Convert 29g fresh to 30b reef?

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AnthonyJiz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 15, 2009
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New Jersey, USA
Hey guys i currently have a 29gallon freshwater tank... the T5's are on sale for $139 for a 36" and im thinking of buying it then getting a breeder and just waiting till all my fish pass so that i could make a reef tank, what do you guys think? or would it be smarter for me to just stay with the 29 and get a 30" T5?
 
where are these on sale at? and what wattage are they?
 
oh ok yeah i have only heard good from marine depot and that is definitely good sale they got going, couldnt see where it said what wattage the bulbs were only the kelvins..... but yeah i dunno i mean it is nice its only ten dollars more but it really just depends on what tank you want whether you want to stick with the tank you have or buy new one, depends on what you are wanting to keep? also which tank would be shallower because the shallower the tank the better it is for the light to reach all the way to the bottom so you wouldnt have to worry so much about which corals to put in top layers and others in bottom you could just put them wherever they looked good:)
 
lol sorry i was kind of confusing lol i was just saying do whichever will be better for you money/space wise. would be cheaper to stick with tank you already have but a breeder would give you more aquascaping space which gives you more spaces to put corals :) but if getting a new tank means you would have to get all new stuff then i would just stick with the one you have you could stick make awesome looking tank with that
 
Well a 30 breeder is the same as a 29gallon, the volume is the same only the shape changes so my heater + filter should work perfect, only thing i need is that light..
 
I don't mean to discourage you, but buying lights is a drop in the bucket of the financial punch in the face that is starting a reef tank.

If you want a reef tank research all the costs, (overflow, sump(could be your 29 with a little work), skimmer, liverock, livestock, coral foods, buffers, etc) and then decide if it's right for you. You can't just dump a bunch of salt in a FW community tank with good lights and expect it to be a reef system, it just doesn't work that way.

If you're having to chose between a reef and a FW system for financial reasons and aren't comfortable building your own gear, don't look twice at the reef, when blue planet comes on TV, change the channel, it's for your own good. If you do switch over and can't get it together with decent gear you're going to wind up with a halfassed mess that you'll wish was a nice FW system.

Not to say you can't put a slick T5 fixture on your existing tank, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. :)
 
lol again mad bob is extremely correct! saltwater tanks need ALOT more filtration than your average sw tank as for live rock if you get the dry rock from marco rocks and then just get a little hunk of live rock from someone it will all become live rock eventually and you will have saved a TON of money, but yeah i was in the process of starting a 20g L reef tank which i have now put on hold due to how much it costs and now that iv looked more into different freshwater fish i see there are plenty that are just as colorful, i mean dont get me wrong i still have soft spot for saltwater and those gorgeous fish and corals (im actually majoring in marine bio:) but i just dont have the money or the time to maintain one at the moment they definitely do require ALOT more work and maintaing to keep the water at the right levels of everythign for the corals to grow properly (Alk, Ca, Mg, etc) i just assumed you had already reserached all of this, if you havnt then definitely research, research, research reef tanks are breathtaking when setup and maintained properly but that requires alot more work than just having a tank with some gorgeous colored SA cichlids for example good luck on whatever you decide though just dont want you to go in blind and its best to get what you need in the begining and set it up right because thats when alot of people end up spending even more is when they go the cheap route setting it up and as soon as they throw their first couple of fish or corals in there realize they need something better (also with that size tank you could probably get away with a nice skimmer and filter or refugium if your tanks not drilled and aslong as you keep up with waterchanges should be fine to avoid doing the sump route though that way is always best)
 
Madbob, are you nuts? I wasn't gonna dump sw into the fw system i was gonna WAIT till the fw fish die!

2. I was planing on probably either getting a 55marine bio HOB or a fluval 205 or 305..

3. there's no way im doing a sump bc thats just way way way to expensive and alot of headaches, sorry

4. The skimmer.. ehh i heard that i could go on for alittle without that, I'll get one eventually but not at the prices they are now! Maybe on a sale or something.. Just needa scoop some money so i can do this all the right way, but that T5 would look INSANE on my 30breeder... Which i really think is better then the 29 because i could put corals ANYWhere considering the light hits everywhere =D
 
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