Trigon 190 as marine

[chew-able]

Hi all

I have a pair of trigon 190's at eather end of the living room. Both were tropical tanks one community and one discus/angel. I've managed to slowly empty the community tank.

Having been keeping tropicals for about 15 years I'd like to start on my first marine tank and since I have this empty trigon and it matches my other tank I'd like convert it. I'm thinking of going for a FOWLR for now with a little cleaning crew etc. I've been doing my home work but I still have a few questions.

1) is the compact H filter fitted in the tank upto the job of basic filtration (obviously adding a skimmer and the live sand/rock)?

2) What skimmer would be suitable? Hang-on's are probably out due to the fixed lid.

3) The light system is pretty much built in and will house 2 tubes easily sufficient for any tropical tank but would this be enough for the marines? Or do I need to come up with some masterplan to mod it?


All suggestions/comments greatfully recieved.

Chew

 

[SoilGuru]

Typically salt water tanks require a little more light then fresh water. If you want to do a Reef tank then you definitly need more light then fresh water (3-4 watts per gallon). But with basic salt water I've had success with 2.5-3 watts per gallon, compact flor. with 50% actinic blue.

I'm also not too sure as to the specs of your filter (i guess i'm just not familar with this kind of tank) for me to comment on if it is enough for basic filtration.

Whats best for larger tanks (over 40 gallons) is to have a sump filtration system below the tank with live rock, the skimmer, biological filter, etc. Is this the kind of filtration the system already has (minus the skimmer?).

 

[chew-able]

The filter is a large internal box holding about 5 stages of filtration. The first is a filter floss, followed by course sponge to get rid of large bits clogging the rest up. Following is an active carbon layer and a nitrate removal layer. To prevent too fast a flow over the biological section of the filter, some of the flow is diverter out over the heater and out into the tank. The rest slowly passes through the biological section. Haven't realy got an idea about it's flowrate.

Although this isn't gonna be as good as a sump, will it do the general job out just cleaning large particals and let the live rock and skimmer do the rest?

Tank is quite deep too (about 2.5 feet) so I was kinda expecting to have to upgrade the flourecents.


Chew

 

[Max]

well if your doing a fowlr then you dont really need better light...

 

[Eob13681]

Hi there I have the same tank and have just put my live rock in this week!!

I am using the same filteration, with a hang on red sea prizm skimmer, just cut the lid to fit round it, looks reall neat actually, If you want a pic to see this before making any cuts let me know.

I have also upgraded the tubes to 2x TriPlus and a Blue moon but I will add another at a later date aswell.

I have put in 2x 402 powerheads for water movment and it really is quite good.

I was already keeping Malawi Cichlids so I was already using coral sand, but I have added live sand to this when adding my live rock.

If you need anything else just shout!! (not that im a pro just yet but its a well steep learning curve!!

Heres a wee pic of what its like so far.

 

[Navarre]

Its definatelky possible to use a Trigon (or any Juwel make) for a reef/marine tank.
Many people ask whether its better to remove the internal filter for more space or leave it in. Basically its not much use as a pure filter as its whoafully inadequate (imo). However, this filter is great for adding things like carbon, rowaphos and fine sponges etc for small particle removal. It also really helps to add flow in a tank with its powerhear (which so, so important in a reef setup).

Now we come to the lighting (which is the bane for Juwel setups). Juwels arent designed for marines, they are a freshwater tank (and a fine one at that). In their shortsightedness, Juwel didnt design the hood very well for additional lights. Its possible to add more lights under the hood but its more trouble than its worth when you think that a skimmer needs to be added as well and this will mean more alterations to the hood.
I removed my hood completely and used an overhead T5 setup. The problem now of course is that my Juwel has straight sides but the trigon doesnt. There are ways around this and if you want to find out alternatives then PM me and i might be able to direct you to people that could help.

If removing the hood is not an option then its possible to place perhaps 1 extra tube u nder the hood (not sure of the measurements so i really dont know on this one). If you follow the rule of thumb that you need as much light as you can cram under the hood then you will probably be ok for soft corals.

