This is going to be my 1st ever saltwater tank!

[tatz4ever]

Hello all, I am sure glad I found these forums. I am hoping it will make my new endevour less frightening , confusing, and painful.
I have had many freshwater tanks for over 20 years of my life. I always wanted a saltwater tank, but was always told it was too hard and too expensive to get into. I recently bought a used set-up on Craigslist. I got Corner tank, stand, glass canopy, and hood? (large plastic piece on top of tank). It came with a Pro Clear Aquatic Systems Model 125 Wet/Dry w/o prefilter box(with bioballs in it already), a Rio+ 2100 pump, Coralife Super Skimmer (up to 65 gallon), Stealth ETP200 heater, 3/4 bucket of 160 gallon Reef Crystals and rock and various chemicals, scrapers, gloves, etc.
For lighting I got a Coralife Lunar Aqualight 30 inch. The guy "threw in" a Smartlight 51001 30 inch light fixture with 65 watt power compact Smartlamp twin tube 10q base. This fixture was "thrown in" because I could not get the Coralife fixture to light up, even though he had it working 2 days prior. :doubt:

I know I am going to have MANY questions going forward, but my main question is about the Coralife fixture right now. When plugged in, I get the fan to run, and I get the Lunar LED lights to go on also. My problem is with the 2 main bulbs. I know I have to replace one, because upon inspection the base removed itself from the bulb. When I turn on these lights, should the ballasts make any kind of noise? These do not, so I assume they may be bad? I want to order pieces I need first to troubleshoot this, so would that mean bulbs first, than ballasts or vice-versa?
Please understand I know NOTHING about saltwater or the equipment that it uses and as a newbie I will have a lot of questions in the future.
Thanks for any help you can give me!
James

 

[Burke]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers. You will get some good info here. It sounds like you got a decent system to start. Do tons of research before you buy anything more. Especially on your light, it may not be good enough for what you want to do with the system. What is your plan with the tank? My ballasts don't make any noise, so I would suspect the bulbs first.

 

[bigblue141]

First off,

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

Toss the wet/dry filter system. Sell it on Craigslist.

Either buy a tank that you can use as a sump. There's tons of DIY sumps out there.

How big of tank did you get? Personally I would toss the lighting fixture and get a T-5 set up, or if you have a canopy for the tank, get a retro kit.

Do lots of reading. Main difference is Saltwater tanks take quite a while longer to cycle that fresh water tanks do.

Saltwater tanks are not difficult as long as you stay on top of them and do things slowly. It takes a bit when they are cycling, but after you're done with that and get a schedule down for your tank, it's pretty much over drive from there.

You're also going to want to get a 10-20 gallon tank with a simple sponge filter to use as a Quarantine tank. A lot of Saltwater fish available are wild caught with more and more coming available that are tank bred & raised. The latter drives a little higher price tag, but are well worth it. They are not fish being taken from the ocean, and since all they ever know is aquarium life, getting them aclimated is easy.

 

[tatz4ever]

I believe the tank is a 38 gallon but I am not positive. My plan is to set it up as a reef tank. Some fish, corals,etc. But I need to read a lot before making that decision. From what I am told this tank was set up as a reef tank previously and the guy had great sucess with it. Why would I want to get rid of the wet/dry and get a sump? Why might the lights not be enough? I am hoping to not have to spend all that much more on the tank. I got a great deal on this and would like to concentrate on filling it with interesting creatures instead of more equipment. I will do what is best, but need to understand why first.
As far as the bulbs, I have found MANY different prices online for the same bulb. Any suggestions on sites that have good prices to start?
Thanks for the answers. I will learn more and more with each question I ask!
James

 

[roblou]

Hi James: welcome to RF and the reef hobby! I'll warn you that the hobby is quite addictive .

In regards to wet/dry vs sump, the consensus is that bioballs are not good to use in a reef tank setup because they become nitrate factories and end up making your water chemistry worse than better (bioballs gave way to live rock as the medium for filtration).

If nothing else, remove the bioballs from the wet/dry completely. You may be able to find a good deal on a used sump, or you can make a DIY sump using a small/cheap glass tank. But, if you're unable to get a sump now, the wet/dry can probably still be used, just remove the bioballs. You could even replace them with some live rock if you want.

A sump is nice because it's designed to hold a bunch of equipment you end up using to support your reef tank, such as heater & skimmer. But maybe you can already keep your heater and skimmer in your wet/dry??

Somewhere down the line you will want to consider upgrading your skimmer, but for now the CSS is better than nothing.

