New to saltwater setups

[Cossack1977]

Oh i feel like such a noob.

At the moment i have a 6ftx2ftx2ft and a 4ftx2ftx2ft tropical freshwater tanks which r both going very well. The problem is im craving a marine setup. As with my freshwater tanks which i have setup to be very low maintanece(ie. over filtering, uv sterlizers) i want the marine to be self sufficient other then water top ups.

Im moving in about 4 weeks and have the chance of squeezing in another tank as as such am 98% sure ill be going a reef tank.

Tank will be a 60% sure tank will be a 8ftx3ftx2ft but depending on how much bracing the floor will require might have to down size to a 6ftx3ftx2ft.

Problem is im a salty noob. Ive read as much as i can but seem to still come up short.

so i will have a main tank and a sump. Main tank will be plumbed with 2 x inlets and 2 x outlets through the base as to minimize the amount of pipes.

Looking at costs i probably wont be able to get a skimmer as all this salty stuff in Australia is uber expensive.

what would be the best size sump for the job? (thinking of using a 4x2x2 tank)
If my return pump was stong enough would i still need power heads in the tank?
Best way to set the sump up?
What could i use instead of a skimmer to remove rubbish from the water?
Are water changes still required in a salty setup?
what type of fish load could i have per gallon of water?

Yes i knw the tank sizes r big but i learnt very early on that bigger is generally easier to maintain.

yes there will be more questions and my hands are tingling ready to build a new tank. The tank will be a plywood and glass tank. used as a room divider with 4 windows and then paneled in teak. stand will be made out of pine and then paneled in teak. stand will be an easy 6 leg design using 4x4 as the legs.

 

[pierre_john]

You too hey, I am so excited, please see my post. I will share what I know. I wanna do this so bad, converting has taken me 8 years of freshwater to decide to take the leap of salt....

I am so ready....I would appreciate your help too.

Thanks

 

[Navarre]

HI and welcome to the world of salt!

I must say you have a very good grasp of the workings of a marine tank already by getting the largest tank you can afford or fit into the house, this will make life much easier for you in the long term beleive me.

OK lets try and look at your questions 1 by 1.

what would be the best size sump for the job? (thinking of using a 4x2x2 tank)

If you are considering this size ten go for it! You can get away with smaller but you are adding 100 gallons of water volume and this can e a very good thing indeed in terms of water perameters and balanceing it. If you di want to consider smaller then perhaps losing the 24inch height and perhaps an 18" or 12" would be ok. the sump doesnt need to be deep for the type of filtration i will recomend later (algae/mud) but of course you will sacrifcice extra water volume if you do this. Its no big deal if you do decide to use shallower as you have an enormous water volume already so really the choice is yours.

If my return pump was stong enough would i still need power heads in the tank?

Most definately yes.
If you are considering a reef tank then you need a minimum of 10x water turnover per hour in the tank. Marine like high flow and some people go as high as 30x or 40x the flow per hour in their tanks!
Running a return pump with this kind of power will defeat the fitration idea of the sump as it will draw water through too fast for the nutrients to be dissolved. Best tohave a pump that can give a good strong steady flow through the sump and then add more powerheads to the tank. If you can afford them then look out for "Tunze Stream" power heads, these babies can shift enormous amounts of water per hour in your main tank and a couple of these really would transform your system.

Best way to set the sump up?

This is a mineral mud sump, you can ignore the blue box there if you like as i designed this sump to be fitted with a cryptic zone and if you feel you want one of these zones at a later stage they can easily be added.
The basic sump design see's water pass down one side of the sump, go under and over the first set of barriers to fill the center section and make a form of resovior.in this center section i would place mineral mud and fill it with macro algae for nutrient exportation. the water then passes over and under the next set of barrier to the return pump to be sent back up to the main tank.

What could i use instead of a skimmer to remove rubbish from the water?

If you use the Mud bases filtration system then you do not need a skimmer. I ran my tanks last year with no skimmer at all. However if you can add a skimmer to hte system it really does assist it also.
To help in the long term with nutrient export i would also get a few mangroves and place them in the sump. They are slow growing so dont expect miracles overnight but they do a good job once they get established.

Are water changes still required in a salty setup?

Sadly yes they are. I did manage to run my 100 gallon system last year from may until october without a single water change. However i would recomend that you do a water change of about 10-20% each month. The reason for this is because coral reef tanks take out trace eliments from the system and these eliments are not easy to replace. You can of course spend fortunes on lots of different chemical bottles but this is still a guessing game and can do more damage than good if you dont know what you are doing.
Best way to replace these lost eliments is a simply water change with a good quality salt.

what type of fish load could i have per gallon of water?

This gets asked alot but there is no straight answer. Some people use the inches per gallon rule but i find this very innaccurate. What is more important is to consider the types of fish you want in the tank and see what requirements they need. A 4" Trigger gives off about 3x the biowaste of a 4" blenny. same length fish but the body weight of a trigger is far more than the blenny if you understand my meaning.
Triggers, puffers, morays etc all give high biowaste due totheir eating habits (also most are not reef safe) Tang are another high biowaste fish as they are predominantly veggies and this seems to make them high on wastage.
Smaller neater eating fish tendto be far kinder on the water peramters.
Lastly do not forget the cleanup crew as these are often overloked. 1 snail/hermit per gallon of tank water. Good idea to put some in the sump also!

Hope this helps.

 

[Great Lakes]

Looking at the big picture.

While you can have all of your support equuipment under the tank, a tank this size is usually more readily serviced from a remote location such as a basement, or room behind the tank.

Also, be prepared to be blown away by the electric bill.

GL