New member, looking for advice on tank setup.

[TDib]

Hello, I am completely new to aquarium care and am interested in setting up some form of salt water tank with the main focus being a snowflake eel. I’ve done research on salt water tanks and the eel itself. From what i’ve read the snowflake eel is a relatively easy eel to take care of, but not sure if there’s something else you would recommend for a complete newby. I understand salt water reef tanks for a snowflake eel should have aquacultured rocks and corals/anemones. Any recommendations on what corals and anemones I should look into? I’m not planning on adding other fish to the tank, just a snowflake eel. I would set it up in a 75 gallon tank since that seems to be the recommended size for this eel.
Thank you for any advice and recommendations!

 

[griss]

If your primary interest is the eel, there is no reason you have to keep corals. Only keep the corals if those interest you. There are a lot of saltwater hobbyists who keep fish only with live rock tanks (FOWLR).

Also, don’t don’t have to use aquacultured rock. You could use the dry rock that’s available form vendors such as Premium Aquatics. Dry Rock | Premium Aquatics

For what you’re planning, a 75 gallon sounds good. I would suggest a reef ready tank if that’s in your budget. Get a decent sump, return pump, heater and protein skimmer.

For lighting, if you do not plan to keep corals, you can go pretty low budget. If you do plan to keep corals, you’ll really want to research the lighting. I’ll be honest and say I don’t know much about LED lighting as I’m still using old school metal halide. But, @reefing102 seems to have a pretty good grasp on quality budget friendly LEDs.

 

[reefing102]

Welcome to RC!

I agree with @griss. You don’t have to have corals or anemones in a saltwater tank unless that’s something you actually want. It is generally recommended that the tank be established for at least a year before adding any anemones as they are usually a bit more sensitive than coral.

If you do decide to go with corals, you can get decent lights on a budget. One thing to keep in mind is with lighting for coral, it’s not just plug it in and forget it. Depending on the type of light (halide, T5, or LED) you may need to acclimate any coral you buy to your light either by adjusting light settings or starting the coral low in your tank and then moving it where you want it.

For lighting options, I run halide and LED. For LED specifically, as that is the common lighting now, On the low budget end, you have Viparspectra (2 channel light control), SmatFarm(no wifi app control) and Noopsyche(with app control) (both have 6 channel control). For a 75 gallon tank, you’ll need at least two of these lights. I personally run a SmatFarm LED on my wife’s anemone tank and it does great, the only trouble I’ve had is finding that perfect setting to get that true pop of color some of the significantly more expensive systems have.

I have no experience with the Noopsyches but they are a very popular budget option however their app and wifi connectivity is not the greatest. @BeanAnimal has created a QR code set up to help with setting up the lights but I know he can tell you more about his experience