Topic: Tank redo

[shadowcat330]

Alright everyone its been a logn time since i last posted here maybe like 6 months or more my fresh water tank did so great iv decided to give my fish to my best friend whom I know will take good care of my oscars. But now i got all the water drained from my tank, washed it out cleaned it up and got my filter all cleaned and washed and my bio wheels rinsed off. heaters cleaned Bought 3 bags of 20lb live sand and 1 live rock i never knew how expensive rocks were I was going to buy 3, but that was going to cost me 60 dollars lol i gotta wait till I get an another pay check to get more live rock. But my real question is iv read the guides on this part of the forum and talked to a few people that i know who have reef tanks, and what im really torn on is light quality of the tank.... im not sure waht to do, i mean if all i got is live rock and fish with sand ill be ok with normal flourest lighting wont I? and if I do decide to get coral one day... what type of light would you all suggest..

god this is going to be a long post im sorry guys theres alot of information to take in here, I want this tank to be as as well as my freshwater did.
Also the thing id like to know is this whole waterflow and the powerhead pump i belive thats what it is, i was going to buy one today, but i started thinking and was like wait my 7in lonf bubbler moved water like no other do i need to buy that???? but while looking at the tanks of other people iv noticed no one uses one in their tanks so is there a reason for that? if thre is ill go out and get the pump tomorrow. ERg sorry for the really long post and the typos from the very deep place below the earths crust and thanks alot for the help.

[Perfectblue]

Hello.

What size tank is this?

Reading the articles on top of the saltwater board would be helpful as well as some books. The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta and The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner are ones that I recommend.

If the tank doesn't house any coral than simple Normal Output fluorescent lighting is fine. Upgrading the lighting would be needed to keep corals.

Water flow is very important in a saltwater tank. For a none reef tank you will want at least 10-15x turnover rate, so if you had a 20g you would want 200-300 gallons per hour of flow in total. I would go with two or three powerheads. Bubble wands and air stones don't move much water at all, there mainly for aeration and looks.

As for filtration. Live rock is a natural biological filter and would be all the filtration you need if you have enough(around 1lb per gallon). You could use a HOB power filter or canister also, just make sure they are adequate for the tank size.

Any more questions just ask.

[shadowcat330]

thanks I got this all in a 75g tank right now I got 1 350 penguin its for a tank thats up to 120g so thats good, its a hang over side filter, I got 1 power head thats rated for a 75g tank I got 1 5lb live rock i plan on getting more soon as my drill weekend gets here.

[shadowcat330]

dang also i forgot to mention my flow rate on the head is  1200 gph and its pretty cool its made by a company called Hydor its a Koralia 4 its pretty cool hangs inside the tank using a powerful magnet and you can adjust the angle it points and it came with an attachement that helps direct the water flow even more if needed its pretty good stuff. it seems the only problem im having now is waiting on my heater to heat the water so I can get a proper salinity test.