saltwater questions yet again

I'm down sizing do to some medical bills, and a big car repair bill.
going from the 60g to a 40? 36x12x22.. will I need a sump because the way the stand was made I measured and only a 10g will fit from front to back.. and is there a company that makes a small enough over flow for a 40g to 10g sump? what about protein skimmer will still need one right... will my hob red sea prizm work, or will I need my corallife-65 on this one... I got 24kilos (52? pounds 2.2 kilos = 1 pound) straight from fiji... and a bucket of live sand from a friend. so good to go there... light I have a hagen glo - 36 inch t5 ho light with a ati super blue and a hagen power glo 18,000k bulb (should I switch the power glo for a 6,700k or 10,000k? ) is that enough light. I don't plan for any sps or lps just xenia,kenya,leathers,mush-rooms,and zoa's.

water I plan to just siphon in to a tub, then pump it in to this tank...

would just the live sand, and live rock, and the hob skimmer, with water from the 60g work. am I good to go? yes go build it or no you are missing something... so am I good to setup?

I pm'ed cwhip and she helped me out... other can still give advice.. I want purple dart fish but people tell me they can't be in groups unless male female and are hard to sex...

plantedtankdude wrote:

I pm'ed cwhip and she helped me out... other can still give advice.. I want purple dart fish but people tell me they can't be in groups unless male female and are hard to sex...

LOL who ever told you that is full of BS.
if you want to keep them I would get atleast 3 or more they like being with their own kind.
I have 3 purples and 3 reds and a mated pair of perc's in my 40, in the 180 I keep 6 scissortail "aka Torpedo Goby" with 9 purples they hang out together and in the new Seahorse tank I just added 3 reds they are the most easy going fish. their only down fall is they are jumpers big time so make sure before you get them to cover your tank with polypropalene mesh or something like that they can get through the tiniest of holes.

so I can get some purples and have them in a group, I can also mix them with red ones that is good too know thanks.

better yet mix and match get 3 purples 3 reds and 3 torpedo's then you'll be stocked.

Sounds like you should be ready to go to me. I'm sure that you already got much better advice than I can give. :)

One question....why did you get new live sand? Didn't you have any in the 60 gallon? And I thought you already had LR in there too.

yes I had sand in the 60g, and my friend throw it in for free to sweeten the deal. and I could pass up more live rock.. some of my rock was dried rock with live so i went a head and got more live rock to be safe. straight from fiji $3.00 a pound. I have it finished the saltility is at 1.026 though, that will be okay right. I plan for corals...

Your setup sounds fine for the soft coral you are wanting to keep with the exception of the skimmers mentioned. Red sea prizm skimmer are completly useless. The corallife super skimmers arent much better. As far has budget hang on skimmers go, an Aqua C remora would be slightly better, a used turbofloater would be better still.
For an overflow the safest option is to take your tank to a glass store and have it drilled, so no chance to loose syphon. If you would rather not have it drilled you can purchase an overflow box or build one from pvc.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://2img.net/h/i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/kbmdale/Plans/overflow2s.jpg&imgrefurl=http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fs%3D%26threadid%3D590972%26highlight%3D%252415%2Boverflow&h=398&w=667&sz=26&tbnid=dkgbEMmWTznq9M:&tbnh=72&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpvc%2Boverflow%2Bplans%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=pvc+overflow+plans&hl=en&usg=__yZmTwGOZb53N6ISvcC-tiPEnUG0=&sa=X&ei=_ffrTbO6IseUtwf83d2iAQ&ved=0CDQQ9QEwAjgK

yea you can mix dart fish.. and you dont need a sump.. it helps but you dont need one

cool, well to pay some bills my 40g went, but will re start back up slowly... because i ended up saying some of the rock and it's now dry along with the sand..... it will be a 30 x-tall.

nope, the 40g will not take a beating... I got a coralife 65 skimmer, and a wet/dry aquatic solutions?(think that is the name of it sump.) mag 3 or 5 return pump, and a rio 1700 for the skimmer.. keep my rock and have 25 dead, and a guy gave me some live fugi... i even found a 75g rr setup but it's really scratched up. might sell the rr tank, and get a 75 and make it a planted discus tank.