Need Lots Of Advice Please! switching fw to sw

by **ryand63** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:33 am

Hi, I am a college student that has a huge interest in salt water aquariums. I have always had fish and currently have an all malawi cichlid tank. I am really interested in starting a salt water tank and have tons of questions. I thank anyyyyone who reads this and responds. First off, would a good filtration package consist of a marineland bio wheel filter, live rock, live sand and a protein skimmer? When doing water changes, hwo do you get debri from sand, won't it get sucked into the syphon? What will I need that is different from a freshwater tank? Any knowledge is appreciated. Thanks so much.

by **fihsboy** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:39 am

Fresh and salt are completly different as you can imagine. I think you will be surprised on how easy your sand is to keep clean. I didnt touch my sandbed in my 29 for a whole year.......and it was healthy as anything. Get you a good sand stirring crew......such as nassarious snails and a cucumber once your tank has matured. Filtration sounds okay......dont want to do a biowheel though....its not going to help you. Your live rock will do everything in the way of filtration. Live rock and good skimmer........your in business. Im going to take a guess on a number....I would say 95% of your filtration is done with a skimmer and liverock. That other little bit.........can be done with water changes. Dont use anything but RO/DI water. You will be glad you did. Invest in a good top off system. You can DIY or buy something..........DIY is going to be half the price. which is nice. everyone else will chime in with good advice. and Welcome to RMFT! :)

by **fihsboy** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:39 am

ps.....Blue and myself are also college students. Reefing on a budget is completly understandable.

by **ryand63** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:08 pm

Thank you so much fishboy, so a powerfilter wouldn't be necessary as long as i had a signficant amount of live rock and a good skimmer? With the RO/DI water, do some top of systems do the reverse osmosis or is that a completely different component i would need to buy?

by **newbie916** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:06 pm

I agree with fishboy on the filtration. If your planning on a smaller tank like a 29 gallon, you may not even need a protein skimmer. However, it will make your life easier. I have a 29 gallon Aquapod with 150 watt Metal Halide lighting, 35 lbs of Live Rock and 20 lbs of Live sand. It has some filter sponges, carbon, and phosphate remover in the filtration system. Since I don't have a protein skimmer, I just do weekly 5 gallon water changes and monthly 10 gallon water changes.

I use RO/DI water on my top off and in my salt mixes. I get it free from my lfs and usually swing by once a week to get water. I've been too lazy to set one up until I buy by new house and I'm planning on plumbing my 95gallon through the wall and into a closet.

Welcome to reefing and it's an expensive and addicting hobby, but well worth it. I love having people over to our house because both my reef's are the centerpieces of our artwork. It's a piece of natures beauty sitting in our living room:) Anyways, good luck and feel free to ask any of the guys questions on this forum. Also, check out craigslist because I bought my Aquapod with everything and a ton of livestock worth over $1500 for $400.

Chris

by **fihsboy** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:02 pm

Yeah, certainly buy used. I just bought a MP40....for under 200 bucks. I had to.....im an extremist with my reef. You dont have to buy a unit.....you can get water at a culligan dispenser. But if you can add an auto top off....I would do it. Reason being.........I would say that 90% of the new people that dont last long......is because they dont like the daily maintence. Well.....an ATO will rid the daily maintence, and make your life easier. If you have a good skimmer liverock and your doing water changes.....you dont need anything else in the filtration area. If you want to hide everything you can add a sump and put all your equipment down there. In sump skimmers are a LOT more efficient. IMO. But keep asking questions. like newbie said, everyone here is willing to help in any way possible.

by **Snowboss4492** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:54 am

i agree with everything said so far but i do lean towards a mechanical filter of some sort simply for water movement {make sure you have a couple power heads in there low movement is prime real estate for algaes and crap like that} and the filter is a good work horse for picking up chunks of food, floating algae and general big crap in the water column. it's also a good place to put carbons, phosphate removers amonia treatments etc etc - -your power filter is your first line of defense and should be considered the 1st stage of filtration.

live rock and a goos skimmer are for smaller stuff and polishing - basically the finish work

in nature the reefs have live rock and tidal movements over them {skimmers} and the mechanical filters would be the beaches of the world

kinda wierd when you look at it that way...............we humans pay a lot of money to live on and visit power filters full of shit ...hahahahahaha

Boss

by **newbie916** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 3:46 pm

I love sitting on the beach in fish poo..lol

by **blueshoes2208** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:25 am

what ever you do, dont buy a canister filter, i have the fx5, in which retailed for 299.99, got mine for 200 on ebay, yes its a beast flowing at 940 gph but it is a strait up bitch to clean and the new term for it is a nitrate factory... not good in saltwater.....

by **Snowboss4492** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:19 pm

turn that bitch into a kick ass carbon filter and make a sump bud

Need Lots Of Advice Please! switching fw to sw

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