Newbie to SW - research first :)

[Callatya]

Hey there all

I have recently decided to take the big step from FW over to *shudder* the dark side I was hoping that you'd be able to give me a few practical ideas on how to get started.


I am moving house in a week, and rearranging my current tanks (about 12, all FW, mainly bettas but also a few axies, a cray, killies, and the standard zippy colourful trops) and kicking the smaller axolotl out of her current abode in order to give this SW bizzo a good go


The tank that I'll have available is an AR380, which is 10usg, quite tall, and has a built-in light and filter (6" spraybar over media area) that produces decent circulation. Curved glass front too, very nice tank all in all.

From memory, I have used a half-dose of multicure (meth blue/malachite green/formalin) about 12 months ago, and that was many many water changes ago. Is this likely to still be in the silicone and is there anything that can be done for it short of stripping it back? I seem to remember some sort of copper suckerpad thing? I can't see any colour in the silicone at all if that makes a difference.

The current lighting setup is very very simple, just an 8w tube. I'm not confident with electrical stuff, but thats simply through lack of practice. I would prefer a CF in there, although it wouldn't be much stronger I suppose. Could i get away with the tube for now or will it all drop dead?


My original plan was seahorses, as they looked less killable than fish and squishy things, but it turns out that all 3 main seahorse farms in the country are not producing the whitei at the moment, and they were the ones I would have liked.

Modified plan is now hermit crabs as they also seem less killable and as another bonus, they are cheap unfortunately that does have to play a role in my decisions as I have a betta addiction and now *sigh* a mortgage.
I am toying with the idea of those banded coral shrimp, but want to make sure I can do it before I outlay the cash.


Is this a doable plan?

What would be the absolute necessities for the basic setup to get it cycling? (please include the lot :lol

 

[sadielynn]

Hello and welcome. For lights I would up grade to a pc or a mh light . Upgrading your lights to the above mentioned will allow you to keep more things in your tank than you could with "stock" lighting. There are many premade lights that you could hang above the tank or just adjust the legs to the tank . As for the meth blue I dont think that there will be any left in your tank but if you want for piece of mind you could just wash the tank out very well with plain water (you could use a cap of vinegar and rinse very very well) As for cycling you of course want your salt water , live rock and live sand the live rock will come either cured or UNcured , cured will be a lot easier on cycling times * 2-6 * weeks uncured 2- 3 months maybe longer .Sea horses have special care and needs there is a site www.seahorse.org that has alot of info on , some people here keep them and do so sucessfully . As for the rest of the information I think that there are others here that may be able to help you better than I could . You are on the right path by asking and researching out your best plan. Good luck and again :welcome

 

[Callatya]

Thanks Sadielynn

At the moment, I don't think MH is an option worth considering for me, the price has ruled it out completely, and if i do it in the future, i'd like to get a larger setup to make it worthwhile.
Plus, being and all-in-one setup, having pendants or suspended lights will look rather unusual, as well as leaving room for energetic fishies to launch out into the waiting mouths of my cats. :lol: I'd much rather be able to do any mods inside the existing hood if at all possible. I might be able to pull that off with CF, but i'm still not certain.


I'm trying to think of this tank more as a trial (not in a disposable way, more in a minimal outlay way) to dip my toe in and see if anything bites. I'm not worried about keeping corals or the like just yet, in fact, the more basic and tolerant, the better, as I have heard so many horror stories about experienced freshies trying SW and having catastrophic failures. One cooked hers, the other had a clown wrasse (i think?) that pined and had to go back to the pet shop before it withered away (it was quite happy there)

I'd be quite happy with a stable cycled tank, a chunk of rock and some little critters to watch.

OK, so its better for the non-fishkeeper in the house if its a bit more colourful than that

If i use live rock, I can get away with plain dry sand, yes? I only ask as I have not spotted live sand anywhere around here, and it could prove tricky to find.


I think what i'm aiming for is something akin to a FOWLR, only not so much with fish, but critters (although i'm not ruling fish out, they just are not #1 on my wishlist .

 

[dragon79]

Well with no live corals in there, amount of lighting really doesn't matter, you can have whatever. If you put LR in there, it's fine without the LS, if you just want little "critters" as you say. You'll need some kind of PCs of some sort at least so that they LR doesn't bleach white. I see tanks at the LFS that have LR only and just some inverts like fire shrimp.

 

[sadielynn]

Yes you could use dry sand it will seed . As for the jumpers egg crate will prevent that too. I am not a mod person when it comes to lights so that will be something that I wont try to answer ....... Keep in mind the smaller the rock the easier it will be to rearrange or arrange it

 

[Babycakes]

i don't know why but i thought seahorses were more sensitive than fish and squishy things your avatar looks like one of my friends, spooky :shock:


if you're not planning to keep corals, i'm pretty sure T-5s or PCs will be okay with you. if this is going to be a fish only tank then i would suggest getting something like a clown or goby or even a goby and pistol shrimp pair to watch.
you could try http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scat ... CatId=2124
for suggestions on what type of fish to get for your nano

i personally like the yasha hase goby and pistol shrimp

but they will need live sand to hide and dig in.

if you're not going to have any corals, i would just put some live sand, some macroalgae (like halimeda or prolifera) and LR.
I would also suggest at least 24w of PCs. minimum :cool1:

 

[Callatya]

OK, I think I can do the CFs, I will post a pic of the hood in the equipment forum and find out if its harder than it looks

My major problem now is trying to find a way to attach a skimmer to the thing without ruining the inbuilt filter (which is quite a fantastic little thing, I'd hate to lose it). I'll get some pics of that too in case someone has already managed.

