First SW Tank

[Pale Morning1]

I have the Hyggar mini powerhead. Very low profile.

 

[jonnymod]

I have the Hyggar mini powerhead. Very low profile.

I don't mind how large it is I was just surprised since all the powerheads I've ever seen r tiny lol. Frankly I was thinking about getting 2 for another tank depending on how nice this one works. Is my positioning okay, centered little lower pt up opposite of hob?

 

[iquitreef]

Looks good!!

 

[Jwise]

Hey guys. Recently I acquired a beat up, used, 29g aquarium. It's roughly 30x12x19. I'm gonna try giving sw a shot and wanted to take a shot at making this a bb fowlr. Preferably for bta/clown combo stock w/ some cuc but I'm open to other ideas for stock as well if that's not a good dynamic for this size.

So here's some progress so far. This thing was sitting outside my gf's brother's house, and it was gross! It had a bunch of mud inside, with some sort of river rock/pebble substrate. I actually got all the substrate out and obviously won't be using it for this build but definitely saved it for maybe another fw tank.... It came pretty clean. Used a razor and white vinegar for all the buildup inside and the sticky junk on the outside of glass.

Next, I got the stand together, tested it on the stand, made sure it was level, and painted the back and bottom with a matte black Krylon Fusion.

Then lastly, I water tested it in the garage for a few days, and went and picked up a glass lid. It does bow a little in the center but I researched this a bit on google and from what I read it seems 100% normal for this tank dimension w/o the center brace.

I think it's coming together pretty sleek so far. So my next step was probably going to be ordering lights. What I'd like to do, is have the lr, a clown w/ bta, and just a heavy cuc of the variety that don't mind not having sand. So from what I see the bta DO require specific lighting like the corals right? So any suggestions on a light? I'm not trying to break the bank on this project, but I'm also not trying to be super budget. I think I'd like to use some sort of light that has a sleek clip on setup, or I may not even be oppose to just ceiling hanging. I was also thinking a decent hob protein skimmer so I can have my powerheads at bottom since i'm running bb and get maximum flow and prevent any bottom buildup.

It wouldn't hurt to try and get a sump and with a hob overflow to increase water volume for stability reasons and to have turn over which translates to nitrogen gas leaving the tank via the sump. It would keep the ph pretty stable as well and you could keep extra rock in the sump just for extra bio filtration to help out as well. You can also add copepods and they will live in the sump kinda like a refugium so you have a ton of biodiversity and they are an excellent micro clean up crew and will also feed your fish and bta. A sump will be a world of good and you can also keep your activated charcoal or chemi pure elite in the sump which i recommend over activated charcoal because charcoal can give the fish lateral line erosion. You can also hide heaters and other things in the sump which will give the tank a lot cleaner of an appearance.

 

[jonnymod]

Looks good!!

Thanks!! Can't wait to get some water in there!

It wouldn't hurt to try and get a sump and with a hob overflow to increase water volume for stability reasons and to have turn over which translates to nitrogen gas leaving the tank via the sump. It would keep the ph pretty stable as well and you could keep extra rock in the sump just for extra bio filtration to help out as well. You can also add copepods and they will live in the sump kinda like a refugium so you have a ton of biodiversity and they are an excellent micro clean up crew and will also feed your fish and bta. A sump will be a world of good and you can also keep your activated charcoal or chemi pure elite in the sump which i recommend over activated charcoal because charcoal can give the fish lateral line erosion. You can also hide heaters and other things in the sump which will give the tank a lot cleaner of an appearance.

Thanks for the input. At this point I've already made the decision to do the HOB for filtration and nix the sump idea. Remember, I'm not trying to break my bank on this one since it's kinda a side project and my starter sw. Maybe down the road one of those hob refugium would be a benefit?

 

[Jwise]

Thanks!! Can't wait to get some water in there!

Thanks for the input. At this point I've already made the decision to do the HOB for filtration and nix the sump idea. Remember, I'm not trying to break my bank on this one since it's kinda a side project and my starter sw. Maybe down the road one of those hob refugium would be a benefit?

I dont know about that option but i dont see why it wouldn't hurt in order to remove extra nutrients having one. I would give it a go and see.

 

[jonnymod]

So after seeing how large this powerhead is in the tank I went ahead and installed it in another tank to keep waste suspended till the overflow gets it and it's working great! That said I think I'm gonna order the smaller one previously linked on here for the 29g and maybe get one more of the big ones to one sync with this one. I'll wait and see how clear the tank is over night tho the one might do it. Gonna order some cured rock and officially get water In the 29 next week.

 

[Pale Morning1]

I think that in these smaller tanks real estate is at a premium and going with the smaller PH is a good call.

 

[jonnymod]

Please don't judge my despicable wires below. I am pretty OCD with wire organization and will get to them I just wanted to plug it all in and get it running, and I've been sick so I haven't gotten around to my neat little wire wrapping and wire tack job yet!!

So I went ahead and mixed the salt right in the aquarium like previously suggested on here. There's nothing live in there so I figured why put the extra labor into the individual buckets. However I got a neat little pump for water changes that sucks in the bottom of the pump and goes out the top.

So my main question now is this LED light. It's so bloody confusing and reading the instructions doesn't help me a bit. The powerhead was equally confusing but not quite as much and I was able to find a youtube video that helped me understand that controller a little better.

For cycling I was just gonna throw in a piece of raw shrimp and let it do its thing unless someone has any better suggestion?

1. Should I get the light schedule all setup and have it running while cycling or not even bother cause it may create unnecessary algae? Or is the light a part of the cycling in sw?....

2. This light seems to have 6 modes... sps lps mix fresh self-def and instant. Should I be using one of those for a fowlr or do I need to manually set this bad boy up? (plz say one of those suffices and not manual! lol)

3. As far as the powerhead goes I've gotten as far as setting the time, and intensity to 4, wave mode to classic, and frequency to 3 out of 8. I really don't know if this is correct settings I'm just sorta figuring it out as I go. It's much more confusing then the fw hardware I've used.