Finally, I hope you can get your lights working and hopefully it's just the bulbs.

Good luck!

Rob

 

[jrgilles]

Hey man, welcome to reef frontiers!

If you can find any reefers in the area, you could probably borrow one of their old bulbs and test your fixture. Would hate to see you buy a bulb to test, then end up replacing with T5 or something.

I'd agree with replacing the bioballs with liverock. Besides that your system should get you started. You'll probably want to stick to FOWLF (fish only with live rock) or maybe some soft corals. If you want any hard corals, you'd probably need to update the light at the least, and maybe redo the sump, skimmer, etc. as others have mentioned.

I'd take is slow and work with fish and softies to start if you don't want to spend cash on equipment as you said. You can slowly replace equipment as you figure out what you want to do.

I used to have that skimmer, but ended up replacing it. Should be much better on your tank size (mine is 125 total) though.

How many watts/what kind of bulbs are in your coralife light?

rob

 

[ac7av]

I think what you have sounds good for a all around tank. I would avoid things that are high light demanding critters but for most corals you will want to have at first will be quite happy with the lights you have in that size tank. There is not a thing wrong with the wet dry filter you have, it is just a bit more work in maintaining them. If you let it go that system can sometimes go off like a bomb chemistry wise. You can go buy all the best stuff if you can afford it but for broke people like myself you buy the cheep stuff and make it work with a little ingenuity.

Check out http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/u/UserPath1_Aquarium_Basics.htm
This is a good place to start. It has all kinds of good information about how to set up a tank and about cycling and filtering and all that good stuff for a newbie. I’m still a newbie of 5 years and have more questions these days then answers.

 

[reefreefer]

Welcome to Reef frontiers,
I just thought I would let you know I started with a light like that, Coralife 2x 65w w/moonlights, it was really quiet, all I heard was the fan. I would look around to see if any one has any used bulbs to test it out, mine was a pretty sturdy unit I dropped it a few times and It still worked like new.
A reason you may want to get new lights, depends on what types of coral you want in your tank. I Know that light is good for soft coral and lps but from my experience it does not work very well for many sps. Dose not mean you need a new light just make sure you do your research before you buy any coral and place it appropriately.
The bio balls would need to be cleaned every week or so to remove detritus, this would also cause beneficial bacteria to be lost as well, causing a small cycle as to where live rock has a more natural way of absorbing and doesn't leach back into the system. Bio balls are great for fresh water, I know someone who uses bio bail in a fowlr tank but I can only give live rock a +1

 

[nano24]

Welcome...lots of good info and people here!

 

[minhmattmai]

Welcome to the hobby Tatz!

 

[thatguy559]

welcome to rf

 

[jgalvin]

welcome to saltwater, from a fellow saltwater noobie. i'm two months in and find the hobby very fun (and addictive). post pictures, we like pictures.

depending on the unit the ballasts can make sound (or not), I've tried 3 lighting units so far. The first two (from Current USA) were loud as heck, the one i have not is totally quiet.

 

[pravdaseeker]

Welcome, you will find a wealth of knowledge here

Hi, and welcome,

I am very new to here still myself , but come here to get info, and boy has it ever been a help!

You just GOTTA try out the search function, and type in "aiptasia" for example; and up pops a ton of posts on this critter, not good by the way.

I used this VERY search a while ago as I have SPOTTED one of these little S**Ts growing in mine now, came in on last load of live rock I got.

I checked out the pics of it, (I knew what it was before checking), but just to be sure, did the search, YEP SURE NUFF JETHRO... it is one of them. Soon to be many... so everyone says.. so small freaking going on here at the moment, broke on my butt until payday, NO LFS to get goodies..lol.. Sigh.

Do I let it go and just get a racoon butterfly or what?? NOT A QUESTION TO THE THREAD PLEASE< I DONT WANT TO HIJACK..

A rhetorical question I ask myself only..

WELCOME, you will find there are great advisors, and the collective wisdom is quite an encyclopedia to investigate..

Good luck and enjoy the hobby, I am LOVING my return to it also..

Pravdaseeker

 

[tike]

pravdaseeker easy with the bold text bro!:badgrin:

 

[tike]

tatz4ever... put down the tank and step away SLOWLY....listen to me! You will hurt yourself like I did! :badgrin::lol:


Welcome to RF! It really is a great hobby.

 

[pravdaseeker]

tike666,

Is there a problem with the bold, and a bit larger? It is easier to read..
Or is that your personal preference?

I don't get it.. sorry...

Some of us have vision problems..

Pravdaseeker