First Saltwater tank ever.

[Katie993]

I like the Red Sea and Salifert test kits. Hanna Checkers are nice, but are pricey.

Most people don't recommend canisters on saltwater tanks - they end up trapping a lot of gunk and being relatively high maintenance. All of my marine tanks (reef or FOWLR) are run with live rock and a powerhead for flow. You can add a HOB for space for chemical media, but I usually don't worry too much about it. In small tanks, large water changes are often more effective than carbon or purigen.

If you can't find any live rock, I highly recommend Reef Saver dry rock. Lots of my tanks use it, and if you order from Bulk Reef Supply, you have the option of requesting smaller or larger pieces, or general shapes. I ordered 40 lbs and got a lot of variety. It IS dry rock, and you don't get any hitchhikers, but it can be a great way to start a tank as long as you're okay with the relatively long break-in period.

I don't use ATO's, because I'm afraid the tank will overflow and flood my carpet, but as soon as I get a fish room with concrete floors I'll invest in them. For tanks under 30 gallons or so, they're extremely useful. Even my 40 breeder evaporates a LOT weekly.

I have heard good things about both the Red Sea and salifert. I’ve honestly never heard of Hanna checkers. Just checking to make sure I’m understanding this right. So I wouldn’t necessarily need a sump or a canister. Just the live rock in the tank, a powerhead, and maybe a small HOB? Or do you mean live rock in your sump? I’m going to make a lid for it to help with the evaporation a bit but I had heard that evaporation is a major problem. I have multiple freshwater tanks without lids and I have to top them off every week so I can imagine it’s going to be a daily or every other day thing. I may go with dry rock just to avoid hitchhikers. I’m really not in a rush to get this going. I have enough other tanks to distract me from that one lol I don’t have carpet in my fish room but I still don’t want my floor flooded lol I have seen the small auto top offs that use sensors and a 5 gallon bucket of water which might work well since this will be my only saltwater and I won’t have to worry about too much going wrong.

 

[PNWAquatics]

I agree with above, a canister filter would probably do more harm than good. Live rock (or dry rock that you cycle) and a powerhead will work fine for a tank your size. A hang on the back skimmer would be useful, but make sure you can observe it when you first add it in case it starts overflowing. It could potentially dump a lot of water on the floor.

Personally, I highly recommend live rock to bypass the break in period and introduce some biodiversity into the tank. I ordered from Gulf Live Rock and my tank did come with some hitchhikers (good and bad) but so far they aren't causing any problem. You can also look at picking some rubble or sand up from someone with an established tank to get some bacteria/biodiversity started. I have brittle stars and pods from picking up frags from other people. Keep in mind that even starting with dry rock, you still may pick up bad hitchhikers from frags. Before adding live rock, my tank had started with dry rock and it had still had aiptasia, red flatworms, and bubble algae, for instance. You can avoid this by potentially dipping and QTing.

The biggest problem with evaporation is in a small tank is that even a little bit of evaporation can cause a fairly large salinity swing. Nano autotop offs are pretty safe. Mine won't run for longer than 5 minutes before it auto shuts off. I've got a 15 gallon nano I currently top off every other day by hand and I'm looking for an auto top off since vacations/etc will become a problem.

Edit to add: Make sure that all fresh water going into the tank is RO/DI (even top off), especially if you have hard water or want to add corals.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

I have heard good things about both the Red Sea and salifert. I’ve honestly never heard of Hanna checkers. Just checking to make sure I’m understanding this right. So I wouldn’t necessarily need a sump or a canister. Just the live rock in the tank, a powerhead, and maybe a small HOB? Or do you mean live rock in your sump? I’m going to make a lid for it to help with the evaporation a bit but I had heard that evaporation is a major problem. I have multiple freshwater tanks without lids and I have to top them off every week so I can imagine it’s going to be a daily or every other day thing. I may go with dry rock just to avoid hitchhikers. I’m really not in a rush to get this going. I have enough other tanks to distract me from that one lol I don’t have carpet in my fish room but I still don’t want my floor flooded lol I have seen the small auto top offs that use sensors and a 5 gallon bucket of water which might work well since this will be my only saltwater and I won’t have to worry about too much going wrong.

