29 Gallon "reef" Tank

[penguinpimp1990]

So I decided to skip the planted route and take a plunge a saltwater for my 29 gallon aquarium. I know for a first time SW'er a tank should be ideally at least 55 gallons, but I really cant afford that and hopefully this tank will be a little easier to maintain than a 55. I want to stock to be real basic with a few fish with quite a few invertebrates. I am not ready to try hard corals yet, so would soft corals and mushrooms be the way to go? (or just the easiest corals to take care of) I really dont want to get into calcium reactors, so is there any liquid additives that can do the trick? As for lighting, what WPG is considered low, medium, and high? (Im pretty sure its nothing like planted tanks). For a tank this size 25-35 pounds of liverock would be adequete right? And Im a bit confused with this:

Curing is easy, however. You get a tank large enough to hold your uncured stuff, put in in, add some lights, a couple of power heads, and a skimmer. You then let it cycle as you would a new tank. When all your parameters stabilize, it is cured, and safe to add to the established system. But unless you are an over the top hobbiest, or have an enormous setup, this can be impractable.

When he says cycles, he means do a fishless cycle the same way youd normally do on a FW tank?

Please correct me on anything, thank you.

 

[91-MR2]

I am also new to the saltwater world. I do know however, that the smaller the aquarium is the harder it is to take care of due to the fact that disease can spread quicker over the smaller enviroment. ALso, since there is less total water volume the water parameters will change too quickly. I am not sure if soft corals are that much easier to take care of then hard corals as I am just now performing my fishless cycle on my SW tank. However, I will try to find out for you.

 

[Aquascaper]

hopefully this tank will be a little easier to maintain than a 55

Wrong the smaller the tank volume the harder it will be to manitain and the more punishing of mistakes

I really dont want to get into calcium reactors, so is there any liquid additives that can do the trick?

Yes, there's a vast range of calcium based additives that can be dosed into the tank

As for lighting, what WPG is considered low, medium, and high?

Very hard to say as SW doesn't go by WPG but by depth of water and coral requirements

For a tank this size 25-35 pounds of liverock would be adequete right?

General rule of thumb is 1lb per gallon so that amount would be fine

When he says cycle, he means do a fishless cycle the same way youd normally do on a FW tank?

Not quite but similar, the die off on the live rock (decomposing organisms) produces the ammonia to 'feed' the cycle - once parameters are at zero across the board then the rock is 'cured', ie. not dying anymore and can be placed in a tank.

 

[maestro]

To cycle just buy cured live rock put it into your tank and leave it for a couple of weeks, soft corals would be a great starter, they dont need too much light.

 

[penguinpimp1990]

Maybe I should make a 20 gallon sump for more "room for error". That would give me roughly 50 gallon of water. Also I use these power heads in my brackish tanks, would they be good in reef tanks?
powerheads

EDIT: forgot to ask, how much should the turn over rate be in a reef aquarium? In GPH

 

[Aquascaper]

Turnover should be between x20 and x40 ideally

Those types of powerhead are not really suited to saltwater aquariums as they have a tendancy to stick due to the salt and need regular cleaning, same goes for Hydor rotators. They do the job but pale into comparison when put against a wave timer with standard powerheads.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

As for lighting, what WPG is considered low, medium, and high?

Besides what Aquascaper told you already, there are different kinds of light as well. You would need more WPG of VHO to equal the intensity of metal halide lighting. Plus, all the different kinds of lighting do different things, and there are different color ranges. Lighting is a big study topic in itself.