can I start a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium with a protein skimmer an...?

Question

can I start a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium with a protein skimmer and a traditional outside hang on back power filter?
I also plan to have snails (?) and maby hermit crabs, and cleaner shrimp. and coral.
not to mention fish.
thanks.

Answer 1

Well, you can use a hang off the back filter, but live rock needs to be your primary filtration. A HOB would provide maybe 10% of your total filtration, and can sometimes result in excessive nitrates, so you want to avoid relying on external filtration.
You can sometimes pull it off if you have a small tank but in a tank that size, you would not be able to maintain adequate filtration if you plan on decently stocking your tank.

Answer 2

Live sand and live rock should be your main filtration. 125 lbs rock and 80lbs sand minimum. Try to find a tank and stand on ebay/craigslist/newspaper/etc. to save $$$. The best filtration system could go into thousands of dollars. So I'll give you an example of my 125. 160lbs rock, 50lbs crushed coral/100lbs live sand. I run 3 powerheads 1 AC50, 1 Lifetouch 1500, and 1 Powersweep. I also run 1 Fluval 404 as another watermovement source, but the canister only has sponges and floss= no bio material. A skimmer is a must and I went with the Coralife 125, much better out there, but I got it for $80 and it works great. My setup is very low end on cost, but houses 2 Dwarf Zebra Lionfish, Yellow Tang, Black banded cat shark, and 2 Damsels left from cycling(1.5 years ago). You could go as high as $5000 on a 125 setup, but I'm poor so all my $$$ went to LR/LS. The rest is from my FW collection. BTW my setup is FOWLR( few easy corals).Shop around for everything you decide on and save alot. I own 11 tanks and my best deal was one of my 125g for $75 tank only. I scored another 125g tank/stand/tons of extras for $350. Have fun with it, I was edgy at first but with 5 years FW exp, it went very smooth. Best of luck.

Answer 3

you can have too much filtration i have had my 55 gallon marine aquarium for about 2 years as long as the payload of fish and other critters are over bearing for they filter you definitely can i would recommend that you go with 75-150lbs of live rock with a live sand bed it will make a huge difference down the road when it comes to how much water changing you do i was able to go around 6-8 months without a water change in my tank i have about 125lbs of rock and 100lbs of live sand in my tank totally natural is the easies way to do a marine tank even if you aren't going to have a reef tank. just read a good book on recommended equipment if your going to get expensive coral you ll need a good amount of light with like either HQI lighting or at least strong compact fluorescent/t-5 lighting. i have an outer orbit fixture with 2-150w HQI and 2-130w 420/460 actinic bulbs. GOOD LUCK!!!

Answer 4

In my own experience, yes you can, so long as the skimmer and filter are of adequate size. Might not hurt to throw in a power head for extra circulation if you can though. I wouldn't start off with so many bottom feeders right off the bat though, you'll have a sterile tank, you need to cycle first with fish and live rock (and who knows what will come out of your live rock) good luck