size DOES matter...

charon

charon

Reefing newb
Hi guys, first off I am very new to saltwater aquariums...very new.

I'm researching buying my first set-up and I'm struggling with the size of the tank. I was initially thinking of a 40 gallon reef tack with a canister filter and a couple of powerheads. The (very knowledgeable) person at my local marine aquarium supplier suggested a 75 gallon, with an overflow box and sump system instead. I am somewhat limited in budget though.

Is his recommendation the minimum size I would want? also, in regards to live rock, they sell cured live rock for $8.99 per pound. Do I really need 1 pound per gallon? That works out to $675.00 in live rock alone. yikes...!

Thank you all very much for any assistance... :)
 
yes the minimum reccomendation is 1 pound per gallon. again that's minimum. if you don't you are looking to see all kinds of water quality problems. now don't get too discouraged because there are options. you can get an even mix of liverock and something like lava rock that is not live or cured. lots of lfs carry this stuff and its rarely more than 2 dollars a pound. over the course of the cycle and the tank establishing itself that liverock will seed the non liverock and make it live. so there are options. I certainly (for cost) don't recommend all the rock to be 8 dollar/lb liverock. but make sure you have a fair ammount of it. as far as the size of your tank, well a smaller 40 gallon or something like that would be fine too, though I still would recommend an overflow and sump over canister filter. if you wanted a canister filter. it can still be done. you just have to MAKE SURE to clean that baby out weekly and your bio load should be limited a bit more. a 75 or 80 gal tank would be nice if you could afford it, that way when your itchin for a larger tank, well you already have it. because its almost certain it will happen. hope this helps.
 
Thank you! :) Can I use an overflow and sump on a tank as small as a 40 gallon?

s13redline said:
yes the minimum reccomendation is 1 pound per gallon. again that's minimum. if you don't you are looking to see all kinds of water quality problems. now don't get too discouraged because there are options. you can get an even mix of liverock and something like lava rock that is not live or cured. lots of lfs carry this stuff and its rarely more than 2 dollars a pound. over the course of the cycle and the tank establishing itself that liverock will seed the non liverock and make it live. so there are options. I certainly (for cost) don't recommend all the rock to be 8 dollar/lb liverock. but make sure you have a fair ammount of it. as far as the size of your tank, well a smaller 40 gallon or something like that would be fine too, though I still would recommend an overflow and sump over canister filter. if you wanted a canister filter. it can still be done. you just have to MAKE SURE to clean that baby out weekly and your bio load should be limited a bit more. a 75 or 80 gal tank would be nice if you could afford it, that way when your itchin for a larger tank, well you already have it. because its almost certain it will happen. hope this helps.
Click to expand...
 
charon said:
Hi guys, first off I am very new to saltwater aquariums...very new.

I'm researching buying my first set-up and I'm struggling with the size of the tank. I was initially thinking of a 40 gallon reef tack with a canister filter and a couple of powerheads. The (very knowledgeable) person at my local marine aquarium supplier suggested a 75 gallon, with an overflow box and sump system instead. I am somewhat limited in budget though.

Is his recommendation the minimum size I would want? also, in regards to live rock, they sell cured live rock for $8.99 per pound. Do I really need 1 pound per gallon? That works out to $675.00 in live rock alone. yikes...!

Thank you all very much for any assistance... :)
Click to expand...

If you are really new to salt water, you may wish to consider an All-in-one tank. These tanks like the Red Sea cube or the Oceanic Biocube have pump, filters, heaters and lighting. They do however tend to be smaller. The more expensive Red Sea 30G cube (approx. $800) has many great features and will need little modification later. The Biocube 29G on the other hand (approx. $250 or cheaper) has less features and you will want to modify it later.
 
Thanks again...! An all-in-one sounds like a really great idea. Do these work well?

sen5241b said:
If you are really new to salt water, you may wish to consider an All-in-one tank. These tanks like the Red Sea cube or the Oceanic Biocube have pump, filters, heaters and lighting. They do however tend to be smaller. The more expensive Red Sea 30G cube (approx. $800) has many great features and will need little modification later. The Biocube 29G on the other hand (approx. $250 or cheaper) has less features and you will want to modify it later.
Click to expand...
 
that just means more water changes. these little cubes are great to start off with. i kinda whanted 1 my self
 
My Biocube 29G (BC29) is about three months old and so far it has worked well.

I put 3 inches of sand and only 20 lbs of live rock in and my tank has been decent. Ph, Nitrites, Ammonia, salinity, etc. all have been excellent. I change out water at 20% every 2 weeks. My nitrates are a little high at 10 to 15 but a little fuge in the back and another 5 to 10 lbs of LR should make it better. But YES everyone agrees, the smaller the tank the harder it is to maintain water quality.

(Some people have said there are problems with the ballast and lighting on the BC29s but I think some of these people are turning the unhinged hood vertical or upside down and letting water get in the lights and cause a short. Most All-in-ones have a hinged hood preventing this problem).
 
and a small nano doesn't necessarily mean only water changes more often and your ok. what it really means is that if there are any changes to the water quality it will be a much more drastic effect than in a larger tank. take for example something dying in a nano. if this happens and isn't removed immediately it could be catastrophic to your entire system. if the same thing were to happen in my 180gal for example it would have a much smaller effect on the system because there is so much more volume of water to basically give you room to work with. so the larger the tank, the easier it will be to keep consistant perameters
 
Go with the largest tank you can afford and have space for. The smaller the tank, the more challenging to keep stuff alive. I think that people who start off small get easily discouraged when things don't work out and it turns them off from this hobby. Like Redline said, the larger the tank, the more room for errors and mistakes.

Go with a good protein skimmer over a canister filter, and aim for 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon. If live rock is expensive at your LFS, www.liveaquaria.com and www.saltycritter.com sell really nice live rock for around $3 to $4 per pound, including shipping.
 
After setting an overflow/sump for the 40g. there wouldn't be much of a saving over the 75g. reef ready that the LFS suggested.It may cost a bit more for lighting a 48'' long tank versus 36'' on the 40g. but not overly so.IMO,a 75g. would be perfect for someone new to the hobby.

Like Biff said LFS overcharge for live rock.There are several ways to save money(lots of money).Use mostly base rock like the ones sold here http://www.marcorocks.com/ and seed it with maybe 20-30lbs or even less of live rock from one of the places Biff linked to.Both Live Aquaria and Salty Critter have awesome live rock.Or you can use all live rock from them or another online vendor.It will still come out cheaper than what the LFS charges.
 
Sumps can be larger than a display tank. There are people who use sumps three and four times or more larger than their display tanks. However when using exremely large sump/refugium tanks it is usually remote for the display tank. Usually in a room behind or below the display tank. There are a lot of people who have bio cube tanks that have 30 or 40 gallon sump/refugiums. The only live rock is kept in their display tank. The amount of live rock you need is based on the bio load of fish or coral in the tank, not the size of the tank or amount of water. Less fish and coral, then less live rock that is needed. The large amount of water is a cushion against the rapid on set of disasters, and a thermal cushion. All your water parameters will change very slowly with a 12 or 20 gallon nano reef hooked up to a large sump/refugium. Then you have the economic benefits of a vey small tank and the safety of a large volume of water. The sump/refugium does not even have to be an aquarium. Just a marine water safe container. Buying live rock for a nano tank is super cheap in comparison to setting up live rock and sand in a large tank. Between live rock and sand in a 4 foot long 120 gallon tank I spend about $2000 and ninety percent of the sand is not live sand. Nanos are wonderful tanks, I just would not recommend anyone set one up as a stand alone tank without a sump/refugium.
 

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