Checklist

[Figment]

I'll be moving to a new house in a few months and I want to get back into fish keeping. I ended a 5 year freshwater collection back in November when I moved from Florida to North Carolina. I'm buying a house that will be finalized around October. I haven't had any fish since I moved up here, but I'm feeling the itch again. LOL

So I've basically got an Amazon wishlist compiled for starting a new tank. I'm looking to do a 40 or 55 gallon display with an equal sized sump with refugium for a FOWLR setup. I'll jump on the tanks once the next Petco $1/gallon sale happens.

Here is my list:
- no-name brand protein skimmer rated for "up to" 300 gallons (reviews suggest using on no more than a 125-150 gallon tank) or alternative is an Instant Ocean brand skimmer rated for 150 gallons
- Eheim 300 watt heater
- standard fluorescent lighting (nothing special)
- Rio pump (several options within the brand) rated for 750-900 gallons for a 5-10 times turnover per hour for the refugium
- all the little nick-nacks, such as nets, some medications, drip acclimator, etc
- 40-55 pounds of dead sand
- 60-75 pounds of live rock
- powerheads rated from 150-1300 gph
- refractormeter

So here comes the barrage of questions:
- Should my return pump be rated for the volume of the display or the total volume of the display and sump?
- I know that the powerheads will depend on the stock a bit, but is there a general rule of thumb for powerheads compared with tank size?
- Are there any preferred brands of salt for mixing?
- Besides the normal nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, hardness, calcium, phosphates and potassium, are there any others I should get?
- Anything I'm missing?

 

[segen77]

The petco sale is going on right now. Ends August 8th. I was just looking at this earlier, but they don't have the tank I want.

http://www.petco.com/petco_Page_PC_dollarpergallon.aspx?cm_mmc=twitter-_-dpg-_-aquatics-_-20141228

 

[whosurcaddie]

For the return pump you want 5x turnover of your display after calculating headloss. So if you go with a 55 gallon display you want a pump that outputs 275gph after head loss.

For powerheads it depends on what you want to keep. For LPS and softies 30X turnover of your display is ideal. For SPS 50 to 70X turnover is what you want.

Ive used Instant Ocean for 12 years but a lot of people seem to like Red Sea Coral Pro.

Alkalinity, magnesium skip the hardness and potassium. Stick with good test kits Salifert or Red Sea.

Get the best skimmer you can afford. Don't be content with a no name skimmer. A smaller skimmer that is more efficient will be better than a large skimmer that has poor build quality.

 

[Scoted]

For FOWLR I would use instant ocean and save the money over more expensive brands. Also two 150 watt heaters is safer than one 300 watt heater.