Tank set-up question

[travistest]

I finally got my tank as an early Christmas present, it's a 75-gallon with a wet-dry filter and a canister on the back. My fish store said I could just fill it with saltwater and put a couple damsels in to get it ready. They told me to get crushed coral but I keep reading about people using sand. What's the difference?

Do I need live rock? What kind of damsels should I get? They had lots of different ones.

I want to start with a couple fish and then get corals as soon as the water is ready.

Thanks!

SS

[Witfull]

im to tired at this point to go into depth on this, first thing, dont set up the wet dry...take it back for refund.
i pass this off to west coasters that are more energized at this point.

[Playa]

East coaster here that never sleeps:-)

The second thing you need to do is read as much as you can before you get your tank up and running. This is the easiest way to prevent yourself from redoing things.

You should set up a sump with a good skimmer instead, also it would not hurt if a refugium is inclusive(but not a must).

Tell us more about what you plan to have in your reef. Do you want to keep LPS, SPS, both? Fish and so on. Also give us an idea on what kind of budget you have and we can help ya a litlle better.

Dont rush!:-)

Start researching now, but please be patient. It will pay off great dividends later.

[Maxx]

Well, we actually need a couple of bits of info first.
What do you plan to do with it, (meanig what are you gonna keep in it) ? If its just fish, the wet dry will be fine, and you wont NEED live rock, but might want to consider it to use for decorations. If its corals you want to keep, either soft or hard, you will need to probably modify the wet/dry a little (if this is possible, may need to take it back like wit said) in order to keep the corals. I will just give you the brief explanation for now, to save space, time, and my fingers....
Bacteria is what allows us to keep marine organisms in our tanks. This bacteria converts the waste from the animals from harmful compounds like ammonia, and nitrite, to nitrate, and then breaks them down even further into less harmful elements. It goes like this...Fish give off ammonia. ammonia eating bacteria use the ammonia to live and give off nitrite as waste. Nitrite eating bacteria use the nitrate, and give off nitrate. Heres the fun part....the bio media that comes w/ wet dry filters is an ideal place for those two types of bacteria to grow...which will cause your tank to be what we call a nitrate factory. Nitrates a low concentrations are alright, but at the higher levels that you will get using the wet/dry filter as it is configured right out of the box will be lethal to corals. Why don't you tell us what kind of wet/dry you've got, (post pic if you can) and we can help you out alittle more.
Nick

[Gina]

Also, I would not cycle with damsels. Alot of people end up taking them out because of their aggressive nature. With whatever you decide to do when your ready for your tank to cycle just pop a shrimp (like what you get at the grocery store) into your tank to start the process. We started out with a W/D filter and ended up putting on a sump. It's great and I am glad we did it. More water volume and alot of our extra equiptment is in the sump.

We do need to get a better idea of what you want in order to help you more.

And read alot! Search the threads also for past questions.

[SaltyQueen]

Best thing to do- hold off on setting the tank up until you have had time to do a little more research/planning. Search through the threads on this site, & check out some related books. A good one that is easy to understand is "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner.

Next, in order to decide what equipment is best for you, you'll need to plan out what you'd like to keep in the tank. Fish only is a lot simpler, but then if you ever plan on adding any corals or inverts later, you may end up wasting a lot of money on all new equipment.

If you're going fish only, the wet/dry & canister would probably work, & you wouldn't really need too powerful of lights (regular fluorescents would suffice).

If you want to ever keep corals or invertibrates, you'll need more powerful lighting & a protein skimmer. VHO or power compact fluorescents are OK for some corals & inverts, but many require even more powerful metal halide lighting. When you decide what you want to keep, you can better narrow down which lighting is best for you.

A sump, while not a necessity, is good for many reasons- first, you can place equipment, like a protein skimmer there so you don't have to put it in your main tank. Next, the sump increases your tank's water volume, which makes it more forgiving regarding chemical changes. Also, you can put "problem" critters in the sump so that they won't harm the main tanks inhabitants. Search this site for "Sump" to read more about sumps & to find do-it-yourself plans. Or, like maxx said, you may be able to modify your wet/dry into a sump- if you can post pictures of it we could possibly give you some pointers on that.

Live rock is not necessary for a fish only tank, but is decorative & helps increase biological filtration. Definitely read more about the Nitrogen Cycle & biological filtration before starting. Also, you'll want to invest in a good test kit (Salivert is a good one). You'll AT LEAST need to test for Ammonia, pH, alkalinity, phosphates, & nitrates/nitrite. If you add inverts or corals, you'll want to test for calcium, too. If you get into adding supplements, you'll have to test for other things like iodine, strontium, etc, but that's only if you add these supplements, which, in my opinion, really aren't necessary. Once you are familiar with the nitrogen cycle, you can start cycling your tank (use a frozen shrimp like Gina said & skip the Damsels). When your tests come out to acceptable levels, it is then safe to start adding critters.

When adding critters, make sure you know which ones are compatible with eachother, & if you want to keep corals, which ones are reef-safe. A lot of critters will eat your corals!

Finally, the issue of whether to have a deep sand bed, crushed coral, or bare bottom is kind of controversial. Each has it's benefits & drawbacks. You can read more about it in this thread:
Put the gloves on and let's talk DSB.

There are also a lot of helpful sandbed-related links on this thread: Sandbeds and how to use them

Hope this helps get you started. The most important thing is to be educated about what you are doing. You can minimize major problems by thoroughly planning and researching each step of your tank's set-up. Once you have more specifics on what you plan to have in your tank, etc, we can give you some more specific pointers. Welcome to Reef Sanctuary!

[wooddood]

ditto on what was said above,post a pic of your set up if you can.that will give us all a better idea of what you have and we will help you from there.dont get discouraged you have came to the right place.we will help you out and save you alot of money in the long run.trust me the wisdome on this site is priceless.

[Travis]

Congratulations to Playa, winner of our first Secret Shopper contest!

Please see here for more details

Please congratulate Playa...

This thread is locked, please post comments in the above thread.

Thanks!

Travis

[Craig Manoukian]

Great job everyone!