starting a salt tank that encludes , anenomi's , clown fish, live rock, sea grass ( not sure what kind yet ) crustations ( hermits and small crabs )

and some other small social fish a gobie or 2 comes to mind


all i can think of is a protine skimmer and a wet/dry filter

i was thinking a zoo med 50/50 light as well as a blue actinic


my tank is a home made tank about 18" high and 4 feet long by 23 wide

not sure how many gallons roughly

but i need a list of all of the equipment that i would need to get this thing going

i do know to do it in steps and set up the tank and mix the salt correctly then add live rock then a few weeks later a few crabs and then on and then on

but iam still a noob , i worked at a pet store for 2 years and cleaned some pretty nice reaf tanks i know they had wet-dry filters but their was more then meets the eye in them tanks and since iam not doing a reaf i might not need every thing thats in volved in a reaf


help !!!!

this must be some fish forum if nobody knows what equipment i need

pay a visit to http://www.chuisui.com/portal.php for speedier replies.

OK, I will give it a shot ...

There are more ways to set up a successful marine tank than there is a fresh water setup. I assume that you want to save cost, so I'd recommend a NATURAL setup rather than using all those expensive equiptments.

Your tank is a minimum recommended size for sake of stability. Any size smaller would require a more experienced hobbiest.

Wet/dry is NOT recommended for a marine tank ... it will give you short term success, but will crash your tank in the mid to long term.

Lots of people are using the DSB method ... stands for Deep Sand Bed. Try doing a search on the Internet and you will get tons of info. The very simplistic explanation is that with a sand bed with fine coral sand (about 1mm in diameter) for about 4-6 inches deep, your sand bed actually helps you filter the water!!! No kidding!!! I've been using it for about 3 years, and it works great!!!

Also, get live rocks to fill about 30-50% of your tank. The rocks ALSO helps filter the water.

Hopefully, you have an overflow filter system to the sump. Fill it up with bio rings (NOT bio balls!!!). Some people just grow macro algea in their sump to help filter the water.

Get the BIGGEST protein skimmer that you can afford.

You will also need a chiller to cool the water.

For the anemone to survive, you will need STRONG lighting!!!

Finally, put in LOT AND LOTS of water flow in your main tank.

Hope this helps!!!

if you want to how many gallons your tank is just simply length x width x hiet
and dived by 232 so in other words your tank is about 85g i read it an a book once and for some odd reason i rememberd the formula

goodreef, I have 3 feet tanks, standard one. It is enough for marine tanks?

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