I need help I wanna start a salt water setup

[squillaempusa]

this guy knows what he's talking about. listen to him.

p.s, Aw3, that snakehead is badass. he looks like he could eat big bass or a duck. what size tank?

 

[squillaempusa]

what do you all think is the best backpack skimmer for a nano reef? i like the Aquamaxx, but it looks like ya can't take the pump out. my 2nd, 3rd choice is a Tunze, or an Octopus.

 

[Aw3s0m3]

what do you all think is the best backpack skimmer for a nano reef? i like the Aquamaxx, but it looks like ya can't take the pump out. my 2nd, 3rd choice is a Tunze, or an Octopus.

I'm a fan of the bakpak skimmers but for a tank that small. Weekly wc's are sufficient enough. All my salt tanks are skimmerless and my biggest is 55g.

Ps. I'm assuming you were asking about my old avatar which was actually an armatus. It looked huge in the pic but is only about a foot and its in a 150 with another one and a bunch of bichirs.

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[Fishysweet]

There are so many ways to set up a tank. My best advice to you is to plan out what fish you want first you dont want to set up a 30 gal then fall in love with a fish that needs a 75 the bigger the tank the easier to take care of the smaller the less room for error. This is the way i set set up my tanks and recommend. I add water and mix my salt in the tank add a couple of wavemakers and plug up the heater and let it run and mix for about 24 hours. Once the tank is up to temp( I keep mine at 78°) I add my live sand or reg sand and good bacteria like cycle or bio spira.then I wait a couple of day and test the water to see where its at normally it takes about 7-10 days before your nitrates nitrites and ammonia are all at zero. its safe to add your first fish. make sure to add a fish you want and not damsels or something you dont want to keep then wait a week test the water and make sure everythings ok dont add to many fish at once and be sure to get a skimmer on the tank within 3 months to remove disolved solids and waste you dont have to have a filter but if you want one go for a hob or sump no canisters. Do a 25% water change once a every 4-6 weeks. You have a few choices with rock you can do fully cured live rock which can have hitchhickers good and bad, dry base rock, reef rock a man made type or fake inserts. If you get uncured live rock it can take weeks to months to cure and smells really bad from the die off I would avoid that. Make sure to turn you wave makers up to the surface so the water looks like its gently boiling and arrange your rock so the water can flow through dont stack it like a brick wall you will get dead spots. Lighting is all gonna be how you want it to look unless you get corals. leds make a great shimmer t5s are cheaper and come in lots of colors. Im not a fan of metal halides to hot. Then theres the top topless a grate or glass tops. Really depends on what fish you have I dont have tops on my tank and I have to top the tanks off once a week or so. Theres more but So much depends on the fish you have hope this helps

 

[squillaempusa]

I'm a fan of the bakpak skimmers but for a tank that small. Weekly wc's are sufficient enough. All my salt tanks are skimmerless and my biggest is 55g.

Ps. I'm assuming you were asking about my old avatar which was actually an armatus. It looked huge in the pic but is only about a foot and its in a 150 with another one and a bunch of bichirs.

thanks for your reply Aw3s0m3. you must go through alot of salt that way. i kinda had my heart set on a skimmer. my last reef tank was a 50 breeder with a homemade sump. i only had a skimmer (a very large Emperor Aquatics) and live rock with many circulator pumps for filtration. sometimes i'd throw a bag of "Chemi-pure" in the sump, under the skimmer discharge. my point is, i like the gadgets, and it's inevidible that a skimmer is gonna end up on the nano tank. i'd love to drill holes in the floor, and put the 45-50 gallon sump with skimmer down in the basement for the 5 gallon reef, but she won't let me.

about my old reef tank, i broke it down years ago when i moved somewhere temporarily. temporarily turned into 4 years, and now i'm in my "permanent spot", but we want to install floors when we can afford it. after that, the 50 breeder with sump will be set up. for now i'm gonna do a nano, for 2 reasons. one reason is i love those little tiny fish and shrimp. the other is, since it's gonna be a 5 gallon, it can be moved when i do the floor. the 50 will end up being all fish. i'm thinking it'll be Africans this time.

PS- the avatar, i thought it was some type of snakehead, because above the pic it says, Cobra Snakehead". but now i know that's the title the site gives you for the amount of posts.

 

[Aw3s0m3]

Haha I actually don't go through that much. Since I still consider a 55 a nano, weekly wc's are a must for me just to keep the params stable. I didn't know you were gonna add a sump to the system. Since that's the case, might as well get a skimmer because it will help keep the water cleaner. The main reason I'm not much of a fan for skimmers on small tanks is becuz they also remove a lot of essential elements which are necessary for promoting growth in coralline algae and corals. I still believe bakpaks are the best nano skimmers but they are hob's. The best way to go for size is to grab the largest skimmer that you can fit. Just don't go cheap. The cyclones suck balls


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[squillaempusa]

yea, i know about the "Cyclones". i'm not adding a sump. i meant that i'd like to have one for the nano (not the 50 breeder, lol.) down in the basement. my girl won't let me drill holes in the floor tho. i was looking at the Aquamaxx skimmer, but it looks like ya can't get the pump out for maintenance. that's a big no-no for me. i also was looking at an Octopus backpack. what is your favorite backpack? and what do ya think of the 2 i mentioned? oh, i also was looking at a couple Tunze skimmers, but they both go inside the tank, which i don't like.

 

[Fishysweet]

I have two hob reef octopus my only complaint is that one didnt try come with the little plastic screw that holds the cup were you want it and it has started to over flow a couple of times. Other then that it's a good skimmer. It's crazy how much stuff it picks up just in a few hours. I rinse the cup out every 2-4 weeks

 

[squillaempusa]

I have two hob reef octopus my only complaint is that one didnt try come with the little plastic screw that holds the cup were you want it and it has started to over flow a couple of times. Other then that it's a good skimmer. It's crazy how much stuff it picks up just in a few hours. I rinse the cup out every 2-4 weeks

cool. that's good info about it picking stuff up quickly like that.

 

[Fishysweet]

yeah if you wet skim its even faster but that's a lot of dumping the cup