New to the hobby.

mtkid6

mtkid6

So much to learn....
I just purchased a previously owned 37 gallon saltwater tank set up. The system came with a hood and base.

The filtration is an aqua 70 HOB.

The lighting is a coralife aqualife. I am not exactly sure what bulbs are in it.

It has a heater and digital thermonmeter.

The tank came with about 10 lbs of live rock, three small hermit crabs, a starfish, and a brownish and white feather duster.

I am looking at getting this set up as a reef tank with a variety of corals, inverts, and a few fish.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. (Upgrades, ideas, anything). Thanks!
 

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Hello and welcome to the site!

I would ditch the filter and instead look at a quality protein skimmer or building an algae scrubber, they will work much better than filter. The filters are a freshwater concept that doesnt translate well into saltwater.

I would also make sure that your tank doesnt recycle after moving it, so wait a few weeks before adding anything else and make sure that you test the water for ammonium, nitrate and nitrites. You can get these test at you LFS, but dont get the dip stick test strips, they are not reliable.

You are also going to need the other basics for aquarium care, such as a refractometer.

You should also add some more rock, you should aim for 1-2 lbs per gallon. You dont have to add live rock though, dry base rock (which is much cheaper) will work just fine and will become live in no time.

I dont know what kind of lighting that is, but i doubt it will be enough for most corals. But you dont have to have good lights right away, you can save up for those. You should concentrate on having good water quality first.

Also remember when you are picking what fish you want for your tank, that you need to choose fish that are appropriate for your tank size. Always research before you buy! And dont always trust your LFS, they exist to sell you stuff. You can always ask us here, we arent going to make a buck, and we want your tank to succeed! Also most of the people here have more experience with these fish than your LFS so we can better advise you on what will work and what wont. A really good place to research tank size, suitable tank companions, diet and difficulty level is below.
Saltwater Fish: Marine Aquarium Fish for Saltwater Aquariums

Good luck! I cant wait to see how it turns out!
 
Reef octopus skimmers are the best you can get for the price range. Skimmers (and lights) are a "you get what you paid for" product. Cheap skimmers are pretty much worthless (they dont do the job they are suppose to do very well) and are often prone to flooding and other disasters. All skimmers can be very temperament the first days, they need to be broken in, but the cheaper ones always seem to be a continual disaster.
 
Nope, thats it! For filtration at least.

You can also add a refugium, which is a place where you let macro algae grow, which will remove unwanted nitrates, phosphates, and excess nutrients for you but that requires plumbing your tank. It also serves a place for pod (small tiny bugs for fish to eat) to grow and multiply. It also increase the water volume (more water volume is good, it dilutes out accidents or mistakes. Things can go wrong faster in a small tank). But it isnt a critical component, just a handy one. It can also be added at any time, so maybe later if you decide to add it, you can!
 
There are two type of lights that work well for marine tanks, T5 lights and metal halides. The T5 are cool running, and are what most people use (i think). I personally use the T5 lights and really like them. The metal halide lights are a bit stronger and will give the sunlight effect on your tank, but i think they are a little more complicated to set up. So really the choice is yours on what style to use.

I dont really know much about the metal halides, but for the T5 lights the brand Nova Extreme Pros are great. I would aim for 3-4 watts per gallon, that will allow you to keep most anything. You should also make sure that the lights have individual reflectors, it makes a huge difference.
 
I dont think the technology is developed enough for the average aquarists. If you know quite a bit about LED's and setting them up so you have the correct PAR and water penetration then go ahead and build your own. A few of the reefers local to my area have LED set ups, but it was ridiculously expensive to buy the strips, and they all had 5 plus. I think the models that they had were around $1000+ per strip.

I would just go with metal halides or the T5 personally.
 
+1 little_fish - a few more years and led's will prolly be the best thing you can buy but there still vary exspensive for the ones that are good for corals compared to outer lights you can use
 
And I would again seriously look into Algae scrubbers, as they are cheap and very effective at what they are designed to do vs a protein skimmer.
 
Just went into the lfs to get some stuff and asked about a skimmer. He told me that I should get a canister filter then a skimmer. Is that necessary or will just a skimmer work?
 

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