Hi guys, new to SW, a couple questions

C

Craydaddy

Hello everyone. I was big into FW a couple years ago. One nasty divorce later and no tanks left, I'm ready to start again. This time I want to go SW. FW was fun but just doesn't have the diversity and variety I wanted.

With all that being sad I have a couple questions for you. I have a 29 Gallon drilled aquarium picked up on CL a couple months ago. I haven't set it up since I am moving in two weeks and didn't want to pay for an aquarium move. It has the overflow drilled into the back wall with an elbow facing down. I don't have an overflow cover(the black deal with the teeth, what do you call it?) I would like to know if I need to get a cover for the inlet or even one of those black covers. Please see attached pic and let me know what you think.

In any case, I am hoping to maintain a small community. I am thinking an ocellaris clown, a skunk cleaner, a fire red cleaner shrimp, a hermit and perhaps a horned blenny. Too much or could I manage more?

I want to keep it simple although I would LOVE to eventually be able to keep a green mandarin in there although from what I understand they require a much larger tank. I read that mandarins need to feed constantly or they will starve to death very quickly. Is it possible to buy live copepods to stock a tank?

I could also use a bit of help identifying all the parts to my sump/fuge setup. I am used to just having a fluval canister so this is all new to me. Any and all advice, thoughts and ideas are appreciated. Thanks all!
 
looks like a strieght siphon overflow - should drain into that large PVC pipe with the holes in it in your sump (which is upside down, the holes should be near the bottom). the black pipe is your return and should hook up to the return pump. the part with the box on top is the skimmer. i don't see how the two sump tanks are connected - you may need to move the return pump into the left sump tank (with the skimmer and the drain)
 
I had a mandarin in my 29 so you should be fine. If you feel like it isn't getting enough to eat or see its ribs you should buy some tiger pods for the tank at a store. But I wouldn't get one until your tank is established and you can see some on the sand bed. Then you're good
 
I'm in Dallas, near Buckner and 30. Does the overflow look like it would work ok? I couple other people I asked said it might not work well for whatever reason and I am worried about flooding(I am moving to a third floor apartment on Friday)
 
If nothing but water sand and rock are in there then your fine. Put a turbo snail in and your going to have a flood. The second something gets sucked down that white pipe and clogs it your sol.
 
If there are no holes on the top or backside of the tank it will have siphon issues. (running for a while then pulling all the water down until it starts sucking air then slowly repeating the process of filling/draining/filling. Holes will enable air to enter the drain and will stabilize the water at the bottom of the horizontal 90 degree elbow. Since this is a used setup it probably works ok.
The large white PVC with holes is to cover the drain in the sump (keeps splashing and bubbles down like said holes go in the bottom. The top drain gravity flows into the lower tank. Second the notion purchase a strainer (bulk reef supply/ marine depot/ local fish store!!!) Snails certainly will go down the pipe without it. Also keep your flow rate slow with that system 200 GPH tops, so buy a small powerhead for inside the tank.

hold off on the mandarin you need alot of rock to breed the food. 55G tank is the smallest successful tank size (arguably). Unless you want the tiresome process of always introducing live food (you'll get wornout for sure) They have to be alive so it is a continuous process of adding them getting eaten. a larger tank the mandarin cannot eat them all fast enough. Mainly it is the quantity of rock and porosity that enables cope breeding not the gallons but LR is harder to measure.

See if you can find some Live Rock/Sand from the buy forum.
 
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