[Spectre]

I am a New-B to Saltwater, I have a general basic of Saltwater.. but i have Questions.

I have a 75 gallon Tank,
1 Emperor 400 Bio wheel Hang-On Tank Filter
4 Pieces of Live Rock
1 Castle i purchased from LFS, I used it for Freshwater, and still love the look.
Crushed Coral Bedding

2 Green Demsels.

Ok so here are the questions?

1. Do I need a Protein Skimmer right off the bat?
2. How would i setup a tank beneath to catch the dirty stuff?
3. Can i use Airline from Freshwater with the Bubblers? or Do i have to have Air Heads?

I can post a picture if needed.

[Raymond3457]

1.Protein skimmers are ALWAYS good
2.You can look how I did my sump/fuge beneath the tank to catch and filter. Look at Ray's 55gal build.
3.From everything I have heard you do not want to use any bubblers or air like that at all!

I am still new to all this too, and hopefully you will get some more experanced peeps to post.

[glampka]

Don't use crushed coral - use sand instead> You're kidding about the castle, right??? Get rid of it- the bubbles will cause all sorts of problems with salt creep. Those cutesy bulbing ornaments belong in freshwater tanks - not salt!! (lol)

[D_Bo]

I second getting rid of the crushed coral. It will lead to issues down the road.
2 1/2 to 4 inch sand bed will be better. Live sand being the best.
You can go with sand (not play sand, to much junk in there) and buy repllenishing kits to get the required life into your sand bed. The little critters will sift thru the sand and keep the upper layer oxygenated. The deep bed will help with nitrates.
Sand is also better for fish that like to borrow or eat alge from the sand bed.
The coral can also end up causing nitrate spikes from gas trapped between the coral.

The wet/dry filter can also pose a problem with nitrates.

A skimmer will help get rid of decayed organics that float on the surface of the water allowing for better light penetration and gas exchange (more oxygen in the water and more CO2 out).

You can make or purchase an overflow that will use a syphon to fill the overflow box and drain to a sump (the tank under your stand).
Or you can drill the tank and build an internal overflow. You most likely have a tempered bottom to your tank, so drilling the back would be best.
Since it sounds like you are already setup the external type would be best.

Do a search on sumps, you should find a lot there. It also keeps most of your equipment out of the tank.

The guy I bought my stuff from used air in his tank, everything was covered with salt. Took days to clean everything up, had to repaint the stand. It even caused one of his lights to burn up. Lucky for him he was home at the time.

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by glampka

You're kidding about the castle, right??? Get rid of it- the bubbles will cause all sorts of problems with salt creep. Those cutesy bulbing ornaments belong in freshwater tanks - not salt!! (lol)

It is not a bubbler. It is a free standing Ornamant. with no Bubbles. and is quite impressive.

[WorkinMan]

It's your tank and you can do with it what you want, but the thing with the castle is that it will take up valuable space needed to get the correct amount of live rock you need for your biological filtration. Going by 1.5 lbs/gallon comes out to around 115 lbs of LR. That's a lot of rock and 1.5 lbs/gallon is a little on the light side.

[ACE]

KEEP THE CASTLE!!! its personal preference, besides I HAVE A CASTLE IN MY TANK TO I used in my freshwater tank it (symbolizes what once was )

[tyoung]

Salt water is highly corrosive. You may want to check to see if that castle is safe for saltwater. You can view some sumps at lifereef.com. These will give you an idea of how they look, work, alos, there are some nice skimmers and overflows to look at while you are at it. Would lose the cc and go with the livesand. It is more benificial for your animals and will keep things more stable. Lots of luck and it might not hirt to read the guide at the bottom of the forum page.