want info before starting

[Gannet]

hi there all this is my first post yay lol,

so what do i know so far?

well i work part time at a pet shop and look after 60tanks of fresh water cold and tropical, i have a bearded dragon and look after a friends dragon too.

but i want to get a marine tank so what size tanks, filters, etc. and fish,

im flatting so can't have a huge tank, but want to get something going,

im asking questions now well in advance before buying anything to make sure i do it proply.

thanks

[suphew]

There are so many areas you need to know about it's best if you just read read read for a while then ask specific questions for the stuff you don't understand. The first thing you will need to decide is what you are planning to keep. The options are basically, fish only, fish and soft corals, fish and hard corals, or all three, (and no fish I guess).

Just about everythink you need in terms of setup changes depending on what you plan on having. As an example if you only keep fish then lighting doesnt really matter other than to be able to see the fish, if you plan on keeping hard corals then you will likely need metal halide lights which can run to big $$$.

Most normally recommend a 4 foot or larger tank to start with, it is important that water parameters are very stable to be successful and this is hard to do in a smaller tank. A basic setup will have live rock which is actually dead coral with bacteria living in it, this acts as a filter, converting nitrates to nitogen gas, and some other things. A skimmer. and the usual lights, heaters, pumps, etc.

[wasp]

There are a lot of different theories / methods and the hardest part for a newbie is sorting it all out.

Here's what I think for a basic set up. Others will suggest other ideas and they may also be "right" because there is always more than one way.

When converting from fresh water some equipment you can use and some not so good to use.

A basic marine set up is like this. don't mess with anything less than a 3 foot tank. Smaller can be done but it's hard. 4 foot up is best. The filtration is done by bacteria that live in "liverock". Liverock is rock made from old coral skeleton and is porous. You should have somewhere around a kilogram of liverock to each 8 litres of water in the tank. The liverock is in fact dry and dead when you buy it at the LFS, but becomes "live" when after a few weeks in the tank it gets a bunch of bacteria living in it that eat the waste products from the fish.

So one way to set up a tank is to put a thin layer of sand in the bottom. Put in the correct amount of rock, then fill with seawater. The seawater will need to have 10% freshwater added as our water is saltier then the ideal level.

Then you need all this water to be moving, both to assist liverock filtration, and because most marine organisms need it to be moving. So you add a few pumps, enough to pump the entire volume of the tank ten times per hour (10 x times flow) This is the minimum, 20x or more is better.

Then you need a marine grade light, most of the corals we keep are photosynthetic and need correct light. 1 watt of light per litre of water is a rough guide to the amount of light you need, but this may vary (upwards mostly) depending on what you are keeping.

Don't use your old cannisters for biological filtration, leave that to the liverock. Cannisters and such do aerobic filtration only and do not supply the anearobic filtration important in a marine tank. Cannisters can be useful for using carbon, or phosphate removing resin though.

The other thing you need is a protein skimmer. A good one is expensive, but the success of your tank will to quite a degree hinge on how good your protein skimming is. A good one will last you for life, get a needlewheel one they are the best.

As I said you will hear other contradictory ideas and they will likely also work. I've just suggested one way to get a basic system going.

Glad to hear you've done a lot of reading, that's the big thing, there's a lot of learning to do.

Good Luck!

[suphew]

haha bet you to it wasp!

[Gannet]

looks like im going to have to wait to get one as im still flating and they wont let me put a 4ft tank in the main living area, i already have 2 4ft x 2 ft x 2ft tanks for lizards in my room

[Pegasus]

Please guys.. This is the "Marine Section"

If you want to discuss anything else.. please use the other forums.

Bill.

Mod.

Off Topic Posts Removed.

[Duke]

Sorry Duke.. but your post is straight out sales pitch to sell your goods.. so it has to be removed.

Sent the interested party a PM.. or use the trading areas.

Bill.

Mod.