I don't run sumps. Just the live rock in the tank and flow is all you need! I'd do some research into live vs dry rock - there are many, many pros and cons to each. A mixture may even be best for you!

 

[Katie993]

I agree with above, a canister filter would probably do more harm than good. Live rock (or dry rock that you cycle) and a powerhead will work fine for a tank your size. A hang on the back skimmer would be useful, but make sure you can observe it when you first add it in case it starts overflowing. It could potentially dump a lot of water on the floor.

Personally, I highly recommend live rock to bypass the break in period and introduce some biodiversity into the tank. I ordered from Gulf Live Rock and my tank did come with some hitchhikers (good and bad) but so far they aren't causing any problem. You can also look at picking some rubble or sand up from someone with an established tank to get some bacteria/biodiversity started. I have brittle stars and pods from picking up frags from other people. Keep in mind that even starting with dry rock, you still may pick up bad hitchhikers from frags. Before adding live rock, my tank had started with dry rock and it had still had aiptasia, red flatworms, and bubble algae, for instance. You can avoid this by potentially dipping and QTing.

The biggest problem with evaporation is in a small tank is that even a little bit of evaporation can cause a fairly large salinity swing. Nano autotop offs are pretty safe. Mine won't run for longer than 5 minutes before it auto shuts off. I've got a 15 gallon nano I currently top off every other day by hand and I'm looking for an auto top off since vacations/etc will become a problem.

Edit to add: Make sure that all fresh water going into the tank is RO/DI (even top off), especially if you have hard water or want to add corals.

Well it sounds like I might as well go with live rock then! I do have hardish water. It runs about 360 tds. Ph is a 7.2 out of the tap but runs about 8-8.1 in my freshwater tanks and there’s nothing in them to raise the ph so I’m assuming there’s some kind of buffer added by the treatment facility. We do have a LOT of calcium in our water in this area because of the massive amounts of limestone. By the time we get this setup, we will probably have a RODI system though. Have you used coral dips? Any suggestions for the best brand to use?

I don't run sumps. Just the live rock in the tank and flow is all you need! I'd do some research into live vs dry rock - there are many, many pros and cons to each. A mixture may even be best for you!

Awesome! That makes it way less maintenance!

 

[ChrissFishes01]

Whenever I've dipped corals, I've used Bayer dips.

 

[fish 321]

I second the aquaknight they are pretty powerfull. My corals were very unhappy for months, my water was perfect but I still couldn't figure out why they were doing so bad. Turns out my lights were too bright, I turned of all whites and turned the blues down 20% and they are finally happy.

 

[PNWAquatics]

I will be honest, I am irresponsible and don't dip new corals. I know other reefers use bayer, as suggested, or sometimes just (buffered?) RO/DI. I'm not sure on the exact procedure.

RO/DI will definitely be necessary for you. I would caution against setting anything up without it. For a 25 gallon system, you can get a fairly cheap set up. I use one a four stage one I bought off amazon for 50 dollars and it brings my TDS down to 0. It slow going, but it works.

Are you planning on stocking anything other than the clownfish pair?

 

[Katie993]

I will be honest, I am irresponsible and don't dip new corals. I know other reefers use bayer, as suggested, or sometimes just (buffered?) RO/DI. I'm not sure on the exact procedure.

RO/DI will definitely be necessary for you. I would caution against setting anything up without it. For a 25 gallon system, you can get a fairly cheap set up. I use one a four stage one I bought off amazon for 50 dollars and it brings my TDS down to 0. It slow going, but it works.

Are you planning on stocking anything other than the clownfish pair?

I did find a very detailed post about using Bauer as a dip and how to do it. I was thinking maybe just one clown because I’ve read that they can get quite aggressive during mating. I also do like the citron goby that was suggested, and a couple skunk cleaner shrimp. I was considering maybe a red fromia starfish eventually (it’ll be the last thing added because I have read that they need a very established tank) but I need to do more research on them to make sure it’ll work. Other than that, I have no other ideas.

