Thinking Of Moving Into Marines

[Guinness]

I have a 70 gallon freshwater tank, that I have now moved the inhabitants into 5 other tanks.

Now looking to change the 70G to a marine tank, but to be honest, even after reading lots of books & the internet, I am a bit stumped.

Seems every book I read, gives different info. Lots of chat about live rock, sumps, skimmers, RO etc, but unlike freshwater tanks, there seems to be no real advice as to how to set a tank up.

I am in no hurry as to stock this tank, & as yet I haven't moved to Marine as I can't work out if for example why I don't need a filter. For freshwater that would be a must, but some say that filters are detrimental, but can't say why?

Live rocks seem to be the thing- once again why ??

Perhaps it might be a secret thing- to keep marines to themselves as they are so beautiful!!

Can't anyone here give me a guide ? Money not a problem,but my local FS is tropical only .

An idiots guide would be good. As a minimum to set up, what will I need. Not in any hurry for any fish- that will be another post- just to make sure that the set up will be condusive to a healthy tank.

Have moved this from a side topic, as all help will be very much appreciated.

 

[kj23502]

Hi, I've been reading a ton and asking ?'s on here about it too. I'm planning on switching to SW as well. I can help a tid bit. Live rock also grows the bacteria on it that processes nitrate as well (from what I've gathered). In a marine environment, nitrate is really bad esp for inverts/corals. That's why a lot of people use a sump and put extra live rock in it. Regular filters are nitrate builders.

Have you read these?

Starting a marine tank is especially helpful

 

[jeasko]

hi and to the salty side
you need to decide first, which type of setup are you looking for
FO-Fish Only
FOWLR-Fish Only With Live Rock
REEF-the full works LR Fish and Corals

As this will determin how you want to set up your system, FOWLR doesnt necessarily require a filter as LR is a natural filtration sytem and is probably better than anything you can add, that said it never hurts to add filters and skimmers as the more filtration you have the better your chances of removing toxins/waste should anything go wrong

it would be worth looking at the stickys at the beginning of this section [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Marine-a...A-Marine-Tank-/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Marine-a...A-Marine-Tank-/[/URL]
as most of what you are looking for will be on there, and yes it does get a bit confusing to start with but over time it does get easier and more understandable

once you have decided what you want to set up and have read the relevant topics here feel free to ask more questions as everyone here will be more than happy to answer questions

 

[SkiFletch]

Agree with Jeasko, one should first decide what kind of setup they want as the livestock chosen dictates the hardware choices. I'd just like to add a suggestion that you go look through a major livestock supplier like liveaquaria.com to get an idea of what strikes your fancy, then we'll go from there