Hey This is going to be my first saltwater tank and I have so many questions. I'm not new to keeping fish at all but I just feel overwhelmed by so many things in the saltwater area.
Currently I have 7 Different Freshwater tanks (planted, brackish, Community, aggressive, turtles etc).
I just got a 180 gallon tank with two built in overflow boxes. There is currently no sump or any kinda filter. Now my first question is what kind of filtration should I go for? Sump/ wet dry? I'd like to purchase this online and I really don't understand which might be better or at least whats the minimum for a 180 tank. Maybe someone can point me to somethign that has the whole package? I dunno what might even come with it. Would I need to get a pump with all that? How strong Tubing/piping?
Originally I wanted to make this tank into a major reef tank but then I realized how much more I'd have to spend on lights and also how much more work I'd have to do to maintain the reef. So I think I'm just going to do fish only with live rock. Maybe attempt some easy reef polyps/mushrooms later?
Would the wet dry be the best with bioballs and live rock inside it? I've been trying to read as much as I can find with google but maybe some of yall can point me in the right direction.
Another big question is Live sand. I figure I need about 200~250 lbs of live sand? and also 200~300 lbs of live rock. Do I need to max both out? 250 lbs and 300 lbs. I mean I don't plan on getting all of it at once.. Probably just the sand at first but I don't think im gonna get the live kind. I'm thinking just the aragonite sand whereever I can find it in bulk. Does anyone know a good source? I think I read somewhere I should look at Home depot for that. But I kinda want the fine fine sand instead of the larger grain. I don't want the crushed coral/shells/african cichlid mix look. Is all Aragonite largeish? Is the fine sand a bad choice? would it still become "live?" or is it bad for denitification.
Also Since I'm kinda impatient I'm gonna first set all of this up as Freshwater and throw in some of my current fish just to get a good look at everything. Right now its just a 180 gallon Betta tank but that bettas probably the happiest betta ever.
In about a month or two after more and more research I'll probably remove the fish and convert to full marine.
I have so many other questions but this post is getting a little long and I should read some more first.
Thanks for reading!
Tank shot
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/63/dsc00094asd.jpg
Overflows, intakes etc
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/9830/dsc00095u.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4536/dsc00096ctr.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5443/dsc00098nvn.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1605/dsc00097wdo.jpg
Currently I have 7 Different Freshwater tanks (planted, brackish, Community, aggressive, turtles etc).
I just got a 180 gallon tank with two built in overflow boxes. There is currently no sump or any kinda filter. Now my first question is what kind of filtration should I go for? Sump/ wet dry? I'd like to purchase this online and I really don't understand which might be better or at least whats the minimum for a 180 tank. Maybe someone can point me to somethign that has the whole package? I dunno what might even come with it. Would I need to get a pump with all that? How strong Tubing/piping?
Originally I wanted to make this tank into a major reef tank but then I realized how much more I'd have to spend on lights and also how much more work I'd have to do to maintain the reef. So I think I'm just going to do fish only with live rock. Maybe attempt some easy reef polyps/mushrooms later?
Would the wet dry be the best with bioballs and live rock inside it? I've been trying to read as much as I can find with google but maybe some of yall can point me in the right direction.
Another big question is Live sand. I figure I need about 200~250 lbs of live sand? and also 200~300 lbs of live rock. Do I need to max both out? 250 lbs and 300 lbs. I mean I don't plan on getting all of it at once.. Probably just the sand at first but I don't think im gonna get the live kind. I'm thinking just the aragonite sand whereever I can find it in bulk. Does anyone know a good source? I think I read somewhere I should look at Home depot for that. But I kinda want the fine fine sand instead of the larger grain. I don't want the crushed coral/shells/african cichlid mix look. Is all Aragonite largeish? Is the fine sand a bad choice? would it still become "live?" or is it bad for denitification.
Also Since I'm kinda impatient I'm gonna first set all of this up as Freshwater and throw in some of my current fish just to get a good look at everything. Right now its just a 180 gallon Betta tank but that bettas probably the happiest betta ever.
In about a month or two after more and more research I'll probably remove the fish and convert to full marine.
I have so many other questions but this post is getting a little long and I should read some more first.
Thanks for reading!
Tank shot
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/63/dsc00094asd.jpg
Overflows, intakes etc
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/9830/dsc00095u.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4536/dsc00096ctr.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5443/dsc00098nvn.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1605/dsc00097wdo.jpg
