Help Me

[n3ont3tra]

The only question here that I feel confident to answer is that mushroom corals are generally one of the easiest types of corals. I'll leave the rest to someone more knowledgable about those things. I'm still a beginner.

 

[ikon]

my suggestions:

1) get about 40 lbs of CURED live rock, fill the tank with it, the more the better...in this case you will not need a traditional "filter", your live rock will do the job

2) Powerheads..you should put at least two of them in there to keep the water moving around the live rock to keep it healthy.

3) Definately use RO water (highly purified water), you can go to your local pet shop and buy it for 25 cents a gallon in most cases, its very practical in such a small tank. this will help to prevent horrid algae growth that tap water promotes due to phosphates.

4) If your lighting is sufficient, it will heat the water just fine, but if you live up north you may want to get a small heater, you can find one for ebay for around $10.

5) Live sand..pick some up to..preferably start out with a 3" sand bed

6) I suggest you should stock the tank with various mushrooms. They grow and multiply fast and are awesome to look at. Definately some snails and hermits, and after a month or so of everything listed above, you can start stocking fish.

 

[Ter]

maybe a fish only setup and fake rock would be a better bet for you... you can always change for a reef later on... and u'd save money
Ter

 

[enjoiskater158]

i wouldnt put 40 lbs of liverock in a 20 gallon, you might not get enought flow in the tank. which would trap extra food and dead stuff in between the rock which would decrease your water quality. I would also get a heater, power compacts don't give off very much heat. plus heaters are only like $15 - $20. I would remcommend about 20 - 30 lbs of liverock, livesand not deeper than 4", and powerheads for flow.

do you know how many watts your power compacts are?

 

[SkiFletch]

Usually Power compact fixtures have two bulbs . A dual-bulb PC setup on a shallow tank like a 20 long is great for growing just about anything a beginner can tackle. I'd stay away from SPS, nems and clams, but anything else should be fair game.

So you've allready got tank and lighting with a budget of $300-400, this is a piece of cake

Since you're still in highschool and may not be keeping this tank for years and years, I'll just suggest some simple hardware. There are better alternatives, but unless you want to get really serious about reefkeeping, I woulsnt concern yourself with them.

20-30lbs of LR per gallon, try to find some locally from a reefer breaking down his/her tank as its way cheaper. If not, consider purchasing online from somewhere like liveaquaria.com, premiumacquatics.com or pretty much any other online LR supplier. You can sometimes save a good chunk of change if your LFS charges a lot for LR by either or those methods, sometimes not. Compare prices
2 - Maxijet 900 powerheads for flowrate
1 - 75watt Jager Heater
1 - Saltwater Master Test kit for pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate
1 - Alkalinity Test Kit
1 - Calcium Test Kit
1 - Small HOB filter with bio and carbon pads removed
1 - Bag of Rowaphos to go in the HOB filter (trust me, you want to stop hair algae before it even thinks of starting)
1 - Bag or bucket of salt mix (purchased from LFS usually cheaper than shipping)
1 - 20lb bag of aragonite sand (again purchased from LFS)
RO water purchased from LFS assuming you dont plan on keeping the tank your whole life. If you do, purchase an RO unit off ebay

Livestock and food

Thats around $200 in hardware, anywhere from $60-$150 for LR, and whatever extra you want for livestock. Totally do-able

 

[rhysiboy]

so are you actually gonna take the tank into school? coz that would be dificult unles on a trolly or something

 

[Nix]

Ok, so i did some investigating and at a LFS I can get ahold of both live sand and cured live rock.

The live rock is $5.50 a pound, and the sand is $30a bag. (I am almost positive the tank isnt a long),do you think I could get away with just one bag? So I was thinking roughly 20 pounds of LR, 110, and a bag of LS equaling 140, plus 70 for my tank and lights=210 total. I'll say 45 for powerheads and heater, and stocking costing around 50. Coming to a total of $305

With the liverock and livesand it should help increase the rate it balances, correct?

What is the absolute minimum amount of liverock I could have though? (cost efficency)

 

[SkiFletch]

Dunno if you can get your hands on base rock, but you could do a 1/2 and 1/2 LR and BR mixture and allow the BR to be seeded by the LR. You have to stock slower especially where fish are concerned, but it halves your LR cost... Then again time is kind of a factor here, so it might be wiser just to bite the bullet and get 20lbs of LR. Also, save your money, buy plain aragonite sand. Sand beds are seeded VERY quickly by LR and for the average user there's no need to have LS.

 

[lucyg]

Being a newbie, I can tell you what we have been sucessful with:

Lots of turbo snails (interesting to watch, and can be helpful towards cleaning the tank)
Hermit crabs (blue legged and red legged) are both very hardy and are true survivors
CLeaner shrimp (Although we only have one as we were not sure if two would fight)
Nassarius Obsoletas snails
Yellow Polyps (It looks like a plant, but its actually an invertebrate, and is asexual so you will only have to buy a little bit and it will be all over the tank in a couple of months given the right conditions)
And finaly today we put in our first fish, a Damsel fish, yellow tail. So far he is looking very cheerful, although we do not know what he will be like with other fish yet, but he's getting on well with the cleaner shrimp.

Good luck with your project, and I hope some of this will be helpful.
Lucy

 

[Nix]

Whats the different between Cured LR, and Uncured LR


ERm, Nvm I looked it up myself

 

[Nix]

Okkkkkkkkkkk time to shake some things up....


Turns out my Uncle might give me his 50 gallon (or so) former Salt Water aquarium free.....that means free tank...more expensive equipment and rocks though.

However, I have no idea what kind of equipment he has for it, hopefully a lot of the stuff I'll need.

BUT, now that I'm probably getting a 50gallon, I'm realising I now have a lot more stocking options. Opinions?

I still want a pieceful tank, and probably still get two Clownfish, but now what?

 

[SkiFletch]

3 cheers for your uncle

Do you know if it is a 3' or 4' long model?

I'll say it again cause I always do, I'm a sucker for fairy wrasses

 

[Lynden]

Get a Bluethroat Trigger Could outsmart some of your class mates I'd be willing to bet!

 

[Nix]

Thanks for the suggestions!


Is there any tangs that can live in a 50 gallon? Or is it too small?

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends on the dimensions but usually not advisable. Perhaps the only tank you could try it in would be a 48x18x12 tank and I'm pretty sure thats only a custom size