My Gift To Myself

[collared_drifter]

ok... i was thinking about giving myself a great maybe 30 gallon saltwater tank for christmas... here is what im gonna do...

tell me if im forgeting somthing...
tank
stand
filter with built in skimer
two power heads
base rock
live sand
(not including chem accesories)

anyways... im wondering, that if i get lots of live sand, and the right amount of base rock, will the base rock become live rock? because the critters in the live sand, would they all start growing on the base rock? and what kind of things are in live sand?
what kind of fish would you recomend for a first time keeper? i like small fish particualy, small have color, somwhat hardy, and relativley cheap, ($1-$13) kinds of fish.
also how much to you think all of this will cost? (excluding fish and chem accesories)
i would prefer bare minumum costs.... also i dont have room for a sump, so im looking for a filter with a built in skimmer. ok bye thankyou for you help!

 

[superman]

Good to hear that you want to try Saltwater! The first things you will hear is that a 30 gallon is on the small end as far as saltwater goes. If I were on a budget I would go with a 40 gallon breeder tank, get a Remora Pro skimmer, or a turbofloater. Forget filter floss and the like, it is generally not needed unless you have a lot of suspended solids for some reason. Get at least 3 maxijet 1200s for flow (make them randomized with timers on each one, or purchase a special wave timer device to run them) Drill the 40 gallon breeder, use a 20 gallon long as your sump, use two 100 watt heaters (I recommend Hydor, Visitherm, Hydor) Drill the 20 gallon near the bottom on one of the sides and us a pump plumbed externally that pushes about 500-700gph at 3 feet of head to return water back to the 40 gallon breeder. Baffle off a section of the 20 gallon long sump to use as a macroalgae refugium, use Chaetmorphia as the only macroalgae, light the refugium on a light cycle opposite from the main tank with a light that emits a 5000k-7000kelvin. As far as lighting the main show tank, I would use a 150 watt HQi MH, this will allow you to keep anything you want, and give you areas of bright and dark that will allow you to place corals where they need to go in regards to light requirments and flow requirements. Light the main show tank for about 4 hours during the day with the HQI and about 3 hours on the morning end, and 3 hours on the evening end with some sort of actinic suppliment like one VHO fluorescent. A sugar fine aragonite sand bed of about 1-3 inches will give you enough sand for the sand dwelling fish to mess around in and sand dwelling corals to have stability on.

I do realize that I have rambled and have thrown a lot of info at you but bare with me...

FLOW is a huge problem in most tanks, One of my friends has a 40 breeder that has 4 maxijet 1200 powerheads in it on a wave timer, and it is incredible to see that health of all his corals, softies, LPS, SPS and and even his clams, truelly a site to see.
Ask more questions if anything I wrote was not enough information or didn't make sense. Of course this is all based on my own success and research, so other opinions will be posted by others, my way is not necessarily the only way (though I may think so...hee hee )

Actually since you are going with a sump, I might lean towards a small ASM skimmer, cheap and VERY effective, I use an ASM on my 220 gallon, and LOVE IT!

 

[collared_drifter]

im i mentioned that i dont have room for a sump... so i was asking about another filter with a built in skimer... also what about my live sand question?

 

[superman]

Sorry, I must have misread your comments about a sump. I would not waste my time with the skimmers with a built in filters, they are for the most part not very impressive. As far as filtration, I would go with a good hang on back skimmer like the remora pro or turbofloater, get a hang on back refugium, or make one ouf of an aquaclear 500 ( do a search on here and you will come up with pics) As far as the live sand goes, get about a gallon of sand from a mature reef tank, then add in aragonite sand bought from the store, yoru sandbed will then be seeded, and will seed your rock as well over time.

As far as livestock goes her are some possibilities...

Clown goby
Neon/Cleaner goby
Pistol shrimp watchman goby pair
Cleaner shrimp
Firefish pair (only by as a pair in the store, do not buy seperately and try to pair)

Of course you can mix and match most of these, though in a 40 gallon breeder (as I recommended) I would only put about 5 fish and two shrimp MAX. There are more fish possibilities, but these are some easy and pretty inexpensive fish to care for.