# starting a 36 gallon salt water tank



## adzlovesu84 (Dec 2, 2013)

So we are getting ready to start setting up our salt water aquarium...its a 36 gallon bow front.. we have decided to go with just using 5 inches or so of sand and live rock and a skimmer and 2 power heads instead of doing any other kind of filtration. does that sound OK?

So my real question is: 

we are trying to figure out what kind of fish we can put in once everything is up and running for a few weeks....

here is what we were thinking:

2-clownfish
3-blue-green chromis
1-eight-lined wrasse
1-lawnmower blenny

what do you think?

what kind of shrimp, crabs should i have? how many? 

any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

A bow front will end up looking really nice. Are you going to go for a full reef?

If you go with small grained sand you will have to be careful with your circulation pumps as they will kick up much sand if not arced correctly and that can ruin impelers when sand is sucked into pumps. Obviously you can make sand work this is just something to think about.In many of my tanks I employ mechanical filtration but only if it is easily and frequently removed. I do have a number of tanks that have no mechanical filtration but I gravel vacuum those tanks rather aggressively. In your case if you go with 5 inches deep it will act as a deep sand bed and you may not be able to effectively vacuum it without disrupting the denitrifying bacteria.

Your fish list looks good,I would introduce the chromis at the same time if you can.


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## badxgillen (Aug 20, 2010)

There are many many inverts to choose from but many can be unsafe for a reef tank. If you are going to keep corals it will narrow down you crab choices but I find many crabs can be destructive ingeneral. If you want to do some form of crab I would recommend...

I like sally lite foots but they have a bad reputaion for being opportunistic, I have never had this problem and have 1 sally lite foot in 4 of my reef tanks.These guys tear up hair algae when they are young but later tend to scavenge for fish fod and nibble algaes.

Emerald crabs are a good one and the mithrax crab has a red variety wich is attractive both graze on algae.One great feature is they eat bubble algae.

Porcelain crabs are pretty cool filter feeding crabs some of wich will become symbiotic with anemones.

Arrow crabs are really cool but there is a small chance they will attemp to nip at a fin of a slow moving fish. I still like em but not with dragonets.


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## RSully (Nov 22, 2012)

In a 36, 3 chromis will turn into 1, it' just their nature. A deep sandbed can be beneficial but it can turn catastrophic if not taken care of properly. Don't use power heads, use circulation pumps. Just mount them mid to upper level and point them slightly towards the surface. With a 36, you can also run a HOB filter and put chemi pure elite along with a puri pad in it with no other filter media. 

With the Blenny, be warned, they are not easy to keep and get to eat.



adzlovesu84 said:


> So we are getting ready to start setting up our salt water aquarium...its a 36 gallon bow front.. we have decided to go with just using 5 inches or so of sand and live rock and a skimmer and 2 power heads instead of doing any other kind of filtration. does that sound OK?
> 
> So my real question is:
> 
> ...


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