Starting up my first marine tank

[Mart1789]

Hi,

I'm planning to build myself my first marine tank: a 15 gallon fish-only system with 15lbs live rock.   Its gonna be filtered on an eheim 2213 and water circulation will be improved with a powerhead.  There will be a protein skimmer.  I want it to house one Ocellaris clownfish (the smaller ones) and a damsel.  It will cost me between 600-700 bucks of equipment.  I know what I'm doing in a way but not in another as I have over 15 years of experience with cichlids in freshwater (breeding, ect.).  I think I'll have a few things to learn.  My questions are the following - how many fish can I pack in a 15 gal with live rock?  Is 15lbs of live rock enough?  What lighting should I use?  Any general tips when starting such a small marine system?  I don't want to go reef but over the years I might add a coral or two.

Thanx for any replies,

Martin

[tskinner]

I've owned both a 20 Gal Mixed Reef and now a 5.5 Gal All SPS and the biggest things with these tanks are stability.  It probably won't be such a big factor if you go fish only, but once corals get added it will be.  15LBS should be enough but if not you can always add acouple lbs of cured LR later if you don't think you have enough.  For fish-wise, since you are adding perc's, I would personally go no more than 3 fish.  There is a link below from Nano-reef.com with more about this.  As for lighting, its entirely up to you.  I'm a big fan of buying high quality lights/skimmers so acouple months down the road you won't be forking more money out of your wallet to pay for this when you just spend some acouple months ago on a lesser quality light.  Just decide on what corals you want to add later down the road and purchase from there.  For FO and some corals, power compacts or a small T5 fixture will be fine but if you want more harder corals, you will def need a a high quality T5 fixture or a MH fixture.  Hope this helps but if not I'm sure someone else will help you out.

[tskinner]

Opps.....and here's the link I forgot. Some good info here for fish in nano tanks.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703

[Hookup]

+1 on what tskinner said.

[gerryo]

   And read everything you can get your hands on.  There is so much to learn and so little time!

Hi Hookup.  Just arrived at this site from RC Corner Tankers thread.  Good to see you.

[QueensU]

If you haven't already started buying stuff to start your tank, you should think about a bigger tank. I think almost everyone who starts a SW tank starts kicking themselves after a few months for not going bigger in the beginning. (Myself included.) I think you should at least consider it, as another 10-15 gal would increase your fish-keeping capacity.

[mikerobart]

If you haven't purchased yet, check out sniggirs classified ad... sort of wish I had room for another tank. 

[Dave and Diane]

+ 1 on what Queens U and TS Skinner stated.

Have a look at what you would like to have in the way of live stock.
Then determine the Tank required with its  equipment.

We went for a Red Sea 130 which is 34 Gal, it got us started because it was a complete all in one system.

Plus the good people here on OVAS at times sell live stock at excellent prices, just as TS Skinner, he helped us big time.

Looking back now we may of went bigger to a 75 or 90 Gal.

[Hookup]

  And read everything you can get your hands on.  There is so much to learn and so little time!

Hi Hookup.  Just arrived at this site from RC Corner Tankers thread.  Good to see you.

Hey!!!  Some really good ppl on that thread, and it's been active for a long time... the thread's been split, as you likely know, but most people stay active and help out.  Small world eh?