So Deciding To Move From Tropical To Marine...

[Ryandsimmons]

Hi all,

I've decided to take the plunge and jump from tropicals to marines. I have a 125l tank at the moment, but looking ahead I think it would be better to ebay it and start afresh rather than convert this tank.

Today I've been running around aquarium shops in south london and am thinking that one of the following is the way to go. From what I gather a soft coral reef will a nice balance between looking good, easy to learn and cost. 200 odd litres is pretty much end of budget.

Firstly I raelly like the AquaReef 200. It has the great advantage of having everything already installed, so less chance of me messing everything up. Looking around I can get one new for £500ish, although my local shop offered me an ex display model, (cracked lid hinges) for £800, including live rock, salt water, refractometer and everything else to get me going. Is that a bargain?

Disadvantage is that it is only 140 litres in tank (60 in sumps) and not the prettiest of views.


Secondly I was struck by the Juwel Trigon 190l. Fits nicely in the corner, stunning views, but at £400 just for the tank, I am probably looking at another £500 for equipment, then drilling, installing etc.

Thirdly the Juwel Vision 260. Again £500 for the tank, then probably £500 for equipment minimum.

Anyone got a sec to advise me sorry? I am very tempted by the Aquareef 200, but am wondering whether to jump in at the deep end and build it all up from scratch? Or do people have another tank in the 200-300l they would recomend and advice on what I need for it?

As I gather it I can expect:

Tank £500
Test Kits £25
Heater £22
Thermometer £4
Light units (probably 2 needed) £50 x 2 = £100
Light bulbs (4) £25x4 = £100
Sand £50
Live Rock (20-30 kilo?) £200-£300
Filter - £100
Skimmer - £100
Powerhead - (2) £45x2 = £90
Refractometer - £30
Water - £60 odd

Thats £1000 on top of tank. Is it really that much? That is £1500 to get started, far above my limit. I am nervous of ebay as well.

This makes the Aquareef 200 very tempting, as I really just need to buy live rock, ro water, refractometer and salt on top. (I think)

My dream is a tank with a coral reef, sea horses and emporer angelfish. But emporeres aparently eat coral, sea horses are huge (too big for a 200l?) so I am really debating which way to go.

 

[Harry1996]

can i recommend a juwel rio 240? maybe?
as for lighting look at iquatics much cheaper.
link http/www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=45&Itemid=53&TreeId=17&redirected=1&Itemid=53
for soft corals 2 lights will be fine and you will also be able to keep lps corals.

 

[Ryandsimmons]

can i recommend a juwel rio 240? maybe?
as for lighting look at iquatics much cheaper.
link http/www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=45&Itemid=53&TreeId=17&redirected=1&Itemid=53
for soft corals 2 lights will be fine and you will also be able to keep lps corals.

I was looking at that actually. A nice cheap tank that looks beautiful. As with the others though I am getting very confused about the cost to convert it to marine. Thanks for the advice of the lighting.

Hi,
I have recently converted from Tropical to Marine (have a look at the link in my sig) If money is really an issue why not keep your current tank? I kept mine and managed the whole conversion spending only £390 only downside (which doesnt bother me) is that I don't have a sump so have a HOB skimmer but apart from that its fine.

When I was looking at converting I was told not to skimp on equipment as it will only cost you more in the long run so maybe keeping your tank and buying better hardware?

Hope that is of some help, probably not though

I too am aiming for a Coral Reef tank with some softies.

Regards
Mike

I was originally planning that, but 120l is a little to small for what I wwant. I am continually looking at my tank going (regarding tropical) I wish I could get an angel fish/ discus whatever. I want a larger tank to give myself some more freedom this time from the start rather than regret it later.

