New Set Up

[thai]

I have kept freshwater for a number of years and currently got 4 tanks.
I would like to convert my 180 litre juwel tank to marine.
Can someone give me step by step instructions to achieve this, inc lighting, filtration etc.
I've read heaps but get conflicting reports of how to do this.

 

[Navarre]

Welcome to teh Marine section of TFF.

I started witha Juwel Vision 180 and it was a delightful tank for startig with.
If you dont want corals thenthe current lighting in the tank will suffice but if you want corals then you will need to look into stronger lights. at the very least you will need to place more tubes under the hood but prefferably you needs T5 lights or evenMetal halides.

As for filtration you only need to consider 1 thing... Liverock.. For a 40 gallon system you will need about 20kg-30kg of liverock. This will give you the aquascaping you need to make the fish feel secure and develope territories and also the filtration to deal with fish waste.

Next is flow, you will need a high flow rate for a tank like this soi recomend a minimum of 10x tank volume in turnover per hour.. perferably 20x or even 30x volume.

Skimmer. I really recomend the Deltec MCE 600 skimmer for this size of tank. Its powerful and very efficient for this size of system.

 

[thai]

Thank you for this advice.
I only want to have live rock and fish.

I'm going to have heaps of questions, i'm afraid.
Do i run the filter that i have in the juwel tank? Or do i take it out altogether?
Can i run this along with something else?
I do have my lfs to go to for advice as well, but i like to gather as much info as i can.

What would be the best substrate to use?

I want to be able to just keep the lights i have now but as bulbs blow i will replace with better ones.

Stocking...i don't want anything to flash, just some hardy fish.
What are the best for beginners to saltwater and what stocking level for this sized tank?
Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Do i run the filter that i have in the juwel tank? Or do i take it out altogether?

Either take it out or gut it of its man-made media and put some smaller pieces of LR in there. Dont have small peices? Break out that hammer

I do have my lfs to go to for advice as well, but i like to gather as much info as i can.

Be careful in taking advice from your LFS. Not all stores, owners, and employees are created equally. Some are more concerned with making a profit than giving you good advice. Some are well-meaning but don't have any first-hand experience with what they're trying to give advice on and may still lead you wrong. For the most part, people on forums such as this have no outside agenda's and do have experience with their suggestions. I still question things learned here and elsewhere, but much less than I do what some of my LFS' say, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the difficult world of marine.

What would be the best substrate to use?

Aragonite based sand. Gotta have aragonite for the buffering capacity. It saves you from your own mistakes early on.

I want to be able to just keep the lights i have now but as bulbs blow i will replace with better ones.

For fish only, thats just fine like Navarre said

What are the best for beginners to saltwater and what stocking level for this sized tank?

Clownfish. Seriously. They're hardy, have great personalities, eat just about anything and are pretty compatible with most other non-predators that you could add to your tank, and they will interact with you on a regular basis. Ocellaris or Percula are the common first-choice but some people prefer skunks or other breeds (i have two ocellaris myself). Firefish or scissortail gobies are pretty good beginner fish as well. Pygmy angels are also pretty non-demanding. Whatever you do, stay away from the damsels. Despite the fact that nuclear winter usually wont kill them, they are EXTREMELY aggressive fish and WILL bully other tankmates. Just not worth it IMO.

 

[Navarre]

Good advice given above. Regarding the internal filter of hte Juwel Its really up to you, you can of course remove it and this gives you more room in hte tank or of course you could keep it and use this for smaller liverock. Its also a great location for when you want to use things like activated carbon etc. I kept mine in the tank and also used some of hte spnges to polish the water at the same time.

 

[thai]

Right, ok, this is getting good, sound advice. Thank you. Straight talking


Now, for the order of how to do it all.

Do i HAVE to use RO water. I have read that some people do just use their tap water. My tap water runs a ph of about 8 i think and also has quite high nitrates.

I am meticulous about cleaning my tanks. I do water changes weekly, so the extra work that some say exists with a marine shouldn't be an issue to me

 

[Navarre]

OK hre comes the good news.. Marine tanks dont need the high cleaning that a freshwater tank does (we have more efficient filters than freshwater).

And the bad news... RO water is a high priority to be honest. Whilst you can get away with tap water, the long term problems of hair algae, high nitrates and nutirents let alone the risk of introducing copper into your tank is a risk not worth taking. Get yourself an RO unit or if this is not ossible then get some from your LFS.

Cleaning/changing the water in your tank every week might do more harm than good to your marine tan. Salt tanks need stability, the more stable you can keep this the better you will do in this hobby. If you constantly change water each week then you might find that the water simply never has enough time to reach a stable chemical composition and this is not good for your tank. I recomend a water change every 4 - 6 weeks as this gives the system a chance to use up the trace eliments in the salt.

Creatures in your tank will slowly drain your salt of vital eliments for their own health, if you keep changing this water too much then you are simply not utilising the water to its best effectiveness.

COnsidering that the liverock can change nitrates to harmless Nitrogen gas, there is no need for constant water changes like you have to do with freshwater systems because their nitrates continue to clime out of control. Whilst its possible for nitrates to escalate in a marine tank there are remidies to counter this.

 

[SkiFletch]

I have to agree with the master here . There is no substitute for solute-free RO water in a marine setup. Using tapwater is like jumping into a lion cage at the zoo with steaks wrapped around each of your arms, just askin for trouble .

 

[thai]

So to set the tank up i need to get 180 litres of water home from the shop

 

[Chac]

So to set the tank up i need to get 180 litres of water home from the shop

You can pick up RO Units quiet cheap

It is just a complete PITA waiting for you LFS to produce the RO

 

[BWBettas]

How cheap is cheap? lol ill try and find out if both of my LFS do RO water... i know my good marine LFS has a big water butt at the back of the shop full of water and ive seen marine aquarists go in and get soem, but i've never asked how much it was per gallon or so. If its the same prices as in the US should be around £0.15 per gallon or a bit more... if thats the case ill use that instead of using bottled water and around 50p a gallon

Bret

 

[Chac]

How cheap is cheap? lol ill try and find out if both of my LFS do RO water... i know my good marine LFS has a big water butt at the back of the shop full of water and ive seen marine aquarists go in and get soem, but i've never asked how much it was per gallon or so. If its the same prices as in the US should be around £0.15 per gallon or a bit more... if thats the case ill use that instead of using bottled water and around 50p a gallon

Bret

My LFS used to charge me 4.00 per 5 Gallon, which if you work out the initial fill then TOP Up & Water changes, you would be cheaper & safer getting a RO Unit in the long run

I picked my 50gpd 3 Stage unit up for 40.00 (used)

BW - Bottles Water -? WHY

 

[N1z]

i used to go to the shop with a 25 litre container and well it was roughly £4 for water but then it was a bit of a drive for just some water. Hence why now im getting RO unit too lol its so much easier and cheaper. im buying a brand new osmotics 50 gallon a day 3 stage for 55 quid but have to add on 7 quid delivery which is really good i think!

 

[BWBettas]

Oo ill check em out.. any discount for being a TFF member

Bret

 

[@ombomb]

any discount for being a TFF member tongue2.gif

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