In your 40 gal, how many lbs of live rock did you add into it? That right there is very important. The easiest way of doing a salt water tank is with fish only with live rock. The live rock is for filtration. You want to make sure that you have around 1 lb of rock per gallon of water. So in your case, min of 35 lbs of live rock. You don't need to add "live sand" it will cultivate on it's own. If you want to set up your tank faster, DON'T add any pieces of dead fish or shrimp into the aquarium. The live rock will have plenty of dying material on it already. If it doesn't, your live rock is up and ready for you to add fish. I used to set up my salt tanks and add fish the next day or two after everything settled down. I don't reccomend doing this because you're brand new to salt.
If you do the live rock only method, you DON'T NEED any other filtration except a skimmer would be a good idea. CPR backpack is a decent little skimmer that would do very nicely on your tank. You don't need a wet dry, or bio wheel filter. the live rock will do just fine. And if you do the live rock only method, TAKE OUT your bioballs, bio material and such. All it does is produce nitrate. Live rock has plenty of aerobic and anerobic bacteria to take care of the nitrogen cycle.
Doing this method however, you'll need a lot of water movement. In fact, you can sustain your tank with just powerheads and live rock and a heater. So with that said, get several powerheads and point them across the tank toward the opposite corners, this will give you some pretty decent water flow. Try to move your tank's volume 4 or more times an hour through the pumps.
As far as fish go, groupers would get too big for your tank pretty quickly. If you start with some baby triggers (you may not want more than one in the tank due to fighting) they will do just fine for quite a while. They are very active fish however. Make sure they eat for you before you buy them. They should eat like fat little piggies. Good starter triggers would be Niger or Huma or Rectangular triggers. Also, they are somewhat aggressive fish and they should be the last thing you add in the tank. Other less aggressive fish like tangs or clowns should be added first.
And as far as adding anemone's or mushrooms to your tank, don't do it. You're brand new to salt, and it's a bit of an undertaking, not to mention expensive. Same thing with all the additives. You don't need them unless you do a reef tank. If you have any more questions please ask. I've been keeping reef tanks for 7 years now.
If you do the live rock only method, you DON'T NEED any other filtration except a skimmer would be a good idea. CPR backpack is a decent little skimmer that would do very nicely on your tank. You don't need a wet dry, or bio wheel filter. the live rock will do just fine. And if you do the live rock only method, TAKE OUT your bioballs, bio material and such. All it does is produce nitrate. Live rock has plenty of aerobic and anerobic bacteria to take care of the nitrogen cycle.
Doing this method however, you'll need a lot of water movement. In fact, you can sustain your tank with just powerheads and live rock and a heater. So with that said, get several powerheads and point them across the tank toward the opposite corners, this will give you some pretty decent water flow. Try to move your tank's volume 4 or more times an hour through the pumps.
As far as fish go, groupers would get too big for your tank pretty quickly. If you start with some baby triggers (you may not want more than one in the tank due to fighting) they will do just fine for quite a while. They are very active fish however. Make sure they eat for you before you buy them. They should eat like fat little piggies. Good starter triggers would be Niger or Huma or Rectangular triggers. Also, they are somewhat aggressive fish and they should be the last thing you add in the tank. Other less aggressive fish like tangs or clowns should be added first.
And as far as adding anemone's or mushrooms to your tank, don't do it. You're brand new to salt, and it's a bit of an undertaking, not to mention expensive. Same thing with all the additives. You don't need them unless you do a reef tank. If you have any more questions please ask. I've been keeping reef tanks for 7 years now.
