NEED OPINIONS ON SETTING UP FISH ONLY SALT TANK, SEMI BEGINNER..

Phishman1

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This is an existing 46 gallon bowfront cichlid tank. Decided to do a fish only tank on a budget.

Here is what I have in cart on Amazon to purchase, haven't hit the order button yet:


NICREW Saltwater Aquarium Light, Marine LED Fish Tank Light for Coral Reef Tanks, 2-Channel Timer Included, 30 to 36-Inch, 32-Watt $50

Orlushy Submersible Aquarium Heater 300W-Fish Tahk Heater with Adjust Knob Thermostat 2 Suction Cups Suitable for Marine Reef Fish Tank $23

Marineland PF0350B Penguin Power Filter, Up to 75 Gallons, 350 GPH
$23.45

Instant Ocean Reef CrystInstant Ocean Reef Crystals Reef Salt For 25 Gallons, Enriched Formulation For aquariInstant Ocean Reef Crystumsals Reef Salt For 25 Gallons, Enriched Formulation For aquariums
$11.69
Qty:
2

Any thoughts or anything you'd switch out that is close in cost..?
 

Idoc

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1. The light you get won't matter with a fish only tank. Get whatever is cheaper to light up the tank.

2. I'd get 2 heaters at lower wattage vs one big wattage heater. This allows you to use the controllers slightly different in temp for redundancy. Plus, the heaters are usually first to go...300w on a 46g tank that gets stuck on might fry the tank quickly.

3. Instant Ocean Reef Crystals Salt is for corals specifically. It has a bunch of amino acids, etc... added for coral growth. Just use a basic cheap salt for fish only. The Instant Ocean regular brand is cheaper and good...i use it even with corals!
 

Doctorgori

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Change the Marineland for Hagen. Fill with good bio media.
I’d get a more dual purpose light. While it doesn’t matter now, maybe future proof your investment in case you change your mind
 
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Phishman1

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Change the Marineland for Hagen. Fill with good bio media.
I’d get a more dual purpose light. While it doesn’t matter now, maybe future proof your investment in case you change your mind
I purchased a book called Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies Edition 3 so its up to date and they recommended the bio wheel type for bacteria build up. What would be the advantage of the Hagen over the Penguin bio wheel.
 

Doctorgori

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I’ve owned several models of both. Those Hagens have been around as long as coelacanths and have changed even less but like a old bic lighter, I’ve never actually had one break. Penguins definitely are close, admittedly.
The hagen sponge can last a while also. I’d keep the sponge and fill the rest with ceramic media or the like
 

Porpoise Hork

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Look up the Beamswork 10K (1w per LED) fowler Cichlid lights. They are very inexpensive, available on Amazon and Ebay, reliable and produce a lot of light. Add a cheap digital timer like this one and you're good to go. I have run these on my freshwater systems for years with no issues. I also ran one of these on a fish only saltwater tank when I first got into the hobby. Then a little later once I got more comfortable with it I added a couple atinic LED strips to the Beamswork and it was enough to support soft corals like toadstools, shrooms and zoas.

I'd also recommend adding a temperature controller like this one and connect the heater to it. They are designed for brewing and are accurate to a tenth of a degree. You would set the desired temp on this about 1/2 a degree higher than the main heater. That way in the event the thermostat fails in the heater the controller will shut off power to the heater. It also has alarms for both high and low temps. So you will be alerted if the water is too cold or too hot. You can also hook up a fan to the cooling side blow across the tank to drop the temps if they creep up as well. I have used these for years as well and once calibrated hold accuracy very well. Still want to check up on them every few months to make sure they are reading correctly. It's a small investment for keeping your fish in the right temperature range.

Another filter option is the Aquaclear hang-on they are quiet, very reliable and been on the market for decades. You can find replacement media at nearly any local petco, petsmart, or LFS. InTank also makes a filter basket upgrade for it as well that nearly eliminates bypass. I never was a fan of those bio-wheel filters. The surface area if so small for bacteria to colonize on and they would only provide a tiny bit of additional benefit. The rock and substrate is where 99% of your bio-filtration happens anyway. So do yourself a HUGE favor and get well seasoned cured wet live rock from your local saltwater fish store, as well as live sand. When starting the system up use a bacteria culture like Turbostart 900 or Dr. Tims One and Only to cycle the tank. There will be enough ammonia from the sand when you start the tank to kick the cycle off so you won't need to ghost feed or anything like that. Starting with cured live rock and live sand will significantly reduce many of the new tank issues you would get if you used dry rock and dry sand.

