Equipment Recomendations For A 50gal

[sman]

Apparently I had some cash burning a hole in my wallet, so I splurged and bought tank for a SW setup. I have done weeks and weeks of researching, and this is something I really want to do.

I ended up getting a 50 gallon, with a VERY nice wood stand. Here is the picture from the auction, the guy was really nice, I even picked it up same day(today)!

Im super pumped about this. But i want to do it slow and right. I need some advice about equipment.

It came with 2 whisper 20i's which I dont plan on using. I want to get an eheim canister, which is more of what Im looking for, the classic 2213, or the ecco 2234 comfort plus. Or if a HOB is sutible that would be great due to my being a collage student who is quite strapped for cash ATM.

Also how many watts of heat do I need, I have a 125 and a stealth 25 not currently in use, but I dont see this being enough......

Since I was going to do fish only, I was going to stick to 2 t8 fixtures, with a 10k or so bulb.

What is a good powerhead that I can plug into a wavemaker? Or is this the wrong route to go?

Is RO completely neccisary, I have been told yes, no, and its nice to have, whats the reals scoop?

Lastly, substrate, I was just going to do play sand, and my lfs said they would donate a few cups of their sand and some water to get things going. Is this a good way? If so what play sands are safe that are available here in the US

Thanks all for taking the time to read this, any help is appreciated!

 

[Lynden]

If area the tank is in stays warm all the time (that is, no drafts or near windows) then your two heaters should work. The manufacturers tend to underestimate their capacity.

Secondly, do not use play sand as your entire substrate. It will do nothing for your alkalinity, which in a marine tank must be kept high. Rather, use a calcarous substrate, such as aragonite or coral sand. If necessary, mix the play sand with the calcarous sand. Black sand (or black and white together) can be surprisingly attractive, so consider buying black play sand and mixing it with white aragonite or coral sand.

Everything else seems fine to me. HOB filters can be used, but I'm not sure I like whispers at all. I have turned one into a very successful HOB refugium (add a light, sand rock, macroalgae), so they aren't useless. They, as well as your Eheim, should have the bio-media removed from them and replaced with granular ferric oxide and, in my opinion, carbon.

I'm sure someone else will pop in and add to this. Otherwise, you are set for a good start.

 

[jeasko]

ditto with lynden on the substrate

going forward to RO water, as your only planning on a Fish Only setup it is not completely necessary as long as the water is treated before using it to remove chlorine and such like that the fish cannot tolerate, also dont forget that you need to monitor your ammonia and nitrite levels before adding fish and even then add them slowly, dont just dump loads of fish in there as the nitrites and ammonia will just spike while the tank tries to deal with whats been thrown at it.

 

[chrissaysyes]

I would probably take down that background

Also Lyden has a good point with those filters...you could so a HOB refugium, or what I would do is just fill it with live rock rubble. Same with the ehiem. I'd add the ferric oxide to absorb phosphates/silicates and carbon for absorbing toxins, then fill any extra space with more LR rubble but not too tightly. Just keep in mind that live rock is very often your primary source of biological filtration and especially with a FOWLR tank, you could easily get away with no mechanical filtration as long as sufficient flow is available.

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice, the 50g breeder is an excellent starter tank IMO. If you're only going FO, wavemakers are not necessary. If you think that in the future you might want to keep corals/inverts, its not a bad idea to look into them now before you look into buyin equipment and ditching it and upgrading everything you already spent money on .

What kinds of fish had you planned for this?

 

[sman]

Thank you all for the replies! Does anyone have pictures of black/white sand mix? Hand thought of that. Even if I just went with regular play sand, how much sand to live sand should I have, a ratio per say? How many pounds over all? And what US brand, Id like to atleast get some today since this is one of the only days I dont have work or school.

The whispers this came with arnt hob, there in tank ones, which is why I didnt want to use them, I was talking about buying hob's. Or just getting a canister, if so which of the 2 eheim's listed above should I get, I didnt know the difference, and hadnt gotten either of them yet.

Would RO be necessary for inverts or just if I was planning corals, inverts would be nice, but dont really want to do corals.

