Wow, Theres alot of flat out bad advice on here. I have an 144 oceanic half circle reef thats over 10 years old. Trust me you do not want to skimp on any of your base equipment. your tank will suffer and your free time will be consumed if you do. Playsand from homedepot is not smart, it will work but its a flat out bad idea. Your Protein skimmer should not be cheap, Its a very important piece of equipment. The lights are also very inportant, depending on what you plan to keep. As for the sand, the cheaper sand you buy, the more additives your going to have to dose. Additives cost money, lots of money. You can get by with the basics and cutting corners, but your aquarium will suffer and the enjoyment turns into hours of maintenance and problems. If you want real advice from someone who has lots of experience, feel free to PM me. Ill help in any way i can. Id also consider spending some time on reefcentral or 3reef.
Maybe I'll get into SW?
- Thread starter Ambervikings91
- Start date
Yeah OP was looking for a cheap and easy way to flip a 10/29 gallon tank into salt. Non reef, no live rocks. You do not have to fork out a lot of money to run fish only salt tanks.....to be honest its not much different than fresh water....play sand works. If my kids can eat it, its safe for fish. 
. If she wanted reef, then yeah, cheap and reef do not go hand in hand, and I would have never posted in the thread. I have not used a single additive in 2 years outside of seachem prime to help with tap water.
. If she wanted reef, then yeah, cheap and reef do not go hand in hand, and I would have never posted in the thread. I have not used a single additive in 2 years outside of seachem prime to help with tap water.OP, do not let these guys run you off. If your like me, you have ran larger fresh tanks for years and you know what your doing. Start like I did perhaps. Get ya some instant ocean salt mix and start with a Green Congo Puffer (11 dollar very cool fish). Mix the salt 1/2 way, cycle the tank, and drop him in that 29 gallon. He will do fine, and that will get ya going with salt. You can add more salt slowly over time and bring it to full salt. The Puffer will adjust, and he can be your first salt fish. After that drop a 20 dollar small clown fish in there or something. Ease your way in, do not spend a lot of money (there is no need to), see if you like it.
Cool, I wasnt trying to bash your methods, just trying to start someone off on a better start. Play sand will work, but its not ideal. A bag or arag-alive will have tons more living bacteria and good stuff found in natural saltwater enviornments. Why spend the money twice? Id rather save up and buy what I can once, instead of twice. No harm meant.
No you are right, for a 29 gallon, I would prob not use play sand either if I had the extra dollar. Like you said, it's more than likely not much more $ to just local fish store dead sand on a tank that small. Maybe even some black moon sand? That would look cool in there for her, even with budget lighting.
My smallest tank has been a 75. So playsand was the only thing that fit my budget and I have never had any issues with it other than its dirtier than the good stuff. Gotta be careful moving things etc. I will tell ya though, snails LOVE it. They go in there and a few weeks later will poke out much larger it seems like.... lol
My smallest tank has been a 75. So playsand was the only thing that fit my budget and I have never had any issues with it other than its dirtier than the good stuff. Gotta be careful moving things etc. I will tell ya though, snails LOVE it. They go in there and a few weeks later will poke out much larger it seems like.... lol
I had no filtermedia just mechanical filtration + the beginnings of biological filtration. HOB was nothing more than fast moving water across the air from our atmosphere allowing oxygen, co2, and nitrogen gas exchange. The powerhead moved the water across the rocks allowing for biologocal filtration - The B+B converting dissolved protiens + acids into ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and nitrogen gases. Is this how we still do it - yes and no, the principals of filtration don't change they advance. Currently our 210gal salty runs more mechanical stuff like reactors, skimmer, more pumps, and more powerheads. The BB grows in/on 180lbs sand + 180 lbs of cultured LR. We've also learned to be chemists and use a variety of chemical filtration as well like activated carbon, phosban resin, and organic dissolved carbon. The 1st tank was basic and was a great start to a never ending learning curve. It was cheap and easy - 30lbs rock + 1 lil' dinky fish, 10% weekly w/c's. This was not our ultimate goal so bigger and more expensive was the direction of choice.
