Have patience?

leezard · #1 01-23-2009, 08:51 PM

I am what is commonly referred as a "newbie".

Odd feeling, admitting that.

Anyways, I'm brand new to the forum and new to the saltwater hobby. I do have a freshwater tank, but there are many differences in practice and opinion through the sites I've checked out.

Without further ado....

A friend of mine has recently given me a 20 gallon saltwater tank with a fluval 303 can. filter and heater. They ran the tank for a year and then upgraded, so had no use for this one.

Anyways, when we moved the tank we also brought all of the water home to make the setup easier. Since then I've done some reading, and while I have a few changes to make, I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

1) The filter seems to be leaking slightly so I have been looking at getting the upgraded fluval, and using the old one for another project in the basement. Will this do, or are there better suggestions?

2) There was nothing in the tank while it's been running recently -- just regular aquarium gravel. They started the tank just over a year ago and have claimed that they have not done a water change, just top ups. The water levels balanced well. I have recently added 5lbs of live rock, will be exchanging the gravel with live sand and adding another 20-30 lbs of rock over time. Is this reasonable?

3) I have had mixed reviews on a protein skimmer for a tank this small. Thoughts?

4) Possibly a dumb question -- what's the difference between a reef and a marine tank?

5) Any reading suggestions (both online and in print) would be more than welcome!! Like any hobby, there are alot of conflicting suggestions.

THANK YOU!!!!!

mseepman · #2 01-23-2009, 09:17 PM

First thing first...cannister filters are really not for the saltwater tank side of things. If you do plan on using one, remove the bio-balls or other biological filters as they are just traps for bad things. Cannisters can be used to push water and for carbon or phosphate removal, you just have to clean them regularly or they become a problem.

I think the basic way to describe water quality in a small nano marine tank is either do water changes or have a good skimmer (preferably both) otherwise what you put in there will eventually encounter trouble.

Adding more live rock is a good thing....just make sure that it's done prior to adding livestock as you might cause a mini "cycle" which would kill everything.

I'm a protein skimmer fan.

I couldn't tell you if there is a diff between reef and marine tank. There are words related to what type of tank you're doing like FOWLR (fish only with live rock), Mixed (Fish and coral), BB (bare bottom -- no sand), etc. If you're confused by some acronym on here just ask and someone will let you know what it means.

Read the TOTM from this site, RC and Nano-reef.com as combined they will tell you a lot about what successful people have done. There are some great starter articles on here by Myka that you should look at as well.

Hope that helps.

Flash · #3 01-23-2009, 09:27 PM

yay! glad you found it!!!

Whatigot · #4 01-23-2009, 09:27 PM

1) yes, it will do and yes, there are better.
If you get a good skimmer, the only thing you'll really need a canister for is water movement, so you might be better of just buying a powerhead (like a koralia 3) rather than a new canister.

2) Definitely reasonable, add the rocks first and then the live sand so that your rocks are firm in their position, feel free to add 5 lbs of rock at a time after you have everything in the tank, so as not to over do it all at once.
You don't need sand though, there is much debate about the virtues of sand in the reef aquarium (personally, I think the more sand the better, but thats just me and just my thought, others will surely disagree).

3) I swear a prizm skimmer, made by red sea, ran my HEAVILY stocked 32 gallon very well and I would recomend it to anyone, this is a cheap skimmer, and it takes some dialling in, but once there, it's wonderful.
as another option I have been reading increasingly good things about the bubble magus nano skimmer, so have a look at that one as well.

4) no real difference, a reef tank can technically be a marine tank, marine just refers to the ocean aka salt water, the two major types of sw tanks you will see are reefs (coral, fish, liverock, inverts, etc) and fowler (Fish Only With LiveRock).

5) you came to the right place, I doubt there is very many questions that you will find that have not been answered, analyzed, argued about and answered again on this very site.
I love this book
http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Reef-A.../dp/1890087017
it got me started until I found this sight and started asking questions here, and I would recommend it to anyone getting into the hobby.

leezard · #5 01-23-2009, 10:16 PM

You guys are super. Thanks, bean, for sending me over here and thanks to all for the help! Looks like I'm heading in the right direction....

So, no new filter. Powerhead instead. Right? Is there a specific size/type I should be looking at for this?

Flash · #6 01-23-2009, 11:11 PM

koralia makes a good one! that's what I use!

Myka · #7 01-23-2009, 11:55 PM

Ya, check out the Koralia powerheads. You usually need two powerheads in a tank that size to keep detritus from settling. I would suggest two Koralia 1 powerheads.

Like mseepman, I am a strong believer in protein skimmers as well - at least definately for novice keepers, and I would suggest not using a canister filter. If you would like to run carbon and phosphate media you can use either a PhosBan Reactor (my first choice), or a cheap hang on power filter like the AquaClears. Look for about 100 gph flow rate for the phosphate media. I would strongly advise against the Prism protein skimmer as, in my opinion, they are only good for disposal. A good protein skimmer for a tank that size would be a Tunze Nano Skimmer 9002 (about $180). This is a very good, high quality skimmer that works very well on nano-sized tanks. If you are unable or unwilling to spend that much money on your tank then I wouldn't bother at all with a skimmer as in my opinion, a poor skimmer isn't worth spending your money on. 20 lbs of live rock will probably be enough for your tank.

Marine refers to anything saltwater, but generally refers to a tank with no corals. Reef is a tank that houses many corals and fish. FO is fish only. FOWLR is fish only with live rock.

Personally, I would also replace the aquarium gravel with sand. Look for aragonite sand like the Caribsea Select. It doesn't have to be "live", which I think is a very well done marketing scam.

As for reading material, as mseepman graciously suggested, the articles in my signature are good resources for novice keepers.

leezard · #8 01-23-2009, 11:57 PM

Ok here's another question -- do I need to get an aerator or airstones for air flow? There's lots of water flow and such, so how does the air get into the water? Or is that part of the point of the "live" rock?

leezard · #9 01-24-2009, 12:08 AM

Oh, Myka. I missed your post. Thank you! I'll definitely check out all suggested -- in the meantime I'll keep the fluval running for some flow, and whenever I can drag my butt into the city I'll go shopping.

As for spending the money -- I walked into this knowing SW tanks weren't cheap, and why even bother if I'm not willing to spend a buck (or 50)?

As much as I might choke on $50 of "just rocks", I'm a sucker for the best! Or, at least, NOT the cheapest....

Snaz · #10 01-24-2009, 02:29 AM

Everything these guys have already said I would agree with. I do NOT use a skimmer, I am one of a few that believe that skimmers remove more than waste and do more harm than good.

For larger tanks where 10% water changes are not possible every week i would consider a skimmer but for nano tanks a 10% water change every week is a better idea imho. I keep softies and a couple of LPS and they all thrive.