 

[Harry1996]

i have a juwel rio 125 as a reef tank its nice nano. i think if you want to set a reef tank cheaply then look at nano tanks like this http/www.ndaquatics.co.uk/?pg=details&ii=46
or even look at a orca tl 550? but the bigger the better

 

[seffieuk]

Hi all,

Ryan to the salty side of the hobby and TFF

If you read many of the nano journels you will quickly see that many people upgrade within a year, so your thinking behind getting a larger tank is sound However your thinking about second hand and ebay is flawed if you are looking to keep the cost down and this hobby can be so expensive it is a good idea to keep set-up costs down when you can

Dont go for a tank that is already set-up, half the fun is planning and buying all the bits and then planning what you are going to do with it all, dont underestimate this part of journey.

Tank £500 You could get a purpose built tank for that price or go for cheaper and still get a large tank of 200 litres or more, just take a look in the classifieds on this site to see what i mean
Test Kits £25 - good saliferts are going to cost you approx £10 each, you need four to start
Heater £22
Thermometer £4
Light units (probably 2 needed) £50 x 2 = £100 many tanks will have the lights already t5 and then all you need do is update the tubes to keep sofites and lpsLight bulbs (4) £25x4 = £100
Sand £50 - more like £30
Live Rock (20-30 kilo?) £200-£300 Get it from a reefer at approx £5 a kilo
Filter - £100 your live rock is your filter
Skimmer - £100 - second hand deltec for this price
Powerhead - (2) £45x2 = £90
Refractometer - £30
Water - £60 odd phew, thats expensive water

So as you see there are savings to be made

Seffie x

 

[Ryandsimmons]

Hi,
I have recently converted from Tropical to Marine (have a look at the link in my sig) If money is really an issue why not keep your current tank? I kept mine and managed the whole conversion spending only £390 only downside (which doesnt bother me) is that I don't have a sump so have a HOB skimmer but apart from that its fine.

When I was looking at converting I was told not to skimp on equipment as it will only cost you more in the long run so maybe keeping your tank and buying better hardware?

Hope that is of some help, probably not though

I too am aiming for a Coral Reef tank with some softies.

Regards
Mike

Just been reading through your setup thread, is that a Fluval Roma 120 you are using?

 

[Ryandsimmons]

Hi all,

Ryan to the salty side of the hobby and TFF

If you read many of the nano journels you will quickly see that many people upgrade within a year, so your thinking behind getting a larger tank is sound However your thinking about second hand and ebay is flawed if you are looking to keep the cost down and this hobby can be so expensive it is a good idea to keep set-up costs down when you can

Dont go for a tank that is already set-up, half the fun is planning and buying all the bits and then planning what you are going to do with it all, dont underestimate this part of journey.

Tank £500 You could get a purpose built tank for that price or go for cheaper and still get a large tank of 200 litres or more, just take a look in the classifieds on this site to see what i mean
Test Kits £25 - good saliferts are going to cost you approx £10 each, you need four to start
Heater £22
Thermometer £4
Light units (probably 2 needed) £50 x 2 = £100 many tanks will have the lights already t5 and then all you need do is update the tubes to keep sofites and lpsLight bulbs (4) £25x4 = £100
Sand £50 - more like £30
Live Rock (20-30 kilo?) £200-£300 Get it from a reefer at approx £5 a kilo
Filter - £100 your live rock is your filter
Skimmer - £100 - second hand deltec for this price
Powerhead - (2) £45x2 = £90
Refractometer - £30
Water - £60 odd phew, thats expensive water

So as you see there are savings to be made

Seffie x

Cheers.

So I could get a Trigon 190 or Rio 240 for £200 or so from ebay.

That would then put me at...

Tank £200
Tests £44
Heater £22
Thermometer £4
Lights £50 (to replace supplied bulbs)
Sand £30
Live Rock £100 -£250 (depending on luck with shops/ reefers)
Skimmer £100
Powerheads (2) £90
Refractometer £30
Water £40

Total £610 _ Liverock maybe £150

Then again, that AquaReef has it all built in. So tempting!

