Newbie with 80 gallon tank HELP!

[Peter]

Hi,

I recently came into possesion of an 80 gallon tank with a Rena
Filstar xp3 with spray bar and a EBO-JAGER 200 Watt heater. It didn't
have a cover or light, or manuals but hey it was all free, and it was
working (It had two freakin' huge gold fish in it).

I am new to 'aquaria' but would like to do a marine tank.
I don't know crap about doing this but I don't mind taking my time and
spending some cash. I am planning on buying 'The New Marine Aquarium:
Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide' and 'The Conscientious Marine
Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Sal****er Hobbyists'.
This seemed like a wise first step. I'm not looking to create a
master piece, just something that looks 'natural' (ie. Rocks
(reef/coral??? and some colourful fish).

Question 1 : What else do I need equipment wise, other than what I
have, and is what I have okay for a marine setup? If so what is the
optimal setup for the canister, with regard to the components in it
(ie. foam pads, charcoal)?

Question 2 : What are some good online references (ie. web, newsgroup,
associations, online suppliers)?

Question 3 : What is a good (meaning hardy) setup for fish and coral?

Thank you very much!

[Xena Warrior Princess]

Find a local reef club and look at other peoples tanks. Also, go to
www.reefcentral.com Remember everyone has their own opinions, and for some
reason in this hobby, people feel that their opinion is the only possible
way it will work and you are an idiot if you don't do exactly as they say.
So with that said....

Needs (in my opinion - lots of different things work - this works for me):
Protein Skimmer
Lots of powerheads to move water around in tank.
Good lights (don't skimp here - expect to spend at least $100's to a $1000)
Sand 4-6" of argonite sand. Southdown, etc. Don't buy "live" sand
prebagged in a store it isn't.
Live rock. I like one pound per gallon of tank. So you need 80 pounds.
This is also pretty expensive.

I also like refugiums, but not necessarily required, but nice.

I would not use any filter media including any type of bioballs. Setup a
sump under the aquarium with a pump to pump water back into the tank and an
overflow to direct water to the sump. If you have some extra live rock you
can put it into the sump for a little more filtration. Do not put any kind
of foam into your system. Foam becomes a nitrate factory and will goof up
your tank. Foam or floss for a day or two to polish the water is ok, but
not any longer than that.

I'm not going to say anything about online suppliers. I have good luck with
them, I have no local store that is worth going to, so I use online only.
Some of them truly are awful so do your homework.

--

"Peter" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi,
>
> I recently came into possesion of an 80 gallon tank with a Rena
> Filstar xp3 with spray bar and a EBO-JAGER 200 Watt heater. It didn't
> have a cover or light, or manuals but hey it was all free, and it was
> working (It had two freakin' huge gold fish in it).
>
> I am new to 'aquaria' but would like to do a marine tank.
> I don't know crap about doing this but I don't mind taking my time and
> spending some cash. I am planning on buying 'The New Marine Aquarium:
> Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide' and 'The Conscientious Marine
> Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Sal****er Hobbyists'.
> This seemed like a wise first step. I'm not looking to create a
> master piece, just something that looks 'natural' (ie. Rocks
> (reef/coral??? and some colourful fish).
>
> Question 1 : What else do I need equipment wise, other than what I
> have, and is what I have okay for a marine setup? If so what is the
> optimal setup for the canister, with regard to the components in it
> (ie. foam pads, charcoal)?
>
> Question 2 : What are some good online references (ie. web, newsgroup,
> associations, online suppliers)?
>
> Question 3 : What is a good (meaning hardy) setup for fish and coral?
>
> Thank you very much!

[wolfhedd]

If you take Xenas route, i would translate that into this..
wait on the proties skimmer until you cycle your sytem,
wait on any xtra ligthing until you have critters growing and live rock
stocked

-I would start with some kind of actinic ligthing for corals, leaving room
for more more later, meaning start out with maybe 100-180 watts, and plan
for room for another 100-250 watts later, the latter if your going hard
corals in the future.

