Fo Or Fowlr, What Do I Need?

[craig855s]

Hi guys, I have a Rio 240 (4ft) tank that I'm really struggling to stock right an enjoy with tropicals, so I'm thinking of a full re-start with marine fish.

I'll be buying an RO&DI unit regardless of weather I go marine or stay tropical, and if I go marine I know I need a mixing bucket, small heater and airstone and supplies of salt, But what else do I need?

I have a EX1200 tetratec filter, could this cover all my filtration needs for a lightly stocked marine tank or do i need nitrate removers/phosphate removers?

Do i need to use activated carbon and replace it weekly or is that only for ful reef tanks?

Would marine white T8 lighting (2x34W) and blue LEDs do for lighting?

Anything else I need?

Stocking wise I'm thinking 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma, (some more fish to be decided) some turbo snails, a few hermit crabs, some shrimp of some kind.

I will have some live rock, initially just as decoration and to give the CUC somewhere to hide away and the fish something interesting to swim round.

 

[sorgan]

Ok if your using live rock scrap the filter and just have lots of flow. Airblock? Why? Get a skimmer as it does 2 things, pulls crap out of the water and helps put o2 into it.
If your adding CUC then you are moving into reef realms but the fish you want will be ok with inverts, if you don't want coral try to find some aquacultured algae's, they use ip nitrates and phosphates in the water, look nice and can supply additional food for critters.
If your not keeping coral the lights will be fine.

 

[craig855s]

The airstone i mentioned was for the mixing of the salt water..

What does a skimmer do in a FO tank? Is it needed?

I'll do some research into aquacultured algaes, and im also gonna look into this thing a couple of topics up from this one about that thing that replaces phosphate removers and skimmers etc...

 

[seffieuk]

Craig - you will need a powerhead for mixing salt water and at least two more in your tank if you go with live rock - think of live rock as the heart and lungs of a marine tank and you will get the picture. In a tank your size you will be best off with a skimmer, which removes undesolved organics from the water. If you want to run your filter then you can keep phosphate remover etc in there and you will need it!!

Seffie x

 

[craig855s]

how much phosphate remover will a tank this size go through per month (cost wise? £1 or £10? or something different?)

 

[seffieuk]

Its really difficult to say, it will depend on stocking and water changes - but many people change theirs approx every six weeks or so - I used about 500ml in my 400 litre tank before I got my reactor. Look up phosban and rowaphos to give you an idea on price

Seffie x