From Freshwater to Saltwater....

I've done plenty of freshwater tanks, dirt tanks, artificial... Basically I've mastered the craft. I have a 30 gallon tank sitting around with nothing in it, and I want to move on to saltwater. From the research I've done so far, it sounds pretty easy after it's set up. Here are the questions I came up with so far.

1. When adding saltwater for the very first time, do I have to do anything special!!!! Can't I just get a big huge bucket of water add the salt as directed, measure the salinity and put it in! Forget about temperature because this is the start up of a tank, and it will actually heat up in the tank itself. I don't want to buy the water at the store and hall it, I'm hoping to start my own bacteria crap.
2. I don't want expensive lighting! Can I use a regular long bulb thingy like in freshwater tanks? If not, what are alternatives for cheaper lighting?
3. Can I use two 20 gallon mechanical power filters?

Thanks guys.... Literally any advice from your past experience is helpful.

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Comment by Katie Gander on March 25, 2013 at 6:32pm: By the way... I learned more about filtration today, it doesn't totally answer my question, but I'm going to use live rock now, and have corals and all that growing up in it, which is going to be my filtration along with that any who

Comment by Tyler Musialek on March 26, 2013 at 11:56pm: For fish only tanks you only need light to see the tank and doesn't matter what lighting. some Corals don't need light and are very colourful such as sun corals and similar species (mushrooms will do fine with minimal amounts of light). T5s and halides are cheaper on the lighting for other corals.
Can you be more specific about the filters? if they are larger they should be fine.
you do need to keep the temperature over 24 degrees all the time so don't disregard heating, and do a lot of research on everything. A saltwater dummies books are great.

PS a pair of clowns, a sixline wrasse, a pistol shrimp/goby pair and and a lemonpeel dwarf angel would be an awesome stocking choice with Mushroom corals and sun corals (you do have to feed them)

Comment by Josh the reef noob on March 27, 2013 at 10:29pm: I wouldn't put any angelin a 30g, even dwarf.

Also, I wouldn't even bother with saltwater unless you're willing to put the money in, in the beginning. It's A LOT of work, and it WILL cost you more in the long run to keep the tank running smooth. Going cheap on SW is something I will never do again, and I highly suggest you save your funds up to do it the right way the first time, or not do it at all. Sorry if this seems a bit harsh.

Comment by Tyler Musialek on March 27, 2013 at 11:48pm: Lemonpeel angels stay on the smaller side. In general I agree with what you are saying, not cheaping out is important, but the highest end equipment is not necessary.

Comment by Josh the reef noob on March 28, 2013 at 6:18pm: Lemonpeel angels require a lot of room to swim, and still get 6 inches. The ONLY angel I could see working is the pygmy, and even then you're pushing it.

I'm not suggesting top-of-the-line, I'm saying buy things good enough to where you don't have to ask if it's good enough.

Two 20g mechanical filters won't cut it IMO. Also if you want corals, you gotta at least get t5s with 10000k bulbs... there's very few low light corals out there. I wouldn't bother with corals until your tank matures a bit (3 months or more, depending on how well it's doing since it's your first time) so that should give you plenty of time to get a new fixture.

Comment by Katie Gander on April 11, 2013 at 4:43pm: Thanks guys, you all were very helpful. You are all definitely right about the money, I would way rather get it right the first time and save the extra money then go cheap and screw it up. I really like your guys idea about the lighting. (:

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