Travie's Saltwater Tank(s)

**travie** · 10-02-2008, 05:22 PM

I have been in the process of acquiring the equipment for a saltwater tank over the past month. I finally started to set it up yesterday. It is going to start out as a 10 gallon tank. Then eventually go to a 29 gallon or 55 gallon with the 10 remaining to be a salt mixing, QT, and hospital tank.

Equipment:
Around 17 pounds of live rock
100 watt Hydro Heater
RO water
Coralife Marine Salt(Will probably change to Red Sea Coral Pro Salt)
Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand
No Protein Skimmer for now(Will get one eventually)
Maxi-Jet 900 Powerhead(Will get Hydro Koralia wavemaker eventually)

Plans for Livestock in the 10 gallon:
Goby of some kind
Snails
Hermit Crabs

Tonight I plan to get the tank full of saltwater. Get it to the desirable salinity and get the temperature set where I would like.

Please offer suggestions and comments as I go along.

**oldhead** · 10-02-2008, 05:45 PM

Looking good so far. Nice to see so many SW tanks popping up on here lately. You're off to a good start just remember to take things slowly as you set up. It'll pay off plenty in the long run. Post lots of pictures in this thread too, people here love that. Keeping any corals or fish only?

**Lowflyer** · 10-02-2008, 05:55 PM

Hey hey, I agree, good start.

As oldhead said, take it slow, nothing good in marines ever happens quickly. Just make sure to make regular water changes since you don't have a sump or a skimmer, I'd say 20% per week should do. Otherwise looking good. And what lighting are you planning on puttin in? Corals like and need good light.

Another fish you could consider is a blenny, maybe a bicolor blenny, they're very cool fish.

**travie** · 10-03-2008, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by oldhead

Looking good so far. Nice to see so many SW tanks popping up on here lately. You're off to a good start just remember to take things slowly as you set up. It'll pay off plenty in the long run. Post lots of pictures in this thread too, people here love that. Keeping any corals or fish only?

It is going to start out FOWLR. Eventually, I may go with corals.

Originally Posted by Lowflyer

As oldhead said, take it slow, nothing good in marines ever happens quickly. Just make sure to make regular water changes since you don't have a sump or a skimmer, I'd say 20% per week should do. Otherwise looking good. And what lighting are you planning on puttin in? Corals like and need good light.

Another fish you could consider is a blenny, maybe a bicolor blenny, they're very cool fish.

Its a power compact light. Its a 65 watt bulb that is 50/50.

I'll plan to post another picture tonight with the the tank light on. My powerhead is way too big for my tank as you will see in the picture. I'll have to look into getting a smaller one real soon.

**travie** · 10-03-2008, 03:09 AM

Pretty much the same pictures. I told you the powerhead was too big for my tank. By Christmas, I'll attempt to upgrade to Koralia wavemakers. I will lower my heater down once I get the temperature set.

**ILuvMyGoldBarb** · 10-03-2008, 03:13 AM

If you took that "wave maker" off the end of the powerhead you'd be a lot better off. They really don't help that much. You could run the MaxiJet just as it is without that thing and it would do just fine, just move it to the back and point it at the front glass.

**travie** · 10-03-2008, 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by ILuvMyGoldBarb

If you took that "wave maker" off the end of the powerhead you'd be a lot better off. They really don't help that much. You could run the MaxiJet just as it is without that thing and it would do just fine, just move it to the back and point it at the front glass.

Took your suggestion. Tank looks a lot bigger. I need to invest in a cover for the tank asap. I'm thinking all glass. Still in the process of getting my salinity to the right level and the temperature to the right degree. I still need to add sand. I'll get to that later when I have nothing to do like work or school or leave town.

**Lowflyer** · 10-03-2008, 04:32 AM

Looking good, glad you took the advice on the powerhead though, that wavemaker thing on the powerhead is huge. You could also look at the SEIO range of powerheads, they're nice and compact. Look at the Seio M250

**Lowflyer** · 10-03-2008, 03:29 PM

Here's a link to see the specs of the seio pumps

http://www.aquatictech.com/seio.html

**travie** · 10-04-2008, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by Lowflyer

Looking good, glad you took the advice on the powerhead though, that wavemaker thing on the powerhead is huge. You could also look at the SEIO range of powerheads, they're nice and compact. Look at the Seio M250

I'll look into them, but the Koralias are the ones I have my eye on as of now.

I finally have added all my salt to the tank, and the tank was 1.023 to 1.025. I'm using a hydrometer, so its hard to be exact. I'll recheck it in the morning to see what is then.

Would 20 pounds of live sand be too much for a 10g?

An updated picture with the powerhead moved: