49 Bowfront "Build" Questions

[stepho725]

Hello from Jewett City. So I am back into the hobby after a 6 year hiatus. I'm picking up a 49g bowfront on Saturday afternoon & am opening a whole bunch of packages in the coming week and then I will fill'er up and see what happens after a while. Currently in search of dry rock (and live) looks like Petco might be my best bet for live rock (eh...) but dry rock I may have to purchase online (did I say cha-ching?) I just forgot how expensive the initial setup is! My plan is to keep this tank pretty simple with a HOB skimmer and hoping to make a small refugium out of my old aquaclear 30 (that should work right??) bc we are moving in the summer - after I get my honey addicted to the hobby then I will get an upgrade of equipment & etc and start doing some plumbing....or that is the plan.

It is also the plan to only keep soft coral/soft lps this time. I'm not up for the challenge of Zoas I never did get the hang of them and it was such a bummer....but, I never did have a skimmer (had a bare bones biocube and loved her so dearly) so maybe everything will be different. I anticipate it will.

Anywho: any suggestions on dry rock or where to get my piece of live rock for seeding? Does anyone think the aquaclear will work to grow Chaeto?

Oh! And we are painting the back of the tank this weekend which I've never done. What type of paint? I've seen lots of contradictory info??

I'm so glad to be back online in the
company of other lovers of the hobby!!! I will be posting tons of photos as things move along!

$200 for the tank 49 bowfront, stand, a 2 y.o fluval reef light (I will upgrade later to a chinese light) & an eshopps HOB skimmer seem appropriately priced? I thought so but then again I've not been around for 6 years so just double checking.

Sorry I've got tons of questions tonight!

- StephO -

 

[saturn13]

I'd say the price is ok depending on condition. The light might limit what you can get for coral . zoas should be any easy keep for most and if anything water stability is key. There are some other factors sure, but all the individuals who get it right seem to zero on that key factor.

 

[saturn13]

For Live rock I've always started with dry rock and picked up a little live rock and seed the tank that way, plus there are a lot of live strains of bacteria out there now, Dr Tims and Brightwell Aquatics I've used with success.

 

[kgstei]

Welcome back. I can give you a piece of rock from my sump. If you are on Jewett City water you may be interested in a Ro filter. I have an unused,
smaller 3 stage for $35. I'm in Griswold.

 

[stepho725]

Welcome back. I can give you a piece of rock from my sump. If you are on Jewett City water you may be interested in a Ro filter. I have an unused,
smaller 3 stage for $35. I'm in Griswold.

i would be very interested in both a piece of live rock and the RO filter since i literally purchased a ton of distilled water and premixed water at Petco!!! I didn't want that to be the way but I was feeling desperate since there are no lfs around.
Today I ordered 46lbs of dry rock from ebay for approx $80 so that was pretty decent. Hopefully I will get it quicker than they are estimating. They estimate 1/21 but i would prefer 1/11 - HAHA! No, but maybe next weekend would be great timing! It is coming from Las Vegas so I suppose we'll see.
Next I guess I need to start considering what type of sandbed I'd like and what I'd like to stock my tank with when the time comes. I'm still pretty restricted given that I will only have the 49G tank size and of course I'm going to have coral again (I swore my next tank would be fish only). Do I NEED a deep sandbed for a sand goby? Last time I had 2 clowns who stayed with me throughout. I had a Mimic Filefish and a Horned Goby who both had to go because they were eating my Xenia every night lol I had a baby Scooter Blenny who disappeared suddenly (i think the clowns killed him) . And we had one other fish whose name I cannot recall right now! the purple-ish one with the anetenna...oh my i cannot believe i forgot this!
Anywho, I will of course get at least one clown (likely two) but, not sure what else! Very much looking forward to my Nassarius friends coming out of the sand during feedings - that was always a delight to see.
Excitement is building!

 

[kgstei]

Not sure how deep of a sand bed you need. I had a yellow watchman when I first started and I has about 3 inches which seemed enough for him to get a tunnel.

 

[stepho725]

So I purchased the tank and set it up and am having a lot more difficult of a time with patience now that it is sitting here half full of water. I wanted to fill it halfway because I was a bit concerned about the seals as this tank has definitely seen better days but it is a good setup to start over with.
It is actually a 46g bowfront with stand and came with an Eshopps PSK HOB skimmer....I'm not sure whether it is a 75 or a 100. I think 75 but it could also be 100. I was surprised at how large it was. I've not had any luck with skimmers in the past but of course I've not had a decent one like this just a little tunze I believe for my old biocube. I'm a little anxious to set this baby up so I can get used to it. There was a broken piece of plastic on it and then I accidentally broke another piece of plastic - luckily these are not pieces which keep any water in place!!! They simply serve to look like handles and without them everything still stays together because, well, pipes. I was trying to wash it out and things got pretty out of hand lol. I do have some plastic epoxy if it makes it start shaking or the like. I watched a few videos which said to keep the skimmer open for a few days and then I watched a video which showed someone not needing to do much of a tuning at all. So we'll see what type of luck I have. I guess my next question is: do I use the skimmer immediately?? I know I will only have a couple of pieces of live rock so the die-off will be minimal and I will probably have to do water changes due to the nitrogen cycle so is the skimmer necessary right away or is that something that we do not add until later?
It is interesting that I've lost a lot of the little (but very important) details such as how long lights need to remain on and the entire lighting cycle as well as the temperature as a whole or even the salinity! Thank goodness for Google!!!
I'm pretty certain that I might look into some new lights with my tax return and nothing fancy by any means but something with an app would be nice since I'm not always home.
We'll get there. First things first. Where the hell is my dry rock!!! Wah!

 

[kgstei]

Not sure how that skimmer works but when I first set up my Reef Octopus hob skimmer I didn't know that I had to tighten the set screw that holds the waste container. It overflowed all over the floor so keep an eye on it when you first start it up.

 

[Good_vibes_reefing]

Welcome back! The Purrfect Aquarium in the Big Y plaza in Old Lyme or Colchester Pet In Colchester should be the closest to you and carry or be able get anything you need. Other than that farther out Wet Pets in Vernon or OSA in RI are always a no brainer for healthy livestock and any dry goods you need.