Last thing I would recommend adding on at some point is an auto top off of some sort to keep the salinity from fluctuating too much due to evaporative loss. This is not a high priority item if you are able to keep it topped off daily, but if you ignore the water level for a couple days, the salinity can easily climb up from 1.026 to 1.30 or more in a smaller tank.
 
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Phishman1

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Listen, Just found out i can purchase buckets with lids from firehouse, they were used for pickles....can these be washed out and used for salt water making or RO water etc from LFS?
 

Porpoise Hork

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They are food grade so thusly reef safe. You will want to soak them with a water bleach solution for a few days to remove any /all organics from the pickle brine. Repeat this until you cannot smell the pickles. After that rinse them extremely well and bake them in the sun for a couple days just to be sure. If there are any deep scratches inside the buckets I would not use them as this is a place for bacteria to develop and you will never get them clean.

You can also use the blue 7.5 gallon water storage jugs and most LFS carry those white 5 gallon water jugs as well.
 

slojim

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if Port Orange is in Fl near the beach, then I think you can downsize that heater, depending on what kind of temperatures you see, and that will reduce the possibility of it overheating and the # of cycles it runs. FWIW, I've never had a heater stick on in many years of fish-keeping, but lots of people have had that experience. And I'd be tempted to get some sand or water from the beach to kick start things. (That's what I did - a few tiny mussels, some sand, and a liter of water). There is some risk with that, but I prefer it.
I've had a lot of the marineland power filters, including bio-wheels, and a few aqua-clears. Both are fine. See what your LFS has in stock. If you want to replace a media cartridge, its convenient to get them locally rather than waiting. I am using a marineland biowheel on my QT, and while I don't use the standard media cartridge, when I need carbon, I run out and get a pack of them.
I do have those beamswork lights and they are keeping some simple hitchhiker zoas alive and thriving . A lot of people say they fail young. But so far, they are fine. While it is true that "any light is ok for fish", you are paying time and $ to see something nice, so I like a brighter tank. I disagree on getting a more coral-friendly light. Those can get pricey, cost more to run, and more fish-oriented light is cheap enough that I would be comfortable replacing it in the future if I wanted an upgrade. To each their own. I did buy a nicer skimmer for my FOWLR than I might have, since the upgrade cost on that was more, so I did get that ready to support a more demanding system.
Things like carbon dosing and algae scrubbers are not on your immediate horizon, but they do such a good job of keeping nutrients down that one day, you may want to look into one of those, even for a fish-only tank. I think I'll have 3-4 year payback on my ATS due to reduced water changes.
 

Coralsdaily

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Agree with most the friends here, if you are only keeping fish there is no need to get new light fixtures.
You'd at least want to consider a hang on the back skimmer though.
And yes, you can go cheap on the salt, fish aren't too picky with salt, and with a good skimmer you don't even need to change water very often.
 

Porpoise Hork

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I agree with @slojim on the heater size. MY main tank is a 75g with a 35g sump. I keep the house at 74 during the day and 68 at night and only have a 200w heater in it. It's more than enough to keep the temps at 77F at night, and the lights produce enough heat during the day that it rarely cycles on during the day.

@stevenliu9 For a 46g FOWLER tank, As long as the filter is well maintained, by changing out the filter pads/foam and always having fresh chemical filtration like carbon or Purigen in it will go along way at keeping nutrients down. The other is staying on top of the weekly to bi-weekly 5-10% water changes is more than enough. The water parameters don't have to be as perfect in a FOLWER tank as they would if OP were keeping corals. Just need to keep the salinity, PH, and ALK stable from day to day. The rest as long as they are in the recommended range everything should be fine. Later on if a mandarin or other pod eating fish is desired, then an external macro algae reactor (even DIY) can be added for under 100 bucks. This will assist in keeping the nutrients in check as well as a source for pods once established.
 

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