my tank open to ideas

its a salt water tank

More coral and a background.


CUTE KID!!!

thanks he kinda jumped in the pick yeah im thinking about live rocks thats just how i got the thing

planning on going reef? if at all possible I would remove as much of the crushed coral substrate as you can and replace it with live sand this will help with your biological filtration and won't hold detritus like crushed coral will.
then I would add 1.5-2 pounds per gallon of live rock if you are on a budget you can use dry base rock its cheaper and will be seeded then will become live, the live rock is also a great biological filter I see from the pic that there's not a lot in the tank so now would be a good time to make the improvements if that's what you are looking to do, some people use egg crate and set the rock on it when scaping there tank or you can just set the rock directly on the glass that what I do because I have found that using the egg crate can trap debris and release phosphates into the water. avoid setting the rock on a deep sand bed because in the future you may want a fish that burrows in the sand and they can easily undermine your rock work and cause a collapse. you can also use epoxy to glue the rock in place, home depot sells JB water weld "for potable water" thats reef safe and less expensive than other epoxy, once they use the words aquarium, reef etc the price for the epoxy tripples. you may want a temporary place to house your fish until the scape is done, you can put them in a rubber maid container with a power head and they will be fine.
take a look at some of the pictures here and that will help give you an idea of how you might want your scape done.
good luck and keep us posted!!!!

avoid buying from live rock ranch.
you can get great deals on craigslist but make sure you ask if the tank the rock was in was ever treated with copper even the slightest trace of copper will kill a reef also when looking for LR you should be aware of rock with nuisence algaes you will be able to tell by looking at it, good live rock will have lots of purple coralline growing on it not green hair looking algaes.
reefcleaners.org sells good base rock for a great price, another member here was very happy with it.

The one thing I noticed in your other thread is you say you have an underground filter. Personally I would also remove it. They trap too much dirt to be of any real help. I would look into some dry base rock. I just purchased 50lbs online. Then you can buy one or two pieces of live at a LFS to add to it and some chaeto algae to help seed your dry rock. Then you will have lots more live rock.

Edit - Posting at the same time as Cindy did :)

I am the other member who got the rock from reefcleaners.org. Very satisfied. It's been in for what now...about 1-1/2 or 2 months and is turning purple & red already with no added chemicals. I prefer to let nature happen on it's own if possible. And yes, but buying the dry rock you eliminate the nuisance algaes and pest anemone isssues.

cool thanks for all the awesome help. question will it be fine with just the tetra flilter or will i need to add another one and what is the point of a protein skimmer?

wildwiley wrote:

cool thanks for all the awesome help. question will it be fine with just the tetra flilter or will i need to add another one and what is the point of a protein skimmer?

a lot of people with FOWLR tanks use filters however I'm not a big fan of them on reef tanks but they will work fine you just want to make sure you keep it clean because rotting debris inside the filter can quickly turn into a nitrate factory. a protein skimmer removes organics in your tank by way of mass air bubbles. When the water passes through the skimmer, the air bubbles it produces allows the chemical compounds of organics to attach to the bubbles and ride to the surface where this gunk is collected in a cup and disposed of. There are various types of skimmers, hang-on-back, in-sump, as well as free standing. with a skimmer there is no place for bacteria and other pollutants to get trapped and cause you problems down the road.

so do i need a protein skimmer for REEF TANK?

wildwiley wrote:

so do i need a protein skimmer for REEF TANK?

no, but imho a good skimmer is much better because of the reasons ubove ^^
also take in consideration what you plan to keep, some corals are more tolerant
than others for example I keep a mixed reef with SPS,LPS Zoa's softies and leathers
the Zoa's softies and leathers are easy and some things like pulsing xenia actually thrive on tiny trace amounts of nitrate in the system where other harder to keep corals like SPS will not tolerate it. what kind of light do you have on your tank? the light will also dictate what kind of corals you will be able to have. so think about what you want to keep and go from there.

the light bulb says rapid start all glass aquarium does that help?

so you are running T8 fluorescent? those are primarily used on freshwater planted tanks and are fine for a FOWLR or fish only tank, saltwater is more dense and you would not get the par you need to support corals. things in this hobby go from good, better,best for instance you can use a power compact fixture that will allow you to keep easy corals. then you have T5 Fixtures which are better and depending on the setup will keep almost anything. then you have what I feel is best which is a T5, metal halide combo with supplemental LED's there is nothing I can not keep.
if infact you are using a T8 then you will want to upgrade before investing in coral.
this may all sound like rocket science but its really not all that hard once you realize what is needed to keep coral, remember corals are animals not plants and they all have different needs to keep them alive and healthy, some use light to grow while others need to be target fed then you have some that require feeding and light.

ok thanks any idea on where to get a good t5 system

Watch craigslist...I know you keep seeing this advice over & over but for low price that is the way to go and possibly find better quality items. I got my T5 light at my LFS.

ok cool so how would i know if its a t-5 versus a t8 i caint just put a different bulb in?

T-12 and T-8 bulbs are interchangeable as long as the ballast supports it T-5 bulbs have a different size end cap and require a different ballast as such they can't be put in a T-12/8 fixture unless you have a retrofit kit.

There are many places to buy fixtures from. I will say that if you are going to go all out on corals it is worth not skimping on your light setup.

I have been lucky with my planted tanks and used a fixture I found off Ebay for $100. It has worked great and with 1/3 the cost of a similar name brand ones. I also bought two odyssea light fixtures which have a bad history but seem to have corrected their problems. They have worked great on my planted tanks ... now I will say... that when you compare the $90 fixture I got to the 3-400$ coralife fixtures you can see the quality differences in the reflectors and some other small things. Like I said at the start you will get what you pay for and if you ever intend to keep harder corals going cheap on the lights may not be in your best interest.
You can also build your own if you are handy enough. This is particularly useful if you want to make a setup to fit your own needs.

wildwiley wrote:

ok cool so how would i know if its a t-5 versus a t8 i caint just put a different bulb in?

no they won't fit, T5's are very slender bulbs compared to the T8 and power compacts are very easy to tell the difference as well. here are some pictures of bulbs. Aquatic life makes some very nice straight T5 fixtures they have one cord and all the lighting is on timers
if you got one that has T5 and HID "high intensity discharge"the ballasts are internal which is a big +.
here is the fixtures I use mine are HID/T5 but you can get them in T5 only.

T8 bulbs

T5 bulbs

power compacts

awesome thanks so much i just started so i wana get my facts straight so i don't waste a lot of money doin it wrong thanks for helping me out guys

anytime:) keep us posted!