Buying new setup tom. Need Help!

Hello everybody, I'm new to the forums just wanted to say hello to everyone.

Tomorrow I will be purchasing a 15 gallon aquarium.. A old friend is selling it to me

Basically hes giving me a

15gallon Aquarium
Current 70w HQI Sunpod Fixture
CPR Bak-Pak Hand on the back skimmer

hes going to throuw in a heater and some aqua light filter.

These items for $100 used. The tank is currently on and working he has livestock in their (its salt water ) but i told him i don't want whats inside. Since i'm starting new.

Is this worth it or no?

Anything else i need to get. I already have coral gravel..is sand better? and how many pounds of live rock?

Also i want to use this 15 gallon to build a Shrimp Mantis tank. Would that be alright as well? Thank you guys!

 

As long as its not a glass tank your good.

 

Its called a 15 gallon nano tank. Damn so thats glass right?

 

It's ok if it's glass for a mantis, depending on the type of mantis you may want to line the bottom with a sheet of acrylic.
If it's your first saltwater tank just do lots of research and ask lots of questions there are lots of knowledgeable people here to help.
Welcome to 3reef!

 

You'll need substrate (sand) _AND_ salt for a saltwater tank. In some setups you can do a "bare bottom" tank, but a mantis shrimp needs sand to form burrows to be happy.

For sand you can use anything that's considered "marine safe" like aragonite, oolite, or crushed coral. Choose something you like the look of. You don't need over priced "live" sand, it will live eventually.

Choose a quality salt mix, any of the major brands seem to work fine for most people.

As for the mantis I've only seen second hand accounts of them doing damage to a glass tank. It's always "a friend told me their friend had a shrimp that broke the glass" I haven't seen a first hand account here yet. Either way, a 15 should be enough for a single mantis species tank.

Welcome to 3reef!

-Doug

 

It's not a bad deal, but I guess it depends on the state of the equipment. Also, I would use fine grained sand, not crushed coral as substrate. Too many problems with crushed coral.

 

Oh alright. Ive gone to four different fish stores and posted on different forums. Why does everyone say different things about Shrimp mantis. Some people told me you can NEVER put a shrimp mantis in a glass tank, and some told me shrimp mantis breaking the glass tank is a MYTH and all you need to do is put pexi glass on the bottom of the aquarium incase its digging. If theres seriously a possibility of it breaking the glass tank then I would have second thoughts.

The light that the guy is including, it can be used for a reef tank as well right? Also, any good review on that CPR skimmer, I couldnt really find any. THANKS !

 

I run the CPR Bak-Pak and love it - really works well.

 

Worth it for the skimmer and light alone.

 

Ah, I see you meant Sand... yes sand is better. I really regret putting crushed coral in my first tank. I have been thinking about ways to get it out... but who knows. It's mixed in with 2 other sands, some aragonite, and some fiji pink live sand... but the crushed coral is all at the top now, and I don't even see my real sand any more.

As for live rock, that's really up to you. Conventional wisdom is 1-1.5 pounds per gallon, but that number can be wrong. Terrestrially mined base rock is very dense where Tukani, samoan, fiji, etc., rock/branch is usually much more porous and lighter for the same dimensions. You should choose it as much for aesthetic reasons as filtration.

If you're going to keep a mantis you'll need some extra rubble and maybe fewer large rocks just so it has less places to hide. They'll build burrows, and in doing so move rubble around, and be easy to find.

But personally, with such a small tank, I would splurge on the best liverock I could find, get 10# and start there. As you go add another 5-8 pounds if you think you need to fill in anywhere, or whatever suits you.

Base rock is always an option as well, save a grip of cash, but your tank will probably look a little bit stark at first.

-Doug