Need advise to set-up 4ft x 1.5ft x 1.5 ft

[Magixian]

Dear all,

Apologise for starting this thread again but I really need advise on the items that I need to buy. Currently, I have the following

Empty 4 ft x 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft tank with 3 partition

1 Eheim professionism I pump and couple of tubing

After reading some books on marine fish, I'm eager to kick-start on my own. But when I went to Jalan kayu shop and found myself lost in an array of products. Ranging from salt to sand to live rocks and etc. I'm willing to spend on this hobby but doesn't want to buy unnecessary item. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you can advise me what to buy. Many thanks in advance.

P/S : I saw a well set-up 2 ft tank with fish and tank. Selling at $899, is it expensive ?

[reefer_cosmo]

Dear all,

Apologise for starting this thread again but I really need advise on the items that I need to buy. Currently, I have the following

Empty 4 ft x 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft tank with 3 partition

1 Eheim professionism I pump and couple of tubing

After reading some books on marine fish, I'm eager to kick-start on my own. But when I went to Jalan kayu shop and found myself lost in an array of products. Ranging from salt to sand to live rocks and etc. I'm willing to spend on this hobby but doesn't want to buy unnecessary item. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you can advise me what to buy. Many thanks in advance.

P/S : I saw a well set-up 2 ft tank with fish and tank. Selling at $899, is it expensive ?

It really depends on what you want really. Everyone starts as a newbie. For myself, I started with a very tank, crashed it 3 times, wasted lots of money buying new fishes and corals. Learned through hands-on experience and mistakes made, then upgraded to a larger tank, but still trying to spend on minimal ... was slightly more successful, but not able to sustain large number of fishes in the tank.

Then recently, decided to really spend significant amount of cash ... buy chiller, proper nano tank setup with powerful pumps, MH (powerful) lights, proper nite-light, UV filtering, all arrays of test kits, supplements and dosing solutions. It really made a significant difference, and I was able to keep a tank packed full of corals and fishes ...

If you are looking at instant success and purchase the readily setup 2ft tank with fishes, what happen will be that when issues arises with the marine tank, most likely you will not know how to solve it, and it will crash.

[reefer_cosmo]

i meant to say i started with a very small tank. the other point i was trying to made at the end of my post is that most newbies learn through their mistakes, so you cannot really avoid that. most successful marine tanks are result of many failed trial and error attempts. reading a lot before you start can help you mitigate some of the risks, but pitfalls are still going to be there due to your inexperiences.

in short, just do it. don't worry so much. u will learn along the way.

[LaW]

i meant to say i started with a very small tank. the other point i was trying to made at the end of my post is that most newbies learn through their mistakes, so you cannot really avoid that. most successful marine tanks are result of many failed trial and error attempts. reading a lot before you start can help you mitigate some of the risks, but pitfalls are still going to be there due to your inexperiences.

in short, just do it. don't worry so much. u will learn along the way.

go for more width and height. you wont regret it. 4 ft is nice. get a good skimmer, set-up a refugium. thats my advise to u. UV is good as well.

and.. warm welcome back to this hobby mate.

patience together with money is the key

[Magixian]

Thanks Reefer and Law for the advise. I will spend more time and effort one this hobby. Cheers.

[dragonfly_sg]

Actually you have alot of time ...... to slowly decide on what you want to do but at the same time getting your hands wet.

Since you already have the tank .....

Your immediate decision is to decide ......

1. What substrate ?

2. What water ? (Salt mix or NSW)

3. Get LR.

4. Get a Wavemaker.

Get this stuff first, and get your tank (salt water) running and you have 1 month to slowly decide what you want to do

The problem is people wait a long time to decide what they want to do and when they start, they want to do everything at a go. Thats where problem happen and also going it all at once is pretty "siong" on the wallet too.

So get the above stuff and let it cycle, once you decided what you want to do (eg. Reef, FOWLR or Rojak). Then your tank will also be ready for you.

[Magixian]

Thanks for the reply Dragonfly. It is interesting for you to bring the portion on wait and wait and then do everything at a go; reflected on much of our lifestyle.

