Hows my equipment for the new setup?

[bobo]

Hi everyone,

I'm in Australia, and I bought a really nice 100 L tank with a full hood and cabinet for just $300. At the moment it's freshwater with about 20 baby convict cichlids and one of their parents, but I'm converting to salt soon. It also came with a $130 eheim power filter which does about 550 L/ph. I've got a few questions about my setup, it'd be great if someone could help me.

I added in my old atman powerhead, which also does about the same flow rate. I bought a really cheap skimmer off the net for just $15. I know it must be dodgy but it says it can do up to 250 L so do you think it would be alright for my tank? I've got a pretty powerful airpump hooked up to it. I think the skimmer is called an AA 525. I can't figure out which part of it is the collection cup or the lid. The water just pours out the top if I have the airpump turned up high enough to get a good stream of bubbles.

I've got a normal flourescant light, would this be OK for a fish only tank? What would I need if I wanted to upgrade to a reef tank? I found some nice looking dead rocks and coral from the beach and I put them in my tank. Would these eventually do the same as live rock and start filtering the water with the micro organisms?

Would normal pool salt be sufficient for the aquarium? I know that LFS charge heaps for a small box of marine tank salt, but when you think about it all the salt comes from the sea anyway so what's so special about their expensive aquarium salt?

Sorry I've written so much and there's so many questions, but anything you could answer for me would be a great help. Thanks a lot.

 

[untilitsleeps]

You cant really do marines on the cheap mate, your skimmer sounds ok though, if it 'should' do for 250l tanks then it will be ok ona 100l tank, if its for fish only then your lighting may be ok for fish that tend to swim at the top of the tank, but id upgrade to T5 just to be safe, if your going for a reef set up then you will need Metal Hallides to get the light to the bottom of the tank.

Personally i wouldnt put the rock you have found on the beach in any tank, you dont know what its like or whats happend to the water its been in, and it certainly wont give you any of the benefits of live rock.

Go for proper marine salt too, you cant use anything else imo.

IMO your best bet for a successful reef is to save up and do it properly, cheap reef keeping usually ends in tears mate.

just noticed your in australia, in that case i really dont know anything about the rock you have found, do you live near coral reef? it could be useful but i still wouldnt use it.

 

[bobo]

Thanks for your reply. I live in Western Australia down south, but last week we took a trip up north and where there's heaps of marine life and I just picked up the dead coral and stuff from the beach. Im pretty sure there's some brain coral and another sort I don't know about.

Do you think that my filters would be enough for my tank? I know it's going to be expensive but I guess that it's still worth shopping around for a good price as long as the equipments still going to be good quality. I'm only 15 and I don't have a job so I definitely can't afford muchb live rock and I'm just going to try to save on what I can. Is there any brands of salts which are the best, and how much roughly do you pay per kilo?

Once I've converted to salt I'm only going to buy one or two cheap fish and hopefully they'll be OK before I buy a clownfish or something like that. They're about $50 over here.

 

[ostrow]

The dead coral/rock should be fine. It will be good for cycling the tank if you keep it in salt water until you set it up. If it is already dry, then so be it it won't help the cycle but it will still be ok.

But if you want live rock, you'll need better lighting and IMO you will want a better skimmer. Those are the 2 htings to spend money on. If fish only, spend on skimmer now, then lighting later. You should get a decent skimmer for under $200USD. Do it now as dead fish will cost you more!

You can only use salt intended for saltwater aquariums. If you buy the large (200 gallon) buckets you can save some ... look in the huge chain-store pet shops.

 

[bobo]

Thanks for the info. What do you think about my two 550l/ph powerheads. Will they be alright for filtering the tank? Also, if I wanted to get some live rock would it still be better than nothing to buy maybe just 3 kilos or so. And would extra filtration make up for a not so good skimmer?