AusBloke

Well after the responses from a previous thread, and knowing that I had read as much info as my pea brain can handle, I went a bought a little SW nano setup.

Its an Aqua One 40 Litre, and I got a good load of live rock and upgraded lighting etc etc. The unit comes with the standard inbuilt filter for this type of tank, but I took out all the carbon filtering etc, and just added live rock rubble instead.

Plus the LFS will sell me water every week or 2 for my water changes (so that saves mixing it myself.

One question, do I need another power head? I have the filter running, so it is circulating with its own powerhead, and I also put in my own power head (an small pond pump). Is that enough and how fast should I set the pump too.. (it has a range of speeds). Also where is the best spot to position my powerhead.


Anyway here is a few pics of it now I have added all the basics.

aquarist48

Hello AusBloke. It looks like it's going to be a wonderful set up. I'm sure some salt members will help you out shortly. Keep us updated
Ken

agsansoo

Great looking setup. You will want about 10x the display tank volume for water movement. So that's about 400L per hour. Also it's important to point one powerhead towards the top of the tank for surface aeration, to maintain sufficient levels of oxygenation in the water.

AusBloke

Ok so should I get another powerhead? seems over kill to have 2 plus the filter.. but what would I know lol.. or should I just point my extra one up?

BTW..

nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
SG - 1030

agsansoo

I'm not sure what the flow rates are on the return and the powerhead. Do you have the numbers ? And yes, point the one pH you do have up.

reefdude

Like he says, point it up, kitty corner from the fixture location.

MizRamzi

Your SG is high. 1.022 to 1.025 is the norm. I highly recommend you aquire an API master test kit for SW. Personally I wouldn't think you'd need another power head, the one you have seems sufficient.

AusBloke

Ok the filter power head is 400l p/h and the other Power head is 250l p/h, I also have a 200l p/h I can put in if required.

reefdude

The 400L p/h should work just fine.

AusBloke

Thanks. I will take out the 200l p/h one I just put in, and just leave the filter and the 250l p/h pointing up.

AusBloke

Sorry for all the questions, but can I use my Freshwater API test kit on SW? or do i need to buy the SW one? and will a hydrometer made for Beer brewing still give me accurate reading in the tank?

reefdude

Not sure about those questions. If it were me (and it was at one point!), I'd get the equiptment designed specifically for SW.
This is the place to ask questions my friend! The folks on here have helped me out a great deal in the past couple months and continue to!

MizRamzi

No you cannot use API FW for SW. No you cannot use a beer hydro for SW Keep the q's coming, I'm having fun answering em. If I can't then someone else can here for sure.

AusBloke

Ok I went and splerged on a refractometer today.. very handy little gadget. The only reason I wanted to use the API freshwater kit was for PH level. But I bought some other stuff today (test kits) and my PH is fine 8.1, so is my SG 1.025 and KH is at around 130 so it seems ok too