STL newby needs help

[Tonblogna]

I have been doing freshwater for about 15 years now and have always wanted to try saltwater, but I finally made the move this morning and bought another tank with saltwater in mind.

The tank is a 33 gallon Oceanic cube with a built in overflow. There is a 250 w single bulb metal halide light in the canopy with a 20,000 k rating.

I would like to grow a couple corals like a finger leather, lobed brain, moon or fox and have an anemome or two, and of course fish.

Saying that, am I all set on light? Speaking of which, do you just leave your light on like normal from morning to night, or 24-7....or?

For a filtration I plan on using 30 lbs of live rock in the tank along with a sump. I plan on using a 10 or 15 gallon tank for sump, but I am a bit confused on building a sump as far as how and where to put the dividers and how to figure out what size return pump I need. Does anyone ever sell used sumps? I know you can buy pre-made ones in the store, but I'm "thrifty" so that speaks for itself.

I have also read conflicting info on what is best to put inside the sump. I thought about just a couple more pieces of live rock. From what I know, I also plan to use a skimmer because I want to have as many fish as possible.

If anyone can give me some advice and/or link me to a step by step process on building a sump for this size tank it would be greatly appreciated.

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks, Tony

 

[Shooter7]

Hi Tony.

Go to this thread out of the newbie forum and scroll down. The first few entries are long, but are on the setting up of a new tank and I suggest you do a lot of reading up front, which could save you some money down the road...

A little further down, there is a link for a site called melev's reef. He has a whole section on building various sumps and what to use them for.

There's a local club meeting tomorrow to kick off this year's season if you want to try and make it.

Good luck.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1031074

 

[breutus]

Welcome to RC, There is definitly a wealth of information on the boards.

To answer with some IMO's I feel you can hardly have to much light, and though thats definitly a good bulb (color and wattage) for that size tank. I would maybe think about also adding in some type of small t5's or something like that.
I keep my ODNO florescent on from 11-11 and my halide from 2-9. The light that is on my sump stays on 24-7

I keep a sand bed, live rock rubble and cheato in my sump.
and definitly keep your eyes open people sell sumps on here all the time, matter of fact you may give reggeafish a pm I think he still has one up for sale.

once again welcome to the boards!

 

[saltyunderground]

Get the biggest sump you have room for if you want a lot of fish. You'll get lots of different opinions on this, but most agree only a few fish in a 33g tank. So the bigger the sump, the more fish you can have.

Your light is good for coral. If the bulb is over 10-12 months old replace it. You can run it 8 hours a day and be fine. You can do longer if you want but watch the heat in the tank.

Only bad things happen fast in this hobby. Take your time and read a lot.

 

[jcjstl]

one recommendations i would make is to check out seasl's mentor program it opens a door to people with a wealth of knowledge. http://www.seasl.org/mentorProgram.php

 

[Tonblogna]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm gonna really have to be patient with this saltwater stuff. I always want to put the fish in the day I set up the tank. A bit of HDD or ADD or both I think...

Do you know how many ADD kids it takes to change a light bulb....wanna see my bike!!??