New 46 Gal Saltwater Tank!

[mattdean]

After many, many years of Freshwater Tanks I am ready to take the plunge (pun intended) into a saltwater aquarium. Since day one, like most enthusiasts, this has been my true desire.

So, I have a 46 gal Bowed Front Tank, EHEIM Professional II canister filter, Turbofloater Multi Skimmer rated for 150 to 200 Gallons, a Sea Fan for circulation, 3 flourescents, 40 punds of sand and 50 pounds of live rock ( I was able to find some beautiful live rock with natural caves and lots of crevices and one piece already has some coraline and feather duster worms on it! ) giving me a net volume of 41.8 Gallons.

Now, I am a rather impatient person, fortunately, I am abroad for 3 weeks and was able to get the tank setup with the live rock before I left, hence, giving it time to cycle while I'm away. Before I left, I tested the water and everything was on the money.

I have read countless artivles online, "Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies" (blush) cover to cover and spoken with a few people at the LFS.

So, you see I am not completely without some level of knowledge. However, my wife REALLY wants some coral for the beauty but I am not interested in doing a full flefged reef tank, I amn all about the fish. Mind you, I have always aquascaped my tanks for the greatest visual effect. My plan is to stock my tank slowly, of course, with some inverts, etc. then fish. Which brings me to my questions :


My intention is to have as many inverts (craBS, love the shrimp, and HOPEFULLY in time an urchin) then 6 small fish ( 2 clowns for sure) and 3 slightly larger show fish. I would very much like to have an anemone for the clowns. I am looking for suggestions on interesting - and fairly hardy - inverts, fish and corals that I can get the most out of my modest setup.

Thanks for the input. Happy to be part of the community.

MATT

BTW, here is a pic of the tank when I left it:fish:

[travie]

Tank is looking good so far. First thing worth mentioning is the EHEIM Professional II canister filter, it is not needed. Your live rock will be doing all the biological filtration you need.

What lighting is on the tank? 3 fluorescents is not specific enough for coral recommendations. Anemones and corals need great lighting to live.

Oh, and you need patience. It is very valuable with saltwater tanks.

[mattdean]

Hey Travie,

Thanks for the reply. I can't tell you what the lights are because i am away from home for another 10 days and honestly can't remember. I believ on is a Corallife 50/50 and the other two may be full spectrum, but not sure. I am willing to change the two to better suit what i will get, of course.

And yes, I am being EXTREMELY patient with this tank. I plan on waiting till the appropriate time, then waiting a little longer and testing regularily.

As for the Ehiem. Will it hurt to have it running with floss and carbon and some bio media? I figure it can't hurt, especially in the first year or so, until everything really settles. The people at the LFS suggested I use it. (I already had it from my freshwater setup.)

Cheers

[travie]

It will be best to run the filter with just carbon or some other form of chemical filtration. Ditch the floss and bio-media, because this filter will just be a nitrate factory. You probably could use the filter for biological filtration if you plan to keep it FOWLR, but if you plan to get corals and an anemone, you don't want this nitrate factory. Coral and anemone don't do well with nitrate present.

[mattdean]

OK, see, this is why I posted here. You don't get the specific info like this from a book :)

I will look more into that when I get back. I'm not planning on doing much in the way of corals, maybe 3 or 4, but I want to make sure the corals i DO have will be happy and healthy.

I will be extremely careful and conservative when I do decide on which, and how many, corals I put in.

Thanks Travie.