Marine Virgin With A Lot Of Questions!

[mrvillicus]

Hi everyone, my names ben, I am interested in switching from freshwater to marine and would like some answers to my questions if possible please..

Current setup

Fluval Roma 200LTR 43 Gallon tank and cabinet
2 T8 Tubes
1 All Pond Solutions 1000LPH external filter
1 300w heater
1 Hagen 402 950LPH powerhead
1 Boyu 350LPH powerhead
1 Interpet ap2 air pump with airstone
Cotswold rock
Mbuna Malawi Cichlids
Argos playsand

Dream setup

Basic marine
no coral
Ideally clown fish and others
as cheap as possible

So my questions are

1) FILTRATION...can I use my current filter?
2) ROCK...do I just use live rock?
3) SUBSTRATE...I have some crushed coral in my playsand, is that ok?
4) WATER...do I simply buy premixed ready to go saltwater or is there a cheaper way?
5) PROTEIN SKIMMER...Is this a must as they are pretty expensive and Ill do anything I need to avoid getting one

I should mention that my current tank has been running for a month and is cycled. I plan to use a product that I can add to the tank to help the cycle.

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated, Thanks Ben

 

[Donya]

1) FILTRATION...can I use my current filter?

As a place to stash chemical media and possibly a bit of extra rubble, yes.

2) ROCK...do I just use live rock?

Yes.

If you are content with a bit of a wait, you can also save a some money by getting some dry rock and letting the live rock you do get colonize it over time. But, patient means VERY patient, as in possibly months depending on the dry/live ratio used and the quality of the live rock. Going with 100% live rock will be much faster but also more expensive. The live rock is usually the biggest part of the setup cost for a tank of this size.

3) SUBSTRATE...I have some crushed coral in my playsand, is that ok?

No - ditch the playsand if it's made up of silicates. I have never seen aragonite playsand although I have read a few anecdotes over time insisting that it exists and is just rare. Aragonite substrates are better for marine tanks because of the improved pH/KH buffering capacity, with finer grain substrates working better in that regard. The coarser the grain, the more debris will be trapped as well. Crushed coral by itself can turn into a bit of a bristleworm factory if you're not careful.

4) WATER...do I simply buy premixed ready to go saltwater or is there a cheaper way?

You can mix it yourself. To do that you either need really really really really good quality tap water (KH as close to 0 as possible, very low TDS, etc.) or an RO/RODI unit. In many areas the tap is too hard or not trustworthy enough quality-wise over time to be suitable.

5) PROTEIN SKIMMER...Is this a must as they are pretty expensive and Ill do anything I need to avoid getting one

The short answer is no, you don't "need" one. It depends heavily on what you want to keep. I don't use a single serious skimmer on any of my tanks. I have one that is a wooden airstone design, but I wanted it for pretty specialized reasons so I wouldn't recommend you go for one of those if you get a skimmer. If you don't skim, you will have more nutrients in the water, so that means you have to stock more lightly to keep things healthy. I am not big on fish, so that's why I can get away with not skimming. If you want to go heavy on fish, a skimmer is a good idea. BUT...you don't have to get it right at the start even if you know you'll want one eventually. Your tank will be some time in being put together, and it can wait for a bit. Many people get quite a bit of livestock in their tanks before eventually adding a skimmer.

BTW, the marine hobby in general is not cheap unless you go the really bare bones, ramen noodles rout and just keep only a few hardy fish and mostly hardy inverts like crabs and snails. I have done that and I love super-cheap tanks, but many people find them boring/unsatisfying. Even for FOWLR tanks, a lot of people have the image of a lot of fish like is the case in many freshwater tanks - in which case a skimmer is pretty mandatory to support the bioload. If you only want a clownfish pair and maybe a goby or two then you might be alright without a skimmer, but if you want a fully loaded tank of fish then you will be up to your ears in water changes trying to keep up with it skimmer-less.

I should mention that my current tank has been running for a month and is cycled. I plan to use a product that I can add to the tank to help the cycle.

Don't bother with cycling additives for a marine system. The live rock does this for you - that's the whole point of it since it's your biological filter. When you buy the rock in a "live" state, it's been pre-colonized for you.

 

[mrvillicus]

thanks so much 4 the reply, so effectively all I need to buy is argonite sand, live rock and the fish then?

 

[Aquascaper]

You also need to factor in enough salt + RO water (or premixed) to allow for weekly water changes of around 50 litres (25%) if you're running skimmerless and have a lot of fish.

Marine tanks are not only expensive to set up but also have higher maintenance costs than freshwater even if you just stick to fish + live rock.

 

[Donya]

thanks so much 4 the reply, so effectively all I need to buy is argonite sand, live rock and the fish then?

The order is usually rock first, then sand to make sure the rock is sitting directly on the bottom. If the rocks sit on the sand then burrowing animals can cause them to shift suddenly, which can kill anything that burrowed under there and/or cause a rock slide if you stacked them. If you are willing to dig all the sand to the side to carefully place your rocks then you can do rocks after sand. I'll admit I've usually done it that way, but it's more work and bother than if you start with a bare bottom.

So, the order is

- Rock and sand in some order.

- Wait for the minicycle to pass.

- A few cleanup crew inverts, specifically hermit crabs and hardy snails. No fragile inverts. If you haven't done reading about CUC animals, do start. Even most FOWLR tanks have a CUC and aren't quite literally fish-only. It makes the tank much, much easier to manage.

- Wait until waves of diatoms and cyano have passed. Might need to feed the CUC if any of these blooms are stubborn and take a while. Sometimes it's as fast as a week but it took me longer than that when I set up my 55gal.

- First fish...get ready for another bloom of something from the increased waste from feeding.

- Probably more CUC to deal with any increased algal growth from the fish.

- More fish and likely alternating with more CUC to keep things balanced.



Some people literally do a three step thing of rocks/sand then CUC then fish all in one go and sometimes it works...but usually it doesn't and they have to post somewhere wondering why they can't get their algae gone and why stuff is dying all over the place. Slowly but surely wins the race in marine.

BTW, the list above assumes you won't stock a big predator like a moray or puffer that will eat nearly all common CUC animals. Since you said clowns I presume you're going a peaceful community tank sort of rout.


Also: test kits! Forgot to mention those before and don't see them listed elsewhere, but they are another startup cost that can be kind of high when you put them all together. If you have some freshwater kits, some of them might work on saltwater but you need to check each of them. In total you need: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and high range pH to start with. KH is useful to troubleshoot pH problems if you run into it, phosphate kits are useful for troubleshooting algae but you don't need it right at the start unless you are using tap water to mix your own salt, and a TDS meter is needed if you decide to get an RO/RODI unit.

 

[Aquascaper]

The order is usually rock first, then sand to make sure the rock is sitting directly on the bottom. If the rocks sit on the sand then burrowing animals can cause them to shift suddenly, which can kill anything that burrowed under there and/or cause a rock slide if you stacked them. If you are willing to dig all the sand to the side to carefully place your rocks then you can do rocks after sand. I'll admit I've usually done it that way, but it's more work and bother than if you start with a bare bottom.

Unless you use eggcrate or similar, you can put in the base and add sand then rock after