Newbie needs help...!

I recenetly just got into owning a saltwater tank... I bought the Aqueon 29 Gallon tank which came with a heater and "deluxe florescent hood" and a quietflow filter.

I have added roughly 25lbs of cured live rock so far and have been letting the tank cycle. Also add biozyme to it daily to help buildup bacteria. Also have live sand as the substrate. Tank has been running for a week now.

My question is, is the filter / lighting I have running at the moment sufficient??? (leaving lights off for now while tank cycles)

I plan on making this tank FOWLR...

 

Anyone??? Is the quietflow filter strong enough? Also what about the lighting? Since I'm just doing Live rock, is the lighting ok?

 

Most SW tanks do not use any mechanical filtration. The live rocks will become your filtration process. Also the use of a protein skimmer will help you. A sump with some type of macro algae will also aid in the filtration. As far as the lights go, if you are doing FOWLR (fish only with live rock) then the lights will be sufficient. If you ever want to add any corals, you will need to upgrade the lights.

These are pretty brief answers. There is a sticky in the newbie forum that goes into more detail and has a lot of great information.

And welcome to 3reef!

 

I actually got the same aqurium when I srted out. It's kind of like a basic kit. You just have thee newer version of it.

Stock lighting is fine fr a FOWLR, it will look rather yellow though. I have the stock lighting on my tank still. Sense I want to make it into a reef, I am working on switching out my lighting.

As mentioned above, rock will be your main filtration. I would use your filter are in the HOB unit to run carbon. This will make for crystal-clear water, if run with an RODI unit.

 

Thank you guys for the your responses and I look forward to being a part of the community... Will be posting up pics in the aquascaping section of my setup so far... It's a work in progress and due to budget reasons will take some time to add as much live rock and everything else as needed.

 

Another take on your question is, yes, that filter is fine, it doesn't hurt, only helps. From the amount of rock I saw in your aqua scape post, you could use the HOB filter until you get more rock and the biological filtration has saturated the sand and rock (about 3 months). I would keep it, just keep it clean.

 

I would strongly recommend setting up a sump. I used to have a 90 gal. that was not reef ready and didn't want to go with HOB overflow so I had all my equipment in the DT. It looked cluttered and the protein skimmers for that style are small/inefficient. I would go with the sump so you can get a good skimmer and it also makes water changes easier. Plus the option to add a fuge with macro down the road is a nice option to have as it will really help keep a healthy system.

 

Just to interject for a moment... protein skimmers are a form of mechanical filtration.
As for lighting, with just fish your lighting will suffice. As for filtration the more filtration and water flow you supply the better for water quality and fish health.
Incorporating all three forms of filtration means are ideal(mechanical, biological, chemical)!
Good luck and test your water periodically throughout the cycling process so that you can follow where your tank is in the nitrogen cycle.

 

Thanks guys on the info, I've added some more live rock and am now up to roughly 36lbs of live rock for my 29 gallon tank...

 

Good move...