Thinking Of Going Back To Marine

[black molly3]

hi. I recently got a job at my LFS and was pondering around at all the tanks as i wanted an upgrade for my tropical. however i came across that river reef interpet and thought marine again. however it has almost been 2 years since i have kept marine fish so my knowledge will need some polishing up. i just hope you guys can help me on that. if i am not mistaken ph should be around 8.0-8.2 erm saltinaty 0.124ish. tanks take alot longer to cycle. now the thing i cant remember is how much live rock to have in the tank. it is about 94 liters the tank i want so how much live rock should i put in. also i probably wont make the same mistake as last time and get fish what are hard to keep so i will probably stick with clownfish and shrimp mabee a wrasse if i could. but as i said i cant realy remember most things so i was hoping you could help me out. has anyone got one of these tanks as a reef. if so are they any good.
thanks

 

[Truck]

salinity should be around 8.2-8.3 and SG at 1.024-1.026

go over to ultrareef, alot of members have these tanks, you will need approx 10kg of LR.

and for cycling, transport the rock to the tank and arrange, then monitor water stats for a few weeks, once youve had an ammonia spike then a nitrite spike then a small spike of nitrates perform a large water change and test 12 hours later if nitrates are below 10ppm youre ready for CUC

 

[rabbut]

pH does want to be between 8.0 and 8.3. The salinity wants and SG reading of anywhere between 1.023 and 1.028. I run mine at arround 1.025, and most on here go arround 1.024 You want about 1KG of Live Rock per 10l of water, so 9.4KG for a 94l tank Add to this enough water pumps to push 2000lph of flow and you are done for the essentials. A skimmer is recomended and lights are good if you want to view the fish

All the best and HTH
Rabbut

 

[black molly3]

yes lights are good it has 2 t5s and a blue moonlight one for the night. is a skimmer essensial i dont realy want to be wedging out huge sums of money if it is not 100% neccaceror. thanks for the replies

 

[Truck]

a skimmer is recommended but is not mandatory, people find that nitrates and phosphates creep up on them without a skimmer as the DOC's are left in the water. for a tank of that size a £50 TMC v2 120 would be better than nothing with a bigger one being better

 

[black molly3]

i have just been looking on ebay and found this. what is it. is it any use. is it a proper protein skimmer.
thanks
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Protein-Skimmer-Filt...A1%7C240%3A1318

 

[Truck]

i have just been looking on ebay and found this. what is it. is it any use. is it a proper protein skimmer.
thanks
[URL="http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Protein-Skimmer-Filt...A1%7C240%3A1318"]http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Protein-Skimmer-Filt...A1%7C240%3A1318[/URL]

i had one of those running on my old fowlr, it did the job but one of these would be better

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/TMC-V2-Nano-Skimmer-...alenotsupported

 

[black molly3]

thanks for the info i think i am going to get it on tuesdayish and then get rid of my tropical tank and its inhabitants .
what is the flow like in the river reefs. would i need another pump. if so can anyone sugest any good cheep ones.
thanks

 

[Truck]

i would add a koralia 1 @£24.95 ish from charter aquatics. that should be enough with the stock pump, but if you feel you need more flow you could add another

 

[black molly3]

yeh i like the look of that. what is the lph on the pumps installed in the tanks just for guidelines. i think i will be getting the tank tomorrow.

 

[Truck]

i dont know, i would go on ultimate reef and search for members with the tank

 

[black molly3]

if i get my tank tommorrow i will set it up put the salt in it etch and coral sand but could i put the live rock in aswel or would i have to wait. thanks

 

[Truck]

if i get my tank tommorrow i will set it up put the salt in it etch and coral sand but could i put the live rock in aswel or would i have to wait. thanks

are you planning corals?
if so do this:
fill with RO water fix power heads in (all of them) get it up to temp (25oC) and switch power heads on. add enough salt to take it up to about 1,020 SG (measure with a refractometer) make sure all salt has dissolved then slowly bring it up to 1.024 sg. then buy live rock once everything is right, then position it and then add sand

if your not planning corals, do the above but with tap water albeit RO will be better

 

[black molly3]

ok thanks. so can i set the tank up put salt in get saltiny right then put my coral sand in then if on the same day the saltiny is stable then could i add live rock.
thanks for all your help by the way

 

[Truck]

you need to add water and get it up to temp first, because waters SG changes as it changes temp. so get the temp to 25oC then add salt. i would put the rock in before the sand, because the sand will give the rock extra stabiliy preventing rock falls, and it should stop burrowers from being able to burrow if theres no sand under the rock.