Aqua Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 Hey guys, thought I should ask the 'salties' this question! I went to Hollywoods in Albany over the weekend, and they had an AR-510 set up as a marine tank... The guy I spoke to said it was pretty easy to do, but my main question is would the filtration in the tank be enough for a marine tank, or should I be looking at fitting a sump to it for a protein skimmer etc...?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 The guy I spoke to said it was pretty easy to do interesting... did hey say it was suitable for a marine begineer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perky Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 i used to keep maine in an ar510. I ahve upgraded to a bigger tank and have just sold it. it is a really good tank perky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 depends if you go fish only or reef tank I would imagine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 what was the volume perky? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perky Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 i think it was 20g Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Posted March 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 yeah, they hold 69L or thereabouts... I told him that I had one, and it was setup as a freshwater tropical.. He said it was easy to convert. I would *love* to do this, but I'm worried about price more than anything! And I think I'd like to do reef, with maybe one fish.. A few shrimp, anenomes, stars, corals etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perky Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 all you need to do is change the filter media, get coral rock, get some sand and then get an 18" blue light bulb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 Suggest you have a read of some more posts in this forum. A setup like this is only really suitable for fish, and maybe some mushies. Every thing else requires more light and better, more stable water quality than you can be provided with this setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 One of the local stores down here has one set up as a marine (actually it was the next size of tank down). Originally they has a single reef fish in it and have now switched it to seahorses. It is not at all clear that this lot know how to do marine stuff properly though. Certainly no corals or anemones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 by the time you have invested in everything required to "do" one fish.. A few shrimp, anenomes, stars, corals etc.... why make it hard on your self with such a small tank? make your life easy - go large on the Tank itself...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Posted March 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 I'm only allowed the one tank... The other half refuses to allow me any more tanks! And reading Pies' post where he's spent almost as much money as I earn in a year on his marine, my jaw dropped! I think I'll stay with freshwater until such time as I'm either earning stupidly large amounts of money, or I'm living in my own house, not renting... Still, the AR-510 as a marine looked very pretty! And yeah, it had some mushies, and a little blue fish with a yellow tail... I really should've taken a pic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 I would caution against that type of tank. Anything is easy if you know what you are doing. Long term you will be very frustrated, tank to small, lighting not good enough, no room for a skimmer. 69 litres is not a lot of water. 3-4 small fish would be a lot. I would suggest buying a bigger tank, 3ft is a good starting size and can always become a sump tank later on. You can gradually build up your filtration buy adding powerheads etc, slowly increase the amount of rocks and fish. If the budget is tight you can start with basic lighting and add the flash stuff later. $$$ and research now will save you many times more in $$$ and livestock. The AR tanks are fantastic for freshwater but I do not believe they are suitable for keeping corals long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben19185074 Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 or you can do what i did to my AR620~~ throw away the standard lighting and filter. Replace them with eheim wet/dry cansiter filter, rea sea prizm hang on skimmer, and T5 (HO) lighting~~ ....all the AR620 left is the tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 And reading Pies' post where he's spent almost as much money as I earn in a year on his marine, my jaw dropped! I think I'll stay with freshwater until such time as I'm either earning stupidly large amounts of money, or I'm living in my own house, not renting... I wish I was earning stupid amounts of money too In all fairness, and as an observation, most of the people I have met with nice marine tanks own their own houses. Moving a marine tank sucks (I know), which is unavoidable when your renting. It would be hard to reccomend someone start a tank without owning their own home, and thats without getting into the whole money thing... It is an expensive hobby, money doesn't garantee success either but it does take more than just good intentions, sometime you just need to buy the kit. I don't want to come accross as snobby but its hard to get by without spending thousands and many of us have spent 10s of thousands. There are a few here who have done it on a budget and may be able to offer some advice. There is more good 2nd hand/cheap china-copy gear around than ever before. But pumps, rock, lights and stock always cost money. And believe me, there is always some else to buy... pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 so true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Posted March 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 Thanks for that Pies I hope I didn't offend you, I was just trying to prove a point, and you'd helped prove it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 heheh I would love to see a post that did offend pies Great technology will not by itself compensate for lack of experience.... Great experience will mitigate poor technology..... For outstanding results I believe experience + technology are necessary. Funny how hard people find it to sell 2nd hand a complete setup for say $2-3000, when it cost way more to setup, but many think they can start with $1000 of new kit and add as they go..... From a purely financial point of view... why invest 10k into a tank if you do not own your own home????? rich dad, poor dad stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 Yeah you'll have to work a lot harder to offend me. Its a hobby and people spend money on them. If someone they spent 30k on a car no-one would take notice. Whatever spins your wheels Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted March 22, 2005 Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 I was going to start my tank in a house I was renting, but that was more because I was planning on buying the house from my land lord. Luckely I didn't as the move to Napier was hard enough with my freshwater tank setups I think it would have been almost impossable with marine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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