Some Advice Please

[tambo]

Hello people,

As you can see I have just joined, however I have read many topics on your Forum and you seem a helpful bunch.

Recently I have been looking to get set up again, due young children and space I have not had a tank for 5 years.

I had a set up before that consisted of mainly 4 large Discus.

I have bee to my local center in Edinburgh and have found the perfect tank, me thinks.

Fluval Vicenza 180l.

With my TV now on the wall there is a perfect space in my living room for this.

I intended getting discus again but the chap in the shop suggested I try a Marine set up.

Alarm bells ringing I said " are they not to hard to maintain" ? he said not really if you have looked after discus sucsesfully its worth a go.

i would have to change the lighting in the Fluval Vicenza 180l as i believe it is a fresh water light setup.

any starter advice would be very helpfull.


thanks

Tambo

 

[Gremily]

Welcome to the forums!
I can't help you with marine stuff but you might want to post in the marine/reef forums here as it might generate some more responses.
Just wondering which shop you use in/near Edinburgh?

 

[tambo]

Welcome to the forums!
I can't help you with marine stuff but you might want to post in the marine/reef forums here as it might generate some more responses.
Just wondering which shop you use in/near Edinburgh?

Water Wonders Aquatics in gorgie road Edinburgh, the chap John was very helpfull.

 

[3ndl3r]

i would recommend starting a topic in the marine section! lol

 

[loachman]

Your lighting and other requirements will really depend on what you want to keep.

For Fish-only marine tank, it's about the same as a freshwater tank. The fish can handle moderate nitrate levels and don't care too much about the lighting.

Fish with live rock is a bit harder, but not much more difficult. You'd probably want a skimmer, a couple powerheads, and you won't need a filter (live rock=filter). A RO/DI water system is a strongly encouraged. Lighting is a bit more important, since you're growing coralline algae, but the algae aren't too picky. Overall though, it's more expensive (live rock can add up) but not really "hard" if you know how to care for fish.

If you want to go with a full blown reef system with corals and fish, you're talking a high capital investment. You'd likely need improved lighting, and some calcium/magnesium supplements in addition to the live rock setup. You'd also need a refugium for best results and definitely need a RO/DI water system. I'm not sure of any "kit tanks" that have all you'll need for this setup. The invertibrates in a reef system are pretty sensitive (and potentially expensive) so there is much more that can go wrong.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well if you kept Discuss successfully, then a fish only marine tank won't be an overwhelming challenge for you at all . I'd reccomend poking around through the stickies atop this section to get an idea of what's involved. I'd also go ahead and browse around some bigger online retailers like liveaquaria.com and saltwaterfish.com to get an idea of what kinds of livestock are out there and see what strikes your fancy. Then, once you've salivated over the fish and confused yourself with the stickies, come on back and ask some questions of us

 

[1entra]

Yea I agree. We need you to have a read through the pinned threads and come back to us with specific questions so we can try and answer them in order to help you as otherwise there is far to much to cover...

You will need to decide what you what from your marine tank: a fish only system; a fish only with live rock; or a full blown reef tank? Once you have the questions we can try to give you the answers and if not, we can try and point you in the right direction.