First Ever Marine Post

[dayzofspeed]

what are the absolute basics needed to start a marine tank, is it as simple as the tank the water a heater and filter, or are skimmers, sumps etc absolutly needed, i would like to dip my toe in to test the water and see if it's for me. all help greatly appreciated

 

[simonas]

I set one up in March 09 for thefirst time. Its quite exciting and I;m happy with what I have now

I went for tank, marine sand, a heater, powerhead, live rock and salt water and went from there
You;ll then need a refractometer for thesting the sg of water for changes etc, salt for your weekly water changes a supply of RO water from somewhere.

You;ll need marine tubes, test kits to monitor the cycle and the params

If your used to freshwater tropical its a fair old change and I became a novice again but their is so much advice and help on the marine section of this forum you can get the answer to everything

It costs a fair bit more to set up but its worth it once set up asthey look stunning with corals

check out my journal at the bottom of my sig it will give you an idea of the set up of mine

Simon

 

[dayzofspeed]

if i do deide to try this i want to go slowly so would be starting with a 2 or 3 foot tank, might even build my own and was thinking very basic to start

 

[bae1994]

tbh if you just want to see if its for you id go for a plug and play many of our reefers started this (seffie,simon,me,trod) to name a few and get and the bigger the better for 2 reasons

1 easier to maintain
2 youll want to upgrade in no time and if you go bigger to start with itl last longer

id also suggest a boyu tl550 there is a smaller cheaper model the tl450

i started with the 450 and tbh there just wasnt enough choice when it came to fish but i know a few started with the 550 and said it was great

pic of 550

hope that helps

 

[seffieuk]

to the salty side of the forum

I do agree with Bae, starting off is simple, even if you dont buy a plug and play such as the orca 550, although I must admit to wishing I had not sold mine . Take a look at several of the juwel 125 litre journels, like Harrys, they will show you that it is easy to start off with a basic tank, t5 lighting. live rock along with heat and flow - a receipe for a basic tank

Seffie x

 

[dayzofspeed]

i am a bit undecided on how to go with this, whether to go for the all in one starter nano, build my own by sourcing the individual components as and when funds are available, obviously the slowest option, although i am prepared to take my time or maybe go for a complete 2nd hand set up. i understand how bigger is better when setting up, thats why i went for my 240l freshwater as my first ever freshwater tank, cant go too big, maybe 3ft with this tank though as space is limited. another option i have just thought of is to downsize the f/w tank and use the 240l, i reckon a reef in a 240l would be quite impressive. i would appreciate a list of the neccessary components if someone would be so kind, so i can start planning..........many thanks kevin

 

[jaylam]

I considered the same when setting up my marine tank, I was going to start off with a nano then upgrade later but after reading some journals I knew that I would want to upgrade pretty quick and the nano would just be a waste of money, plus the larger the water volume the more stable the water is which means less water changes.

I the money you will waste in more water changes over the space of a year for a nano will prob be the cost of a larger tank.

You will need:

1 Protein skimmer, Deltec MCE300 or MCE600 will be good for up to about 300ltr tank
2kg of live rock per 1g of water
Water test kit
Refractometer
1 Blue marine tube
1 Bright white marine tube
1 Heater
1 Notepad and pen for recording the cycle progress
2 Powerheads
Salt


The above are the basics which will get you up and running there are other bits you can get along the way as and when you have some spare funds, like:

Moonlight LEDS
Uv sterilizer
Powerhead wave control unit
Auto top up unit
Auto dosing

the list can go on and on but it all depends how much you get in to it and your budget.

I would get the basics first, run it with some fist for 6 months (obviously excluding cycle time) then if your interest in corals run it for a further 6 months with corals, if all is well start looking in to buying some of the "Making you life easier" stuff.

 

[dayzofspeed]

thanks a lot there is plenty there for me to be looking at now, you mentioned the cost of water changes is this with using RO water and is that neccessary for use in a marine tank or can you not just use dechlorinated water as in a f/w tank

 

[jaylam]

thanks a lot there is plenty there for me to be looking at now, you mentioned the cost of water changes is this with using RO water and is that neccessary for use in a marine tank or can you not just use dechlorinated water as in a f/w tank

You can just do that but I always got loads of algae when I did it this way and marine fish are more sensitive I wouldn't risk it given how expensive the fish can be.

 

[simonas]

typical cost of RO for water changes in a nano tank is £2.50 for simple RO 25 litres and £6 for ready mixed salty RO water for 25 litres

Thats what I change weekly but I buy my own salt as it works out cheaper that way

 

[dayzofspeed]

I now have a very major concern which could quite possibly spell the end of my decision to switch to marine, something that just came to mind last night.whilst we take regular holidays, the weekend breaks dont worry me, but our annual holidays consist usually of 1 week away followed by another 2 week break, and it's this two week break that worrys me, at the moment when we go away i just ask my step son to feed my tropicals and the instructions i give him are to feed flake twice maybe three times a week(to cut out the possibility of an overfeed) and as this is a very simple task and has always worked i am happy to let him, but he knows nothing about fish keeping so i am naturally very concerned about what i will do if i had a marine tank as it seems quite a bit more complex and obviously the cost of the livestock is a lot higher, i know it would be devastating if everything crashed, can anyone please set my mind at rest

 

[seffieuk]

Sounds to me like he could manage it, all you need to do is, put the lights on a timer and draw a mark on the tank for top-ups and explain feeding, it would be better to feed less than more!

Seffie x

ps also give him this forum addres in case he is worried and we can then help out

 

[dayzofspeed]

ok there is a big decision i need to make following a quick chat with the other half, if i want to go marine then i'm gonna have to use my existing juwel rio 240, as we are a little restricted for space for another tank and this is her home too so i have to respect that. i have mixed feelings about de-commisioning my f/w tank as i've had it for 4 or 5 years now and after lots of initial problems its looking good and we haven't lost any fish for a good while, but marine fascinates me, even reading the journals on here makes me realise how exciting and rewarding it can be, but the costs.....omg, i called into my lfs this evening to have a quick look at their marines, live rock is £12.50 per kilo, and it didnt look like particularly good rock, sort of like chunks of dead coral is the best way i could describe it, anyway with the size of tank i have thats gonna be a whole lotta rock, it's reccommended 2kg per gallon right? and i'm assuming that if i go with a sump that extra volume also needs to be taken into account.... oh dear does it all have to go in at once or can i collect it over time and maybe keep it in containers somehow or the tank. patience i have in abundance ..... readies i dont. even so i have a feeling my decision will be.... go marine even if it takes me a year to even get to the start up phase

 

[Sean_Jaymo]

I'm sure it's 2lbs per gallon, not 2 kilos.

I'm sure i'll be corrected otherwise! The best place to get rock seems to be ebay. Just look for local people decommissioning their tanks.

 

[Donya]

Even 2lbs/gal seems an awful lot to me unless either the rock is extremely dense (which isn't too useful for filtration) or it's for some special purpose like an unusually heavily-stocked tank...but even then it would take up an awful lot of space unless sumped or something. Somewhere closer to 1-1.5lb per gallon is what I'm used to reading and hearing as a good guideline for the average tank stocking with average rock density (denser rocks requiring more lbs/gal of course). Since 1kg is ~2.2lbs, that would be closer to 1kg per 2 gallons.