Beware the newb!

Hi everyone, my name is Neal. Though having several years of experience as an aquarium enthusiast, I'm finally going to take the plunge on a saltwater tank.

I currently have running:

• 28 Gallon Bow Front Malawi Cichlid tank
• 20 Gallon Long Terrarium with a juvenile snapping turtle
• 20 Gallon Green Spotted Puffer Tank (Temporary until I get a larger tank.
• 10 Gallon Hospital tank (Currently empty)

As far as Saltwater goes, the only experience I have is with my roommates Eclipse 3 setup which is fairly self-sustaining. I'm going to be setting up a small tank rack in my bedroom using two 10 gallons and a 15 setup in a multiple overflow setup just so I can get some experience with salt aquariums and then once the large display tank is ready, they will be used as specimen and hospital tank.

As of right now I'm piecing together all the things I'll need. I got lucky and picked up a fairly unusual size tank. It's roughly 72" x 22" x 13" and holds somewhere between 85 to 90 gallons. I snatched it, tank stand, and 2 Magnum H.O.T. Bio-Pros off of CraigsList for $50. I then purchased 4 rows of T5 lighting (2 6500k, 2 Actinic), a UV sterilizer, several smaller tanks to be used as Sump/Refugiums, and 2 550GPH pumps. So as of right now, the only large piece of equipment i'm missing is a Skimmer which I should be picking up shortly.

I always enjoy getting advice and listening from experience, so any suggestions are appreciated!

 

welcome! cant wait to see some pics

 

Welcome!
Sounds like you have done some research!
Good Luck!

 

welcome to 3reef neal. good to have you aboard. sounds like you will have an excellent setup.

 

Sounds like you're off to a very good start. If it's not drilled already, you should look into getting that tank drilled.

 

I knew I forgot something!

Cichlid Tank


Snapping Turtle


The Display Tank (Currently running as a Freshwater Community Tank)

Ignore my roommate looking retarded next to it.

 

now that deserves K. lol

 

Nice tanks. Great snag from craigslist. Don't skimp on the skimmer, you will be happy you don't.

 

Thanks! BTW, I've read a great number of your posts when dealing with my puffers. Thanks for all the help!

I've tried. I jumped into freshwater fish keeping without much knowledge and I paid my price for it. Don't want to make that mistake again with Saltwater.

Thanks, I hope it turns out well also.

As of right now it's not. I've been trying to figure out exactly how I want to use this tank first. I want to use it as a peninsula, but it's not really deep enough and I don't really have the room for it. So I'm stuck trying to figure out whether or not I should drill the back, end, or bottom. I do know that I hate looking at power heads, and I'm planning on running both sump pumps to power a pair of return "halo" manifolds with loc-line nozzles and ball valves. I may incorporate a SCWD into the system if it becomes necessary.

 

welcome to 3reef!