**help** Info On Marine...please :d

adasca said:

Bassically any help would go along long way...

I have got a Orca tl450 tank....Built in filter system, including a small skimmer...a very basic tank, with basic stuff to just get you going on Marine.

Two days ago ( Sunday) i mixed the salt ( seachem ) marine salt, with ordinary tap water....then i added this into my tank, with the coral sand and heater, its all being ciruclated well, its up to temperature! Now,

What do i do next??

You ideally should get some live rock at 1 pound/gallon of water. this will serve as your filtration. Also I'd take the filter media out of the built in filter and fill it with live rock rubble, filter floss, and some sort of phosphate removing media. Did you dechlorinate your tap water? If you are just keeping fish, dechlorinated tap water will be fine, if you want to keep corals, you should use RO water to remove any nitrates/phosphates from the water.

Bareing in mind, i only have basic equipment....is there anything else i need,
Powerheads which will turnover about 20x your tank volume. This circulates water over your live rock.

Ive got a hydrometer? Which i used for salt and water mixing...
if oyu can, get a refractometer, it's much more accurate than a hydrometer. You will also need testing supplies at the minimum for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH
just....help!?!?

Thanks guys,
Adam

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jtnova13 said:

adasca said:

Bassically any help would go along long way...

I have got a Orca tl450 tank....Built in filter system, including a small skimmer...a very basic tank, with basic stuff to just get you going on Marine.

Two days ago ( Sunday) i mixed the salt ( seachem ) marine salt, with ordinary tap water....then i added this into my tank, with the coral sand and heater, its all being ciruclated well, its up to temperature! Now,

What do i do next??

You ideally should get some live rock at 1 pound/gallon of water. this will serve as your filtration. Also I'd take the filter media out of the built in filter and fill it with live rock rubble, filter floss, and some sort of phosphate removing media. Did you dechlorinate your tap water? If you are just keeping fish, dechlorinated tap water will be fine, if you want to keep corals, you should use RO water to remove any nitrates/phosphates from the water.

Bareing in mind, i only have basic equipment....is there anything else i need,
Powerheads which will turnover about 20x your tank volume. This circulates water over your live rock.

Ive got a hydrometer? Which i used for salt and water mixing...
if oyu can, get a refractometer, it's much more accurate than a hydrometer. You will also need testing supplies at the minimum for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH
just....help!?!?

Thanks guys,
Adam

Click to expand...

It mostly depends what you want to keep in the tank. Make up a plan and do some research on what livestock you want, and the equipment will be specified after. In salties, you decide what you want to keep, then buy equipment accordingly, not the other way around. It will save you lots of money doing it right the first time.

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Hello, thanks for helping, im going to keep fish and corals, and live rock, my local aquarist said that the salt i got will take out the harmfull stuff in the tap water.....? so i have just done as he said.... Also i have got a powerhead which pumps water in, to filter, and i also have got another one which is just pushing the water around.... My local aquarist also said, a cheaper way of doing the tank would be too buy non live rock, then just put 2 kilos of lve rock in your tank..be cheaper. How much does live rock rubble cost?? And phosphate removing material? what is this, the black carbon material stuff?? In my filter at the moment i have got bio balls, and the little hoop looking things. lol

Buddyboy67 said:

Take out the bio balls, etc and replace with live rock rubble , leaving room for phos absorber , like rowaphos, and marine grade activated carbon...place a layer of filter floss over the top then that must be changed weekly as well.....that bio material will cause excess nitrates that you realy don't want...
over 30 years as a marine keeper here mate

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You guys been a great help. If this makes any sence....the seachem salt iv got its nitrate and something else free? Said it on the bag....Iv just added some decholination stuff to the water in my tank. Hopefully this will help then! Buddyboy, im a begginer lol, what an earth is phos absorber? Rowaphos? and Marine grade activated carbon??? So if i take out everything in my filter system and just replace with live rock when i get it, i should be ok?? keeping posting guys, all this is sort of getting around my head, i shall reply to any other comments from now on, late this evening, as sadly got to go bck to work, chef ey, lol. Cheers people!

Buddyboy67 said:

Rowaphos is a brand of phosphate remover..very important in reefs to cut down algae and high phosphates are bad for corals , stunted growyh in any with a calcereous skeleton...
Marine grade carbon is cleaner...no phosphates released from it...in theory

Is your salt reef grade if you want to add corals???...reef salt is more expensive but is higher in calcium, magnesium and other essential trace elemnts require for your corals and inverts...basic salt is suitable really only for fish only based systems..

don't let all this scare you off,lol...we all had to start from scratch mate,lol....

You simply want to circulate water around your live rock for biological filtration in this game and use yer filter to hold the extras for chemical filtration ...it will all fall into place soon..and feel free to ask away

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Thanks buddyboy67 and seffie, great help, exactly what i need....My salt is marine salt, there was an option for the coral salt, My salt was £20 the coral salt was £23i think, however i did query this to my local aquarist, who is keen on marine fish, he said, this salt will do the fish ok, and corals as im not adding a great amount....After all, my tank is only 60liters lol. Have you ( buddyboy67 or Seffie) got msn? Or facebook? It would be easier for me to ask a couple of querys to you over there instead??
Next job, i shall have to invest in some testing equpiment, bloody expencive tho, from what i have seen As ussual, thanks alot, starting to like this whole forum fish thing haha! Adam

jtnova13 said:

adasca, grab the API test kits if those are available on the other side of the pond. I haven't found much of a difference between them and salifert and the API saltwater master kit should run you like 20 pounds. (it's ~$30 over here).

I use rowaphos because it was highly recommended and i've tested 0 phosphates ever. You just spoon some of it into a baggie and throw it in your internal filter, cover with filter floss and go.

If you decide to use reef bones and seed them with live rock, it will take a longer time to cycle. If you use 100% LR, it should cycle in a shorter period.

Are you going to be using sand or bare bottom? What types of corals/fish do you want to keep?

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