BRAND NEW SETUP(by a noob)

once the salt is right you are good to go. let it run for a day or so and then add live rock. no need to wait a month. add some base rock and maybe a few pieces of LR so it seeds the base rock. add maybe 10-20 pounds of LR the base rock will become live in time. no need to run the skimmer until the tank has been running for a while with the rock in the tank. and if there is nothing in the tank the light doesnt need to be on.

 

And I have to congratulate you on your choice of skimmers. Deltec is a great brand. Let me know how you like it.

 

Ok so been doing more research and have decided that i do want coral eventually, so my question now is i currently have a base of crushed coral and have read that sand is meant to be better - should i change my cc to sand as i have nothing in the tank figured it'd make sense to do it now??. if sand what type?

 

I would avoid cowfish. If they get stressed and die, they will release toxins in the tank that can wipe out the entire tank. I had a lionfish and puffer live together very nicely, but do keep in mind that these fish can get very big and both are messy fish. Lions produce a lot of waste, and puffers are messy eaters, as they like to chew up the food and spit it out.
As for sand, I would go with an aragonite based sand bed, what size is really up to you. I use oolitic and pink fiji in my tanks. Sugar sized sand is also a good choice as well. I usually get Caribsea brand sand. Check out their site, lots of good information on what type of sand is compatible with what you want to have in your tank.
caribsea your aragonite source and more!

 

HI Guys,

Thiought i'd update this, heres a few pics of tank as is now:










Setup
4ft 40 gallon
25kg coral sand
300watt metal halide (times on 12 - 6)
108watt actinic (burn 10 - 8)
2 * led moonlight (6- 9 & 7-12)
3 * led strip moon light (7 - 10 & 7-10)
2* mp1200 powerhead
1* mp900
1* mp600
1* 3000lh vibration pump
2000lph external filter with uv sterilizer built in- ceramic balls layer 1, eheim substrate layers 2/3, polidhing pad layer 4
venturi skimmer from ebay - can't remember make- but think i need to upgrade - powered by mp1200

Corals:
Loads - still adding

Fish:
Sailfin tang
oscelaris clown
yellow tail damsel
long horn cowfish
cleaner wrasse
yellow head sleeper goby
flame angel

Inverts
1* black long spine urchin
1 * mine urchin
1* scarlet skunk
1 * purple lobster
3 or 4 snails left

All in all tank is now going well getting to this stage i lost a mid sized cow fish which lasted all of a night (died didn't take anything with it), a red fethery star fish, a oriental sweetlips(around 2 ") which my clown ripped to bits!!(you've been warned!!) a coral beauty, 2* mandarin even after buyingover 10k live copepods from the U.S.! and a purple tip anenome, my advice - this is an easy hobby but needs a lot of attention (3-4 hours a week seems good), money and plenty of room to store your ro water, most anoying things - nitrates and phosphates!!

current readings:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate:.2ppm
phosphate:1ppm
calcium: 480

See my other posts for loads of info that is very helpful supplied by all the top peeps in this forum!!


Good night

 

a few more pics

 

First, I want to say that you tank looks very nice, I like the rock work. However, your stocking list isn't the most well thought out, no offense intended. A sailfin tang, flame angel and cowfish are going to be pushing the limits of you biological filtration to its limits as they grow. The cowfish gets nearly two feet long, the tang about about 1'3" and the angel about 4-5". They will outgrow your tank in the near future. Do you have any plans for a future upgrade?

 

Hi thanks for the feedback, non taken ;D, My only plan is to keep the fish i like the most, i've researched all and am aware of how big they'll get (sweetlips 2 ft !) however am of the opinion when they start to get to big i'll sell on or go trade in at the lfs or worst case give away, and replace with a smaller one.

Eventually when i get a bigger house i'll probably be getting a much bigger custom tank with all the whistles(200g+) but until then i'm going to stick to this.

Thanks again for the feedback