# Newbie starting 29g - Help!



## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Hi everyone, so I'm taking the plunge (after many years of thinking and waiting!) and am finally going to set up my first saltwater tank. My plan is to empty my 29 gallon freshwater tank and use that as a nano. I'm going to start off FOWLR til I get the hang of things, then I'd like to move into corals and such if I don't completely fail. Here is my plan so far. Please, please leave your comments and suggestions! I'm doing my best to read as much as I can before setting off buying things, but it seems you can never know enough. Oh and I'm a student's budget (aka SMALL) so I need to stay under $700 (though $500 would be even better). I have the tank, filter, powerhead, and heaters already though so....maybe it's manageable? Okay so here's the plan:

29g tank: 30"L x 18"H x 12" W
MarsAqua 165W dimmable LED (tentatively) (see link below)
Refugium w/ protein skimmer (tentatively) (see link below)
Aquaclear 50 HOB
MaxiJet powerhead
1.5" aragonite sand bed: medium grained
30 lbs live rock (don't know what kind...suggestions?)

Also, I've posted an ad in the Buy,Sell, Trade looking for lighting, refugium, refractometer, and live rock. No replies yet though so it's looking like I may have to buy new if no one in here has stuff kicking around they'd like to pass on to a newb!

Thanks in advance to everyone who responds. Your help is very much appreciated!

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/370857093101?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Refugium-L-P...005&rk=1&rkt=6&mehot=pp&sd=321630054512&rt=nc


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tanks*

good luck and u are off to a good start , let the insanity start ... ill be the first to say go bigger but I wont I understand budgets and means ...jmo

I have run a 25 gallon tall tank with seahorses live rock dual aquaclear 70s 
unfortunately due to my wifes office construction the seahorses didn't make it ..my wife now has a 46 bowfront in her office full of fish/corals , running 2 aquaclears and 1 Chinese led (d120 evergrow ) tank is thriving growing coral ,
anyways only advice is bump up the filter , 
good luck 
tom


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Thanks for the advice, Tom! I would go bigger in a heartbeat if I could. For that it's not even the budget, it's mostly the fact that I live in a tiny apartment that is already cluttered with tanks haha. No room for a big tank in here! Hopefully one day though  I will keep my eye out for a larger filter that I can buy used. I was hoping that between the AC50 and having a refugium I might be okay?


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

in my opinion I would deff over filter as to adding a refugium , I don't think u will see the usefulness of the fuge on such a small tank . run two aquaclear 70s
keep up on your water changes and your tank will work for what u want .
I like the idea of two filters as u can do a filter cleaning and alternate between water changes one month one filter next month the next filter ...
good luck 
tom


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## araziza (Jan 8, 2007)

I get the needing to run cheap thing, but I want to point out a couple of things that won't up the price much but you'll be glad you did when you decide to upgrade to reef instead of FOWLR. 
1) instead of a maxi jet, get a jebao rw-4. Still under $100, but MORE than enough flow for pretty much any coral in a 29 gallon 
2) what light are you planning? This is usually one of the bigger investments, and will be a major factor in what corals you'll be able to keep. You can get a full spectrum par 38 LED bulb (like Halo by lightbox) that can go in most fixtures for pretty cheap (relatively) that will allow you some good flexibility in corals, or if you're willing to spend a bit more, AI is about to release a cheaper nano version with all the bells and whistles built in. My guess is that's probably out of your budget though. There are usually a few good deals here on the forums for lighting also.

Lots of luck!


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Thanks araziza! I am looking at getting a MarsAqua LED (it's a chinese company). I have a friend that uses these on his reef tanks and is able to grow SPS (maybe not all types, but at least some?). I honestly don't care that much about whether or not I can grow SPS....but maybe I will regret that statement one day haha. 

As for powerheads, the guy I am buying my live rock from is also giving me 2 more powerheads (on top of my MaxiJet). I don't have a clue what kind they are though. He's also throwing in a Red Sea Prizm skimmer and a Sybon refractometer. I wasn't really planning on getting a skimmer (not right away) and was only going to use a hydrometer, so this is great.

Anyone have experience with Red Sea Prizm or with Sybon refractometer?


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

I have a slightly bashed up, old but still works hydrometer if you want.
don't forget that if you do get a refractometer, you need to calibrate it.


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

*Update*

Alright so today I picked up my live rock, live sand, 2 Hydor Koralia powerheads, skimmer, test kits, IO reef crystals, refractometer, and some crabs/snails for what I consider a smokin' good deal of $200!

I've got the Koralia's running and I have to say it seems like the output is almost non-existent. One is a 240 and the other is a 425. They seem kind of useless? When I ran them by themselves, there was no surface agitation and very little water movement. Then when I added the MaxiJet 400 there was all kinds of movement (though I know the flow patterns are different). I'm just wondering what the best powerhead combo will be with the ones I have...

Now I guess it's just a matter of waiting! I'm hoping the tank will cycle faster than usual since I bought everything alive and have thrown in a good bit of bacterial booster. *feeling excited!!*


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

ps Temgee thank you for the offer of the hydrometer! I'm all set now


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## ruckuss (Jan 11, 2015)

emathieu55 said:


> Anyone have experience with Red Sea Prizm or with Sybon refractometer?


