Setting up Saltwater Tank

[masterkaw]

To start I thank everyone in this site for all the help given to me for helping with my fresh water tank. Now I’m thinking of going into salt water fish only. I have read a lot about salt water, but I need some advice with equipment and what testing equipment I need. I have a 72 gallon tank, and I only plan of having four to five fish and some invertebrates.

Here is the equipment I have;

Eheim 2028
Eheim 2026
Two Koralia 4 (1200 gph)
Coralife turbo twist 3X 9 Watt UV sterilizer
Spectrapure MaxCap RO/DI
Two Visi-Therm Stealth 250 Watt heaters
260 Watt 48” Fluorescent Fixture lighting (4- 65 Watt bulb, 2 - 12,000 day light bulb, 2 - true actinic bulb)
Aragonite Sand
I’m planning on buying some live rock.
API Saltwater Test kit

What else do I need to get this going? I read about skimmers but I don’t think I want one because I don’t want a skimmer that’s hanging from the tank and I don’t have a sump to put one in.

What do you guys think of what I have? What else do I need? Any advice would greatly appreciated. Thank you.:1zhelp:

 

[ooja3k]

Sounds like you have some good stuff there! You are going to have enough flow with just the koralias for a solid SPS reef! lol But the lighting would be holding you back there... But the lighting is perfect for a FOWLR tank as well as some softies down the road... (if you ever want to join the reef side of things)


The UV sterilizer isn't really necessary, maybe its just my opinion, but I would return it if you still can. Unless you have a disease outbreak, or green water, its benefit doesn't outweigh the costs...

How much LR are you planning on getting?

 

[tamableanimal]

You do need some form of nutrient export, either a skimmer, a canister filter, or plan on weekly water changes. Other than that it sounds like you have what you need to get started.

 

[Reefscape]

To start I thank everyone in this site for all the help given to me for helping with my fresh water tank. Now I’m thinking of going into salt water fish only. I have read a lot about salt water, but I need some advice with equipment and what testing equipment I need. I have a 72 gallon tank, and I only plan of having four to five fish and some invertebrates.

Here is the equipment I have;

Eheim 2028
Eheim 2026
Two Koralia 4 (1200 gph)
Coralife turbo twist 3X 9 Watt UV sterilizer
Spectrapure MaxCap RO/DI
Two Visi-Therm Stealth 250 Watt heaters
260 Watt 48” Fluorescent Fixture lighting (4- 65 Watt bulb, 2 - 12,000 day light bulb, 2 - true actinic bulb)
Aragonite Sand
I’m planning on buying some live rock.
API Saltwater Test kit

What else do I need to get this going? I read about skimmers but I don’t think I want one because I don’t want a skimmer that’s hanging from the tank and I don’t have a sump to put one in.

What do you guys think of what I have? What else do I need? Any advice would greatly appreciated. Thank you.:1zhelp:

As this is going to be a Fish Only tank, skimmer is not needed and live rock will just be there for decor and not be your source of filtration, this will be provided by the cannisters. Lighting is there purely for your benifit only so there is no real need to go over board on this. Your two filters are ample with a combined gallon filtration of (132(2028) + 77(2026)) about 200 gallons..

Water flow is more than ample as all you really need is 10 times your water volume in circulation, which would be 720gph, and with your koralia's, your getting 2400gph..

A UV is a good thing to buy and keep packed away untill its needed in a disease outbreak or large algae bloom..

Your setup looks good in my opinion with nothing that really needs changing or adding besides the basics like hydrometer or refractometer etc etc

Niko

 

[masterkaw]

As this is going to be a Fish Only tank, skimmer is not needed and live rock will just be there for decor and not be your source of filtration, this will be provided by the cannisters. Lighting is there purely for your benifit only so there is no real need to go over board on this. Your two filters are ample with a combined gallon filtration of (132(2028) + 77(2026)) about 200 gallons..

Water flow is more than ample as all you really need is 10 times your water volume in circulation, which would be 720gph, and with your koralia's, your getting 2400gph..

A UV is a good thing to buy and keep packed away untill its needed in a disease outbreak or large algae bloom..

Your setup looks good in my opinion with nothing that really needs changing or adding besides the basics like hydrometer or refractometer etc etc

Niko

Atnixon, will live rock not perform biological filtration? I was thinking of making the eheims do mechanical filtration and the live rock do the biological filtration. What are your thoughts?

Also, do you think the equipment I have is too much flow? It sounds a bit too much.

 

[masterkaw]

Atnixon, will live rock not perform biological filtration? I was thinking of making the eheims do mechanical filtration and the live rock do the biological filtration. What are your thoughts?

Also, do you think the equipment I have is too much flow? It sounds a bit too much.

 

[masterkaw]

You do need some form of nutrient export, either a skimmer, a canister filter, or plan on weekly water changes. Other than that it sounds like you have what you need to get started.

tamableanimal, I have the two eheim canister filters. As for water changes, I added some extra plumbing to the fish tank to be able to do automatic water changes. I only press a button and the water change will perform on its own. I could set it up to change whatever percentage of water I want. Right now I have it set up for a bit above 10%. And it will be done automatically in less than 5 minutes.

This is actually another question I have. If I do a weekly water change, what amount is a good percentage to change? Is 10% enough weekly? Or more?

 

[ooja3k]

10% is a good weekly water change amount.

as for your LR, it will perform the biological filtration, but at that point your tank goes from FO to FOWLR.. the LR will perform all necessary biological filtration and the canister filters would allow a place for you to use mechanical filtration/chemical filtration if need be.