First time Saltwater Setup

[TrendChaser103]

Hey!

I'm just in the process of gathering what I need for my first saltwater aquarium. I've been keeping freshwater tanks for the better part of a decade and have finally decided it's time to dip my toe into this side of the hobby. I'm aiming for a relatively simple nano setup for now with plans to get a larger tank down the line once I'm comfortable.

What I have so far:
Tank - Landen 45P Rimless aquarium. Very similar to a Waterbox 20 and has around 15 gallons of usable tank space. Dimensions are 17.7" L x 17.7" W x 15.5 H" (including rear filter compartment). It does come with a glass lid which is very nice.
Stand - Custom built by myself, will be adding shelves at appropriate heights as required once I have my equipment a little more figured out
Filter - Built in filter system. I will be using filter socks in the first compartment, bio media and sponges in the second, and equipment such as ATO in the 3rd. I don't plan on using a skimmer as it doesn't seem necessary on a nano tank like this.
Light - NICREW HyperReef 100 with controller
Wavemaker - AI Nero 3
Heater - Cobalt Neo-Therm 100 watt
Rocks - Marco Rocks (haven't set up yet though I have a healthy amount of them)
Sand - I have 5lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct live sand as well as 20lbs of CaribSea Aragonite
Dosing - Chihiros 4x Head dosing pump
ATO - Fzone ATO
Salt - Aquaforest Sea Salt
Water - I have a nice oversized R/O setup for out house water so all set there
Testing/Equipment - Refractometer, API Saltwater test kit, Hanna Phosphate and Alkilinity testers, Coral Dip, syringes, and other odds and ends from the freshwater side of things.

Any input or suggestions are welcome, I have a ton of learning to do!

I am in absolutely no rush and have been working on/planning this for several months. I plan on taking it slow all throughout and not jumping in too quickly with fish and corals. The next step for me is to get the sand and rock work done. Once media bags arrive for the filter I'll be starting the cycle with ammonia and lights off for a month or so before even thinking about stocking options.

I also don't have any clue what kind of corals I want as I haven't researched into that yet nor do I know what my lighting setup can handle so it's all TBD based on recommendations and learning. A tank that's heavily inspired me is

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to the hobby. I have been addicted for 53 years. Know this about your live sand; it’s bacteria only.
Your equipment list is fine, because I have embrace nutrient recycling, I don’t wear scissor in the refugium.

Save yourself from a lot of grief and start your system with real live sand and real live rock. Wet what you have and drop a dead shrimp into your tank. In one week add diver collected live sand and live rock:

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

 

[TrendChaser103]

Welcome to the hobby. I have been addicted for 53 years. Know this about your live sand; it’s bacteria only.
Your equipment list is fine, because I have embrace nutrient recycling, I don’t wear scissor in the refugium.

Save yourself from a lot of grief and start your system with real live sand and real live rock. Wet what you have and drop a dead shrimp into your tank. In one week add diver collected live sand and live rock:

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

Gulf Live Rock.com

gulfliverock.com

Do you think it's important to do the whole setup with live rock or just pick up a section or two from LFS and keep the majority of the scape as the marco rocks?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Timfish]

Welcome to the addic, er, hobby! Kudos on not buying into the skimmer hype. I wouldn't bother with the filter socks or sponges either. I would get some maricultured live rock or live rubble to go along with the live sand. See Aquabiomics article on establising healthy microbiomes, bottled bacteria and rock treated with nitrifying bacteria are fine but only about 2% of the microbial stuff can be cultured. Wild and maricultuired rock is the best souce for microbial stuff and sponges essential for healthy reef ecosystems. Probaly one of the most important things I learned decades ago is the importance of consitant water changes. More recently, research showing how detrimental Dissolved Organic Carbon can be for corals and how many forms cannot be removed by GAC or by skimmers has demonstrated how criutical water changes are to hopefully achieve normal life expectancies of the animals we are taking care of. Here's a data bomb (you did acknowledge needing to learn a lot ).

