Marine Tank

[Betta5]

Started a new thread because the other was messed up.
Well the most obveous basics are the tank, filter and skimmer.
Well the tank is 72"x18"x12" (LxHxW).

For filter i want to use this,
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/HAGEN-FLUVAL-305-EXT...1QQcmdZViewItem
(or similar)

Skimmer
http/www.reefstore.co.uk/cart/V2Skim-400....-pr-16181.html

I have hydrometer, salt, tests etc as i have my nano set - up.

Im going to start buying all the 'bits' soon so just asking if everything looks ok (correct size and good skimmer, filter etc)
(you can just say YES if it looks good or NO (please tell me why) otherwise
Thanks if you have an opinion on something please share thanks.

 

[kkyyllee]

powerheads

 

[Betta5]

powerheads

Oh yeah 4got about them,

How many would you say i would need? and what sort of GPH? I have 1, 185 gallon per hour one (us gallon)

 

[kkyyllee]

i think ur supposed to have like 10x turnover an hour, the number depends on how much out put they have, id say atleast 3 or 4, since ur tanks going to be pretty long

 

[Betta5]

Hmmm.. i have seen some 300GPHs maybe i could get 2-3 of those

 

[steelhealr]

IMO, the most important investment:

toss out the hydrometer and buy a refractometer.

SH

 

[Betta5]

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Refractometer-for-ma...1QQcmdZViewItem

that any good? and do you need RO water or something to set them, i dont use RO water. I may have to look into an RO unit

 

[STD]

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Refractometer-for-ma...1QQcmdZViewItem

that any good? and do you need RO water or something to set them, i dont use RO water. I may have to look into an RO unit

IMO RO water is essential

Also I would go for Streams or Seio's rather than conventional powerheads

I would say that 10 X turnover is a minimum

Are you going to use live rock as your main filtration?

 

[kkyyllee]

since your not using liverock and it wont be a reef, as long as your tap doesnt cause any algea problems, or contain copper i think youll be fine with out it

 

[STD]

since your not using liverock and it wont be a reef, as long as your tap doesnt cause any algea problems, or contain copper i think youll be fine with out it

I would disagree IMO RO water is essential

Also I would strongly advise going for live rock

 

[andywg]

since your not using liverock and it wont be a reef, as long as your tap doesnt cause any algea problems, or contain copper i think youll be fine with out it

I would disagree IMO RO water is essential

Also I would strongly advise going for live rock

Essential? For what?

The reasons to use RO water are reef-based: you want low nitrates as the inverts are fairly intollerant, low phosphates to prevent algae growth and to encourage coral growth and low silicates to prevent algae growth.

In a tank with just fish none of these are at all important. Marine fish can tolerate pretty high nitrates (the only science paper I am aware of quotes 100ppm as the lowest level that long term problems occur) and are unphased by silicates and phosphates as found in tap water.

As to Live Rock, that all depends on the tank. If the OP wants to do a large sand flat then LR is a no no, especially when keeping fish such as sea moths, walking batfish or stingrays. In these cases you are better off with an external cannister or wet/dry (also because they tend to process ammonia and nitrites very well, better than LR on its own).

 

[STD]

You are correct about fish and Nitrates but where does it say there will be no corals?

Also using tap water you are much more likely to get cyno and nuisance algae

As to live rock as well as the filtration it introduces life into the tank and many fish browse on it

 

[steelhealr]

I side with STD on this one. Tap can contain heavy metals. Copper pipes can add copper. You can still get algae blooms. At my house, we get an annual newsletter from the water department which publishes the chemistry of our water. You may want to see if you have access to that and then make a more educated decision. Personally? I would use RO or distilled.

SH

PS..that refractometer looks fine. SH

 

[andywg]

You are correct about fish and Nitrates but where does it say there will be no corals?

In the post you replied to it states the tank will not have corals, hence my reply.

Also using tap water you are much more likely to get cyno and nuisance algae

But it doesn't really matter if you do get nuisance algae in a FO, especially as you can just cut the lighting right down.

As to live rock as well as the filtration it introduces life into the tank and many fish browse on it

Live Rock is certainly useful, but I was pointing out to you specific examples when it should not be placed in a tank, such as when creating a sand bed biotope (unless you have a very large tank and can put a small outcrop of rock in a corner with the rest of the tank open sand).

LR is certainly very useful in tanks and forms the backbone of most marine filtration, but it is not a panacea.

I side with STD on this one. Tap can contain heavy metals. Copper pipes can add copper. You can still get algae blooms. At my house, we get an annual newsletter from the water department which publishes the chemistry of our water. You may want to see if you have access to that and then make a more educated decision. Personally? I would use RO or distilled.

Surely you are aware there are dechlorinators available that neutralise heavy metals?

I personally use RO in my pred tanks, but that is because I already have the RO unit for my reef. There is nothing wrong with just using tap water with a good dechlorinator and heavy metal binder for FO tanks, especially for someone on a water meter who cannot stomach wasting up to 10 litres for every litre of RO.

As you point out, it is a personal choice, so I pointed out that RO is not essential. For some reason the marine section has trouble differentiating between essential and recommended.

 

[steelhealr]

As you point out, it is a personal choice, so I pointed out that RO is not essential. For some reason the marine section has trouble differentiating between essential and recommended.

At Home Depot, in the paint section, they have a ton of paint brushes there. They put them up on wall in a row under the following categories:

Good, Better, Best

SH