Help with Options for new Reef aquarium

Hi Everyone, I had Freshwater aquarium for about 5 years earlier. Now I'm planing to get Jewel Rio 400 as I heard it is good quality. Also by the spec. I can see that it is only suited for freshwater.
So do I need a lot to convert it or is it better to buy a reef ready aquarium from the beginning?

My idea was to get Rio 400 and add:
- 2 extra light tubes or replace existing ones. ( if I understand correctly it comes with 2 x 54W ) I hope it is possible to pick the right tubes.
- EXTERNAL FILTER 2227 Eheim Professional Breathing Filter - Aquaria up to 77gal/350l as internal one probably will not do the job
- PUMP HLP 4040 - 4200I/hr
- around 35kg of live rock
- not sure about the skimmer if needed
- also not sure about the sump... even the price is unknown to me
and all that excluding skimmer and sump as I don't know prices is around 1400euro.
well will be more than that in the end.
Please advice what is better option.
I have a bit limited budget but would like a reef or even would consider fish with live rock for a while if it is easy to convert to reef later.
Thanks

If i was starting from scratch i would buy a plain glass tank drilled to accommodate fitting a sump.
If you cant find a drilled tank a glass shop will drill it for you.
The sump would be your filter and a place to hide all the equipment like skimmer,heaters etc.
So you would not need the Eheim filter.
A good T5 over tank laminar would be a good choice of lighting to start with.
Pumps for circulation. A couple of small pumps are better than one big one.
FOWLR fish only with live rock would be a good way to start. This will give you time to consider corals later on if you wish to add them.
The amount of liverock depends on the size or volume of water the tank holds.
A good fish shop will let you know how much you need or just post a question here.
P.M. sent

Hope this helps. Darren

I understand what you are sayng, but buying the glass on it's own will be the same price as buying aquarium with all the setup together made by jewel. there you get only few things that will be handy for marine, but hood with heater will be useful for marine too.
What do you think about that? I will loose warranty by drilling the tank weather I buy it from Jewel or from custom made guy... oh yes there will be some sort of a pump too in the kit with Jewel there too.
well I compared it again today:
120 x 60 x 60 cm 430l for 433euro in Northern Ireland
Rio 400 151 x 51 x 62, light 150cm 2 x 36W, heater 300W, pump 1000l/h for 586euro in NI
well 150 euro difference. a lot of extras for that and german quality.
Please tell me your opinion.
Thanks

try pricing around, Aquapaws in Barna do great prices on setups, as do fins and things in Midelton, dont know prices in Fin Antics but check them out and also they have the knowledge to help you out and carry great marine stock as well. Check out www.buysell.ie there was a few under searches for aquariums and fish... might be in your budget and generally are full setups

theres more than one way to skin a cat.
a sump is a definate big plus, no question about it. the benifits are huge. hide skimmer/heater etc, larger overall volume of water, helps keep temp down.

you wont need the eheim, in fact this would prob be a nitrate factory. best thing you can do is read up on the different options of filtration and take it from there.

i have a rio 240 with 30kg of live rock which is the only bio filtration i have. its a FOWLR. no sump, i just replaced the tubes.
more detailed here www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...w/id,17962/catid,20/

I think that the rio 400 is a good bit deeper so im not sure there would be enough light with two tubes (i think they come with t5s as standard now).

also its gonna cost a packet so better to invest in the right tank/set up from the start instead of wishing you did it later.

get reading to help you decide what you are going to do about sumps/skimmers/filtration etc. If you do get a juwel take the filter box out...trust me it will really bug you!

a few powerheads is much better than one.

good luck with the project
fran

€433 seems expensive for a bare glass tank. Although i could be wrong. I dont really know the prices of tanks. Try pricing a clearseal tank in stead of a custom tank.
Correct the warranty would be void if you drill it. But what can really go wrong with a glass tank? It is only glass and silicone.
To add a sump you could also use an overflow weir instead of drilling the tank. But these can be pricey. Or you could have the sump over the tank using a pump externally to feed the sump and gravity feed back to the tank.

I have only ever come across one tank that wasnt sealed properly and that was made by Eheim.
With the jewel you get a hood with 2 36w tubes. This limits you to a verry small selection of corals. This will need to be up graded to at least 4 x 36w T5 for a wider selection of corals. Thats if you want to add corals at a later stage.
If you up grade the lighting within the hood you run the risk of over heating the tank. Light tubes produce quite a bit of heat. I have sent a PM to another user here that has a jewel marine tank to see what lighting he uses and if he has issues with the heat. I will let you know when he gets back to me.
You could use the pump and heater but the reports ive heard about the jewel heaters is not verry good and it would be wise to change this anyway. Jaguar by Eheim would be better.

These are just some of the pros and cons for you to think about and i am not just trying to put you off the jewel. This is just how i would do it.

If you get the tank set up right from the start you wont wast money later changing bits or upgrading.

Darren.

Here is the reply i got from the guy using the juwel tank. I asked his permission to post it here.

\"just two t8 tubes in the hood. for the whole winter its been at a steady 24.5-25C but in the summer it was a bit higher 27 i think even with the heater plugged out. i kinda blame the heat on all the pumps\".

Lads, thanks for the advices.
I had a look at clearseal aquariums, but they don't do them in sizes of 300 or 400liters.
Jewel aquariums are all I could find for reasonable money.
have you seen anything close to this.
lets say I would consider having aquarium made up... not every table would hold half a tone weight. where to get the stand then? or the same Rio 400 aquarium stand can be bought separately?
Thanks lad and please share the info if anyone knows where to get aquarium only then.
P.S. and I will use a sump 100%
Thanks