Just Out Of Curiosity

[stang1]

only a nitrate factory if you let them get clogged up. Need more maintainance than in FW tanks as there is more gunk in marine.
If you use live rock as your main source of filteration then theres nothing wrong with scrubbing or replacing the media weekly or how often you need to

Thanks Ben and sorry for hijacking the thread Mark!
I'd never heard of this before and was curious. We did have plenty of live rock, skimmer and two powerheads in ours and readings were always good. The same goes for the marine display tank we have at work.

I'm surprised about an external being a "nitrate" factory as I ran one on my marine tank with no problems. We never used live rock rubble but nitrates were minimal?!

the thing is the bacteria on live rock are capable of converting nitrates to nitrogen, but in an external the ceramic media or what ever you use (excluding rubble) will not do this and will leave nitrates as the waste product, and the number 1 cause of algae is nitrates and in high concentrations can harm inverts especilly when not regularly maintained

I suppose that was another factor, we always did regular maintenance on the tank.

 

[markandhisfish]

rekon i will go with externals then . as i am pretty on top of my filter/tank maintinence anyway it wouldnt cause me an issue to do it more often.

. besides the journals and other info on here is there any good reading material you can reccomend?

 

[Truck]

fill the externals with live rock rubble

 

[markandhisfish]

obviously there would be plenty of live rock in the tank anyway just an external instead of a sump

 

[TigerIssey]

Check out this thread

Lots of book and website reviews.

I have just ordered 2 books

Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry and Natural History -Eric Borneman and Scott w Michael
otherwise known as "THE BOOK"

and

Reef Secrets - Nilsen and Fossa

Both have the search inside feature on amazon.

I went through amazon looking at the recommended ones to find the ones I wanted, you could get the library to order them for you to check them out before you buy. My lfs stocks reef secrets but not aquarium corals, so I had a flick through there.

 

[SkiFletch]

+1 on the reccomendations for the sump. Really makes matters so much easier when you have a full blown reef tank . Also in 10 yaers, everybody will probably be using LED lighting

 

[black molly3]

i have blue leds on my river reef lol they are on now. it can be however expensive you want it to be. you could start with a smaller tank to avoid bigger costs however smaller tanks are slightly harder to maintain as your readings can fluctuate alot more. however the biggest marine tank i have had is 15 gal and no probs. i have went back to marine yesterday with another 15 gal. its called a river reef interpet 50 absolute bargain. 100 pound you get 2 t5 lights and blue led lights pump heater included. the only problem you would have if you are converting a 4 ft tank is the amount of live rock. i need about 10 kilograms for my 50 liter tank a kilogram is mabee £10 little bit more.
the people on here will give you a better idea of how much it will cost because with a tank that size you will most probably be better of with a sump which are quite expensive. good luck
by the way it is well worth the convertion marine are so much more interesting even the stuff on the live rocks when you put them in your tank. theres just life everywere haha

 

[markandhisfish]

this has become too much of an obsession in my brain now. a full blown coral reef marine tank has been my ultimate dream tank long ago years before i ever even had my 1st community tank last easter. so now im hoping to do it within 6 months to a year. all my other fish will be sold on to enthustiasts ( good homes only i have some really nice fish) but vinny however he is different. i just havent got space to give him a tank to himself i could just about squeeze a small tank in the kitchen and no way my fave boy is going to anybody but the best . so he will be hand delivered in a heated polybox to 1 of a group of members of this forum so i know he will be somewhere hes loved as much as i do. ( soft i know but hes a special fish )

so now im looking into equipment costs learning how to do things right etc oh and of course drooling over pics of fish i probably wont be able to have lol

 

[markandhisfish]

also another thing id like to look into and learn abouts lots more besides rocks corals livestock etc is equipment. looking at all these ro units skimmers etc is all gravy to me at the moment can anybody reccomend what are the good quality reliable brands please?

 

[TigerIssey]

this has become too much of an obsession in my brain now. a full blown coral reef marine tank has been my ultimate dream tank long ago years before i ever even had my 1st community tank last easter. so now im hoping to do it within 6 months to a year. all my other fish will be sold on to enthustiasts ( good homes only i have some really nice fish) but vinny however he is different. i just havent got space to give him a tank to himself i could just about squeeze a small tank in the kitchen and no way my fave boy is going to anybody but the best . so he will be hand delivered in a heated polybox to 1 of a group of members of this forum so i know he will be somewhere hes loved as much as i do. ( soft i know but hes a special fish

I said it was addictive, post about equipment in the saltwater hardware section, Rabbut frequents there and is pretty damn good with equipment although he may see this post and jump in.

I presume although extremely attached to vinnie you have not got so attached to the rotkeil yet, I am sure there are at least one or two members on here that would give them extremely good homes, plus you will get regular updates on their progress aswell.

I got the two books I mentioned delivered yesterday, they are both excellent, I have heard "the contientious marine aquarist " by robert fenner is very good also.

I can certainly understand why you want the full reef, my other half and I have been to a few coral reefs in the carribean and africa, each time the other half has mentioned having a reef tank, the final straw was following a tour of egypt and the red sea last year (my 30th birthday) he went diving and has been hassling me since. In november I got my 4 ft tank on the condition it would become marine at a later date. In the end though neither of us wanted to wait that long hence the nano tank. I think once the research gets to a certain point, it takes over, but in a good way, then it needs a money tree to sustain your new found habit. I really do think corals should be available on the nhs.

 

[rabbut]

Realy, the choice of lights, pumps and skimmers comes down to what you want to keep. The recomended approach is to look at the livestock that you want to put into your tank, and choose the gear for the system from there Some corals need heavy skimming, lots of flow and lots of light to do well. Other corals do best without a skimmer. Some fish don't like flow or bright light e.t.c. Avoid sorting your hardware first and thwn choosing livestock, as you may find yourself restricted doing it that way, and may not get the fish or coral that you realy wanted

 

[markandhisfish]

cheers rabbut il start looking into livestock 1st. this will be a nightmare as im notorious for changing my mind and even my stock after the tank has been set up

tigerissey yep the rotkeil as with all my other fish except vinny will be sold to anybody who has a suitable tank and will provide the required care. vinny is different he will only be going to somebody equally as sev-mad as me who will love him and can post piccies on here for me to keep up with his progress

 

[SkiFletch]

Agree with rabbut on the livestock first idea. Since you're going reef, what you really need to decide is what kind of corals do you want to keep? Easier softies, or easier LPS? Perhaps some of the moderately difficult LPS, or do you want to get into the full on tough SPS, Clams, and Anemones? You don't have to pic exact species, but getting an idea of what you like would be good. That would really drive your lighting, flow, and skimming choices.

Just to toss a few quality brand names out there: Lighting - Arcadia, TMC (for high-power LEDs), or custom; Powerheads - Hydor Koralia, Tunze, Aquamedic; Skimmer - Deltec, Tunze, TMC, or Aquamedic.

 

[rabbut]

Though Arcadia halide units have nice high failure rates.....

 

[SkiFletch]

For real? I'd always read/heard good things about them... Then again, most of it may have been about the T5 Ibars