Advise 4 a newbie me...

[wolfie]

Hey...

I'm rather new here... Need some help... Well u see, I've got a 2ft tank wif a EH 2213 filter and a rena powerhead... U fink tt's enuff or shld I hve a protein skimmer and/or slump as well? The fishes tt r in my tank nw r clowns and damsels (and a fire goby)... no live rocks yet coz I juz changed the sand 2 #3. I've intentions 2 make the tank into a reef tank... So I need some advice... Den, if I wanna start a reef tank, izzit I muz haf a refugium? And wat do the corals eat on?

Pls help... Thanks a mil...

[Achilles Tang]

Hi Wolfie,

Welcome to this hobby! You will need a lot of reading to get a grasp of the basics and then to further stuff like stocking, lighting and feeding to be as conscientious in caring for your minireef and general marine life as possible.

To start off, why don't you visit borders and read this book "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Fenner (There's a flame angel on the cover).... there are other good or better books around and I encourage you to read/buy them... so you won't waste money, time and lives later.

To start off, since you asked for advise when you already started on your tank....

1. Your filtration system is most important in your tank. Look into a protein skimmer to filter out dissolved organics. A sump is necessary if you have the space coz you can put a lot of equipment in there, inclusive the skimmer, carbon, phosphate sponges etc.

2. Your sandbed .... throw out #3 sand.... its too coarse and big, it'll end up as a detritus trap and most sandbed creatures like worms and pods prefer much finer sand... #1 or mud-like. Try to have a minimum of 4" of DSB to get max denitrifying effects.

3. Ample Liverock is important as as a denitrifying source as well.

4. Look into your lighting.... as corals are mainly photosynthetic and some need more light than others.

5. Non photosynthetic corals or sponges, sea fans, gorgonians, fan worms etc need 'coral food'.... of which the best is live plankton... 2nd best is stuff like golden pearls (plankton and rotifer substitute), frozen plankton pastes and BBS (only for large polyps) ... 3rd is bottled liquid amino acids or coral/invertebrate food.

So before you rush off and buy stuff which are useless or incomplete or expensive or unneccessary and livestock which are not compatible, sensitive or downright unsuitable for your tank...... pls READ, READ, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!

We can help only to a certain extent... the effort must come from youself and your love for this hobby.

Good luck,

Achilles Tang

[wolfie]

thanks a mil for the advise...

I've a prob wif the sand... Nw tt I've got the #3 sand in the tank wif my fishes, hw 2 put in the #1 sand and not waste the #3 sand? can put 'em in layers?

[wolfie]

and hor... wat skimmer shld I get? I'm finkin' of the Red Sea Prizm one... Petmart sellin' it @ 200... But den again, I fink it looks kinda ugly to hang it outside. Prefers something on the inside but most of those kind of skimmers' capacity are too huge for my tiny 2ft tank. How leh?

[wedgee]

If u can afford it, I guess its good to buy the prizm (me using it since i started my tank, and it works just fine), since u might be upgrading yr tank or even setting up a new one in future? It's always good to be kiasu in this hobby...

Anyways, the skimmer doesn't really look that bad, cause it's very slim and in a dark color, which might even be better looking than the airstone-driven, long tubular ones (most of them are transparent and u can see all the gunk inside, BLEH

Hope this helps?

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Is the prizm too 'strong' for a 2 feet tank? As in the 'waves' that it admits?

[LiveRock]

I am using the Prism and happy with it.

IMHO, you can never 'overskim' as it is better to skim out organics out than to leave them in. If you suspect good nutrients are also skimmed out, just add moderate amount of supplements lah.

[wedgee]

Is the prizm too 'strong' for a 2 feet tank? As in the 'waves' that it admits?

It doesnt really create waves, cause the outflow is downward, from a slope, into the tank - much like a playground slide for the water...

[hongqixian]

thanks a mil for the advise...

I've a prob wif the sand... Nw tt I've got the #3 sand in the tank wif my fishes, hw 2 put in the #1 sand and not waste the #3 sand? can put 'em in layers?

Cannot. They will change place & it looks awful afterwards.