Need some start up advice

[Kyle]

Where to start? Just purchased a 135 gal aquarium locally for a good price. I currently have the new filter hooked up and running and the tank filled and salt added. Will be adding the sand tomorrow morning. Where to go from there? The guy at the pet store said I should wait before doing coral because I need special lights and it gets very exspensive. What fish/creatures do you guys reccomend to start with?

[Kuli_Loach]

The best thing is the place live sand in at light coatings and buy LR. LR is whats real expensive and what is going to hurt you. You buy this and push is down hard. You will need 1 lb per gallon of it so roughly 135 lbs but go at it slow, maybe 50 lbs here, 20 there, and like 10 here until you reach the desired amount. After you get a base of LR finish filling w/ live sand. Ditch the filter and get several powerheads and a protein skimmer. The LR will cycle the tank by itself so it is cheaper on you. get a test kit and after you put everything in there, test your water and when ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are at 0, you can start to add live stock such as corals and inverts but not a bunch at a time, maybe 2-3 corals and a dozen or so crabs. Wait and check water again in about 2 days and work from there. Fish should be the last thing you place in there really. About lighting, depending on what corals you want and such is how you go. Some corals don't need anything but the reg. fluorescent lighting but most need a more powerful light. I run roughly 5 wpg on all my s/w tanks. Lighting will be a big chunk of your $$ also. You may also want a sump but I can't really explain this so someone else may have to tell you.

[NickFish]

I agree with kuli.

Get rid of the filter, unless you are going to fill it with macro algae it is useless.

Do you have any live rock? Keeping a saltwater tank without LR is virtually impossible, especially for a beginner.

Do you have money? This tank is going to cost thousands, be prepared!

Get some good powerheads, hydor koralia's are my favourite.

Research, research, research! You shouldn't start this tank up until you have done at least another month of research. There is only so much advice you can give in one post, and it sure isn't enough.

If you are going FOWLR you don't need much lighting at all. Try and aim for at least 2-3wpg of 10000K or more lighting.

[Kuli_Loach]

Do you have any live rock? Keeping a saltwater tank without LR is virtually impossible, especially for a beginner.




Not impossible really, it is basically the same as keeping f/w w/out the plants and stuff, you gotta do weekly w/c and such.

[Kyle]

UGH! I feel I have been screwed by my local fish store. I went in and talked to this older guy about saltwater before I even bought the tank. Told him what I was looking at (135g) and what I would need to do for saltwater. It all seemed fine and when I came back later after getting the tank he told me I needed a filter (bought a canaster filter), the salt and sand for the bottom. He told me to wait 2 days and I could come back and get a few fish for it??? The filter I was told to get by two assosciates AND a customer standing there who has been keeping saltwater fish for years.. ugh and they also told me I dont need coral (a lot of fish eat it?) he didnt mention anything about live rock though, but 135 lbs of it? No way I could get that right now... would it just be a lot better for me to abandon this and just move all my happy FW fish out of my 55g into my 135g and maybe turn the 55g into saltwater? I'd be real pissed I have this new $200 filter for the 135g I dont need. :confused:

[Halelorf]

It would probably be best for you to turn the 130 into a fw tank and the 55 into a saltwater. I would look at a library or online fr "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael Paletta. That is a very good book that will walk you through things to setup you tank. Read through that and any other books you can get your hands on few times then make a thread of what you think you would like for a sw setup before you do it. That way people can give you advice and second opinions who arn't trying to sell you a brand new canister filter :c2:.

[Tigerbarb]

You don't have to buy live rock.
Ask Spudbuds about this, as he did this for his 90g.
A way you can save money and help protect the ocean would be to get a bunch of dead rock, such as tufa, and then live sand so you make your own live rock. I think he use this grunge that he got offline too. I will be doing this when I setup my 20g.

If I were you, I'd use the 55g for sw. It would be less expensive to setup and maybe not as hard to maintain as a 135g.

[Tolley]

I suggest go fw. You need to do so much research for sw. You can't just go on fish stores advice. Most people research for weeks until they no absolutely everything.

[coachfraley]

I agree with Tolley and Halelorf. SW costs major $$$$$, and the costs increase with the size of the tank: more rock, more sand, bigger lights, larger skimmer, more powerheads, more salt, and more room to put things (which means more $$). I think a 55 would be a much better starter tank. Hopefully you can return that filter you bought, or use it on the FW tank. IMO, canister filters are not a good fit for SW.

BTW, I don't know what your LFS was talking about as far as not adding coral. Coral is what makes SW tanks so exciting!

[spudbuds]

My advice is to stop everything you are doing and do some research. See if SW is something you want to get in to. If it is, then assess your financial situation and decide to use your 55 or the 135.

Also, I recommend reading through my thread ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.]) to get an idea of what you are in for. I was very patient, bought a bunch of used stuff and saved a lot of money here and there and I still spent $2500+ on just the equipment. And that is way cheaper then a person would normally spend setting up a 90g reef.

Good luck with whatever you decide and come back with questions as you have them.

- Bill