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/estab...obiome-in-a-new-aquarium-using-live-rock.742/

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Microbial view of Coral Decline

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching

DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

And here's a couple examples of what can be done without skimmers, reactors or fancy filters/refugiums

90 Gallon Mixed Reef

Mixed Reef started in 1997, 10-07-19

220 Rimless 450 view

 

[tzabor10]

Welcome! Live rocks will definitely kick the cycling into high gear. Be careful as smaller aquariums can be fussy. But you can do it with attention and care. Glad that you are on board with water changes. For corals, I have had great luck with birdsnest and lord acans. Hardy and attractive. Candy canes will also give pop and growth. A smaller hawk fish might also fit nicely in a small environment as they don’t need to swim as much. Good luck

 

[Timfish]

Do you think it's important to do the whole setup with live rock or just pick up a section or two from LFS and keep the majority of the scape as the marco rocks?

The more the better but even just filling one of those chambers in the back with rubble will givve an important boost to the sponges and microbial stuff in your system.

 

[tzabor10]

Do you think it's important to do the whole setup with live rock or just pick up a section or two from LFS and keep the majority of the scape as the marco rocks?

A little bit can be used. Then scape the rest.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hey!

I'm just in the process of gathering what I need for my first saltwater aquarium. I've been keeping freshwater tanks for the better part of a decade and have finally decided it's time to dip my toe into this side of the hobby. I'm aiming for a relatively simple nano setup for now with plans to get a larger tank down the line once I'm comfortable.

What I have so far:
Tank - Landen 45P Rimless aquarium. Very similar to a Waterbox 20 and has around 15 gallons of usable tank space. Dimensions are 17.7" L x 17.7" W x 15.5 H" (including rear filter compartment). It does come with a glass lid which is very nice.
Stand - Custom built by myself, will be adding shelves at appropriate heights as required once I have my equipment a little more figured out
Filter - Built in filter system. I will be using filter socks in the first compartment, bio media and sponges in the second, and equipment such as ATO in the 3rd. I don't plan on using a skimmer as it doesn't seem necessary on a nano tank like this.
Light - NICREW HyperReef 100 with controller
Wavemaker - AI Nero 3
Heater - Cobalt Neo-Therm 100 watt
Rocks - Marco Rocks (haven't set up yet though I have a healthy amount of them)
Sand - I have 5lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct live sand as well as 20lbs of CaribSea Aragonite
Dosing - Chihiros 4x Head dosing pump
ATO - Fzone ATO
Salt - Aquaforest Sea Salt
Water - I have a nice oversized R/O setup for out house water so all set there
Testing/Equipment - Refractometer, API Saltwater test kit, Hanna Phosphate and Alkilinity testers, Coral Dip, syringes, and other odds and ends from the freshwater side of things.

Any input or suggestions are welcome, I have a ton of learning to do!

I am in absolutely no rush and have been working on/planning this for several months. I plan on taking it slow all throughout and not jumping in too quickly with fish and corals. The next step for me is to get the sand and rock work done. Once media bags arrive for the filter I'll be starting the cycle with ammonia and lights off for a month or so before even thinking about stocking options.

I also don't have any clue what kind of corals I want as I haven't researched into that yet nor do I know what my lighting setup can handle so it's all TBD based on recommendations and learning. A tank that's heavily inspired me is

 

[Uncle99]

Welcome to R2R!
Dry rock, sand, saltwater, bacteria, and flow.
Let that run a few days and add your first fish or two.
You’ll get all the diversity you need as you add stuff to your system without the risk of stuff you don’t want.
Enjoy!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I basically agree with Subsea ! Start with live sand and rock for sure! I have a 90 gallon, so I started with 1/2 live rock, and 1/2 base rock, along with about 2.5 inches of live sand. You will be very thankful that you did this, if you do. It gives your brand new tank a good kick start in the right direction.

 

[Subsea]

The more the better but even just filling one of those chambers in the back with rubble will givve an important boost to the sponges and microbial stuff in your system.

@TrendChaser103
While Timfish emphases the enhancement of biochemistry with live rock; I say diver collected live rock looks fantastic.

https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/90af1256-3dfc-46e5-86cb-4b2dddf55349/premium-deco-rock-17.gif/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:440,cg:true

 

[TX_REEF]

+1 agreement with real ocean live rock or rubble if the price isn't a problem, will certainly make a big difference in stability! For test kit, I recommend you choose a different brand over API. I use red sea which I've found to be more accurate. There are other options as well, Salifert etc. you could add a refugium or an algae turf scrubber for nutrient export since you're going skimmerless. Be sure to give some thought to ATO reservoir as well, size vs. ease of refilling.

