My First Marine Tank!

[Jessica13]

Hey,

Im in the process of setting up my first marine tank! Its just a little 15 gallon, im hoping to have a couple of common clowns in it and some shrimp/crabs and corals!

I posted some pics here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...=0&#entry784027

I was hoping some of you could let me know what you think. Is it looking ok so far? Anything i should/shouldn't be doing?!

Thanks!

 

[steelhealr]

HI Jessica..welcome aboard. I posted this on the other side, but, give us an idea of what you have in there:

--type of powerheads?
--how much LR and sand....looks a little light on the LR
--lighting?
-- how long is the tank up?
--are you going FOWLR (fish only with LR) or are you going to add corals?

SH

 

[Jessica13]

Hi,

I posted briefly on the other thread but i'll go into a bit more detail here!

It has 3kilos of live rock in it now. I plan to get 5-6 kilos more next friday which will bring it to 8 or 9 kilos which i think should be fine. Not sure how much sand, i will fine out!

The powerhead is a Rio 200 though i've been told i'll probably need another

It has a T5 lighting unit.

Its been set yup for a month, i dont plan to add anything living (inverts!) for at least another month!

Im hoping to add a few corals eventually

 

[parker313]

If your live rock is fully cured, then you should go ahead and get at least a clean up crew in there at the first sign of any brown algae/diatoms. The reason for this is that it's the bacteria/organisms in the live rock that will be your biological filtration. If you deprive the LR of any fish poo or anything to process, it could die off and then you could be in a worse spot than if you'd just added fish. If you have enough rock that you have approx a pound per gallon of water and the rock is fully cured, then you can add the cleanup crew and then a fish shortly after. It's not like a freshwater tank where you have to wait for the biological filtration capacity to catch up with the fish waste output.

 

[maestro]

It looks good, im not sure about how powerfull your powerheads are but you need to turn over the water about 20 times an hour, thats 300gallons per hour total at least

 

[steelhealr]

Hi...I agree with maestro and Parker. You'll lose your biologic filter if you don't 'feed it'. Definitely go for 20X or more water circulation (20 times the gallonage of the tank per hour). The minimal lighiting for corals is 3-5 watts per gallon. The tank should have about 10-15 lbs of LR in there (?kgs?). Welcome aboard. SH

 

[nanocubeking]

are you going to do a reef tank? or fowlr?

edit: sorry disregard this post i didnt read the thread all the way.

 

[sophos9]

The minimal lighiting for corals is 3-5 watts per gallon

Dont get overly concerned with the WPG rule, I've had soft corals thrieving under 1WPG of T5, just ensure you get the right spectrum.... If you want hard corals then you may have to upgrade (dependant on coral type)

Good luck, loads of help here

 

[nanocubeking]

The minimal lighiting for corals is 3-5 watts per gallon

:Welcome:

Dont get overly concerned with the WPG rule, I've had soft corals thrieving under 1WPG of T5, just ensure you get the right spectrum.... If you want hard corals then you may have to upgrade (dependant on coral type)

Good luck, loads of help here

My 24g Nanocube has 1.5wpg and zoas,xenia, even some lps can survive in weaker lighting.

 

[Musho3210]

not some lps, most. WPG is a bunch of bull crap IMO. A 70 watt MH is a 70 watt MH no matter what, tank size doesnt change the lamps strength, whats the difference between a coral 3 inches under a 70 watt MH in a 10 gallon tank and the same coral under the same light under 3 inches in a 75 gallon tank?