I have the Sybon refractometer... I'm happy with it


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## darcyr (Jan 24, 2014)

I started in the hobby with zero experience on a 29 gallon. Of course now I want a bigger tank but things have gone mostly smoothly, lost 5-10 corals out of 60 overall and one fish when I was away for an extended vacation. I agree about the fuge being a bit of a waste on that tank, i'd spend the money on a good skimmer and a gfo reactor instead down the line when you add fish. Also cant tell you how annoying it is to top up water so look out for a used auto top off on here and im sure you can get a deal. I have a hydor smart wave controller that will help you get more random flow from those powerheads, if youre interested pm me. Good luck with the tank!


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

darcyr said:


> I started in the hobby with zero experience on a 29 gallon. Of course now I want a bigger tank but things have gone mostly smoothly, lost 5-10 corals out of 60 overall and one fish when I was away for an extended vacation. I agree about the fuge being a bit of a waste on that tank, i'd spend the money on a good skimmer and a gfo reactor instead down the line when you add fish. Also cant tell you how annoying it is to top up water so look out for a used auto top off on here and im sure you can get a deal. I have a hydor smart wave controller that will help you get more random flow from those powerheads, if youre interested pm me. Good luck with the tank!


Thanks for the tips, darcyr! Taking your advice, I managed to find an ATO (Blueline tsunami at1) for $40  Still need to get a pump for it though. I have GFO on the way from BRS that I will just be putting in my HOB filter til I decide if I need a reactor or not. And YES I definitely need a better skimmer....got this Red Sea Prizm basically for free and it's a piece of **** lol. I'm not even running it right now cuz I honestly don't trust that it isn't going to overflow while I'm away or something.


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

*That was fast*

Tank is cycled! I've been testing every day and yesterday I had a small ammonia spike (0.5 ppm) while nitrates at 10 ppm. Today there's no ammonia and nitrates jumped up to 80 ppm. That seems REALLY fast for a cycle (just set up the tank last thursday), but I did take someone else's live rock, live sand, etc. Anyway I'm not going to put anything in it for a while still just to make sure everything's stable. Also need to do a nice big water change to get those nitrates out of there.

My light (MarsAqua LED 165W) is arriving tomorrow. So now the big question I've yet to find a solid answer for is...FISH FIRST OR CORAL FIRST??? I've read so many different things and no one seems to agree what to add first. I was originally going to do FOWLR until I got the hang of things, but I feel like I could dive right into corals. I'm really much more interested in keeping corals than fish TBO.

Anybody have input on the fish vs corals thing???


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## kwsjimmy (Jan 5, 2015)

*new*

Start with fish first... ... Choose wisely and think ahead towards corals... Then let the bio load settle with the new fish.. Then add some corals ...


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I don't see any reasons why you couldn't add a few hardy corals now. Something that will handle some nitrates. Obvious choice is mushrooms, and there are some beauts. I think the reason people go fish first when starting up is that there is more indication of success. A fish swimming looks like something happening. Plus the fish poop helps the cycle. corals just sit there. Not a lot of activity.

If you want to concentrate on corals, then your choice of fish is going to be few and you might want to wait to get your 2 or 3 show piece fish and not go chucking just anything in the tank.
So if the focus is coral, get a few. And one fish for cycling. You need the fish to keep the nitrates cycle going.


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## Cichlidrookie (Apr 6, 2014)

*CUC first no???*

I have a great idea...why not get CUC (clean up crew) first...LOL

I think that is the first thing you should add. Unless you have already.

From everything I have read and I have done like 3 months of reading, I think almost everything I have read says add a CUC first.

I think a 29 Gal is considered a nano tank. Have you taken a look at 
Nano-Reef.com??

Lots of people on there with a 29 gal tank and full of advise.

Good luck and I am going to follow your thread.....please post pics.


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Ah sorry I think I forgot to add that I do already have a small clean up crew! Came with my live rock as freebies. I have 4 snails and 3 or 4 small crabs...not sure what kind (which worries me because I know crabs can be hard on coral). They might have to be swapped out for something I know is safe...

The light just arrived so once I have it mounted I will post pics 

And I think I have read a few posts from nano-reef but never thoroughly scoured the site. I should do that!


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

emathieu55 said:


> I have 4 snails and 3 or 4 small crabs...not sure what kind (which worries me because I know crabs can be hard on coral). They might have to be swapped out for something I know is safe...t!


They can also be hard on snails. I lost hundreds, before identified the killers

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## darcyr (Jan 24, 2014)

+1 on no hermits. They are fine when small but then will kill snails for bigger shells, get a bigger appetite and can eat corals. I lost a few zoas to both blue and zebra legged hermits. I like 4-6 each trochus and cerith snails, only 1-3 nassarius, 1 emerald crab, and my new favourite, a strawberry conch. It will vacuum up any diatoms on your sand. Are you dosing any bacterial supplement to help the cycle? I had luck with Microbacter 7 in taming down the diatoms and cyanobacteria.


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

darcyr said:


> +1 on no hermits. They are fine when small but then will kill snails for bigger shells, get a bigger appetite and can eat corals. I lost a few zoas to both blue and zebra legged hermits. I like 4-6 each trochus and cerith snails, only 1-3 nassarius, 1 emerald crab, and my new favourite, a strawberry conch. It will vacuum up any diatoms on your sand. Are you dosing any bacterial supplement to help the cycle? I had luck with Microbacter 7 in taming down the diatoms and cyanobacteria.


Yup, I have been dosing Stability (though IMO this isn't very effective) and also Prodibio Biodigest (which I have had great experience with...awesome product).


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