-On the sand, aragonite, or LFS bought sugar fine marine sand works fine
too, i dont like the 2/1/2 inch DSB, i put in about 1-1/1/2 inches of sand,
then a quart or two of live sand on top

-start cycling. i wold take marc's idea it was and dont buy fish, just throw
in two store bought shrimp and throw them in there for ammonia boost, see
his website for more info. buy cured rock to start stocking, and or buy or
acquire some dead clean coral rock and start your pile with that, and throw
cured live rock over that if you have more time and want to save more money.
now you have your reef and your cycling system with only basic light on it
that will harbor fish, some soft corals and alot of base life for cycling.

-at this point i would start adding coral chemicals like KENT'S and
phytoplanktons, calciums, coral accellerator, essential elements, iodine,
iron, etc, as long as you dont see any hair algae develop, keep up this
coral propagation factory, soon you will see life spring up everywhere. you
will need to keep a real low dosage of phytoplankton, give normal dosage,
just dont do it every day, do it once a week, then graduate to twice week,
then when you start to see calcium build up, tube worms, feather dusters,
sponges, marine critters crawling everywhere, move to feeding phytoplanktons
every other day. now you will have a Backbone in which you coul dstrip out
all bio balls and filter mediums and keep only live sand and live rock and
corals and filter feeders as your sole filter eliminating the need for
filter problems(meaning if you dont like your old filter, you can trash can
it at this point or convert it to something)

-as far as foal im not sure what she means, i have two foam type filters,
theyre just simply water skimmers, not foam, actually synthetic, are these
ok in your opnion Xena? i have one on the siphon overflow reciever box, and
one in the sump just before the sump pump......

wolfhedd

"Xena Warrior Princess" > wrote in
message ...
> Find a local reef club and look at other peoples tanks. Also, go to
> www.reefcentral.com Remember everyone has their own opinions, and for
some
> reason in this hobby, people feel that their opinion is the only possible
> way it will work and you are an idiot if you don't do exactly as they say.
> So with that said....
>
> Needs (in my opinion - lots of different things work - this works for me):
> Protein Skimmer
> Lots of powerheads to move water around in tank.
> Good lights (don't skimp here - expect to spend at least $100's to a
$1000)
> Sand 4-6" of argonite sand. Southdown, etc. Don't buy "live" sand
> prebagged in a store it isn't.
> Live rock. I like one pound per gallon of tank. So you need 80 pounds.
> This is also pretty expensive.
>
> I also like refugiums, but not necessarily required, but nice.
>
> I would not use any filter media including any type of bioballs. Setup a
> sump under the aquarium with a pump to pump water back into the tank and
an
> overflow to direct water to the sump. If you have some extra live rock
you
> can put it into the sump for a little more filtration. Do not put any
kind
> of foam into your system. Foam becomes a nitrate factory and will goof up
> your tank. Foam or floss for a day or two to polish the water is ok, but
> not any longer than that.
>
> I'm not going to say anything about online suppliers. I have good luck
with
> them, I have no local store that is worth going to, so I use online only.
> Some of them truly are awful so do your homework.
>
> --
>
> "Peter" > wrote in message
> om...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I recently came into possesion of an 80 gallon tank with a Rena
> > Filstar xp3 with spray bar and a EBO-JAGER 200 Watt heater. It didn't
> > have a cover or light, or manuals but hey it was all free, and it was
> > working (It had two freakin' huge gold fish in it).
> >
> > I am new to 'aquaria' but would like to do a marine tank.
> > I don't know crap about doing this but I don't mind taking my time and
> > spending some cash. I am planning on buying 'The New Marine Aquarium:
> > Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide' and 'The Conscientious Marine
> > Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Sal****er Hobbyists'.
> > This seemed like a wise first step. I'm not looking to create a
> > master piece, just something that looks 'natural' (ie. Rocks
> > (reef/coral??? and some colourful fish).
> >
> > Question 1 : What else do I need equipment wise, other than what I
> > have, and is what I have okay for a marine setup? If so what is the
> > optimal setup for the canister, with regard to the components in it
> > (ie. foam pads, charcoal)?
> >
> > Question 2 : What are some good online references (ie. web, newsgroup,
> > associations, online suppliers)?
> >
> > Question 3 : What is a good (meaning hardy) setup for fish and coral?
> >
> > Thank you very much!
>
>