New new aquarium :(

[chris_s9181]

I was going to get. A 120 petco couldn't get me one one so I has to go to the next best thing .40 gallons is the biggest they have I bought the tank I bought 3 power heads one with 120 gallons an hr 1 with 300 gallons an hr and one with 8 gallons an hour I got a can filtration 100 gallons an hr filtration and a protein skimmer 65 gallon I got 40 lb of live sand on the way next month will be a live rock time and more sand I got to get me a new light set up metal halogen lights is there anything I need ? I got a sump bout to. Be set up or am I already to go when the sand gets here? My goal is light a
Amount of fish and plenty of invertebrates and plenty of reef its a reef friendly tank. Any help would be appreated

 

[Northstar24]

I was going to get. A 120 petco couldn't get me one one so I has to go to the next best thing .40 gallons is the biggest they have I bought the tank I bought 3 power heads one with 120 gallons an hr 1 with 300 gallons an hr and one with 8 gallons an hour I got a can filtration 100 gallons an hr filtration and a protein skimmer 65 gallon I got 40 lb of live sand on the way next month will be a live rock time and more sand I got to get me a new light set up metal halogen lights is there anything I need ? I got a sump bout to. Be set up or am I already to go when the sand gets here? My goal is light a
Amount of fish and plenty of invertebrates and plenty of reef its a reef friendly tank. Any help would be appreated

Welcome to the site. You will not be ready to go when everything arrives. You will need to get the tank filled and running, you will need live rock (and I would cancel the order for live sand if possible, normal sand will become live when a tank is setup correctly). Once everything arrives and is set up, you will need to add a table shrimp or some fish food to the tank to kick off the ammonia cycle. If you are not familiar with what that is, you have a lot of research to do.

I have to ask though, a 40 gallon is a long way from a 120, if Petco could not order you the size you wanted, why wouldn't you go elsewhere? Was there a particular reason (or fish) that made you originally want a 120? With a 40 gallon tank you're limited to 4-5 fish tops

 

[chris_s9181]

The thing is I mostly want a reef and invertebrate tank for the start

 

[Kelz88]

What kind of inverts?

 

[chris_s9181]

Mostly reef friendly I won't buy any till I got the water cycling for months prov a few crab lobsters ect

 

[chris_s9181]

I also plan on getting good communal shrimp that aren't carnivores same as fish I want a few anomies if possible

 

[Smitty]

I think you may have been forced to buy that size tank because that's all they had too. You could still get a big tank and use the 40 gal as the sump/refugium.

 

[chris_s9181]

This is my first saltwater tank but I do plan on getting bigger but I'll make that from acrylic

 

[FocasSRT10]

I would get what you want fromthe start, don't settle for what is there in the store.

which 120 were you looking at ? long or deep.

 

[chris_s9181]

Was going to be long I could use the 40 as a quartile tank the tank I wanted was 48x24x24

 

[Northstar24]

Generally speaking, the larger the tank, the more room for error there is in things like water quality, that is why many saltwater books will suggest going as large as possible when you start up.

In any case, a 40 will allow you to keep things like shrimp and corals just fine. Do plenty of research before an aneomone though - they have some very special care requirements. You're tank needs to be stable before you even think about it (read as up and running for at least a year, possibly longer).

Also, I would advise against lobsters. You'll likely never see them, and they willing and able to snack on other inverts and fish