Marine Do I Take The Plunge?

[ainsy]

Well firstly a disclaimer! My tank was very big, so I am no expert with smaller ones!

1) Depends upon your budget. I have used both Aquamedic and Deltec skimmers and both were good. I prefer Deltec but they are considerably more expensive.

2) No powerheads don't provide anything like the kind of turnover that you need - what you are trying to achieve is a high turn over of water over your live rock. I used Tunze streams - but that was on a 7 foot tank. I know that people recommend koralia - I have never used them but people that I trust do. This would be a good start (although you may be able to find them cheaper!) You could try just one which should give you 9x turnover/hour and add more if you need to.

3) Most of the things that you will need have been mentioned. I would echo what Donya said - Get a good refractometer with ATC - those swing arm things are useless! I don't know what lighting you have but you will have to stock according to what your lights will support.

 

[simonas]

Hello pal

Good choice with marines

I ran a River Reef 94 litre until sunday when I upgraded. I started out over 2 years ago with a plan to keep a 65litre tank with nemos in. However I discovered corals, they really do make a marine tank and can be done on the cheap by buying frags and looking for give aways on forums

On my River Reef I didnt run an external or any kind of filtration but had 11 kgs of live rock. Look out for bargains again plenty of reefers selling off their rock and you should be able to get it £5 a kg instead of £13 ish that shops charge. Dont skimp on this
I ran a Boyu skimmer cheap as chips on ebay from hong kong but removed loads of crud from the tank on a weekly basis

The test kit price seems right if not cheap and I also use Salifert which are the best in my opinion

Main advice is go slow especially with the fish, I rushed on first set up and suffered the consequences

and enjoy it really is addictive and so worth it when you look at your marine set up