 

[Harry1996]

the aquareef is a all right deal but it wouldnt be as big as the juwel 240. the bigger the better. i set my juwel rio 125 with £500 (brought every thing new) live rock at my lfs is £9 a KG

 

[Ryandsimmons]

Sorry, a couple of questions over stocking I have.

The AquaReef 200 says 200 litres, but in reality is 140l tank, 60 in sumps etc. If I am looking at stocking does that mean I can look at 200l stocking or 140l?

Stocking I am looking at are:
Live Rock
Soft Corals
A couple of clowns (Dictated by the wife)
Yellow Tang (But that needs 200, so not sure on Aquareef 200)
2 Sea Horses

Edit: An Emporer Angel Fish would also me stunning, but is way out of the size constraints.

I am not sure how much more I could fit. If tis is too much for the Aquareef then almost certainly I'll be going for a Rio 240 or similar.

As far as I can gather these will work, as long as I check coral type is compatible with the tang. Sea horse I know is very delicate and will require a very mature tank, but I am willing to wait. I see there are different sea horse variants, but can only really find one variant on sale which grows to 30 cm. Everyone says you need vertical space, but I can't find out how much is actually required. 40 cm? 50? 80? Or can you get smaller sea horses in the UK?

 

[Harry1996]

i think sea horses need to be in tanks on their own or with other fish like them eg pipe fish

as for a tang some people think tangs need a tank that is about 275L+ but i think its mainly space than litres. you may be able to get a kole tang in a 240 but that might be pushing it. kole tangs get between 15cm-20cm so they do need a lot of space. it would be better to keep more smaller fish than less but bigger fish. big fish produce a lot of waste.
if you want a tang then you will need tank more like 300L like a juwel rio 300 (the new one is 350L) but that would cost a lot to set up.

 

[seffieuk]

AS you rightly said Harry Sea horses require a species specific tank - check out kelwoos thread

Even the smallest tang requires 75 gallons.

When thinking about volume in a tank you can only count the display tank for stocking. If you go for the 140 you will be able to have approx 2 x clowns plus three or four small fish

Seffie x

 

[Ryandsimmons]

Hmm...

Being doing some calculations as I live on the 11th floor of a block of flats. Found this...

According to BS6399-1, 1996 (Loading for buildings) a residential structure should be designed for a distributed load of 1.5kN/m2, and a point load of 1.4kN.

First off I'll assume the 250kg is acting on a single point. The force from that is 250*10=2500N, which is 2.5kN. So the floor can't take that high a load.

If we can have 1.5kN/m2, then for a load of 2.5kN, you would need it to be acting over an area of 2.5/1.5=1.67m2.

So as long as it is acting over an area of 1.67m2, you'll be fine. (NB If it's not got a flat bottom, but say four legs, then you need to check the point load at each leg as well. 2.5/4=0.63kN which is much less than the 1.4kN, so you'll be fine.)

A Juwel Rio 300 has a base of 121 x 51 cm. So will have a weight of 500kg (at a guess for a 350l tank) spread over 6.2m2. The maximum permited would be 500kg spread over 3.3m2 so that should be safe.

A 350l tank would then allow me the tang etc.

/runs back to drawing board to work out equipment costs.
/Does not want to regret later skimping on equipment and dreamily looking at fish he can't keep.

 

[seffieuk]

/runs back to drawing board to work out equipment costs.
/Does not want to regret later skimping on equipment and dreamily looking at fish he can't keep.

So very true....... to save money collect your equipment over time whilst researching - its great fun looking for THAT bargain

Seffie x

 

[Harry1996]

a 350L tank would be 350kg full + 35kg of live rock + the sand + cabinet so i would say between 450kg - 480kg

 

[Ryandsimmons]

Lest question for now sorry.

I am assuming that with Marines it is an absolute killer to move from a smaller tank to a larger? ie it would be insane to convert my 125 and expect to be able to transfer it all to a 300 litre tank later?