For me, I would like to have a rojak style of set-up. Therefore, I plan, as what you have mentioned, is to get the following from marine shop today and condition the water first.

1) Mix salt

2) Sand

3) rock

4) measuring tools

Anything I have missed out ?

[vt_snowman87]

don't forget your sump tank.. to make sure ur tank has a proper overflow system first before filling it up with water and sand etc..

make all necessary drillings and pipings first i would recommend.. :)

[Magixian]

Thanks Snowman.

Yesterday was a shopping and have spent over $400 plus to buy the following :

3 X sand

2 X salt

1 X all in one test kit

4 x supplement, mineral chemical

1 x wave maker

1 x cotton

1 x bio-ball

I didn't not the skimmer as there are so many variety and I'm lost. Any suggestion. Btw, does skimmer comes with it own's pump or we have to connect it to the main fish tank pump??

I also realise that marine shop does not give much discount to the items that you have bought. They have only given me $13 discount in the total sum. Is it a normal practice ?

[vt_snowman87]

depends on which shop u go to i guess..

most stuff can be bought here at the forum, lots of ppl selling off their decommed stuff.. pop by to take a look..

as for skimmer, a few brands i would recommend..

beckette is good and low start-up cost, but incur higher electricity as compared to HnS & Deltec..

HnS & Deltec are good, but pretty costly to purchase..

could see this thread abt skimmers for more info..

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51532

cheers..

[vt_snowman87]

oh ya, regarding ur question abt skimmer pumps,

most ppl in the forum sells their used skimmer with the pump, but u need to connect it most of the time..

do take note whether the pump is included ornot, because the pump itself cost quite a sum, usually 100+..

the pump + skimmer is usually put inside the sump tank, either externally or internally, but usually located at the sump tank..

hope my 2 cents helped..

[dragonfly_sg]

The next thing you could do after you have setup everything you have purchased is to get cured LR. Seek out people that have decided to quit the hobby in the classified section and buy their LR. It's much much cheaper and it's cured, so that will be easier. You wouldn't want to go through the curing process espcially if you have a mother or wife that is less then appreciative of your hobby

Once you put your LR in the fun beging Start counting pods, thats what I did. The negative point about cured rock is that you're not going to get many surprises, but there is usually a small pods population inside the rocks that will start to multiply in your tank. If you get uncured rock, you can expect to see many things, brittle stars, crabs, shrimps, worms, I every heard octopus, etc, etc. Some of these you want in your tank, some you don't, but it's very interesting watching them do what they do especially after dark

And after that, expect a major diatom bloom. Once it gets messy enough you can get some CUC and after they're in there for a week or two, you're in business.

About skimmer, when I got my first tank I got a skimmer immediately and run the whole setup without any LS. Everyone was talking about skim mate and using that to judge the effectiveness of their skimmer. NOBODY told me I need to have "not" good water to get skimmate , so I was fumbling with my skimmer for a week because I am getting nothing, not even decent foam. I use cured rocks, so that didn't help with the skimmate part either. Finally after reading a magazine did I realised that.

So IMO you can get your skimmer once you get your live stock or if you begin with uncured rocks. Otherwise take your time to read others people experiences with the respective brands and choose the best one with your available budget.

[dragonfly_sg]

I also realise that marine shop does not give much discount to the items that you have bought. They have only given me $13 discount in the total sum. Is it a normal practice ?

This type of things have to cultivate one It always starts with some investment and after a few trips try to chat up the man or woman in charge. After paying enough school fees, most fishshop will automatically give their "best" customer some sweetener one

Some shop are more tight fisted, so you gotta make a call then. But I honestly feels that good service is more important to me than "special" prices.

[RockyBoy]

Start slow, and understand the water chemistry first, to be successful.

What kinda tank are you into?

I don't think you need the bio balls, unless you want to have more nitrates in the water.

[Magixian]

Dear all, thanks for the advise.

The tank I'm having belongs to our of my friend. He had given up the hobby years ago due to inexperience. Therefore, I took over from him and hopefully I can be sucessfully. I have attached the picture of my tank and directional of the water flows. Hopefully you all can give me guidance whether it is going to be correctly set-up. Many thanks.