# help with saltwater



## jb92 (Mar 11, 2007)

i want to start a marine tank preferrably a reef but i dont know anything about it , if anyone could give me help with anything please

i need t know

what size tank
what equipment
what substrate and rocks and all that stuff
fish
corals
and anything else i missed


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

ok, well with what size tank...the bigger the better. but get the biggest one you can afford. you will need a protien skimmer, and a sump.

substrate.....you can get either live sand or aragonite sand, but stay away from crushed coral. also live rock will be needed too. but you can add it slowly as it is pretty expensive to get it all at once, but if you want to get it all at once go for it.

your fish and depend on your taste and what size tank you have...and your corals depend on what type of lighting you have.
what kind of corals and fish do you want?, and we can better help you with the tank size and lighting.


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## jb92 (Mar 11, 2007)

i like damsel fish, clown fish, tangs , surgeonfish but i also like lionfish and eels which i think i cant keep together ,correct me if im wrong.
also what is a sump?


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## Melissa (Nov 28, 2006)

no you cant keep them together, so you will have to pick which you would like to see more.

A sump is a tank usually set up underneath an aquarium where you can place equipment, provide the aquarium with various types of water filtration, add top-off water to the tank and perform other maintenance tasks. you can also make a refugium part and add live rock algea and such, and have it be used for biological filtration


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## jb92 (Mar 11, 2007)

so you put your equipment into the sump and have the water from the main aquarium flowing through it and back into the main aquarium.

what fish and how many could i have in a tank of about 50 uk gallons?
what would i need for a sump such as what to put in it?
i also heard before that you build the sump for your tank, is this true?
how big would the sump need to be for a tank of about 50 uk gallons?


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## fs49864 (Mar 10, 2007)

what fish and how many could i have in a tank of about 50 uk gallons? 

First off I'm not used to uk gallons, so if you know US gallons your going to have to see if I'm correct in saying this. From what I understand this is about 60 US gallons. (forgive me if this is wrong). What fish and how many?
You have to check water conditions and see how they are, and it depends on how you filter and how good you want conditions to be. I've had a 20 US gallon for about a year I kept about 4 fish in there. I'm just setting 50 US gallon tank, so I'm not sure how many fish will be in the tank. I'd just say add fish slowly and as your just setting it up, you may not be able to add fish very quickly.

It also depends on size of fish and what your looking for.
You might be able to have a few not so small fish, or a bunch of smaller fish. 




what would i need for a sump such as what to put in it? 

I'm not familar with them because I use a penguin bio wheel hang on filter.
i also heard before that you build the sump for your tank, is this true? 

how big would the sump need to be for a tank of about 50 uk gallons?

I'm not sure, but if they are like filters I'm guessing they are rated. You should get one for at least the amount of gallons you have.


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

you can build a sump with plexi glass or aquarium dividers and over-flow boxes/drilled hole and water pumps. Or you could buy it ready made (which is a bit harder to find) but ready made costs more money and you cant customize it.


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