New to saltwater and have some questions.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
N

ninjastar

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 30, 2010
335
9
48
Carson,ca
1-Can I use my marineland eclipse 12 for a saltwater tank(That has live rock and coral) or should I use a 10gal tank with a penguin 200 and a light fixture

2-I know its 2lbs for each gal of water for sand and rock, but if it okay to buy live sand/live rock from craigslist.

3-Is their anything that I should be looking for like it should be still in the tank with the water rather than it being in a bucket and dry???

4-When cyling the tank, it can be done like freshwater?

5-How much lighting do I need and what do you recomend??
 
ninjastar;4886200; said:
1-Can I use my marineland eclipse 12 for a saltwater tank(That has live rock and coral) or should I use a 10gal tank with a penguin 200 and a light fixture

really this is personal choice what would you rather use ? i would use the eclipse as its 2gs bigger but their wouldnt be much of a problem if you use the 10g



2-I know its 2lbs for each gal of water for sand and rock, but if it okay to buy live sand/live rock from craigslist.

yes its perfectly fine alot of people do this im in the uk and i use aquarium classifieds as its are version of craigs list



3-Is their anything that I should be looking for like it should be still in the tank with the water rather than it being in a bucket and dry???

yes i would look for fuji live rock as its a higher grade and looks much better but you can use rubble at the back and sides to save a bit

DRY !!! mmm! i truely feel you should do a but more reasarch any rock thats dry isnt live rock its ocean rock live rock should be submerged in water at all times or it will dry out and die which becomes dead rock



4-When cyling the tank, it can be done like freshwater?

freshwater generally are harder and can take the odd spikes of ammonnia but marine just cant in most cases any way so you want to do a fishless cycle read more on fishless cycling here
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/bionitrogencycle/a/aa042403.htm



5-How much lighting do I need and what do you recomend??
Click to expand...

i would do fish and inverts to start as jumping into the coral world might be running before you can walk so a t5 world be fine or even a normal flurecent or if you def want to do corals look into metal halids their rediculasly $$$$ so get a halid for growing plants or a halid flood light and simply take it apart and mount it in a canopy above the tank simples or get led lighting and agen look into wireing your own

hope this helps and any more QS just ask
 
Thanks for the answers.

1-Whats a cheap light fixture be and does it have to be on 24/7.

2-Also i dont know if the tank is exactly a eclipse 12. How can I tell, I measured in to the biggest areas and its 16x8x12
 
a cheap light fixture well i would get one of these if you dont mind spending the money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aquamedic-150...3?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item45f8b84729

or if you want to save some $$$ get one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/400w-Metal-Ha...693?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a0d901495

made for hydroponics and simply take it apart and remove the fixture from the cheap metal casing then install it into a canopy you can make one or buy one the canopy should be suspended on chains either from brackets in the wall or from a custom frame

woww i would hate to to think what a halid would do on 24/7 in 10gs of water no they should be on between 6-8 hours a day to stimulate natural sun shine and corals and anemones need this basically light is the life suport machine of a coral or anemone

how can you tell if its an eclips 12 well look at a pic of an eclips 12 on the net and compar it to your tank but i would imagine if it was an eclips 12 it would say like eclips 12 on the hood or near the base

16x8x12 works out as 6.65 us gallons way to small for a pair of clowns if your a beginer i kept a pair of clowns in a fluval edge but it had ex filtration and i done 2 30% changes a week so i would go with the 10g that would be plenty of space for a pair of percular or common clowns

anemone no no for a begginer i killed 3 anemones when i first started because i jumped in but that was a long time ago so i really would suggest keeping away from them till your more expereinced i have 3 in my tanks at the moment and they really are a pain when it comes to maintance and water quality

percular or common clowns that have been captive bred dont need anemones to host as you dont miss what they havent had :D even wild caught clowns have been successfuly kept with out them and also most will host a fake anemone yes a fake one or some corals
 
monsterberry;4887329; said:
a cheap light fixture well i would get one of these if you dont mind spending the money

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aquamedic-150...3?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item45f8b84729

or if you want to save some $$$ get one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/400w-Metal-Ha...693?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a0d901495

made for hydroponics and simply take it apart and remove the fixture from the cheap metal casing then install it into a canopy you can make one or buy one the canopy should be suspended on chains either from brackets in the wall or from a custom frame

woww i would hate to to think what a halid would do on 24/7 in 10gs of water no they should be on between 6-8 hours a day to stimulate natural sun shine and corals and anemones need this basically light is the life suport machine of a coral or anemone

how can you tell if its an eclips 12 well look at a pic of an eclips 12 on the net and compar it to your tank but i would imagine if it was an eclips 12 it would say like eclips 12 on the hood or near the base

