Setting up a saltwater reef tank

[Salty&Onion]

I thought about setting up my spare 15 gallon tank and make it a salt water tank, I already have a filter that is also suitable for marine tanks and I would get some sand only.
I only would put couple of cleaner shrimp, maybe a starfish and a snail there.
For corals I would get an anemone (or they need bigger tanks?) couple of some anemones as I don't know their names.

Is there anything else that I would need for the stocking? A skimmer of some kind?
Ferts or something for corals? Which artificial salts are good?
Limestone? A heater? Which size of the heater for a 15 gal tank? What temperature?

I'm fully aware that I need the thing for measuring the salt levels in the tank, but what's it called?

 

[Crispii]

I'm fully aware that I need the thing for measuring the salt levels in the tank, but what's it called?

Hydrometer.

 

[DwarfCichlidLvr]

Rock flower anemones would be your best bet. They are a smaller 'nem

 

[Salty&Onion]

What else could I put in there? When UK will be below R1 I will go to my another good lfs that sells them in about 500 gallon or so the corals and I'll make a pic and you and other members can circle the ones that I could put in there. I think it would be just easier I think..

 

[JxsPxxle]

I wanted to do this before but it is extremely pricy, you need “live rock” or “live sand” I believe, but apparently you may need both. I don’t know if this is true but I have heard this.

 

[Colin_T]

Starfish are hard to keep alive and not worth the risk. When they die you get ammonia spikes that can kill everything else.

You only need a thin layer of sand on the bottom of the tank.

Corals live on limestone rocks and don't normally need fertilisers. However, they can benefit from a small amount of liquid iron fertiliser but it's not essential. Corals do need a lot of light for their symbiotic algae. The algae use the fertiliser if you use that. You can feed most corals with newly hatched brineshrimp if you want to. They don't need much because they get most of their nutrients from the algae in their cells.

Bubble tip anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) are one of the more common anemones and they are reasonably easy to keep. Give them lots of light and a few little bits of fish food each day or every couple of days. Any food given to them needs to be small, no bigger than an adult brineshrimp, and no more than what will fit on your little fingernail.

Anemones will usually move around a bit when first introduced into an aquarium, so add it first and after it has settled, add corals. Alternatively add the anemone and corals and move any corals that are too close to the anemone because they fight and kill each other. Corals also fight among themselves so be wary of what you get.

You can use a protein skimmer if you like but they remove plankton too.

Artificial marine salts are all pretty much the same these days.

The salt measuring devices are a hydrometer or refractometer. The hydrometer is cheaper than a refractometer.

 

[Salty&Onion]

What wattage of light to use? I believe I use a 10 or 11 watt nicrew light that has both, white and blue lights.
Which filter would you recommend? I heard that a filter needs to to 5 or 10 times to keep ammonia as low as possible.
How much artificial salt should I use on 15 gallons of water? How to perform weekly water changes?
How thin sand substrate needs to be? How often to change water? Which artificial salts would you recommend that are cheap?

 

[Salty&Onion]

And I'm not getting a starfish then... Also for equipment I'm gonna get Eheim Jager, but what size? What temperature should I set the heater?
And what sand should I use? That is easy to vacuum?

Just forgot to add these questions.. lol

 

[Colin_T]

I don't know how tall your tank is so no idea on light. But you want reasonably bright light. Corals are in full sunlight all day so don't be afraid of light on a coral tank.

Use whatever filter you can get. All filters can be used on fresh or salt water aquariums.

Marine salt is sold in bags that treat x amount of water. Just buy a big bag so you can fill the tank several times. Use some to make the tank and use the rest later on to do water changes.

To do water changes, fill a large plastic storage container or plastic rubbish bin with dechlorinated water and add enough salt to make the water the correct salinity. Aerate the water for 24 hours and then use it to do a water change.

I don't know what brands of marine salt is sold in your country. Just ask the shop what they use and use that.

1/2 to 1 inch of beach sand is all you need. 1/2 an inch is normally sufficient for smaller tanks. You don't normally gravel clean marine sand if you have lots of rock for corals, but you can if there are open areas of sand.

A 100 watt heater should be suitable for a 60 litre tank. Set the temperature on 24-26C.

 

[Salty&Onion]

What salinity level in the tank should be?

 

[Colin_T]

whatever sea water is (about 1.024 I think)

 

[Salty&Onion]

whatever sea water is (about 1.024 I think)

Ah. Ok. Thanks
There I found dimensions of my 15 gal tank:

I thought that might help with the height and light for the tank?
Anyhting that I also should know?

 

[ChefAlex]

There are a lot of broad questions you have asked, and should, as a new reef keeper. Finding a good forum, watching bulkreefsupply videos or reading through a series of articles in an online reef magazine would be all good starting spots.

As far as your particular system goes, it’s pretty small and you’re inexperienced so keeping it simple is your best bet. Only keep very hardy soft corals, don’t bother with LPS/SPS corals or unusual inverts like seastars. You mention “fertilizers” and I’m not really sure what you mean by that, by certainly do not dose any nutrients (unless you are running a very efficient ULNS, which you won’t be doing). This won’t help the zooanxthelle in your corals, it’ll make things worse. By keeping only soft corals you won’t have to manage any calcium, alkalinity or magnesium demands. Simple water changes would allow you to maintain soft coral parameters without adjusting, no dosing of anything required.

Also realize that nutrient export is much different in a reef tank. Some might suggest you use a canister filter, HOB or the like, this is not recommended by 99.9% of reef keepers for a reason. Stick to a standard setup of cured rock, skimmer and water changes. Any other nutrient export forms (other than adding media to your all in one nano tank) isn’t really feasible.

Not using a RO/DI for almost any coral is a very bad move, it doesn’t matter what your test kit results say about your tap water.

 

[Colin_T]

As far as your particular system goes, it’s pretty small and you’re inexperienced so keeping it simple is your best bet. Only keep very hardy soft corals, don’t bother with LPS/SPS corals or unusual inverts like seastars.

For the OP,
LPS stands for long polyp stony corals.
SPS stands for short polyp stony corals.

Stony corals have a hard calcium skeleton with a thin layer of living tissue over that. Staghorn, Brain and Euphyllia corals are versions of hard/ stony corals.

Leather corals are soft corals.

 

[Salty&Onion]

I'm confused right now. How should I set up the tank? What kind of corals? Canister filters are too expensive for me. Colin said no starfish, cleaner shrimp are fine and easy.
How should I do everything?