Wheir do i start.

Hi all

Some great info on the site, be grateful if someone could tell me what equipment i need to start off. Ive already got a 190 liter tank.
Must a saltwater aquarium have a separate sump?
Must i have a quarantine tank?
etc,etc.
Any help would be much apprecietaed.

 

you don't have to have a sump or refugium, these are your personal choices. You can do all hang on equipement. We can give you further info when you let us know what kind of tank you're doing ex: fish only or reef. How many gallons is 190 litres? I personally have no sump, overflow, or refugium because I didn't want the added expense, plumbing, or work that is involved. I have done everything hang on.

You will generally need:

protein skimmer
liverock
heater
powerheads/wavemaker for flow (your choice on which one)
substrate (either deep sand bed or shallow aragonite crushed coral)
test kits
approprate lighting for species/corals.

let us know your plans.

 

Plenty of help here for with ever you need or want. As for a Quarantine tank .. I had one and it was my first and last one back in 1970 to 1971 and never since. But many do Most fish are so medicated when shipping its seldom one brings is a real deadly disease and if they do I have had a few angels over the yrs to get sick and a Old customer M.D who brought from me gave me some Meds and I treated the entire tank and it never wiped out my tanks and to this day I still use penicillin and or tetracycline and never had a problem. And I have saved more fish then I lost. But that's me and 99.9% will disagree with the method..

 

welcome to the hobby, to start a saltwater tank is not that hard. the first thing is that u must ask urself first in the planning stage "am i gonna have fish only tank or a mix of corals/fish tank" once u know u will be able to plan what type of equipments to buy. as far as equipment is concern it is all depend on ur $$ status. ill break down the package for u.

low budget:
a hang filter/canister filter(for ur tank canister is better choice)
a heater
salt to mix water
a hydo meter
a water test kit
live sand.
couple of powerheads
lightings (pc/HO t-5/metal halide that depends on u going with a fish only or reef fish tank)
a good protein skimmer
some pieces of live rocks

mid budget:
same as above plus more live rocks
(live rock can cost quite abit so be prepare)

High budget:
all the the other stuff in low & mid budget
ro/di unit for ur top off/intial water
replace the canister with wet/dry sump
(using a sump require some plumbing work either have ur tank drilled or make a do it urself over flow, u can find instruction on that in this forum. or buy an overflow box but do it yourself one are better and not as expensive.)

quarantine tank: the purpose of having one is when u buy a fish u can put it in there to monitor the fish to see if they have any desease, if they do u treat them with medicine in that tank. it is alway good to have one especially if u are going with reef/fish tank because most of the effective medicine will harm corals so u cant treat the fish while u have corals in the tank.

there are more stuff involve that im not getting in to cause u r in the begining stage. the rest of the stuff u will find if u need as u go.

hope that help u alittle bit. good luck

 

Cheers guys.

I have a Trigon 190 corner tank with quite a large cabinninet underneath. I would like to hide fillters protien skimmers etc inside if i can get away with it.
Also because of the shape i feel i might be a little limited on lighting etc.

I think i woul;d like to keep fish and inverts and maybe have a go at something like a see anenomie in the future once ive grasped the more basic aspects.

 

oh ye

my tank 190 liter which is about 42 gallon

 

The shape just make internal circulation a bit mire difficult I was never a huge fan of a corner tank. I built a few sets of light for a few One out in N.Y was about what you have I made him a VHO set and a single 250 w M/H He contacts me every few month and says its rocking along sps and lps corals is the addiction he chose.


We also on his went with a 10 gal sump and a small Excalibur skimmer and its all under his tank hidden from view. We have a 46 gal flat back hex now that is very over crowded with corals and It has VHO Actinic and 2 175 M/H. You could also use two 175 easy enough.

As for filtration none needed really if you have access to a source of Base rock then you want ti invest the time to allow it to fully cycle and then with a single hang on Display/specimen cup hung on the in side of the sump that can be filled with Carbon and a ploy media and the out let from a skimmer will pass through that and that is all you will need for filtration in conjunction with the rock. L/Rock is also a option for many But I think its a waste of money and can cause as many problems as it's supposed to solve. A Mag 9.5 or a similar return pump as a return from sump to tank a hang on overflow on tank to feed the sump and a few maxi jets inside for circulation. If you want to just use a large mag drive then you can set it outside the tank and pipe it in a in and out loop to just circulate the water works as well as drilling for a open loop just to do the same thing. Not familiar with the Triton Brand of tank you have may be tempered ? and drilling it would be out of the question totally. If not tempered you could drill it then add internal Overflow to sump and add a open loop circulation system.

 

42 gallons is pretty easy compared to larger tanks. I have a 55 and it's pretty basic. Look at my signature and you will see my equipment list.