29 gallon saltwater tank?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
refugium will provide filteration and live foods for fish in the tank.(fish that graze off rock work etc..)

you can make the sump/refugium your self or if you'd rather have a prof. look you can have it made. i had mine made by lifereef.com and he does amazing work. he will set it all up how it should be and if you tell him the skimmer you want he will make it fit perfectly.....
i highly recomend TUNZE 9002 skimmer. i have one and can personally say its amazing! and prety small so fits in the sump nicely. rated up to a 60* gallon tank (i think 60, may be 65 or 55.....)
Tunze 9002 skimmer= $146.39
worth every penny!


i would get:
40ish LBS of live rock
30-40lbs of live sand

GLO 24 Inch 2x24 Watt T5 HOlight. this way you can get the marine look, and maybe even keep some simple corals. and it wont take much electricity.......
( i have this on my freshwater planted tank and love it!)
link to the light = $115
Good ratings/reviews
nice looking light over the tank


FISH FOR A 29 GALLON:
i would do:
pair of picasso clowns (semi-picasso if youdont have the money)
Helfrichi Firefish (or if on a budget Purple firefish)
_________ insert another fish here
 
How about he just gets a couple koralia nanos and doesnt bust the bank?

I love vortech too...its one of the ulitmate reef toys, but...you really dont NEED that. Koralia is all you ever need for conventional flow purposes.
 
Oh I am expecting to spend money on this setup I don't want a repeat of last time. I am used to doing weekly 50% water changes for my cichlids would that be too much for a saltwater tank? Im guessing something along the line of 30% would be better. I really like the idea of a clown pair would they breed so I can raise the young eventually? That would be cool. I really like the pistol shrimp and goby dynamic if it's an option if not then oh well. I was thinking (bear with me on the names) blue zebra hermit crabs and asterite or turbo snails if those sound familiar. A small wrasse sounds good too. Sounds like I have a general idea of what I want. Oh and I think I will use the ten gallon for the sump/refugium. Still alot of research to be done.
 
Actually a saltwater tank, if setup right, is a more complete and balanced system so 10% water changes are the norm. If you have problems it is better to do them more frequently than more volume. The livestock in a marine tank cannot handle the same changes as almost any freshwater. What would be nothing to cichlids would wipe out your entire tank in saltwater. Because of this it is better to stock with smaller water changes. In that size tank I would do exactly what I do, get a five gallon bucket with a small pump and mix up five gallons at a time. Keep it running all the time so you have water to go if anything hints you need to do a water change. Then just do five gallon water changes each time. If you will use premixed water from the store then always have a container ready to go. Make sure to top off evaporation with RO water, not saltwater.

It is possible to get your clownfish to breed, but to actually raise the offspring would require at least one if not a few other tanks. The eggs need to be moved to a different tank before they hatch, and the usual method is to grow rotifers to feed the offspring, and grow greenwater algae to feed the rotifers. However, golden pearls have been used to completely raise marine fish in Europe, so that could help bypass all the food culturing.

You should have a variety of cleaners for your tank. These should include nassarius, margaritas, astrea, and turbo snails along with blue leg, scarlet, and burgundy hermits. As specific problems develop you should get more of the cleaners specific to those issues (like more burgundy hermits for red slime algae or a sea hare for hair algae).
 
Thanks so much for the advice. One last thing I can think of. I have some left over live rock from my old setup but it's no more than 10lbs. The problem is it is completely dead(white dead). Is it possible to seed it with living rock to help bring it back a little bit or can I at least use it as a foundation. Do I need live rock in the refugium/sump? And can I also seed regular sand or do I need all live sand?

Oh and still no response on the goby question. Also how would I go about getting a pair of clowns?
 
rrcoolj;4486066; said:
Thanks so much for the advice. One last thing I can think of. I have some left over live rock from my old setup but it's no more than 10lbs. The problem is it is completely dead(white dead). Is it possible to seed it with living rock to help bring it back a little bit or can I at least use it as a foundation. Do I need live rock in the refugium/sump? And can I also seed regular sand or do I need all live sand?

Oh and still no response on the goby question. Also how would I go about getting a pair of clowns?
Click to expand...


clowns will pair up in the tank most of the time, but you can also buy them as a pair. i bought my picassos from my local pet store. they were in the same tank, and they were the same size.

i bellive thats key, being the same size


also you can seed the rock.

and for the sand i would just buy 2X 20lb bags........


as for live rock in the refugium, i have some in mine just because. not nessary though. i had to much in my display to i put some in the fuge so my rock scape wasnt so croweded.


as for goby/shrimp. i dont see why not? just make sure other tank mates are compadable with them......
 
Get a pair of clowns that are in the same tank at the store, as long as they get along they are a pair.

As long as the pistol shrimp isn't big enough to kill everything in the tank that combo would be a great addition to the tank (just don't be surprised if they pick a burrow you can't see and you rarely if ever get to see them).

You can have a little rock in the fuge, it is most important to have space for macroalgae to grow. When it fills the fuge you cut it in half and take that half into the LFS for a little bit of credit.

Some dead rock is fine, and actually one of the very few ways to save money on saltwater. As long as at least one pound per gallon is actual live rock you should be fine. Use the old stuff as a base and put some actual live rock on top. Over time it will all be live rock. At least 2/3 of my rock was bought dry.

Unless it comes out of an established tank it is not really live sand, at best it is wet sand with the equivalent of an off the shelf bacteria supplement. I used Estes Marine Sand Ultra Reef because I wanted black sand. It is silica based but has a polymer coat to prevent brown algae problems. The color is your choice completely. I prefer sand that is nice and fine, burrowers like it better and it stays cleaner (doesn't trap debris the way a courser sand will).

Now is the time to paint tha back. I always use black, it will make all the colors stand out better and will physiologically increase the pigmentation in the fish.

Here is a while tank shot of my tank:
IMG_1223.jpg

And here is my sump (sorry no flash). The first chamber (far left) handles bubbles. The first baffle is off the bottom a little (1"). The second baffle is only about 1.5" away. This forces the water down then up into the fuge, which cuts down on the bubbles from the drain from the tank and the skimmer. Then there is the fuge with oolite sand, then the final baffle. The top of the final baffle has eggcrate on both sides which allows me to put a piece of that white plastic needlepoint mesh to keep the macroalgae out of the pump section. The last setion is where all the pumps go (and where the sensor is for the auto top off). To the right of the sump is the auto top off reservoir. Hanging off the back of the sump are a couple reactors (one carbon, one gfo for phosphate). One thing I would do differently is use dakr smoked glass instead of clear to help keep light from the fuge only in the fuge and not growing algae all over the sump. Notice the black, not clear, vinyl tubing for the same reason (before I used the black I had coralline growing inside the tubing). The skimmer is an injection skimmer (versus venturi) so it can sit remotely from the sump/pump. It is behind the stand and you can see part of it and the drain on the left end of the sump. I hope this all helps a little with your sump.
IMG_1222.jpg
 
Lot going on with that sump lol. I think I get the gist but I need more info. Good thing is it doesn't look as hard as I thought(setting up the tank) but bad news is it will be a while. Oh well i can wait until I get everything. So you guys just use regular sand? good because I have plenty of that in the current setup. And since the tank is already running I won't have to re-cycle it. I think I will take using mostly dead rock suggestion because last time the live rock cost me waaay too much. Even for only 10lbs.
 
The sump itself is very simple, just know what pumps and skimmer you are going to use and leave as much space for the fuge.

Just make sure that you get at least one pound per gallon of actual live rock AND that it is very good rock. There are some really good deals online and some of the places are very high quality rock that ships straight from the sea to you.
 
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