Getting started with my 7 gallon...

[Iphantom]

I am just starting a 7 gallon bow front

and I have a few questions... first of all I want to let you know that this is in fact my first saltwater set up however I have been keeping freshwater for years.

I set up my tank yesterday-

7 gallon bow front all glass

25 watt heater

1 301 powerhead and

1 201 powerhead

air stone(is this nessesary? I hear its not can't hurt right?)

fiji sand

and for the next week until I get my paycheck I have a aquaclear 150(yes I know they suck)

after I get paid I am going to buy a penguin 30 gallon filter

 

I just put the salt in today and I am letting it settle for about a week then I'll get my live rock

as I said this is my first tank and I have a couple of questions

 

As far as total number of animals I can have after the tank is full established I was thinking along the line of:

2 P.clowns

3 cleaner shrimp

2 other small sized fish(suggestions?)

#? turbo snail(s)

and I was wondering about feather duster worms could I have those as well? if so how many?

 

with lighting do I need anything differnt? I do not play on keeping anenomes or corals.

 

and

this is my plan I was wondering if this is ok...if not then let me know whats wrong

 

-after the salinity and ph and temps are good I am going to get

10lbs of live rock(probley in about a week)

at some point after(how long should I wait?) I am going to add one damsel to help the cycling prosses

once the tank is cycled I am going to get the damsel out and add two P.clowns then after that I don't know yet

 

thank you for taking the time to read this

 

I appreciate in advance any responses

thank you

-matt

[Twins Guy]

first aquaclear 150s do not suck...if you can't accept this then i'm done with you. j/k:P seriously though, unless you're having a major problem with it save your money for livestock. if you must go with a penguin either the 100gph mini or the 125gph models would work-i prefer the walmart aquatech models (same filter minus the biowheel-and all its splashing, salt spray and incomplete denitrification) and they save you a few bucks! in the end you will prolly only want one of the powerheads and the HOB filter (scrap the airstone and air pump-its gonna create all kinds of salt spray). circulation is good but too much and you'll have the dustbowl-your critters won't like it-besides clowns have a hard enough time swimming so why make their lives so difficult! which brings me to my second point-and the whoa-and prolly one of the reasons no one has replied yet-you're dilusional (or the store that suggested this to you) if you think four fish in a seven is ok. try one. once you're more accomplished you can graduate to a second smaller fish-goby perhaps. even two fish is gonna put a pretty heavy tax on a system that size. one percula will make a nice inhabitant for that tank-look at the members tanks-link on homepage below glazer's featured reef. i guarantee you not one 7 minibow-of which there are many- on that page has 4 fish-most in fact have 1, two at most. you get my point. three cleaners may be pushing it too-all you'll be able to see in the tank is shrimp feelers! try one and if he/she/it does well MAYBE add another. taking it slow here! damsels are tough as nails but no fish should be subjected to the rigors of a cycle. i don't feel like learning you how to cycle the tank so read about it in the articles chris has put together on the homepage. your lighting will be fine assuming you add no photosynthetic critters. fish, shrimp, crabs, feather dusters can all make good nanoreefers-appropriate species and size-and don't require light except to see where they're going. a small cleanup crew of a couple turbos, ceriths and nassarius snails will keep your tank looking grand! anyways be patient-don't add animals to quickly-lurk and research in the meantime and don't take me too seriously. you have too many questions for me to humorously address. maybe someone else can pick up the ones i missed, forgot, ignored! hope this helps!

~TG

[tgrupert]

twins guys IMO is 99% correct. I take issue with the idea that the filter with the biowheel would have "incomplete denitrification" it isn't missing anything the other filter has as far as I know so how would it be incomplete? It is very true that a bio-wheel will convert ammonia to nitrite to nitrate MUCH faster, but that is what it is supposed to do. also as far as I know most of the denitrafication happens outside of the filter. this would be in the sand and rock. Turning nitrate into gas. There are a lot of things I don't know, and a lot of things no one knows so I would like to know what you ment.

 

Four fish definatly sounds like a lot. Why don't you start with two fish and monitor the levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for a few months. If I bought livestock every time I wanted to I could fill up a 120 gallon tank every month.

 

three cleaner shrimps arn't that usfull in such a small tank even if you overstock it with 10 fish. why not get a cleaner and if you want more get a different crusty. having three different types is IMO much more interesting than three of the same shrimp.

