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I have finally decided to start a salt water aquarium... and gone through with it. I want to stay as cheap as possible until I get a hold on of whats best.

I currently have a 20gal tank with a visi-jet100 protein skimmer, a UG filter and I just put in live sand. The water is at the right salinity and de-clored. I am eventually going to get live rock once I do a little more shopping around ($$$).

Whats next?

Do I need certain kind of lighting?

Any stocking suggestions?

First, you can use a UGF in a SW tank, but not with sand. You would need curshed coral for a UGF. It's not a problem, you can just turn off the UGF. As for the lighting, something like a 50/50 or actenic will be fine. Because your not keeping corals, you get away with standard Flor. If you want corals, you will want to upgrade your lights to MH.

Dan




Dan

You're options are pretty limited as far as stocking goes. Maybe one of the smaller damsels, like an anenomefish, or neon gobies, or a dartfish. What do you like? 20 gallons doesn't allow for much O2, so you're going to be pretty limited.

I think Dan covered the UGF and the lights pretty well; as long as you aren't keeping corals you only need enough light to satisfy you basically. When you save up the money to get your live rock you can start cycling. Make sure you've got test kits on hand, and once the cycle is complete you can basically start stocking. Not much to it; just monitor your levels carefully. Do you have a hydrometer that has been callibrated by a refractometer or something?

-Ferret




[hr width='40%'][font color="#000080"]
I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is that I care too much
And my scars remind me that the past is real
I tear my heart open just to feel
[/font]

Last edited by Ferretfish at 29-May-2005 09:20

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

hi ferretfish, just wondering how you callibrate a hydrometer? i thought u callibrate your refractometer with distilled water.

I wouldn't call myself an expert on this, but this is how I do it. Maybe Nate or Dan could provide more insight.

IME, refractometers are extremely accurate. I'll get the salinity or SG with that, and then record it. Then I'll get it with the hydrometer, and you just do the math to figure out how much the hydrometer is off by. It will be different for each persons tank.

There might be a different way to do it, as there are always alternative solutions in this hobby.

-Ferret




[hr width='40%'][font color="#000080"]
I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is that I care too much
And my scars remind me that the past is real
I tear my heart open just to feel
[/font]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

ah, ic. i which i had money for a refractometer lol

Refractometers are not really that expensive. You can pick one up here in the States for $49-59. When you consider that it will last a lifetime if you take care of it thats not much of an investment at all. Just think of the money you are spending every year when you buy a new hydrometer *cough* like you should *cough*. It doesnt take long for the savings to add up.

Ferret is correct on the way to "calibrate" a hydrometer. Take it to a LFS and have them compare its reading to a refractometer. If the refractometer reads 1.025 and your hydrometer reads 1.023 then you know your hydrometer is two points low and you can compensate for it.




[hr width='40%']I lay here in my bed and dream of you
Hoping you are dreaming of me too...
Someday the miles will be less and we will dream together
Your heart and mine Always and Forever...