Ok i am new to salt water tanks, i want to start with a 29 Gal tank, reef and fish, and i have seen all this stuff about all these fancy things you need like a chiller,Protein skimmer, Power head,sump,refugium, Etc and to be quite honest i cant really afford all those fancy things. My question is this, they have a 29 Gal Complete set up at wal mart (designed for freshwater) But it has a light and filter system and a few other things, now what i want to know is if i get the set up, with live sand and live rock, some coral, and fish will they all die if i dont have all the fancy add ons mentioned above? Can i use a Standard Filter system(i have one in my gold fish tank and it provides quite alot of water movement) it pumps the water up from the bottom and returns it in a waterfall action, Will this be ok in place of a protein skimmer and power head?Basically what i need to know is what MUST i have in order to keep the fish alive, what is completely necessary and what can be done without till money allows? I plan to Use Distilled water Not tap water, and the tank will be set up in Stages,Live Sand and Live Rock and water, and it will prolly be 4 to 6 weeks before i can add anything else, then i plan on Marine Plants, and Maybe Coral, then Invertebrates and finally Fish the tank will prolly be up and running for about 3 months before the fish go in. Please share advice and stories and any info you think will help.Thanks so much for all the help in advance!
Answers:
Honestly you don't have to have all the bells and whistles to do saltwater..When I first strated doing salt I started with a 28 gallon tank.I used a whisper filter from walmart one that filters 60 gallons.I had no power heads,no skimmer,no fancy lights.And my tank did great.I have since updraded to a 135 gallon,I use a sump for filtering,I do have better lights but did not in the begining,still have no skimmer and all and don't need one.
Get a whisper filter for a 60 gallon tank,get live sand ( i would not suggest crushed coral)and good live rock and use the distilled water and let it cycle..I started out useing RO water but I have since gone to tap because to get RO i have to drive a hour.
You can upgrade on your lights later in order to keep the corals you wont..Email me if ya need any help.Saltwater is so much fun.
Ok, this is a long question I will try to be brief in my answer. One thing about salt water tanks is that you can not cut corners to save money. It is expensive and the "fancy" things are quite necessary. Well, some that you listed anyways. Lets start with size and talk about the bare essentials,
29 gallons is a very small reef tank. For a beginner salt water aquarist, 75-100 gallons is a MUCH better choice. With larger sized tanks, mistakes that beginners make are a little more forgiving, IE harder for water parameters to fluctuate. Salt water dwellers are a lot more sensitive and require more space than freshwater.
2) You have left lighting out of the equation. If you want to keep corals and inverts, adequate lighting is a must and it is not cheap. Numerous bulbs and a special hood are required.
3) Protein skimmer and power heads are a necessity. aeration of water, extra filtration, and removal of proteins need to happen.
So those are the basic necessities. A sump is something that can be done yourself to save money and purchased later and a chiller is only needed for cold water fish.
Basically, it is worth it to wait, save up your money and do it with the right equipment the first time around. It could be even worse to skim by without buying the essential gear, then lose a bunch of coral, inverts, and fish.
Hope that helped.
If you're a beginner, forget coral, and exotic anemones. And always stay away from marine plants. They will die and rot, and spoil the ecosystem in a flash. An underpowered system like the ones in department stores is inadequate for salt-water biological loads. You get what you pay for. The only way you could use that equipment is if you doubled up on the filters, to increase the air/nitrogen handling power. And make sure you buy the finest heater/chiller you can find, as this one item can single-handedly make or break you. Don't skimp on this. Then there is the problem of power failure. You also need a reliable alternative source of power for this little piece of underwater paradise. (This is the disaster that finally convinced me not to keep salt-water fish at all.)
Also, the lighting in a typical fresh system sale package is not going to sustain the live rock for even three days. You will find yourself growing algae and little else. You will waste your time and money, and have to break down the tank and start over (not to mention killing everything in the tank), if you don't get some quality equipment. The 29 gallon tank is he most overrated tank in the business. It is too tall, and it is not really large enough for salt-water applications. I don't recommend anything smaller than a 75, if you really want to get a long-standing result from this hobby. And if you get rowdy children or friends around at any time, your tank will be an irresistable target for their pranks: cigarette butts, getting the fishies drunk with beer, even baited fishhooks! I've seen it all, and more.
I am New to salt water and i started with a 34G tank fish only, which is alot easier(i suggest upgrading to coral in a couple of years). Also i have no fancy things just, 2 filters, a heater and no fancy stuff like protein skimmers and sumps and so far with tangs, clown fish, angel and other fish there have been NO deaths AT ALL in th 6 months the tank has had fish
Also all i did was use thin pieces of Live Rock to make like a wall on the back and then used coral base not Live sand. While i was cycling the tank i used stabeliser which fastened up the cycleing prosses
i have a 29g and it is a pain in the butt. u are always testing the water and i have an algee problem to all i have is a filter that was built in the hood and a protein skimmer
You are planning to add things completely backward. Inverts and that stuff go first. Unless you are using fish to cycle the tank. To keep it brief, keeping corals is much harder than keeping fish corals need much stronger lighting much cleaner water and much more maintenence. For corals you need a protien skimmer and much more filtration. If you dont have the money for a reef tank than do yourself a favor to save a lot of money and aggrivation in corals dieing than just stick with fish and inverts. Corals need power heads because they need the current to be able to provide them with the trace element is the water and phytoplankton/zooplankton to eat. Not only will you have to have current but reverse osmosis water which will have no trace elements in it so you will have to add them back into your water so that adds more things to test for. You will need to maintian your calcium with coral. So on top of checking pH ammonia nitrite and nitrate you will need to test calcium and dKh. To just keep fish you can get away with a regular setup more so than with keeping corals. In my opinion the two hardest tanks to keep healthy are reef tanks and seahorse tanks. So as a beginner i would stay away from those two ideas till you have a better grasp of keeping a marine tank.
That filter will not be in place of either a skimmer or powerheads. completely different! It is good to have a good filter but they do completely different things than a skimmer or powerheads. You cant really even compare them. Try keeping fish alive first befor you jump into corals. They are expensive and difficult to maintain. If you dont have proper lighting and water current they will not thrive in that tank. Id hate to see a nice coral wither away due to being housed inproperly. If you cant afford the stuff for a reef tank its as simple as dont start a reef tank. I cant afford a ferrari thats why i dont have one although i want one.
Start your tank with like 3 green chromis (fish) keep them alive for 3-5 months and after that you may decide to upgrade your lights to VHO's or add a skimmer. Once you do both of those than id say try your hand at keeping soft corals like Zoanthids, leathers, mushrooms, or Xenia. Hope this helps and if you have any other questions feel free to email me.
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