In At The Deep End Newbie Questions

[*Laurie*]

I have had tanks before but never anything more than fresh fish and other than keeping everything alive and happy - I never really took the hobby very seriously

Now I want to start taking things more seriously I am interested, in starting ideally a marine tank with fish and coral (I know these are very hard work, but i'm prepared to do that)

so to start off I have loads of questions of what I need: Please go easy on me, everyone starts somewhere

I have a 90l tank to be starting with, and am planning to use a fluval 205 canister filter, bottom of the tank being bedded with aquarium sand - is this good enough to be starting on? (I'm not planning on fish until everything is up and running and the water is safe for them, so there is no rushing in on this), which is the best heater to get? and what accessories do you recommend? will the filter provide enough airation or should I get a second unit? which chemical water enhancers are better to use (from the fishes perspective) same goes for which synthetic saltwater substitute would be best

many thanks in advance

 

[nanocubeking]

The tank is about 24 gallons. The filterations shoulds about fine but live sand is always good to seed a new aquariums sand. As well as putting live rock in so your cycle happens all at once. and you dont have to worry about cycling the tank again.I rarely use a heater and dont know much about products on the other side of the world and cant really recommend a heater.The canister filter will be just fine for airation. As for accesories I would get a skimmer if you go over four fish. But if you stay under that then a skimmer will not be needed. What kind of corals would you like to keep? If soft corals zoos,shrooms,ands xenia along with some lps then a good set of pc's or T-5's will be just fine. But if sps, and clams along with most other lps then A strong T-5 set will work too but a 150 watt metal halide unit will be really Ideal to keep everything happy. And you'll probably want an extra cirulator to add flow to the tank. Dosing just depends on what you want to keep in the tank coral wise.

 

[*Laurie*]

many thanks for the reply
I am after a tropical marine set up, preferably soft and xenia corals lps and possibly starfish eventually. for the live rock, what sort of weight would work best in a 90l tank? as I dont want to end up going too big - and can anyone recommend a good supplier as I dont really want to encourage those who take from wild sites for the pet market iykwim. also where would I get live sand and can this be mixed with aquarium sand or should I have just live sand only?
The corals are all going to once the tank and live rock are established and doing well, as said I'm not planning on rushing headlong into this
is there a good kid of synthetic sea water substitute for tropical marine anyone is able to recommend, and how long should I leave the water and filter to establish before I introduce the live rock?
again apologies for all the questions I just want to make sure I get this right

 

[SkiFletch]

You'll want about 9-10kgs of rock. Consider looking through classifieds for people taking down tanks. You can get rock cheaper that way, and encourage conservation.

Don't waste your money on live sand, just buy plain old aragonite sand. Sand beds are seeded quickly from LR and "Live" sand is a marketing gimmick

There are many seawater mixes. Some commonly available manufacturers include Coralife, Seachem, Instant Ocean, Tropic Marin, and many others.