Help Setting Up First Saltwater Tank

[turtlemama]

Hello, I am not sure if you all saw the results of the Fish Gallery contest, but Tony got a grand prize for the elementary school, and I won the Fluval Studi0 600! (Its a 33 gal tank with GLO 24w x 2 T5HO for lighting, canister filter, stand, ect.) We picked it up today and since it is my first fish tank, I am trying to figure out where to begin. I am wanting to make it a salt tank and the setup came with a canister filter, would that be okay to use it for a salt water setup? I plan on cycling the tank for just a few months before I put anything impressive inside, but since neither Elven or I have ever dealt with salt water before, so we are chartering into completely new territory.

Something he mentioned was using a sump and protein skimmer instead. 1) is protein skimmer a necessity?

Right now the tank is drilled and fitted at the bottom, where the canister filter would come up from. Should i just turn this into a sump with the skimmer instead?

We'd like to spend the least amount of money as possible, if it is possible to run a successful tank with just the canister filter - excluding the skimmer and sump, we'd like to.

FOWLR or Reef? We don't know yet, not trying to grow SPS. Don't want to spend a lot of money upgrading the lights or trying to feed coral, but if some of the easy care corals can be kept, we would like that option, but they wouldn't be the focus of the tank.

Any advice or suggestions on what I need to do differently to set this tank up?

[cichlidkeeper]

the lights that you have might be enough for muchrooms or easy soft corals. a protein skimmer is really only necessary on a reef tank. a canister filter will work fine for a saltwater tank. just remember to not overstock, you should be able to keep 3-4 small fish without affecting the water quality too much. you have to remember that in a reef tank your main focus are the corals and the conditions in the tank you have to keep to maintain their health.

[OOwl]

Congratulations on your big win! That's very exciting! Yes, you can run a successful SW tank without a skimmer, but I really think you'd have a better change of success if you implement the use of one. They can be procured very inexpensively if you watch the used section at your local fish store, Craig's List, or other local forums. Skimmers are something hobbyists "upgrade" quite frequently and then they have no use for their previous model. The CPR SR family of skimmers are great little, in-sump skimmers, or CPR makes a hang-on unit called a Bak-Pak that is just fine for small tank like yours. You can start out as FOWLR and then start adding small frags of very hearty, low-light corals that you can obtain from other hobbyists for nearly nothing. In time, those will grow to cover your live rock and make for a very beautiful, easy-to-maintain display, all at relatively no cost.

My very best piece of advice is to go to Half-Price books and look for a general guide to the set up and maintenance of a SW aquarium. I see "Saltwater Tanks for Dummies" all the time there and it's a good, general-discussion book. There are often others. Just check the copyright date to ensure you're getting up-to-date information, since much in the hobby has changed, the past ten years especially.

I wish you the absolute best on your new journey into a marvelously interesting and rewarding hobby.

[bgbdwlf2500]

salt water ph should be around 8.3, salinity 1.023...

Those are the differences from fresh to saltwater...

Get the tank setup with what you have which seems to be way more than sufficient. You can mix the salt and water in the tank the FIRST time, after that it has to be mixed out of the tank. After that the tank has to cycle, you can use the fishless cycle by adding a store bought dead shrimp or use odorless ammonia, other than that you can use a cheap damsel or two... Some have issues with this as youre subjecting a live creature to less than ideal conditions... My experience is they all survive and never show signs of suffering...

Once the water is up to temp and the salinity is right you can add live rock which can cycle the tank to if you "ghost feed" which is just throwing food in the tank.

You have more than enough help here, pm or post if you need more :)