Tropical To Marine

[richchappy]

Well i have a fluval duo 8000 (125l) tank set up a tropical fresh water at the moment, and i was wondering would it be feisable to change it to marine, if so what equiptment would i need to buy, and has anyone got any more tips or anything that may help,
im a marine Noob tbh but i think i know my stuff on tropical

Rich

 

[Danno]

Equipment all depends on what kind of marine tank you would want. There are three catagories:
FO = Fish only
FOWLR = Fish only with live rock
Reef = FOWLR + Corals

Which one did you want to set up?

 

[richchappy]

reef if possible

otherwise FOWLR if it cuts costs CONSIDERABLY

 

[Danno]

Well you would need powerheads, themometer, heater, filter (run with a phosphate remover IMO), live rock, agronite sand, marine salt, a source of RO or distilled water and test kits

If you want a reef you would have to purchase calcium and kh test kits along with lighting. Corals are expensive and lighting is too. How long is your tank?

 

[richchappy]

80cms

could you give me a rough idea of price etc or what size filters power heads i will need so i can proce it up, on a pretty tight buget so will need to save up

 

[Danno]

Lighting
Powerheads 2 of the 1200s
Live rock is about 8.50 per pound. You need about 40 pounds of live rock. That is over 300 dollars in live rock.

It ain't cheap....

What is your budget? You can always go FO.

 

[richchappy]

well not really planned it yet but want to price it up and see if i can afford it, it will take a while to save up but deffinatly want to give it a go if i can afford,
With FO, is it just a plane tank, can you have any corals or LR in there

 

[Danno]

Well if you add live rock to a FO then it is FOWLR.....a reef needs live rock.

FO is basically a freshwater tank with a SG of 1.023 or so. Just make sure you do AT LEAST a 20% water change each week. Water changes are very important.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, FO's are actually pretty easy to keep, not much more difficult than freshwater TBH. Once you get the salinity measuring down its all the same principles... I'd get at least one piece of LR to help seed some bacteria and grow your filter much faster, but otherwise the same proccesses as in freshwater cycling can be used. If you want, you can slowly add LR as you go and gradually wean your system off man-made mechanical filtration to ultimately go for a reef. You of course need to choose proper fish if you want to go reef eventually as some will eat corals/inverts, but if you make your choices properly it can be done

 

[boshank23]

check out for local reefers breaking down their tanks for cheap rock

 

[kkyyllee]

8.50/lb...thats really expensive liverock, its usually around 3-5$/lb

 

[Danno]

8.50/lb...thats really expensive liverock, its usually around 3-5$/lb

8.50 is the good stuff though. I just currently found it and I will absolutely dish out the goods for it. The better the rock the better the tank's aethetics.

 

[richchappy]

Yeah, FO's are actually pretty easy to keep, not much more difficult than freshwater TBH. Once you get the salinity measuring down its all the same principles... I'd get at least one piece of LR to help seed some bacteria and grow your filter much faster, but otherwise the same proccesses as in freshwater cycling can be used. If you want, you can slowly add LR as you go and gradually wean your system off man-made mechanical filtration to ultimately go for a reef. You of course need to choose proper fish if you want to go reef eventually as some will eat corals/inverts, but if you make your choices properly it can be done

so could i use the filter i already have i use for the FW or would i need a new one, or just different media, this sounds like a good option to start FO and then gradually add LR, what kind of substrate would be best in a FO

 

[kkyyllee]

you could use the filter but it would need to be cleaned and have new media, id say go with sand, you could do crushed coral but youd have to siphon it durring water changes or else poop and stuff wiull build up

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, I'd just buy some new bio medias for the filter. You CAN clean the old ones, but it might be time to just pick up a few new sets . I too would use aragonite sand as a substrate. Much more convenient longterm.