Well I have this 72 gallon bow front tank which houses 1 gar, clown knife, and 4 silver dollars. Well I asked for permission from my mom...only 14 here lol if i can change it to saltwater. She said "As long as you take care of everything." Well I will most likely sell these fish back to the lfs. Well I have everything needed for a freshwater tank, don't know if my fluval 405 is good for salt. Well I presonally just need to purchase a portein skimmer, live rock, ocean salt and live sand...right? Well I have been researching on saltwater tanks for awhile and have some books just that I would like more advice. Also I seem to be into the predetor fish of the oceans like lion fish and eels....stuff like that. Well I'm asking what combinations of predetor fish u would place in this tank thanks....Also I don't my community tank ideas too
Oh Yeah! It's Official!
- Thread starter Pazzoman
- Start date
If you are doing fish only, you can probably skip the skimmer, but it's always good to have for a salt tank if you can afford it. You also don't really need live sand, or even all live rock. If you buy a bit of live rock the bacteria on that will seed the other rock and the sand and over the course of a month or two it will become live.
interesting because my son came home with a 72 bow this past week end and wants to do the same FWLR. I have a 20 gal salt tank with a few fish, inverts and a 2 corals that I have been working on for about a year. We too need input.
Sump or canister or 2 AC110's
lighting requierments
Skimmer or not
The stand will be a DYI and will only matter if we go with a sump as a canister will fit in any stant that will hold a 72 bow.
I am leaning torard a DYI sump as theirs tons of DYI sump designs on this site as well as on line.
The fish he wants to get is a bumble bee grouper or some sort of small shark
We have not got to the research stage for the fish yet as this is going to be a long process aquiering the parts,building the stand and figuring out where to put the tank.
Any input would be great as my son and PAZZOMAN seem to be going in the same direction.
I think it is great to see teenagers with a passion for the hobby.
Frankj
Sump or canister or 2 AC110's
lighting requierments
Skimmer or not
The stand will be a DYI and will only matter if we go with a sump as a canister will fit in any stant that will hold a 72 bow.
I am leaning torard a DYI sump as theirs tons of DYI sump designs on this site as well as on line.
The fish he wants to get is a bumble bee grouper or some sort of small shark
We have not got to the research stage for the fish yet as this is going to be a long process aquiering the parts,building the stand and figuring out where to put the tank.
Any input would be great as my son and PAZZOMAN seem to be going in the same direction.
I think it is great to see teenagers with a passion for the hobby.
Frankj
frankj;4002500; said:
Bumblebee groupers get 8ft 1000lbs.... you will have to upgrade tanks every couple months like me.
55gallon
125gallon
150gallon
180gallon
210gallon
now 12ft 360..... He's a lot of work and needs special requirments.
Also sharks need a good 10ft long 4ft wide tank.
I would get live sand and live rock and a skimmer. its so much better to have a successfull SW tank and not a half ass one. If you want to go cheap or save cash, buy half live half lace rock or base. You need the live sand though, it keeps your ph buffered. Without it you would be spending constant cash on ph buffer and would have to battle to keep yoru ph stable every day. Its not worth the extra cash in the long run or the hassle. Skimmer is worth buying too, without it you will need to do more water changes, the salt and water that you need for water changes will eventually cost more than the skimmer itself. There are reasons why people use these, you just have to use your money wisely. Just because you don't buy something doesn't mean your saving money.....
teenagers unite
As far as stocking, your looking at smaller species of predators.
eels
groupers
triggers
puffers
wrasses
porkfish
rabbitfish
butterflys
angels
You have to stick in your gallon range though. 70 gallons is a big tank but not that big for SW, they have a whole ocean and most fish will outgrow a 70 bowfront in a couple months.
The fluval 405 will work, although i would overfilter it a bit more if you don't plan on getting a lot of live rock. I like to have 10x turnover rate on my predator tanks, they are messy and 10x turn over keeps my amon nitirite and nitrates at zero until i do my monthly water changes. Nitrates might show up a little if i feed the eel some live 12 inch red devils
Also getting a really nice skimmer or scrubber could be your best investment. They really keep your water in check.
SW tanks are an investment, saving money is important, but why waste your money when your tank fails because you tried to save to much money.
frankj;4005172; said:
I would try to do more live rock. You can slowly build it up though. I would add one more filter for turnover rate. Those canisters are highly overrated. I would cut its recomended tank size in half, then cutting them in half make sure it then adds up to 100 gallons. Thats how i would size up for the filtration, predators make a huge mess, and you have to plan for it.