Need your opinon on a setup :)

[JWolfgang]

Here's my situation, I won a Bio-Cube 14 at a fish auction as their main raffle prize. I've been wanting a salt setup for sometime, just didn't think it would be now I've been in the fish hobby for 20+ years I'm currently breeding cichlids and have over 100 tanks setup. I'm thinking of cutting back on the fresh water so I'll have a few different size tanks open.I'm wondering what would be better? The bc 14, or, sell it and setup a tank from scratch. I've always preferred longer tanks anyway. I have a 33 gallon long. Its the same footprint as a 40L or a 55 gallon only its about 12" tall.

Keep in mind, this is my first setup and either tank will be nano, I would like some soft coral's and just a few fish.............NOTHING MAJOR.

A friend of mine is trying to talk me into cultivating and growing frags for him, since I have the room and extra tanks. First thing first,........... and BABY STEPS


Thanks in advance. I need all the help I can get!

Jamie

 

[stevestank]

tank size

tank size

I would suggest a mimimum of 75 gallons for a reef tank. The smaller the tank the smaller the margin for error. I used to keep cichlids as well. Salt is tough. If you insist on a smaller tank < 75 gallons, I would limit your livestock to fish only with live rock until such time your tank matures. Add livestock slowly and do plenty of research.

 

[mntl]

The 40 or 55 is very doable. Limiting the size of the tank limits the fish you can keep, so if fish are you main interest then the bigger the better. But as coral go you can do just about anything. There has been alot of equipement being made for smaller systems over th last couple years that have made them not too difficult to keep. The 14 would not be easy, but the 40/55 would be great. Dont rush the livestock, have fun watching rocks for a few months , they really are interesting as things grow on them. And get you system parameters dialed and stabalized.

As nano/small tanks go, the main piece of equipement i would recommend (since i dont know what type of systmem/methodology you are interested in) is an auto-topoff. Do not expect to have stable salinity if you are manually adjusting the salt/water ratio all the time. It swings fast in a small tank and you need the consistancy to keep things happy.

I have had sps only systems for a number of years now and all are in the 10-30gal range. I have also worked with a few friends who were completely new to the hobby, who are now successfully keeping sps in 10-15gal systems. So some of the more difficult corals are completely possible, and not as difficult as you will hear people make it out to be. But if the point of the smaller tank is simple to keep expenses low, then you will probably be dissapointed.

If all you want is soft corals and a few fish, then a 40 breeder is great and cheap. If you want more specifics post exactly what you want to achieve with the system and i could probably give you a general list of equipement and prices. I am sure others will be able to chime in as well.

-John

 

[stevestank]

Like John says "it's doable"

watch your PH, specific gravity, temperature, flow, lighting, etc..... If any of them start to drift, they drift very quickly in a small tank which equates to the small margin for error I mentioned. Many times, by the time you figure out what's going wrong in a small tank... the damage is done and the dreaded downward spiral to a tank wipeout moves quickly through a relative time line as opposed to large tank. I have a friend with a 24 gallon nanocube which was beautiful. A 2 hour power outage was it's demise. Whereas I had a 2 hour power outage on my 125 gallon which resulted in little or no "die off." Just a bit of advice.

 

[cmador]

I've only had nano-reefs, 20, 10 and 4 gallons. I love 'em and find them quite easy to take care of - as long as you do weekly water changes without fail. I still voted for the larger tank for you. The problems I have with my tanks are that you are very limited to what you can keep, in my 4 and 10 gallons I keep coral only and in my 20 I just have 3 small fish. The other problem is the maintenace to keep your corals' growth under control. With the limited room, I am constantly fragging to keep corals from growing up and over each other or killing each other like my frogspawn did to its neighboors in my 20. Like Steve said above, constant testing of water conditions and an ATO are integral for nano-reefs. Good Luck.

 

[JWolfgang]

Here's a short list of the specimens I know of that I would like to add.

2 regular clown fish (nemo)
2 black and white clowns
2 dwarf angels, leaning toward the flame angels
different types of goby's I can add.

For the corals, the only one I know the name of is Green purple people eater? something like that, I would like alot of different types, some I can frag and get into the hobby more, I love trading cichlids and stuff dealing with fresh water, so I guess i'm wanting to sort of the same thing.


Jamie

 

[Willie_6]

I would love to see what 100+ tanks set up look like. Do you live in a fish store?

As for the fish you want to keep-that won't work. You can not mix clowns of differant species together. So you either have to pick one or the other. Also, the angels are not reef safe. I also think that would be too many fish for either tank. Take it slow and do your research. You have come to the right place for help.

 

[JWolfgang]

Its alittle crowded in the basement. As for the tank, I'm only wanting to go with 2 clowns not sure which species but only one or the other not both like you said. I've also decided against the angels after talking to a few people who have had them in their tanks.

I don't want to overload the tank. I've decided to setup the BC 14 and then setup a 40g long at a later date. I'm going to try and sell my fresh water 90g set-up so I'll have the room and the cash to fund another tank.

Jamie

 

[stevestank]

fish

fish

You don't want to put two dwarf angels in a tank... especially a small one. You might get away with two dwarf angels in a large tank with lots of rock work.

 

[johndawg]

I see you are going with the nano, just be careful in the future with reusing fresh water tanks if you ever treated with copper, not good with corals....
John

 

[JWolfgang]

I've never treated with copper.

 

[crazyseany]

The thing I can't believe with the saltwater setup I have is the amount of evaoration!! like 1+gallons a day....

those lights and fans can really move some water... Poof it's gone!! LOL

good luck Jamie

I had a 29 set up for awhile with just LR and LS and 2 clowns... didn't do much with it at all... now I have a 75 reef and its driving me nuts!! LOL

Sean

 

[bigdaddyadam]

my first saltwater tank was a 20 gallon reef...I was able to keep some harder stuff like a Bubbletip anemone going in there, but it was way overstocked and really a pain. I would never go back lower than my 55 I have now.

Save the time and money now, get a 75 drilled...ten you can have a sump, with a nice skimmer out of the main tank...any the tank will be large enough to justify a good lighting system like metal halides or T5's

 

[JWolfgang]

I'm trying to sell a freshwater 90 complete setup and a few other FW stuff, so I can order a 75 pre-drilled with corner overflow, and do it up right.

I'm starting to cut back in the fishroom also, making room for a frag tank

Jamie