 

[NotReefsafe]

I want to mention that while I do prefer live rock, it isn't a necessity. PLENTY of great aquariums have been done without it. So if you really don't want to make another big purchase, don't worry about it.

My coral recommendations, having a similar tank myself:
-Duncan
-pipe organ
-xenia
-gsp
-frogspawn
-mushrooms

Fish ideas:
-pair of clowns
-trimma gobies
-court jester goby
-pistol shrimp and goby pair (Yasha, watchman, etc)
-pink streaked wrasse
-tailspot blenny
(Not all of these; these are just ideas)

Consider GFO media.

Nassarius snails are fun.

 

[Subsea]

”I also don't have any clue what kind of corals I want as I haven't researched into that yet nor do I know what my lighting setup can handle so it's all TBD based on recommendations and learning. A tank that's heavily inspired me is“

I watched your inspirational video. Very nice system. Remember, WWC is a vendor that sells high end coral, which is a trend that has a lot of followers.

Because I am a minimalist with my maintenance I choose to use biodiversity to reduce maintenance and instead of a coral only tank, I choose diverse filter feeders including ornamental sponges and ornamental macro algaes.

 

[Keywest99]

Hey!

I'm just in the process of gathering what I need for my first saltwater aquarium. I've been keeping freshwater tanks for the better part of a decade and have finally decided it's time to dip my toe into this side of the hobby. I'm aiming for a relatively simple nano setup for now with plans to get a larger tank down the line once I'm comfortable.

What I have so far:
Tank - Landen 45P Rimless aquarium. Very similar to a Waterbox 20 and has around 15 gallons of usable tank space. Dimensions are 17.7" L x 17.7" W x 15.5 H" (including rear filter compartment). It does come with a glass lid which is very nice.
Stand - Custom built by myself, will be adding shelves at appropriate heights as required once I have my equipment a little more figured out
Filter - Built in filter system. I will be using filter socks in the first compartment, bio media and sponges in the second, and equipment such as ATO in the 3rd. I don't plan on using a skimmer as it doesn't seem necessary on a nano tank like this.
Light - NICREW HyperReef 100 with controller
Wavemaker - AI Nero 3
Heater - Cobalt Neo-Therm 100 watt
Rocks - Marco Rocks (haven't set up yet though I have a healthy amount of them)
Sand - I have 5lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct live sand as well as 20lbs of CaribSea Aragonite
Dosing - Chihiros 4x Head dosing pump
ATO - Fzone ATO
Salt - Aquaforest Sea Salt
Water - I have a nice oversized R/O setup for out house water so all set there
Testing/Equipment - Refractometer, API Saltwater test kit, Hanna Phosphate and Alkilinity testers, Coral Dip, syringes, and other odds and ends from the freshwater side of things.

Any input or suggestions are welcome, I have a ton of learning to do!

I am in absolutely no rush and have been working on/planning this for several months. I plan on taking it slow all throughout and not jumping in too quickly with fish and corals. The next step for me is to get the sand and rock work done. Once media bags arrive for the filter I'll be starting the cycle with ammonia and lights off for a month or so before even thinking about stocking options.

I also don't have any clue what kind of corals I want as I haven't researched into that yet nor do I know what my lighting setup can handle so it's all TBD based on recommendations and learning. A tank that's heavily inspired me is

 

[Keywest99]

Welcome and good luck with your new setup. I've been into saltwater for a long time, but just now setting up my first reef tank also. Like you I've been taking my time getting all the equipment...
75 gallon Seapora pre-drilled corner overflow
Icecap 24 sump
Octo 110S Classic Protein Skimmer
Icecap ATO
2 Nicrew Hyperreef 100's with controller
Hygger Heater w/controller
eflux wavemakers
Coralife 6X Twist UV sterilizer

I ended up customizing the stand to make everything fit, have the sump on one side, and all electrical connections and transformer/power supplies on the "dry" side hooked up to a 9 receptacle power station with lighted switches labeled for each component. After careful plumbing and wiring I finally put live sand in and water, half my water was from my previous 110 gallon and moving my live rock into new tank. What few corals I had, inverts and just a couple fish will go in tomorrow. I hope yours goes smooth. Wish you the best.