I have been told i could do it without a skimmer but would run into algae problems and a very ugly tank, and would need large weekly waterchanges. I don't mind that so much, but with all theother tanks, I do prefer low maintenance if i can, so this skimmer issue is a bit of a sticking point.

 

[incysor]

For that small a tank, with one fish, low lights, no corals, etc... you don't really need a skimmer. Most of your filtration is going to be handled by the liverock, and sand, and weekly 10-15% water changes.

The type of filter you're talking about that's integral to the hood fo the tank is pretty much useless when it comes to SW. You can use it to put a bit of liverock rubble, and maybe some purigen, or carbon in a bag, but that's about it. You'll have to keep up with the water changes or it simply won't work.

Since you're not interested in corals at this point, I'd just go with the cheapest PC retro kit that will fit in your hood. You'll want about one pound of liverock per gallon of water, so-10-12lbs. You should use arragonite sand. Play sands, often contain impurities that aren't good for saltwater. With a handful of snails and hermit crabs you should have too much of an algae problem as long as you take things slowly.

Welcome to the site.

Brian

 

[Callatya]

Its useless for a filter i know, but i figure that long term, its likely that this tank setup will be inadequate, and I don't much relish the thought of butchering the setup in case i wish to convert it back or sell it. Would it be suitable for a bit of circulation etc? the spraybar setup in the filter would probably work ok for LR rubble, yes? I could pop a container underneath to keep them submerged if that works more effectively?


As far as I know, they don't sell retrofit kits for these tanks (although i'd be really happy if someone could let me know otherwise!) so it'll have to be the cheapest home-job. In fact, I don't know if they sell them for any of the all-in-one tanks in Australia, this style of tank/hood is only now becomming common.
I'll try to fit in 2 x 13w. Will that be enough to prevent bleaching?

 

[reefman23]

Is this your tank? ----> http://www.commodityaxis.com/ProductData.aspx?id=10

This would probably fit, it is 18 watt ----> http://nanotuners.nanocustoms.com/nanot ... ucts_id=33

 

[Callatya]

That is my tank! (in Silver, but I don't think it matters )

That kit looks pretty close. would there be issues with the 220>240v problem? would a standard plug converter do?


I have found another option today that appears to be working for a few people with these tanks. Its a 50:50 tube. Still only 11w (although someone mentioned being able to get one of the same size that is 25W, so i'm following that up just in case) but it seems that it might allow me to try this without too much initial outlay.

The fellow at the LFS said he had seen quite a few successful LR type setups with this tube in similar tanks to mine, and although I always take LFS advice with a grain of salt, I have also seen several tanks similar to my own with apparently no light modifications that are running successful little setups. all are based around squishy corals, but that sounds like a safe starting point.

Would it cause damage to anything if I started my cycling etc with this 50:50 tube while I continued to research if/how I could use a kit like the one linked? Are there corals/stuff on rocks/etc that would be suited to 11w and then have a heart attack (or whatever it is they do... die i guess?) at 18w or 25w? I can't imagine so, but i thought I should check *lol*


I also have a little list of critters I found today (its about 15 things long, i'll not bother you with all just yet ),
I have taken quite a liking to something labelled "green shrimp" which looked to me as if someone had chopped a standard shrimp into 3 pieces, taken away the middle and glued the head and tail together. They were SHORT! *lol* but very cute. does anyone know what they are from that description and would they be suited to this size tank?

:thanks

 

[sadielynn]

I would say that that you could do the 50/50 ..... Just watch for heating issues on the hood if you go with a 25watt.... you could drill some holes to allow for air circulation ......but I do not belive that it would be enought to keep corals . Maybe a few softies and low light corals such as mushrooms and green star polyps . Hope this helps some

 

[Callatya]

OK, quick lesson in lingo for the newb please

the difference between coral and softies is? Are they both 'coral' in the broad sense of the term or is soft coral different or a bit of a misnomer?

One is hard and requires scary amounts of light and the other is squishy and may just scrape through?

I am aiming for squishy and newbie-proof, What should I be calling this type of organism?

 

[sadielynn]

I am not really sure how to explain it other than softie means soft tissue
and the other has more of a stoney colony ......the shrooms and the green star polyp are 2 of the easier ones to handle and very hardy
xenia is also fairly easy but I have never had any luck with that stuff . The gsp and the shrooms can squeek by easier with lower levels of light while some of the other stuff requires much more light , like anenomes require lots of light , stuff that requires photosynthisis requires high lighting . I hope that I explained that right

 

[incysor]

I'd just go with the new tube. You'll have to stick to the same wattage. The higher wattage bulbs won't work as the ballast isn't rated to push the higher wattage bulbs. The fish won't care one bit. Honestly under that small amount of light I wouldn't expect to be able to keep any coral/softies alive. But I'd probably still give it a try with a small leather, maybe a mushroom or two. Xenia, anthelia, green star polyps, yellow polyps would all be things I'd try if I could find small inexpensive frags to try. Sun corals are non-photosynthetic, but they require a lot of target feeding.

B