Hi,

I'm going to set up a marine tank in the near future, I've got the tank, pumps, filter, skimmer, lights, etc.

I've read its good to put artic blue lights on 30-60mins before and after the white light to replicate dawn and dusk, does anybody do this? Does it benefit the coral?

Also hows a good idea to form a reef stand to sit live rocks on? what can I make it out of?

Is an undergravel filter a good idea?

I've got a 30L tank with heater and basic tropical filter system, could I use this as a hospital/qaurrantine tank??

My filter is a Jebo 819, its got several different media, what order should they go in?

Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

O and aparantly I should only use RO filtered water, is there any alternatives??

Cheers

hey. i use pvc tube cut to diff hights to lift my rock up a bit or just sit on bottom of tank.. you can use DI resion to fillter water but RO is lot cheaper in the long run. i use both together. i can get you an RO unit for around 300..

i think i'll just be going for a basic household filter + DI because the flatmates would go ape if I was using RODI.

I've read its good to put artic blue lights on 30-60mins before and after the white light to replicate dawn and dusk, does anybody do this? Does it benefit the coral?

Lots of people do, and im sure lots don't. I like the look of the dusk/dawn thing.

Also hows a good idea to form a reef stand to sit live rocks on? what can I make it out of?

Yes, its good to keep as much of the rock of the bottom as you can to allow water to flow thru.

You can use, cut pieces of pipe, bar mesh stools, egg crate (light difusers) or and undergravel filter plate. You could also drill holes and insert acrylic rods what ever you like really.

Is an undergravel filter a good idea?

NO

I've got a 30L tank with heater and basic tropical filter system, could I use this as a hospital/qaurrantine tank??

Sure

My filter is a Jebo 819, its got several different media, what order should they go in?

Don't bother even using it

O and aparantly I should only use RO filtered water, is there any alternatives??

Cheers

Di, cheaper than Ro

What's Di?? Can I purify the water the tropical way, adding chemicals?

This cannister filter business is turning out to be more of a problem than I first thought. The tank I bought had been running for two years with the cannister filter, are you sure I shouldn't use it?

Cheers

deionizing. another form of water filtration

This cannister filter business is turning out to be more of a problem than I first thought. The tank I bought had been running for two years with the cannister filter, are you sure I shouldn't use it?

No need to have a canister filter, long term they collect dirt and it breaks down to pollute the tank.

All you need is some rock and a good protein skimmer.

When setting up the tank put the rock in first and then add the sand only to the front of the tank.

here is some info on di / ro

http://fins.actwin.com/reefkeepers/reefkeeper1.html

What's Di?? Can I purify the water the tropical way, adding chemicals?

Cheers

Not a good plan. The big problem for marine aquaria is phosphate. This is not removed by the dechlorinators used for FW tanks.

Short term things will seem OK, but once the phosphate gets concentrated the tank will suffer problems.

Sweet, thanks. This forum thing is great.

I've also been told not to have any gravel, or at minimum a bare cover, because it keeps white spot and diseases??

BTW, the cannister need not be a problem.

Don't use one, no problem!

RO&DI is different from Tropical (Freshwater), because the chemicals you are adding to your freshwater water is removing the chloride, etc... RO and DI remove silicates, phosphates etc, which are not as big a problem in Freshwater tanks, as you are not trying to replicate such a low-nutrient environment. Phosphates and Silicates cause algae(and lots of it) in a marine tank.

Cannister filters are not the best to run, if only want soft corals it will be acceptable but anything else and you will run into troubles. the problem with cannister filters is they convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates, but do not remove the nitrates so this leads to a favorable environment for algae.

I have blue lights on 1/2 hour before my halides come on/go off, to try to ease the stress on the fish from the quick change in brightness. I also looks cool in the evenings as alot of SPS and LPS have fascinating colors under the blue light.

the problem with cannister filters is they convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates, but do not remove the nitrates so this leads to a favorable environment for algae

Not to sure about that, any filter will convert ammonia to nitrate,

The problem with canister filters is that dirt gets trapped and breaks down thus adding organics to the aquarium.

Its a bit like the the myth that bio balls are nitrate factors.

Ok,

I'm going to start off with just soft corals. What about invertebrates? Like anemone's etc, do they need anything special?

i know its alot of lighting for anemones and clams. check out the search feature for the rest. bound to bring some useful info up

anemones need lots and lots of special stuff- Low nitrates, lots of light etc...

cleaner shrimp are good though.

for more info on anemone read here:

http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

i think i'll just be going for a basic household filter + DI because the flatmates would go ape if I was using RODI.

water is so cheap in NZ that its cheaper to run RO unit. DI wont last very long as our water is very hard so you will rip through it very quickly.. i have done tests on our water etc and came up with RO/DI been the best an cheapst way in the long run..