 

[PNWAquatics]

Your stocking sounds good, though starfish do not have a great survival rate in fish tanks, even established ones. I don’t think many make it past a couple of months and in a small tanks, it’s probably going to eat through its food source pretty quickly.

Citron/clown gobies are nice and fun little fish. I did have one growing up that nipped at sps that eventually we had to re-home. If you’re not worried about keeping SPS, you should be fine.

Some other good nano fish are: tailspot blenny, fire fish goby, and a royal gramma. There’s other more delicate nano fish as well, including hectors goby, rainford goby, possum wrasses, and pink streak wrasse you can look into.

 

[fish 321]

I will be honest, I am irresponsible and don't dip new corals. I know other reefers use bayer, as suggested, or sometimes just (buffered?) RO/DI. I'm not sure on the exact procedure.

RO/DI will definitely be necessary for you. I would caution against setting anything up without it. For a 25 gallon system, you can get a fairly cheap set up. I use one a four stage one I bought off amazon for 50 dollars and it brings my TDS down to 0. It slow going, but it works.

Are you planning on stocking anything other than the clownfish pair?

Don't worry I am irresponsible too. I have never dipped any corals either.

 

[Katie993]

Your stocking sounds good, though starfish do not have a great survival rate in fish tanks, even established ones. I don’t think many make it past a couple of months and in a small tanks, it’s probably going to eat through its food source pretty quickly.

Citron/clown gobies are nice and fun little fish. I did have one growing up that nipped at sps that eventually we had to re-home. If you’re not worried about keeping SPS, you should be fine.

Some other good nano fish are: tailspot blenny, fire fish goby, and a royal gramma. There’s other more delicate nano fish as well, including hectors goby, rainford goby, possum wrasses, and pink streak wrasse you can look into.

We probably won’t go with a star then lol Could I put more fish in the tank? I really have no idea how saltwater stocking works and what’s considered overstocked. We just saw a fire fish goby at the store today and really like them but a blenny could be interesting as well. They had a lawnmower blenny and it was adorable! Not that I want one (I don’t know anything about them yet) , it was just super cute lol I’ll definitely look into the others! I think we’re going to move this tank into our living room so a lot of color would be nice.

We looked into those and the tail spot blenny looks awesome! We really like the possum wrasse also!

 

[ChrissFishes01]

3-4 fish is probably your best bet. There is technically a bit of wiggle room, but stocking lightly will make maintaining water quality much easier.

 

[Jesterrace]

We’re wanting to start a saltwater tank. I bought a 25 gallon acrylic tank that’s 20”x20”x15”tall. I’ve been doing research but there’s so much info out there so it’s hard to decipher what’s what. The whole reason for starting this tank was to get a skunk cleaner shrimp. We want a nice beginner reef setup. I’d also like a clownfish but, if it won’t work with the shrimp, we can leave it out. Any ideas for stocking? I’d also like some suggestions for a decent light that will work for this tank since it is pretty shallow.

Clownfish would work fine with a cleaner shrimp, they are generally considered "reef safe" aka safe with corals and other inverts.

For that tank if you are on a fairly tight budget, one of these will grow just about any coral you could want:

https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA...&keywords=Viparspectra&qid=1615512398&sr=8-11

We probably won’t go with a star then lol Could I put more fish in the tank? I really have no idea how saltwater stocking works and what’s considered overstocked. We just saw a fire fish goby at the store today and really like them but a blenny could be interesting as well. They had a lawnmower blenny and it was adorable! Not that I want one (I don’t know anything about them yet) , it was just super cute lol I’ll definitely look into the others! I think we’re going to move this tank into our living room so a lot of color would be nice.

We looked into those and the tail spot blenny looks awesome! We really like the possum wrasse also!

