Marine Newbie

[cookiemistress]

Hi, just wanting some really basic info on starting up a marine tank really.

My partner's gran used to have a 6ft marine tank as they owned a fish shop years ago and now we have a tropical tank we've been thinking about starting up a marine tank, nothing massive like a 6ft tank, we have seen the interpet 94l reef with the filter behind a screen? 
Probably coral/anemone, maybe a clown fish or two nothing too full.

 

[techen]

The plug and play units are really good like red sea, kent etc.

Most of the gear will be in a mini sump behind the sump. Most come with skimmers, power heads etc so you don't need anything.

I hopw you've done your research though. The key thing to remember is too not use tap water for marine and get yourself a RO filter.

I'd say no to a anemone. They move a lot and annoy corals and even have a habit of getting stuck into places like the back of the tank.

 

[cookiemistress]

Atm i'm doing research which is why i've asked on here for help/info.
RO

 

[wildechild_01]

Reverse Osmosis Filtration.  Turns your tap water into Super pure H2O with no nasty extras.  Tap water generally leads to terrible algae problems in a marine tank.  Depending on the size of tank you go with you may want to look into purchasing RO water or buying your own RO unit.
 
As techen said some of the plug and play systems are great and they often come with everything you need to get started.  If your planning to go with the standard Clown fish, make sure you are at least 20 Us Gallons/ 75L ish.
 
As for corals and or Anemone... the Anemone can be tricky as stated, there are a few options like the Bubble Tips that can work okay in smaller setups.  I would recommend also staying with soft corals to start and possibly some LPS (Large Polyp Stony) corals.  Really the best advice i can give is keep asking questions and reading as much info as you can, take it slow, and be willing to compromise on what you can and can't realistically do.  To this day there are Fish i would love to have that i know i can't due to the size of tank i have.
 
I would say however the first decisions to make are
 
What size of tank?
       - As much as i would love to say pick the fish you want and size accordingly most of us are on a budget and have limited space for a tank.
Self contained unit like the Red Sea or Kent Systems, or build it yourself?
       - This will determine some of the other equipment you may need to look into.
 
And then have fun