Starting a tank

Im thinking about starting up a saltwater tank from scratch. Since money is on a tight budget right now with school Im doing this gradually.

Im going to be using my 20gal tank that i received a number of years ago that has just been sitting in storage. My goal is to have fish/live rock in 4-6 months.

What is a good startup list that im going to need.



this is basically my tank (imagine it empty lol). the filters the tank came with are junk so im going to start from scratch (just the tank/stand)

Thank you
-Brian

 

Welcome to 3reef dude. You basically have a nano-tank. You can go budget on a few things. First off, you probably do not need a skimmer with a tank this small. Just manage waste with water changes. I would.....

Fill it up with RODI water you can get free of charge at the LFS (some do this as a service). Call around. They may have a 10g per day limit, so you would have to go back.

Get some base rock. This will run you about $4/lb. Ideally, you would need about 20lbs. I would get 10lbs. $40

Since you have a small tank, I would go with aragonite sand to take advantage of it's buffering capacity. $40......I hear there is a special type of sand you can buy at Lowes. Search the forums....it might save you $20.

Get a HOB mechanical filteration unit $40

API master test kit $40 (you can get this later-----in about a month)

Instant Ocean salt mix. $25 for 50 gallons worth of salt.

Glass hydrometer ($3), thermometer strip ($3)

100W Heater (get a good one----Stealth----one you can adjust----$20)

Wow......this is adding up. I am going to stop and rethink this. There has got to be a better way.........Will repost.

 

your on the right track but its not cheap. I would go to Foster and smith's web site they have the best prices around. For the HOB filter I would get their brand filter, the Bio System for the 35 gallon its only 28 bucks. I am running 3 of these filters all different sizes and they work great. the Stealth heater is only 15.99 right now for a 100 watt and the API master test kit is 17.99. Best part is their shipping is $ based the more you by the more it costs and it starts at 9.99 for up to about 60 bucks so its really reasonable.

 

welcome! best of luck to you with your new tank.

 

There is really only one economical way to get started with a salt water tank. Invest your time in trolling Craig's List and your local print equivalent (around here it's called the Trading Post). Be patient until you find some poor soul who has decided to give up. I got a steal on my first 65gal tank because the guy who owned it got disgusted after his kids took leftover spiced shrimp out of the fridge and fed them to the tank and killed all his fish. Check out Otty's tank thread. I think he said he only paid $1000 for that set-up. I know that's probably more than your budget but it illustrates that there are deals to be found. Even if you don't use everything, you may be able to get more than you money's worth just from the lights and base rock.

 

Thank you guys for all the info/help.

I was reading some other postings on this site about petco/petsmart. Im talking to a friend who works at one of these stores on aol and she's trying me that i need to buy at least a 90 gallon tank and all this other stuff. Gotta love salesmen lol

 

Alright ill probably be updating everyone on my progress on here.

So far, located my tank/stand that was buried in my crawlspace. Cleaned it and did a leak test. NO LEAKS. tomorrow going to probably clean it again still kinda smelled like fish after i cleaned it the first time. Then level my stand/tank.

 

Yay another 20 gallon set up! Good luck with the tank!

Also you might want to add a power head to the list of tings to get

 

She is right. I've had my 58 gallon for almost three months and I want a 90 lol.

Definitely shop around and look before you buy. When I first got into this we bought a 25 gallon tall Eclipse hood tank. Put LR, LS, and water in it with it running. My parents and I looked at each other and said "We need a bigger tank!" Took it back the next day and got the 58 gallon a few days later. Wish we still would of looked around more and could of got the same tank even cheaper.

That was all really irrelevant to the topic since you already have your tank. I'm just saying look around before you buy.

pharmrjohn had a pretty good list going.

 

my goal is to keep this tank alive for a year. after that, if im still enjoying this which i probably will be, ill be going for at least a 90 gallon.