Pink Streaked Wrasse would be an awesome addition for that tank. They tend to be less cryptic than Possum Wrasses so you would probably see it more. Firefish can be very skittish and hide a lot, they are also insanely fast jumpers and can find their way out even the tiniest of holes/gaps in the top of the tank. Lawnmower Blennies get a bit big for the tank size you are talking about. They also need supplemental algae tab feedings and are prone to getting grumpy as they mature.

Here are the fish I would consider for that tank:

Possum/Pink Streaked Wrasse
Ocellaris or Percuala variety clownfish (no more than 2)
Royal Gramma Basslet
Ochrestriped Cardinalfish
Blackline Blenny

 

[Katie993]

3-4 fish is probably your best bet. There is technically a bit of wiggle room, but stocking lightly will make maintaining water quality much easier.

That’s sounds perfect. Would we count the cleaner shrimp in that also or are they like freshwater shrimp and have a very light bioload?

Clownfish would work fine with a cleaner shrimp, they are generally considered "reef safe" aka safe with corals and other inverts.

For that tank if you are on a fairly tight budget, one of these will grow just about any coral you could want:

https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA...&keywords=Viparspectra&qid=1615512398&sr=8-11


Pink Streaked Wrasse would be an awesome addition for that tank. They tend to be less cryptic than Possum Wrasses so you would probably see it more. Firefish can be very skittish and hide a lot, they are also insanely fast jumpers and can find their way out even the tiniest of holes/gaps in the top of the tank. Lawnmower Blennies get a bit big for the tank size you are talking about. They also need supplemental algae tab feedings and are prone to getting grumpy as they mature.

Here are the fish I would consider for that tank:

Possum/Pink Streaked Wrasse
Ocellaris or Percuala variety clownfish (no more than 2)
Royal Gramma Basslet
Ochrestriped Cardinalfish
Blackline Blenny

I have seen people use the Viparspectre but didn’t get to ask many questions. I would be okay with a pink striped wrasse instead of a possum wrasse. And yeah, with a cat and dogs, an escape artist probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

I'd say that in general cleaners don't have too high of a bioload. Higher than a cherry shrimp, but much lower than a clownfish, for example.

 

[Katie993]

I'd say that in general cleaners don't have too high of a bioload. Higher than a cherry shrimp, but much lower than a clownfish, for example.

Thanks so much!

 

[PNWAquatics]

3-4 fish sound great! I actually have 3 fish in a 15 gallon cube (pair of clowns + talespot blenny) but it definitely doesn’t have much extra room. With 10 extra gallons I think you could fit 4 easily.


Lawnmower blennies get too big. My tailspot picks at the rocks, though I don’t know if he’s actually scraping algae. He eats everything too.

 

[Katie993]

3-4 fish sound great! I actually have 3 fish in a 15 gallon cube (pair of clowns + talespot blenny) but it definitely doesn’t have much extra room. With 10 extra gallons I think you could fit 4 easily.


Lawnmower blennies get too big. My tailspot picks at the rocks, though I don’t know if he’s actually scraping algae. He eats everything too.

I figured they would probably get too big. I just liked it’s behavior so I’m hoping the tail spot will act similar. I’m thinking a clown, 2 cleaner shrimp, a citron goby, and a tail spot blenny, possibly the pink streak wrasse but I’ll probably wait awhile to add it just to give the tank some time to establish and to get us some more experience before we fully stock it.

 

[Jesterrace]

I figured they would probably get too big. I just liked it’s behavior so I’m hoping the tail spot will act similar. I’m thinking a clown, 2 cleaner shrimp, a citron goby, and a tail spot blenny, possibly the pink streak wrasse but I’ll probably wait awhile to add it just to give the tank some time to establish and to get us some more experience before we fully stock it.

Tailspots do have some similar personality quirks, although they are less likely to sit on their tail and press their face against the glass and stare at you the way LMB do.

 

[Katie993]

Tailspots do have some similar personality quirks, although they are less likely to sit on their tail and press their face against the glass and stare at you the way LMB do.

Thank you! I’m going to have to look up a video of that! I don’t think I saw that lawnmower blenny do either of those things. He was just picking at the live rock but now I’m kinda interested lol