Would this tank work as marine???

[rvm]

I have recently aquired a free tank. I was going to use it as another tropical, but seeing as how I have always wanted to go marine, I thought maybe it would work. Anyway, it is 1 1/2ft square, and 2 feet high. That makes it 36 gallons, but like I said bizzare shape.
Would it be any good for a marine tank, and if so, what would go well in it. Any and all suggestions would be welcome since I'm a salty virgin!!!!!

 

[Navarre]

An odd shape but certainly gives alot of prospect for aquascaping

It depends what type of marine tank you wish to keep. If its fish only then a couple of clowns, royalgramma, perhaps a dwarf angel (coral beauty or flame angel etc).

If you want a reefsetup then the depth of the tank becomes an issue. 2ft deep is quite a deep tank and conventional lights will not be able tp punch down the right amount of light to feed your corals at lower depths. Iwould recomend a single 150-250w halide over the tank. This will carry the power to punch the light down deep enough for corals to live.

Sounds like a nice tank though. FYI this tank size has the follwing dimensions. 127ltrs/28 gallons. 127 Kilos/280lbs in weight

 

[rvm]

I'd like to have some corals etc. but you gotta love those marine fish!!! so that is where I'd like to use the space. It's only an idea at the moment, gotta do a lot of research into what equipment I need yet, but I think it's the way I'll go with it!!
The tank is actually 18 1/2 inches square so that is probably where the difference came up, I only said 1 1/2 feet for ease of typing (lazy git!!) but you are using imperial gallons aren't you? so that is about right!!
Thanks for the reply

 

[Navarre]

There is no reason why you cannot keep fish and corals together. They look stunning when both workds meet, (fish and inverts).

As for equipment.

Liverock. Very important as its goingto be the main filtration for your tank. If you are from the UK then i will use Imperial gallons (thats what im used to). 1kg of live rock for every 2 gallons of volume. So for a 30 gallon tank you will need a minimum of 15 kgs of live rock. You should then work towards 1kg per gallon but this can be done gradually.

The next thing to consider is a protien skimmer. There are many on the market but the hang on ones are popular and dont take up valuable space inside the tank.

Powerheads. You need a high turnover per hour for a reef tank. 10x volume per hour. For example. My larger tank is 450 ltrs so a minimum of 4500 ltrs per hour turnover is encouraged for the wellbeing of corals etc. Corals and fish are used to far more turbulant waters than most people realise.

With these 3 things sorted out.. the last thing to consider is Lighting. Marine lighting is quite technical as it depends what type of things you wish to keep. The depth of your tank will most likely need a metal halide light to give the corals the energy they need to survive. If you went for T5s or T8 tubes then its cheaper than halides but i would only advise placing corals in the higher portions of the tank.

Hope this helps.

 

[rvm]

Thats brilliant. I have one question though, you say that the live rock provides the main filtration, but do I need a standard filter as well?? Also, is the powerhead just to circulate the water?

 

[Navarre]

TO be honest there are many many ways to effectively filter a marine tank. However, the best method is Live rock (this can of course be supported by other means).

Liverock is the only single filter that can completly finish the Nitrogen cycle. Most filters can only go as far as Nitrate, Live rock can turn nitrate to harmless Nitrogen.

You can use a cannister filter if you like alongside the liverock. This has advantages of being able to hold spnges for mechanical filtration, you can also use products like carbon and Rowaphos in these very effectively.

There are other ways of filtration, however, you are going to need to aquascape your tank with rock, live rock is the natural thing to use, so it does 2 thigs.. looks great and filters the tank!

Powerheads are purely for circulation. Corals need a good flow over them to help release musuc that gorws from tme. If this isnt done then they can suffocate themselves.

 

[Great Lakes]

The only downfall to a tank that size is your stocking levels.

You will only be able to get about 6 inches of fish after being well established

GL

 

[rvm]

Thats fine. I just wanted to get a start in Marines. I'm going to get a 120g tank next year when I move house, and I'll shift my tropicals into that and turn my 55g into another "proper" marine tank!!

 

[Great Lakes]

Want to bet???

I bet if we give you a successful year in marines, you will be eyeing the 120 differently..

GL

 

[Navarre]

Great Lakes is right

Once you have an established marine setup it will really take you over. If you have a spare 120 gallon sitting idle then you will just sit there wondering to yourself..
"If i had the left hand side filled with Acros, a nice shoal of Anthias, the right side with some soft mushrooms and polyps, coupleof tangs perhaps.. "

Your imagination will run wild! because you will have a smaller tank and therewill be things you desperately want in this tank that just wont fit.. your wilpower will be sorely tested

 

[rvm]

I know that feeling already. I only got into tropicals less than a year ago, and when I first started I got a nice community tankas I thought that was the easiest way to go. Then I got into Cichlids, and I now have 3 tanks with various different fish, and still not got half the fish I'd like!!!!!
Oh well, there's always the lottery!!!!

 

[Guilio]

Just a side comment, ive always wanted a blue or yellow tang but I think they need 40 or so US gallons.

 

[Great Lakes]

Yellows aren't so bad, but the blues, definitely.

 

[Navarre]

Just a side comment, ive always wanted a blue or yellow tang  but I think they need 40 or so US gallons

Just did the calculations. This equates to 33.3 UK Gallons. (Imperial Gallons)

NO tang will thank you for a tank of this size.

Tangs are open reef swimmers. they have swimming ranges that are litterally miles long Many people say that tangs are whitespot magnets.. perhaps this is true but whitespot usually comes through stress.. stress usually comes because the fish is not happy with smoething in the tank. With a tang this is usually the amount of swimming space it has. tangs in small tanks seem to continually get whitespot and thus endanger tank wipeouts.

I dont recomend a tang in anything under 75 Imp gallons (90 US gallons)
Even larger for the larger sizes of tangs like Clown tangs, Sohal tangs etc.