have a pipe run into the 10 gal tank. then have a pump to pump the water back into the 30 gal tank.

 

As for if I can put anything else back there beside the 10 gal. The reason why I use it is because I have it on hand that I used to use it to QT new and sick tropical fish. If you think I should use something larger, I suppose I can buy a 20 gal and use it in place of a 10 gal. I can take a look around and see if there is a used 20 gal tank somewhere that I can buy for relatively cheap. Someone from another site suggested that I set up a fuge to provide a better biological filtration. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that so I will have to read up into it. My main goal is to set up a good biological filtration for my reef tank.

 

Any additional information you guys can provide a newbie to reef water tank, I greatly appreciated.

 

James

[Need your input]

This is a picture of my 30 gal tank. What I'm thinking of doing is to drill the back of the tank and put an overflow there and have the water flow to the 10 gal tank behind it. What do you think of this idea?

 

James

 

 

[wheres everybody at?]

Hi,

 

I just signed up today. Currently have 3 tropical fish tanks, 1 african cichlids tank, 1 discus tank, and 1 angelfish tank.

 

I've always wanted to start a salt water reef tank, so I've been reading up about it as much as I can and taking in lots of valuable advice and insights. Still not wanting to jump into something that is too big or too hard to handle, I decide to start on a reef tank in a 30 gal tank and see how it goes.

 

I live in Manassas off of Rt 28.

 

James