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Ok... My 30g will soon become empty and I thought I might try saltwater. I don't want live rock or corals... Nothing fancy just a nice simple tank with some beautiful and peaceful marine fish.

I currently have a penguin 170 on the tank, but I can add more filtration if needed. I already plan to get a power head and a protein skimmer as I hear they're both quite important. I'd like to keep the tank as empty as possible with no fake ornaments and such if possible.

Basically... I need the rundown on setting up a fish only tank. Temperature, filtration, possible stock... The works really..

I'd really like an amphiprion percula or an amphiprion ocellaris (Don't worry... I was a fan of these fish way before finding nemo (which I haven't actually ever seen)). I don't know what can go with them, or even if one of them would fill a 30g. I would like to stock lightly... whatever that means in marine terms.

I know live rock would be the best way to go, but I honestly just don't like the look of it. I've seen beautiful aquascapes done with it, and it CAN be beautiful, but it's really not the look I'm going for.

Any help would be wonderful... Also, sorry for my extreme newbie-ness. I've been reading up on everything, but as I've learned from freshwater, it's always best to ask someone who can respond to follow up questions.

Last edited by john.stone at 20-Dec-2004 02:34

OK John, not sure your exact question, so I'll just help by commenting on your post.

Lets first start off with some questions for you. Will your tank have an overflow, and a sump? Are the clowns your only choice of fish?

This is going to be hard to help, with the fish and the tank setup you are talking about.

OK, as for "lightly" stocking the tank, one would surfice, and a pair of those clowns will be the limit. As the females will get about 5 inches when fully grown. To keep them happy, they will need something to swim around. At least some LR and some caves, or just anything but a bare tank. A bare tank is usually left for the open water swimmers or those fish not requiring hiding spots. Even with no other fish present, these fish need to feel safe with hiding places.

Filtration, actually this is the biggest reason for the LR. And a skimmer may or may not be needed, depending on how ofter you plan to do water changes. Which IMO, without the LR, skimmer, and such, will be min 20% weekly. If you are going to use a HOB filter, be sure you have one with a biowheel, if you are not going to use any LR.

If you go with an overflow and a sump, you can put LR in the sump. This way you don't need to see it in the tank. Instead of the HOB filter, you can use a HOB overflow, and the water will go into the sump, and thus get filtered there.

As for substrate, Aragonite, crushed coral, or any calcium based sand will do. It will help to buffer the ph of the water in the higher ranges required for SW fish.

If in the end, your plans for the tank are as follows; 30 gal, HOB filter, no LR, yes/no skimmer, I would suggest your stock be either 1-2 damsels, or a small school of chromis.

HTH.....

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There is always a bigger fish...

a pair of clowns will be fine in an "empty" tank of such size....but if u do not have rocks or other ornaments, your fishes might ending up hanging around filters and heaters all the time to feel secure

if u are not using LR, the best way is to buy old bio balls or bio media from your LFS's tank which already have established bacteria. Or use bio starters such as "Cycle" or Sera Ammovec to start up your tank.

There are different choices to what can go with clowns, basically any fish can go with clowns except clowns ( a pair of clown is exception), fishes that are big enough to eat the clowns and sometimes fishes with similar shape.
(not talking about tank size factor here)

My suggestion would be a fire goby, chromis, smaller damels, small wrasse. And none of the grazers (dwarf angels, blennies, tangs etc) as you do not want to have LR.

Basic SW parameters:

temp: 25 degrees C
specific gravity: 1.020 - 1.025 (1.022 as a good mid point)
ph: 8.2

Last edited by Week End at 20-Dec-2004 10:04

Wow! Thanks for the information . I don't plan to have a sump or anything like that, just a HOB, power head and a skimmer if needed.

But I don't want to stress the clowns by not having caves for them, and they're the only ones I really wanted. So it looks like I'm going to be sticking with freshwater.

Thanks.

You don't have to get live rock, and you can still make caves. Just order some base rock off the internet somewhere, for like $1 or $2 a pound, and in a year or two it will be live for you. If you were planning on a skimmer, they would cost about the same, and the rocks would help the fish more than the skimmer would.

I'm actually looking for a bare tank, just glass, sand and fish. So getting any kind of rocks would be outside of my vision.

I honestly don't think it owuld be that bad for a clownfish to be ina bare tank. It would probably prefer a tank witha hiding spot, but they prefer more to swim. You can also get other swiming fish, that don't like to hide alot. If you are willing to set up a fuge, then I think lr in the sump/fuge will help alot. It isn't that difficult, and I think you could do it fairly easily.

Ok... So I've become confused... Big surprise eh .

I guess I need to simplify and just ask if this is possible (without stressing the fish)...

Tank Size: 30g (36"L x 12"W x 16"H)
Filter: Penguin 170
Powerhead: 170GPH (Maybe more?)
Liverock: No
Heater: 150W
Water Changes: 20%/week (I can do twice a week if needed)
Skimmer: No (Unless it's needed?)
Sump/Fuge: No
Decorations: None (Maybe a few Texas Holey Rocks?)
Fish: 2x Clown Fish (False OR True)

Could anything else go with them in a 30g with no live rock (Exact species please)? Or would two clowns be fully stocked? With no live rock are snails and shrimp out of the question?

You have no idea how much I appreciate your help, it feels odd being a complete newbie at something again .

Last edited by john.stone at 22-Dec-2004 02:51

The fish defentinally will not like being in a bare tank. You need to have something in there no matter what, even if its some crappy castle or something. Fish don't really like to be fully exposed all the time.

Texas holey rock it is.

Texas holey rock will do fine. What is the foot print of your 30 gal? Tall, reg, or long? You could look into an eel, like the snowflake moray. You could also look as a few chromis, as they would do great in a bare bottom tank, or really nice with a nice piece of holey rock. A damsel will be OK in that set up as well. There are several of the small fairy wrasses that will do good as well. There are many fish you can put into that tank. I was just under the impression you only wanted clowns. As for the shrimp and snails, you can have them as well, with just a small rock for them to climb on. Try one banded coral shrimp, or a blood red fire shrimp, but don't mix them. One of the smaller lion fish will do great as well, like the Radiata, Antennii, fu-man-chu, or a fuzzy dwarf lionfish. There are hundreds you can look at for that tank.

HTH....

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There is always a bigger fish...

It's 36"L x 12"W x 16"H... So that makes it a long I guess.

I also wasn't clear, the tank has a half an inch thick layer of white sand on it. Is that ok? I can remove it if needed.

Right now I want 2 false clowns for sure. The problem is I don't know what they have at the store... I've never shopped for marine fish. I'll go over there and have a look today and come back with a list of things that caught my eye, and then hopefully you nice salties can help me sort it all out.

No problems, just make sure the clowns are paired off before you buy them. Otherwise, I would recomend against adding a second one. Ask at the lfs if they get in pairs of clowns. They usually come in paired.

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There is always a bigger fish...