New 55 Gallon, a few questions.

[noreason]

Hello all,

I was recently givin 6 55 gallon tanks and 6 EHEIM canister filters (i dont have the model number off hand but will post it later).

One of these I would like to set up as a marine tank, fish only.
I currently run two freshwater tanks, but have never tried salt water, but I would like to.

Since i live on an island in the gulf of mexico I was thinking of turning one tank into a "gulf" tank, something I cant seem to come across on the internet (probably because gulf fish are ugly and not fun to watch?).

What i want to do is pretty much fill the bottom with sand that I collect from the beach but I'm curious about what the sand will do to the filter or if this is even a good idea? It doesnt seem like it would be good for the filter to suck up sand, but who knows, it says marine and fresh water, but doesnt mention sand.

Second question I guess is aside from the canister filter and a heater what other gear should I use for a fish only setup? I know the information is out there for me to read but I'm having trouble finding anything for gulf fish so I guess the real question is, what would be the best setup for this?

Alot of articles i read for beginners dont even mention things that I would think necessary like a protein skimmer, so thats my main reason for asking here on this forum. Instead of finding an article that suggests the bare minimum setup, I'd rather have a setup that runs clean and efficient.

Sorry for the long read and the fact that its a fish only setup on reefcentral but this site is so amazing that I had to post it here.

 

[chrisbenavides]

first of all....tell me what kind of gulf fish are you looking into putting in a 55g tank? the fish I see in the gulf are huge.

 

[davidcalgary29]

There are also quite a few discrete biotopes in the Gulf. Assuming that you do not want to replicate the Mississippi riparian zone or other turbid waters in the Northern Gulf, I would suggest that you're going to be largely limited to inverts and a couple of anchovies, or maybe a burrfish. Your tank's really too small for anything else.

I'd also be very wary of utilizing near-shore sand for your tank unless you can be sure that it's free from pollutants. There are simply not a lot of pristine habitats left in the Gulf, and you're going to be concentrating all of the garbage that's in your local area in a very, very small space (and not have the benefit of the larger ocean's buffering capacity).

You'll also need some biological filter if you do not use LR. Canister filters are fairly poor biological filters, and they tend to be nitrate magnets.

 

[skylab1]

First of all canister are excellent filter for biological, if you have the right media with it. All my tanks are canister w/o skimmer.
55 gallons you'll need a max of 550 gph flow rate, I don't know which eheim you got, but its important to find out the flow rate of each filter. Most likely you will need 3 of them per tank.

"I'd rather have a setup that runs clean and efficient"

You can have a clean and efficient system if you do it right from the beginning, you already have most of the equipment there, other then the lights, you have no other equipment to buy excpet filter media. Oh, I stay off the beach sand unless you are sure is clean, you are better off with packaged dry sand.

 

[Maker]

The canister filter shouldn't suck up the sand from the bottom. Not unless you have the intake smack dab on top of the sand bed.

What island out of curiousity (this might help w/ advice on a specific gulf biotope)?

Next question. Who gave you six 55 gallon tanks/filters and do they need some more friends!?!?

 

[noreason]

The island is Galveston (not as great as it sounds, trust me)

I was thinking of something like a piggy perch (pigfish/orthopristis chrysoptera) or croaker maybe, something that stays pretty small even as a full grown adult... I know its pretty silly and out of the ordinary but its something different and something i've wanted to try for a while but never got around to it. I was planning on putting one or two max maybe a small crab?

The main reason really would be the availability of the fish since I can catch them myself, which adds to the coolness of it all...

Sound like a dumb/bad idea?

oh and my dad gave me the tanks, he had them in the walls of his business but took them out recently