Now, a skimmer. I used to use a smimmer onmy Juwel but stopped when i went to a complete natural system. The skimmmer i used (and still have) is a Prizm. Not the best Skimmer in the world by far but its a hang=on which was vital for me when i was in the market for buying. It also under skims rather than overskims and that suited me because i was feeding live Phytoplankton (which would have been removed by a more efficient skimmer). By adding this skimmer to the trigon means more alterations to the hood. Its simple enough to cut the hood out to accomodate the prizm though. Should you decide to remove the hood and have more powerful loights then you have more options as to what you might want to use instead. remember to add as much live rock as possible in the tank. 1kg per 2 gallons is usually considered the minimum. lots of water flow, again, 10x volume in litres is considered minimum. (trigon 190 would need 1900 ltres per hour turn over as a start!)

Good luck with your project, hope you take the plunge!

 

[chew-able]

Cheers guys you've definately given me some things to think about.

I think I'm going to keep the standard filter in and run it just for water turnover and also for basic machanical filtration and carbon etc (also adding a couple of pumps for more turnover). I'm probably goning to add a skimmer and am leaning to one of the hang-on type. Although I have heard they can be noisy........comments on this would be good!

To server as the rest of the filtration I'm goning to pile in as much live sand and rock as I can get away with (whilst still looking good). Hopefully with lowish stocking levels this setup should be ok. If anyone disagrees I'd be greatful for advice.

Stock at first will likely be old faithful fish (eg. a pair of clowns, royal grammer, etc) and a cleaner crew. Although I'd like to keep some of the easier/hardier inverts sometime in the future when I've got a bit more experiance.

As several people have said the Trigon 190 is very limited in lighting. The standard kit can hold 2x 18w 24" flourencents and in my freshwater trigon I have managed to squeeze an extra 24" towards the back that I use a moon bulb in for night viewing. From what I've read for marine this is still not enough light especially since the trigons are quite deep tanks (a little over 2' I think).

I initially thought about pulling the light unit appart to just get the stip that the flaps attach to and then attaching some halides under it instead but I assume the heat from them this close to the water would be a bad idea!?

I'd preffer not to rip the whole lid off the tank as it does offer a lot of protection agains chipping the rim of the glass as well as adding to the amazing look of these tanks. I would however be prepaired to discard the light unit and flaps inorder to fit something else. As for what exactly I am at a loose end!

All help is greatful recieved

Chew

 

[Navarre]

Looks like you have a well thought out plan there!
I think you have everything in order and its the way i would progress if i had your tank.

Lighting...

Its possible to remove the hood and leave the plastic rim around the glass on a Juwel trigon isnt it? If not then i will go to my lfs and rip theirs apart to find out (accomodating lot at my fish shop ) I have a JUwel vision and the flaps/lid comes right off leaving the plastic rim around the top of the tank.

If you remove this then you can use pendant halides over the tank and this will really bring the tank to life!
The problem with lighting units like overtank luminairs is the strange shape of the tank. It is difficult to "bolt" onot the sides of the tank. Although if this is the avenue you want to follow then PM me and i will try and direct you somewhere that might help.

I would not put halides under the lid of th etank as the heat will be very high. Ihave a 400w halide over my 100 gallon setup. The temperature is a stable 82 degrees and i dont have a heater in my tank! This tank has no hood at all, the water is totally exposed. So you can see that halides really can build up the temperature but in my opinion htey are well worth it.

 

[chew-able]

Cheers you've been a great help!

It is possible to pull the bar housing the lighting unit and the 2 flaps completely off. This leaves the rim as well as 2 kind of corner pieces where the bow front meets the two flat back pieces. I'm not even sure I understand that myself but I hope you do.

It kind of looks as if these bits also are seperate and maybe snap in bits of plastic but I'm reluctant to start 'snapping them out' incase I break it all completely. It's not the end of the world if they won't come out but it would mean the halides were hitting all the surface and not leaving 2 dark corners.

Just a thought but how much light does live rock need to look good? If not too much I could run it with lid inplace and just fish until the budget can extend to a pendant and I've convinced the misses that "the big silver thing hanging from the cieling" is a neccessary expense!


Chew

 

[Navarre]

Glad to help!
The flaps/lids can come free from the hood, if you open these lids and then pull upwards they should slot out.
This should leave the lighting bar across the tank? (this is purely from memory asi dont have the same make) The lighting bar should just lift off the tank leaving the top exposed.

As for how much light you need...
Well if you just stat with fish and live rock then your current lighting will suffice quite nicely. I would suggest you purchase a more suitable set of tubes for your tank as freshwater tubes will be likely to promote algea.