new tank need advice

[mike d.]

next week we are getting a new(from a friend) 6 foot long tank. I want to
set it up for sal****er and move my fishesd into it. I would like to hear
any recommendations as to substrate material, filtration, etcetera.
is it okay to just have no gravel or sand or coral on the floor of the
aquarium, or would that be a bad idea? The tank is intended to be fish only,
with about five or six fish in it. Could I just put a very small amount of
crushed coral, or sand, and then jjust add a bunch of live rock?

Any idead, suggestions instructions will be appreciated.
you can mail me at mikdan at comcast dot net and add the numeral
seven between the mikdan and the ampersand. Thanks. Mike.

[NoSpam]

"mike d." > wrote in message
. ..
> next week we are getting a new(from a friend) 6 foot long tank. I
> want to set it up for sal****er and move my fishesd into it. I would
> like to hear any recommendations as to substrate material,
> filtration, etcetera.
> is it okay to just have no gravel or sand or coral on the floor of
> the aquarium, or would that be a bad idea? The tank is intended to
> be fish only, with about five or six fish in it. Could I just put a
> very small amount of crushed coral, or sand, and then jjust add a
> bunch of live rock?
>
> Any idead, suggestions instructions will be appreciated.
> you can mail me at mikdan at comcast dot net and add the
> numeral seven between the mikdan and the ampersand. Thanks. Mike.

A LOT more than you think.You MUST read a book. I recommend "The Reef
Aquarium" by Delbeek and Sprung. About $60 at Amazon. Also
www.reefcentral.com

[Don Geddis]

"mike d." > wrote on Sat, 23 Aug 2008:
> next week we are getting a new(from a friend) 6 foot long tank. I want to
> set it up for sal****er and move my fishesd into it. I would like to hear
> any recommendations as to substrate material, filtration, etcetera.

The most common, and successful, approach to sal****er is: live rock,
live sand, and a protein skimmer. And nothing else. (Well: water changes,
feeding, lighting, etc.) That lets you have corals too.

> is it okay to just have no gravel or sand or coral on the floor of the
> aquarium, or would that be a bad idea? The tank is intended to be fish only,
> with about five or six fish in it.

Sure, you could have a bare bottom tank. Sand lets lots of interesting
creatures live there, and provides some important added filtration. But
_especially_ with a fish-only tank (where water purity isn't quite as
important as with invertebrates), bare bottom could work just fine.

> Could I just put a very small amount of crushed coral, or sand, and then
> jjust add a bunch of live rock?

Yes, you could do that too.

If you _really_ don't want anything on the bottom (but why?), you can
certainly run a successful (esp. fish-only!) tank with bare bottom.

Live rock (and a protein skimmer) will take care of filtration.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
Sixty seconds to impact.
[...time passes...]
Twenty seconds to impact.
No, sorry, ten. Ten seconds. I read the thingie wrong. Sorry!
-- Goats.com, 6/28/2007

[expat[_2_]]

On Aug 25, 10:48*am, Don Geddis > wrote:
> "mike d." > wrote on Sat, 23 Aug 2008:
>
> > next week we are getting a new(from a friend) 6 foot long tank. I want to
> > set it up for sal****er and move my fishesd into it. I would like to hear
> > any recommendations as to substrate material, filtration, etcetera.
>
> The most common, and successful, approach to sal****er is: live rock,
> live sand, and a protein skimmer. *And nothing else. *(Well: water changes,
> feeding, lighting, etc.) *That lets you have corals too.
>
> > is it okay to just have no gravel or sand or coral on the floor of the
> > aquarium, or would that be a bad idea? The tank is intended to be fish only,
> > with about five or six fish in it.
>
> Sure, you could have a bare bottom tank. *Sand lets lots of interesting
> creatures live there, and provides some important added filtration. *But
> _especially_ with a fish-only tank (where water purity isn't quite as
> important as with invertebrates), bare bottom could work just fine.
>
> > Could I just put a very small amount of crushed coral, or sand, and then
> > jjust add a bunch of live rock?
>
> Yes, you could do that too.
>
> If you _really_ don't want anything on the bottom (but why?), you can
> certainly run a successful (esp. fish-only!) tank with bare bottom.
>
> Live rock (and a protein skimmer) will take care of filtration.
>
> * * * * -- Don
> __________________________________________________ _________________________*____
> Don Geddis * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *http://reef.geddis.org/
> Sixty seconds to impact.
> [...time passes...]
> Twenty seconds to impact.
> No, sorry, ten. *Ten seconds. *I read the thingie wrong. *Sorry!
> * * * * -- Goats.com, 6/28/2007

I personally would use sand and stay away from crushed coral..or go
bare bottom before I would use crushed coral., Crushed coral traps
lots of junk which is inaccessable to most bottom inhanbitants whereas
sand at elast most can burrow through it fiarly easy as well as suck
it in and filter out any food particles easier than they can with
crushed coral. I have yet to ever see any what I would say is a
satisfied user of crushed coral in any posts in any of the online web
forums or in reallife. A regular bag of well washed play sand is
better than curshed coral and provides so much more benefits too,.

You really need more than live rock and skimmer, as a hang on back
filter such as a Aqua Clear provides a place to put activated carbon
or other meida if the need arises, as wellas providing current flow.
No need to use filter media batts etc but still nice to have a place
to put cabon if needed. SOme Maxi Or Mini Jet POwerheads are also nice
to have. THere is a lot of various inverts etc that can be kept in a
tank with relatively cheap power ocmpact lighting, and live rock and
sand bottom. The Coralife Super Skimmers are cheap and work just fine
and are hard to beat for the price..........At a minimum I uwl dhave
just enough sand on the bottom to take away that mirrow look a bare
glass bottom gives and make it look a bit more natural, but its your
time, tank and money but bare or covered will work.

[George Patterson]

mike d. wrote:
> The tank is intended to be fish only,
> with about five or six fish in it. Could I just put a very small amount of
> crushed coral, or sand, and then jjust add a bunch of live rock?

Expat has it pretty much right. Crushed coral is best for use with an
undergravel filter, but sand is much more versatile with any other type of
filtration (and who wants a UG filter these days?). Live rock does the job for
bacterialogical filtration, and it looks great. I use a cannister filter for the
purposes that expat recommends a hangon. I keep only a layer of filter floss in
it to trap debris (mainly algae) and keep bags of phosphate remover and ionic
filtration media in it as they become necessary. If you don't have a filter of
some sort for this purpose, sooner or later you will be adding various
"reactors" to do the same thing.

In order for live rock to work, you need a fair amount of water circulation. You
need to turn over about 18 times the capacity of the tank every hour. I have a
Tunze circulator located about 1/4 of the way down at one end of my tank, and a
Koralia unit located near the bottom at the other. The Koralia is a much better
deal. Blow the water back and forth through the live rock to help the
bacteria/enzymes do their job.

You will find a lot of debate about using ultraviolet sterilizers. In my limited
experience, most people who use them become convinced that they are worth the
money. One thing I can assure you is that using one which is properly sized for
your tank will raise the water temperature at least 1 degree F. If this is the
difference between needing a chiller and not, I would not buy the UV.

One other thing you may want is a reverse osmosis filter to clean up the water
you use for water changes. It doesn't take a great deal of laziness to wind up
with a hair algae infestation, and battling a caulerpa infestation is no fun at
all. An RO filter will help prevent such things.

George Patterson
The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.

[austinclamm]

Many people are attracted to the beauty and colors of sal****er fish. This attraction is the main reason that many people want to create a new marine aquarium fish tank water in the home or office.