My First Marine Tank

[rhiannoncum]

Hi,

I currently own tropical fish and have always wanted to upgrade to marine. I have a spare tank that i'm going to use for marines.
I know the basics but are there any pitfalls to watch out for or any helpful tips i should know about?

I will build it up very gradually as i want a reef aquarium and wont be putting any fish in until after christmas to help establish the tank.

After live rock and base sand has been added, how long should i wait for coral and anemones to go in?

 

[PaulasPets]

It will take some time for the tank to cycle. On some it takes longer than others. What kind of sand do you plan on putting in? I put life-sand in mine, which helped it cycle very fast.

Paula

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and disagree on using live sand. IMO its a marketing gimmick. Live rock is far more biologically dense and will seed live sand within a couple weeks to a month. If you're willing to be patient (and it sounds like you are), save your $$ and just buy plain old aragonite sand. Dont buy play sand or silica sand as it lacks the buffering capacity of aragonite.

The biggest pitfalls to worry about are making sure your powerheads and sump (if you're going to use one) are setup first before you even think about adding water. Make sure your stand is modified the way you want it too. Trust me, the last thing you want to happen is to forget to mount that power strip or circuit breaker, or return pipe and then try and add it AFTER there are multiple hundreds if not thousands of pounds of water in the tank .

Spend some time researching hardware and planning what you're going to want in the tank (livestock wise) ultimately, and setup your hardware right the first time. Saves lots of headaches later on.

So you mentioned you wanted a reef and anemones? How big is this tank, and has it ever had copper medications used on it?

 

[Chac]

Your tank will either cycle or it will not, depending on the amount of die-off from you live rock & how cured it is

If it is fully cured & there is little die off you will not see a cylce & can almost start stocking immediatly (reasearch dependant), but if you do get a cycle you can simply keep testing your water until your NitrItes & Ammonia levels are at 0

Have a read of some of the pinned topics & also some of the posts on page 1 & 2 of Marien Chit-Chat as there have been a lot of new set up recently that will answer some of your questions & will no doubt give you more to ask

As SkiF says Livesand is a bit of a ripoff as your Liverock does more for you Bio-Filtration than sand can

Also tread carefully when it comes to Anemones - they are very delicate & hate powerheads - they require expert care

 

[PaulasPets]

I was not saying use live sand instead of live rock, but instead of just plain sand in addition to the live rock. I had unmeasurable ammounts of ammonia and nitrites after just one day. This because of the live sand and fully curred live rock used.

Paula

 

[SkiFletch]

I agree that it works quickly and well. But if you're willing to wait a week, why not just buy aragonite sand and pay half the price. Guess its a cost-benefit thing

 

[rhiannoncum]

CHAC : Thanks for the advice, can you tell me what you mean by "powerheads"?

 

[PaulasPets]

powerheads are pumps, but not the ones used to pump water tru the filers. These pumps are added to the tank so theres more water flow in your tank.

Paula

 

[Chac]

CHAC : Thanks for the advice, can you tell me what you mean by "powerheads"?

Seio Powerheads

Maxijet Powerheads