16x8x12 works out as 6.65 us gallons way to small for a pair of clowns if your a beginer i kept a pair of clowns in a fluval edge but it had ex filtration and i done 2 30% changes a week so i would go with the 10g that would be plenty of space for a pair of percular or common clowns

anemone no no for a begginer i killed 3 anemones when i first started because i jumped in but that was a long time ago so i really would suggest keeping away from them till your more expereinced i have 3 in my tanks at the moment and they really are a pain when it comes to maintance and water quality

percular or common clowns that have been captive bred dont need anemones to host as you dont miss what they havent had :D even wild caught clowns have been successfuly kept with out them and also most will host a fake anemone yes a fake one or some corals
Click to expand...

I see, but why is it so hard to keep anemone, and also how hard is it to breed 2 clownfish.

Also if live sand is in a bucket with water and a wake maker, is it still live sand??
 
ninjastar;4888148; said:
I see, but why is it so hard to keep anemone, and also how hard is it to breed 2 clownfish.

Also if live sand is in a bucket with water and a wake maker, is it still live sand??
Click to expand...


whys the sky blue and why do people have eyes (DONT ANSWER THAT)

anemones are hard to keep because they need extreme light out put and very good water quality which is hard to achive in a un mature new aquarium with a newbie aquarium keeper

its up to you if you want to try anemones go for it but dont say i didnt tell you so

breeding clown fish wow you havent even got your tank and your very new to marine so why the hell are you thinking of breeding clown fish correct me if im rong but have you got the clowns and breeding them from the finding nemo film because the fry arnt as cute and cuddly as they seem in the film to succesfuly breed clowns you need plenty of experience in marine and be completely dedacated to the breeding project like a brine shrimp hatchery and the clowns are easy to breed but careing for the fry is a hard job and most people F**K everything up when it comes to this so its really not a good idea to start breeding clowns untill you have more experience and any nolegable member on here will agree with me here



if live sands in a bucket with a wave maker its still live sand like when you buy it from a shop its in a bag with a small amount of water to keep it live
 
Hey, I will agree to being a noob in marine, but calling me a noob in aquarium entirely without even knowing me. I kept many of freshwater fish,breed many of fish,kept many fry alive.

Thats the reason why im posting here in setup and filtration so I can see what people say and get their opinions, but hey thats your opinion. And I never jump the gun on anything. I havent have this tank even setup because Im still planning and researching.

Thanks for the help though. This is just somthing that I just want to keep in my room as a relaxing view.

Also wanting to ask is what kind of coral do you think I should start off with that are easy and very colorful?? But I will do an anemone later on or 2 months after the tank is set and done xP.
 
You need to give your tank a couple months to stabilize before thinking about coral. Make sure you have proper lighting as the stock lighting isn't going to be enough.


I generally like zoo's and mushrooms as started corals.

I suggest you listen to monsterberrys advice or you're just going to waste money.
 
I suggest you listen to monsterberrys advice or you're just going to waste money.[/QUOTE]
thanks im just trying to get the guy off to a good start



ninjastar;4889291; said:
Hey, I will agree to being a noob in marine, but calling me a noob in aquarium entirely without even knowing me. I kept many of freshwater fish,breed many of fish,kept many fry alive.

Thats the reason why im posting here in setup and filtration so I can see what people say and get their opinions, but hey thats your opinion. And I never jump the gun on anything. I havent have this tank even setup because Im still planning and researching.

Thanks for the help though. This is just somthing that I just want to keep in my room as a relaxing view.

Also wanting to ask is what kind of coral do you think I should start off with that are easy and very colorful?? But I will do an anemone later on or 2 months after the tank is set and done xP.
Click to expand...


being a noob isnt an insult its a fact i wasnt being offensive i was just stating a fact and because we where talking about marine i assumed that me saying a noob related to salt water not past experience with freshwater so sorry if i offended you

as ninjastar said zoos, mushrooms & generally most soft corals make good starting points but make shore the tanks fully stable and mature which can be more than 2 months more like 3-4 months

as i said get your self set up and get your self use to marine before you look at corals or anemones as really your conserns at this point should be getting everything set up right, maturing the set up and stocking it

check this out about lighting a marine aquarium its very detailed but its well worth reading

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/lightslightingsetups/a/aareeflightw2by.htm

hope this helps and any thing else just ask i would apriceate you keeping us updated with the tank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom