Marine Setup

[jordan barnhart]

My father wants a marine tank for our downstairs area.

He told me to find out all I can since I am the fish kid and he would give me the money to get him anything he needed to be able to run a good marine setup.

I don't want to rush things. I have read the pinned topics and I want to know a few things.

I am wanting to get him a new 55 gallon tank with stand. I need to know what kind of lighting, filtration, heating, substrate, etc I will need to make this happen.

He said he wants various tangs and clownfish.

Are the Marine ready 55 gallon kits at Petco for 300$ worth it?

Anyways. Just any help is appreciated.

 

[jimdogg187]

don't buy a kit. you need a tank, stand, canopy(optional) 50lbs of live rock, base rock, live sand, 2-3 bags(optional, you can culture other types of substrate for cheatper). Buy a "good" skimmer, you won't need one at first unless you buy uncured live rock. set up a sump underneath the tank for a refugium, I use a 30 gallon, put some macro in there with some argonite. you'll need pumps, an overflow box if you don't have a pre drilled tank, I recommend cpr brand. Lighting depends on what you want. hard corals anemones etc, require metal hailide, if not power compacts will do for soft corals. Fish only, I use a single florecent bulb fixture that came with the tank. you'll also need light for the sump. if you wants pics of how I set mine up let me know. theres a ton of stuff you need to get started, but once it's going... it's all good. The people in this forum are very helpful as well as educated on all these matters. Some people have different preferences on how to set things up, but if you ask, someone will respond. Good luck to ya, jim.

 

[Navarre]

Pretty sound advice from Jimdog.
I read that your father wants tangs? A 55 gallon tank (i assume its a USA gallon which is smaller than a UK gallon) is not large enough to house a tang im afraid.

100 Gallons (Uk... this is roughly 120 US gallons) is minimum IMO as tangs are open water swimmers and need lots of room to excersize. Keepping them in smaller tanks can be done but tangs are easily stressed and a small tank will weaken them tus making them prone to whitespot (which tangs are ntorious for catching)/
Also, tangs can be extremely aggressive (and have the weapons to back it up) so I would not advise placing a tang into a tank unless its the last (or nearly the last).

I wouldnt mention this usually as its obviously early days in the setup of your potential tank. However if your father specifically wants tangs then I just want to make you aware that a rethink of tank sizes might be needed. If a larger tank cant be housed then dwarf angels are stunning fish taht can be housed far easier in a tank of this size.

hope this helps

 

[Great Lakes]

Definitely look for a used tank. Located where you are, if you are willing to drive a couple hours, you can save thousands.

GL

 

[hyrookin]

I would just add that you should buy a couple books first, notably
"the conscientious marine aquarist", before you set-up your tank, and make
sure you are clear on what size tank you will need for certain fish.