Setting Up A Basic Marine Tank

[Bigpig]

Right my friend is looking a basic marine tank no coral.

All he has atm is a glass tank.

He wants to keep a few marine fish

The tank is 120L 32USG
Measurements is 36x12x17

He is building stand and lighting hood how much lighting will the tank need?

What equipment will he need?

Heater
what type of filter? will a freshwater external do? Does it need to be modified?
Salt?
Coral sand?
Live rock?
RO water?

I tried reading the stickies but there just to much info to process lol

any help and we would be grateful

 

[FlameHawk]

The tank will not need special lighting if it is fish only, actinics with any white light look nice to view fish under though.
Any heater for that size tank is fine.
I am pretty low tech, I use a simple canister filter and it works great I wouldnt do without it.
I like Instant Ocean salt, i am sure you will get other opinions.
You will find what they call "live sand", its wet in bags i dont know if it is really live but thats what I used. 2-3 inches is sufficient.
You want # of gallons equaling pounds of live rock [idk what that is in metric] and make sure you plan time for die off before buying fish because some of the live things on the rock will not live through the transporting, will die and will create ammonia. This is actually how you cycle a saltwater tank if there is indeed enough die off, just test the parameters to see.
RO water is pretty important if you dont want to be scrubbing for algae all the time, especially if the water in the area is gross.

As I said, I am low tech about things and have been successful for 3 years so I am sure you will find varied opinions on everything but this hobby is 1/2 reasearch and 1/2 maintenance so find what works for you.

 

[Bigpig]

Right so a basic setup really is basic. I got lost in the world of info on this site such as slumps and skimmers ect

whats the best way to go about geting RO water?

Thanks

 

[FlameHawk]

A skimmer is also REALLY good to have it keeps water in good condition. A sump is for growing macroalgae or copepods or adding volume to the water space. I would buy an RO machine they are relatively easy to set up [although expensive] and are not too expensive to maintain, just buying new cartridges.

 

[SkiFletch]

whats the best way to go about geting RO water?

Buy an RO unit . RO Man, or Osmotics are good online retailers of them in your neck of the woods.