New To Saltwater, Questions!

Hello fellow fish folks!
I’m about to start my first saltwater setup after doing only freshwater for 4-5 years. I know this isn’t completely saltwater related, but I’m wanting to build my own stand. I have a fluval Osaka 155 which is roughly a 41 gallon tank, and recently came across an aquaclear 200 wet dry sump and it won’t fit in the fluval stand. I also have 2 10 gallon tanks I considered putting beside the main one as refugiums or maybe a hatchery, so if that doesn’t look terrible I would have to incorporate that into the stand design. Most of what I find when I google designs are for huge rectangle tanks, and there seem to always be comments about why the stand is bad idea. So I’m basically taking those ideas and just scaling them down. Are there any special considerations for this tank which is a bow front? My idea is to basically have a 4x4 “leg” part of the stand under each corner and then a roughly 1 inch sheet of plywood as the top. Obviously there’s going to be plenty more involved.

Does anyone have some homemade stands or designs I could see?

 

Welcome to Fishlore!! And, welcome to the Salty Side!!

I'm sorry, I'm not the one to answer your questions, but I'm excited about your build, hope to see it, and think a couple of fishy friends here may be able to help. Wild Bill Jesterrace

 

The wet/dry sump is really a freshwater only thing. With saltwater you don't want a bunch of places for things to get trapped or it makes it a hassle to clean and maintain. For the tank you have, you could do a good size HOB filter and call it good if you want.

 

The wet/dry sump is really a freshwater only thing. With saltwater you don't want a bunch of places for things to get trapped or it makes it a hassle to clean and maintain. For the tank you have, you could do a good size HOB filter and call it good if you want.

Thank you for that response. It led me to research it more and see the pros and cons, and I like to learn more! I may put it in my freshwater then which is 65 gallons. The big things I wanted it in saltwater for are a place to put heater and a protein skimmer and set it up to top it off when water evaporates, and not have the noisy HOB filter. I also have the fluval canister filter which came with the tank. My LFS highly recommended the sump for going to saltwater so when someone offered it to me as a trade for a tank that I had laying around, I jumped all over it.

I still have a week or so before I get to the point of setting it all up as the stand is my first priority. But is my LFS correct that I also need 20lbs of live rock? My hope is to have a few clowns, eventually with babies once I learn the ropes, a clean up crew, and coral. I’d like a mandarin goby but I’ve read they’re difficult to keep alive so I’m researching other good tank mates for the clowns. I’m highly interested in anemones but I don’t want them stinging the coral. Again my LFS says they’ll be ok together my research makes me question it. I have a bag of live sand for the substrate. A lot of this is to not only teach myself new things but my 7 year old as well, she likes learning how things live and operate, so I definitely don’t mind being told I’m wrong about my thinking as that’s how you learn! Except she wants a megalodon in there too

 

Avoid the Canister there is no need with a decent sump setup and the Canister filters tend to be the most trouble prone method of filtration in a marine tank (trap the nasties and turn into nitrate factories). As for 'nems yes, they can sting corals and they generally require well established tanks and bright lights to do well. They also wander where they want to in a tank. Personally I would skip them and go with a Euphyllia Coral as it will give a similar look without stinging things (as long as you don't put the corals too close together) and they stay in the spot where you place them.

Here are some examples of Euphyllia Corals:

Branching Hammer:

Green with Purple Tip Frogspawn Coral:

 

Awesome thanks for those! Checking out your other vids too, nice work!

 

Awesome thanks for those! Checking out your other vids too, nice work!

Thanks, I have my journey pretty well documented with vids.

 

Oops! I'm pretty sure Wild Bill built his stand, which is why I thought he may be the one to answer your stand building questions. However, we have more than one member with that name and there's just a small difference. Previously, I tagged a different member than I meant to so I'm posting this for a correction and so the Wild Bill I intended will get the alert.

 

Thank you! I’d definitely love some advice on this journey. I’d hate to lose fish and my floor