 

You dont need high water flow until you get corals or other filter feeders. You can just use the power filter.

 

If you havn't actually baught anything consider getting one of the new Azoo 7 gallon bow front tanks. they only cost 80 dollars with PC lighting oinstalled. they come with a powerhead and hiden in the back that lets you hide the heater too. No one has actually seen one, but they looki suspiciously like an Alife tank. kinda like how a stealth looks like a 3000 GT.

[Twins Guy]

the other tg-

you're absolutely right no HOB filter is gonna offer complete denitrification (final step, nitrate to gaseous nitrogen) like live rock can. call me a hypocrit but i run a biowheel on one of my reefs. i just really wanted to convince this guy to save his money. additionally-for the same reasons that reefers no longer use wet/dry/trickle filters-biowheels can be quite effective nitrate factories. i don't doubt that LS and LR will process this "free" nitrate but while reefers do tend to follow the herd, sometimes mindlessly, i suspect there were reasons that the berlin method-of no supplemental biological filtration-took off. wish i could offer a better explanation, a more informed explanation-but i'm not sure where it exists-if it exists-my imagination? i should clarify that i'd recommend the aquaclear be run without filter media-as in just for circulation. with only the occasional carbon as necessary. HTH! later guys

~TG

[Iphantom]

I guess I was really mislead...I thought that 4 would be alot of fish-

what two fish would you suggest?2 clowns? 1 clown and something else?

I am only gonna get one cleaner shrimp.

as for the snails, how many and what kind?

if I dont get feather dusters on my live rock

how many can I get?

 

I really wasnt planing on doing coral,

but after surfing around this site I think I might

of course not for a long while

until I get a better light and get my tank established

I was wondering why my tank was still cloudy 3 days after set up

I am going to take one of the powerheads out but which one the 301 or the 201?

as for the aqua clear I really dont like them...I have had bad luck with them in my freash water tanks.

you two really confused me with the bio wheel

should I put it in or take it out?

oh and for the cycling I shouldnt have any fish? I just hae the live rock? the people I talk to at the fish store really suck.

thanks agian

-Matt

[tgrupert]

well do you want to breed clown? would you rather have two clowns or a clown and a damsel. you might want to consider gobies they are very small.

[Deimos]

Wow,

 

So many questions...definately don't have the answers to them all. IME: I've got an AC 150 and a PH that puts out about 100 gph in my 10 gallon..and that is more than enough current from what I've seen. One other good thought for the AC 150..apart from leaving it empty..is that they make great little refugiums...just toss in a bit of LS, some LR rubble, a bit of caulerpa (or your macro of choice), put a little screen over the effluence, and make sure some of your lighting hits it. Thats what I've done to my tank..and I pull out about a handfull of caulerpa each week in nutrient export, plus I see pods and baby snails in there that I'm sure some get tossed out in the effluent of the filter. Don't be worried about it being cloudy for 3 days...some are cloudy for up to a week. If you're really concerned...toss some sponges and/or some cheesecloth in the AC to pull the particles out. On to the biowheel debate...personally..I'd just keep the AC 150 and to heck with the Penguin....but I've also heard that biowheels are big time nitrate factories...I wouldn't chance it. As far as the cycle goes....depending on whether or not you get LS and "cured" LR...you may or may not ever see a cycle. I started my nano off from good established LS and cured LR and never saw a spike in any of my nitrogenous waste products. Cycles sometimes don't happen in nanos...as I've heard similar stories from others.

 

Well..I dunno if I've confused you more or actually helped..but there you go...lol

[Twins Guy]

1 clown, 1 watchman goby (and pistol shrimp buddy), skip the biowheel (remove it if you buy the penguin filter), 201, 2 turbos or astrea (different but work out about as well), 2 ceriths, 2 nassarius, 3 feather dusters, skip the fish during the cycle, just live rock, test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, if you don't see anything in a week or so, throw a good feeding's (like you feed you neon tetras) worth of fish food in the tank and see how it responds. if you get ammonia and the like showing up give it a couple weeks to complete the cycle, if its already cycled you won't show any ammonia or nitrite. wait a couple days and maybe add you first fish-don't rush it. if you need us, we'll be here, so will the search button...