I have had freshwater tanks and still do for the past 23 years and just bought a small 25 gal salt setup, 12" deep x 24" wide x 20" high. I have put in 40lbs of live sand and 11lbs of live rock thats been in there a week, I just ordered 20lbs more of live rock. The filter I have is the Marineland Penquin 200b and my lights are the standard aquarium light fixture with a Power-Glo 18,000k 18" 15w lamp. What should I get next? I was thinking of getting the Coralife 24" Lunar Aqualight 2x65W / 2 Blue-Moon lunar led setup because I don't think my current setup that came with the tank will work for soft corals down the road. Would I have to get a clear glass cover to go over the tank with those lights? Should I get a different filter, or add a power head? If yes on the power head, what one should I get? When I add the cleaning crew what should they be? Thanks and I'm sure I will have allot more salt newbie questions.
My First Newbie Step Into A 25gal Saltwater Tank?
- Thread starter H2Con
- Start date
sianeds
Fish Addict
Wow thats alot of questions in one post!
By the sounds of it you will have plenty of live rock and sand in there. How deep is your sand bed? The live rock will be plenty to filter your tank so there will be little need for mechanical filteration although it can't hurt as long as you keep the media clean.
I'm really not a techie so I'm afraid I really don't know what the filter you have is. As for the lighting... it all depends on what you want to keep in the tank. Do some research on the corals you like and see what lighting they will require. Don't bother getting lighting now if you think you will upgrade it in the future, save yourself the time and money and get the best lighting you can now.
Getting a glass cover will do 2 things. It will reduce evaporation and it will stop any fish you get from jumoing out. If you are looking at getting fish that are known jumpers, firefish for example then go ahead and get the glass cover otherwise it will depend on the amount of heat you're getting from your lighting. To be honest I wouldn't get a glass cover anyway, personally I'd go for an egg crate cover. You have to monitor nano tanks often so needing to do daily top offs is not a bad thing. I find it stops you getting lazy with the testing.
As for the filter/powerhead question, you should aim for a 20xtank volume per hour turnover so you will need 500gph of movement in your tank. This is to help your live rock do it's job and to prevent dead areas and stop a build of of detritus. It would be best to spread it out between a few sources but in a nano space is an issue. I would definately try to have 2 sources of movement though as most corals don't like the jet type movement a single powerhead produces. Check the specs of the filter you have and find out what gph it moves then get a small powerhead to compliment it for the other side of the tank. On what type to get...Tunze nano streams are pretty good but someone else could probably help you more there.
Your clean up crew should include some snails, crabs, possibly a shrimp. I personally would get a mix of Nassarius and Trochus snails with some hermits and a cleaner shrimp. Don't get starfish as they will starve in a new tank and shouldn't really be in nano tanks anyway IMO. I would also stay away from urchins in that size tank too.
By the sounds of it you will have plenty of live rock and sand in there. How deep is your sand bed? The live rock will be plenty to filter your tank so there will be little need for mechanical filteration although it can't hurt as long as you keep the media clean.
I'm really not a techie so I'm afraid I really don't know what the filter you have is. As for the lighting... it all depends on what you want to keep in the tank. Do some research on the corals you like and see what lighting they will require. Don't bother getting lighting now if you think you will upgrade it in the future, save yourself the time and money and get the best lighting you can now.
Getting a glass cover will do 2 things. It will reduce evaporation and it will stop any fish you get from jumoing out. If you are looking at getting fish that are known jumpers, firefish for example then go ahead and get the glass cover otherwise it will depend on the amount of heat you're getting from your lighting. To be honest I wouldn't get a glass cover anyway, personally I'd go for an egg crate cover. You have to monitor nano tanks often so needing to do daily top offs is not a bad thing. I find it stops you getting lazy with the testing.
As for the filter/powerhead question, you should aim for a 20xtank volume per hour turnover so you will need 500gph of movement in your tank. This is to help your live rock do it's job and to prevent dead areas and stop a build of of detritus. It would be best to spread it out between a few sources but in a nano space is an issue. I would definately try to have 2 sources of movement though as most corals don't like the jet type movement a single powerhead produces. Check the specs of the filter you have and find out what gph it moves then get a small powerhead to compliment it for the other side of the tank. On what type to get...Tunze nano streams are pretty good but someone else could probably help you more there.
Your clean up crew should include some snails, crabs, possibly a shrimp. I personally would get a mix of Nassarius and Trochus snails with some hermits and a cleaner shrimp. Don't get starfish as they will starve in a new tank and shouldn't really be in nano tanks anyway IMO. I would also stay away from urchins in that size tank too.
You can use the penguin filter but remove the biowheel and other man-made media. Its junk, LR does your filtering 
. The penguin can be nice to use for chemical filtration though (phosphate/carbon) so dont toss it. I'd add another 200-300gph powerhead in addition to the penguin.
. The penguin can be nice to use for chemical filtration though (phosphate/carbon) so dont toss it. I'd add another 200-300gph powerhead in addition to the penguin.Thanks for the info. I ended up buying the Coralife light setup and a Maxi-Jet 1200 powerhead. My live rock and light came yesterday when I got home. Love the light, what kind of time settings should I setup for the different bulbs? I have X10 home automation that I can program it to turn each bulb on or off with the dusk dawn features. And it will adjust for the longer daylight hours if I want to simulate real lunar time setups. My sand bed ranges from 2.75 to 4" deep. I'll post some pics when I find my old 2.1 meg pix camera.
Reduce your sandbed to 1 - 1 1/2 inches. What you've done is created a partial DSB, deep sand bed. A nano tank does NOT have the surface footprint to do it and that sand bed is going to develop anaerobic areas and most likely cause more headaches than help. Just a suggestion before you get off the ground.
SH
SH
I'm going to get a bigger salt tank, or trade my two yellow belly slider turtles in at the pet store and use there 55gal tank. Is there any way to keep the live sand I remove alive? Put it in large zip lock bags? Or since I'm going to setup another tank in a couple months can I remove it then? I hate to just toss it away if I can save it.
sianeds
Fish Addict
When you bought the live sand how was it packaged?? Was it in water or in a bag??
I bought two bags of this in water. http
/www.ecoreefaquatics.com/products/carib_sand/
/www.ecoreefaquatics.com/products/carib_sand/
Redstratplayer1
Fishaholic
Dont use the 55g if you can avoid it.
Its to thin front to back to work with easily when stacking LR(12'' i think)
A 40 gallon breeder is a nice shape wide and long
About the live sand
I am sorry to say but LS is not worth buying. DRy sand will become LIVE in a week or two when it is with Live rock.
Its to thin front to back to work with easily when stacking LR(12'' i think)
A 40 gallon breeder is a nice shape wide and long
About the live sand
I am sorry to say but LS is not worth buying. DRy sand will become LIVE in a week or two when it is with Live rock.
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