The BugMan says Hello....

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Hey people...

I am not new to aquariums, but COMPLETELY new to Marine...

I have got a Fresh water tank with two Peacock gobies and then i have a Brackish tank with a Green spotted puffer fish named Peanut and a few Bumble bee gobies...

But i have been doing quite a lot of research on marine and decided that i am going to take the plunge... I will start within the next few weeks...
 
Welcome!

nice selection of FW fish!

what you planning on doing marine wise?
 
cool, a nice way to start marines
 
Welcome to MASA - some reading for you in my signature ;)
 
Thank you @dallasg I read your thread on clean up crews that is really cool...

Thank you @Tobes i have read all the links in your signature. It really helped...

:-D

Getting excited to get started now...

Pleasure is alline, glad it helped, if u have any questions fire away
 
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I'm planning on a 30L tank. But i am still unsure of how big to make the sump.... I thought of 10cm of the one side of the tank this will make the sump +-6L.

So will this work (with a 10% 2 times a week water change)???

What is better: the overflow from the tank to the sump from the top or a guaze at the bottom and a overflow within the sump itself to the return pump?

And are green polyps good to start with?
 
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welcome... I think go decide on a skimmer 1st before building a sump as the sump will have to be designed around the skimmer and other filtration such as a refugium or ats
 
hello bugman and welcome to masa:)
great to hear that you want to start out with marines and even better to hear that you are researching and planning before buying, that will save you allot of cash, heartache and trouble. the best thing you can do is plan:)

i understand what you say when you say that you want to do the small things right and then move onto a bigger tank when you feel you can handle a small tank. But in my experience i have found bigger tanks ALOT easier to keep than smaller tanks. I have a number of tanks but for simple illustration the 30l nano i have requires almost double the input and effort than my 1000l system. The increased water volume, better equipment and more forgiving nature of a bigger system relay does make it easier to work with, and you have a greater array of live stock that will fit into a bigger system, making it a little more fun to start with. IMHO that is.

to answer your two questions quickly (you will need to read up on corals alot more than this) you get a massive difference in corals, and thus a massive array on possible food sources. Some like meaty foods, some like plankton, some like simple filtration BUT they all (almost) like light. Some need more light and some like heavy flow. What I am saying is that you need to decide what kind of corals you like and which will fit into your tank and plan accordingly. But if you go with a small volume tank, then feeding too much (both for fish and corals) will be problematic so you need to keep this in mind when selecting a type of coral you want to keep.

But there are a number of commercially available coral foods you can use to supplement with, although 90% of the food a coral needs comes from a symbiotic relationship with zooaxthela algaes which use the light available to photosynthesizes simple sugars which feed the corals. Hence light being so important.

as to hermits being reef safe.....yes most are. But there are a number of different hermits and some get BIg and can be a real hassle in a tank. Its best to get the dwarf variety, blue or red legged for example.
 
@Cripsin I've been looking at corals for some time now and i definitely want Button polyps... They just look so AMAZING!!! The Zoanthids. They are what i'm aiming for...

But on what you said about bigger tank to start with. I know what the differences are. I have a green spotted pufferfish and keeping his water just right is quite a chalange, but i have reared some bumble bee gobies to introduce into his tank in a 15l tank and keeping that sg constant and the water clean is quite difficult. And i'm 30L nano, because starting with a 120L tank is a bit above my price range, but the 30L will most probable run for atleast 2 months with only live rock and only then will I add a single coral and either hermit crab or shrimp to it.

And then where on earth do i change my signature?
 
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Hi Bugman, and Welcome to MASA

You can edit your signature under "User CP", "Settings & Options", "Edit signature". Not sure if you would need a minimum post count to do that, though.

Cheers!
 
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