Im familiar with the cycling process for freshwater anyway, ive had a 29 setup and fully stocked since july 07. Are there any real differences other than having to keep an eye on specific gravity now also?

I let the guy keep the background, that picture was at his house, he used to have turtles in it, lol.

If a wave maker isnt necessary, can someone suggest good power heads for a reasonable price, and about how many would be necessary?

And about lighting, for FO, or FO with inverts, would I be able to pull of just standard flouresent lighting(T8)?

I hadnt really planed for any specific fish, I am open to any and all ideas, you know more about this than I do!

Thanks again all for your help!

 

[Lynden]

Play sand/live sand should be 1:1 in my opinion. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to link to it, but nano-reef.com has some people that have used this method. Some even have all black sand.

As for powerheads, I'd recommend Seio. I have used these and they seem to work very well. I cannot comment with experience on Tunze but the general opinion seems to be that they are the best.

T-8's, or even T-12's are fine for fish and non-photosynthetic inverts.

 

[sparklefuzz]

We have 2 T8's and have had a xenia for the past year, so definitely fine for FO. We also use Seio powerheads and I like them, but the one downfall is the suction cup fixings.. so you might want to look at the new(ish) Hydor Koralias which attach using magnets. I'm not sure on what they are like, but they look good to me, I've just ordered 2.

The other thing Seio's have a problem with is stopping and starting, if you were to ever have a wavemaker on the tank, I don't think they are recommended. I know one of mine has always had issues coming back on, and when I googled it it seemed to be a common problem.

Good Luck

 

[chrissaysyes]

I will go ahead and speak from experience that I love Tunze and you should definitely check them out if you have the dime and the means. Ebay is a good place to look if you have trouble finding them.

 

[andywg]

They, as well as your Eheim, should have the bio-media removed from them and replaced with granular ferric oxide and, in my opinion, carbon.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but from reading the OP it would seem that there is no live rock, meaning the filters are the main filtration. In such a scenario I must advise to retain the biological filtration. Also, using carbon in a tank without a skimmer will likely see the carbon reach its adsorption limit for DOC inside a week and closer to 12-24 hours, so unless you plan on changing it frequently it will not do a great deal.

 

[Lynden]

I agree, I didn't notice there was to be no live rock. As for the carbon, I still run it and would not go without it. It seems to help reduce the toxicity of the soft corals; apparently some authors do still recommend it. Bob Fenner seems to imply that it is helpful.

 

[showjyr]

As far as a powerhead the Tunze and Koralia are both great. I've heard nothing bad about either and I personally use the Koralia's which are much cheaper. I've had one in my nano and 55gal freshwater for months and they have performed very well. I also just bought a new one for the tank I'm setting up.

 

[SkiFletch]

And since nobody answered it, yes RO would be pretty much a requirement for most inverts. Tapwater can come with copper which is lethal to inverts. Not all tap has copper in it, but if you're spending money on expensive inverts, its better to be safe than sorry and go with RO IMO

 

[Lynden]

I started using RO after a conditioner broke the bond between chlorine and ammonia rather than simply precipitating it. My ammonia level shot past 4 ppm and every visible animal (barring a peanut worm; even brisleworms died) died and disintegrated. That is how I killed my live rock (will sometimes mention it). I started using RO water and everything tank related suddenly became clearer and easier.

 

[sman]

Well, I went to a semi-lfs, which I had never been to before, and WOW, they had prices comparable to or beating online ones! Way better than the chain stores I had been going to for my FW stuff. Sorry to confuse anyone I meant FOWLR, it was kinda late when I posted, it shows now I guess... I have 50 lbs. of aragonite, 30 dry, 20 live(well within expiration date), I also got a cascade canister filter, as it seems to be the most supported brand locally, and the tank is running. evidently the heaters I have arnt enough, room temperate is 68ish, and I cant seem to get the tank above 72. SG is around 1.022 so I guess I need to bump that up a little. I also got a koriala 1, and a 36in dual bulb t5 fixture with a 10k and an atinic. They were out of live rock, a shippment comes tomorrow morning I will be getting some tomorrow after work. I have the "powerhead" fixture thing on the outlet of the cascade, it also came with a spray bar, would I be better off with that?

Here are some pictures as of about 2 hours ago...