Considering a marine set up, need advice

Hi guys

Loving my tropical at up, and she has kind of come around to the idea of another tank, so I'm considering a marine set up to go alongside my tropical, I have not done marine before so don't have a clue, can anyone tell me if its much harder? A lot more equipment needed? Size of tank required? My tropical is a 240litre so ideally i would want to go smaller than that, What about maintainance? Any advice would be recommended

Thanks

Hi mcquaid,

There's a lot of stuff going around that marine is so much harder than the like of tropical fish but I really disagree. I had African cichlids before I changed. I have a 180litre thank and to be honest I wish I got a bigger tank but if you see a tank you like just go with it.. You'll definitely need good lighting if you plan on keeping corals.. I have an aquabeam 600 ultra blue led'sg paid 100 euro for them but I wouldn't be without them now. You'll need a good external filter, a wavemaker, again good lights, a good heater and a skimmer which is optional.. From experience.. Get one! And a good one.

Do some research on what type of fish u wanna keep because if u plan on keepin corals there's a lot of very nice fish u CAN'T keep with them.

In regards to maintenance I personally don't think there's much to it now I have a 180 litre tank having said that I wouldn't say there is that much water with the rock and sand etc.. But I basically do a 25 litre water change every weekend.. I buy my water from seahorse aquariums and its 8 euro for 25litres... Its worth buying it because if you want to mix it yourself.. Just don't haha. Personally with your sand I would but a small coating on the bottom.. Some people pile it in but all it does is hold crap!

Hope this helps u out a bit if u want to know anythin else ill try help u...

Oh and it will cost u a fair bit and patience is very important with marine!

Cheers colly

Cheers Colly, your dead right, i had just heard they are harder!!

So it seems straight forward enough, what is this 'sump' i read about when i search google?

The type of fish i want to keep are the EXTREMELY colourful ones, not mad on the coral idea, maybe some but im not gonna decide on a fish just because it suits coral, the coral can be forgotten about if you know what i mean

is buying the water necessary? or can i treat my tap water? i don't have a problem with buying the water but just out of interest

Thanks again

And also, with regards to what tank i can use, i would really fancy one of the below, or at least something along the lines of that, something nice and modern that will look the biz with some colorful fish in it, what do you reckon? is 46litres too small? how many fish could i fit in that without fear of overstocking?

www.seahorseaquariums.com/Fluval-Edge-46L-LED-Black//6289

If your not pushed on corals you'll be ok then but to be honest the smaller the tank the harder it is.... If u think about it a spike in like ammonia or something would have a greater effect on the water in a 45litre tank than a 180 or so tank because its just a bigger space to spread it over if u get me? But in theory with marine the smaller tank harder to maintain. Also if u want really bright colorful fish in that size tank your limitem because alot of the really colorful fish are like angel fish which grow quite big.. Now you could Maybe get some dwarf angel's but again with a really small tank you wont fit many in.

You could do it yourself but again if your adding in all sorts of chemicals in my opinion your askin for problems... And also a sump is good because it does all your filtering underneath the tank.. So your skimmer etc will be underneath rather than having it inside the tank.. I might be wrong but I think its mainly bigger tanks that come with sumps might be wrong tho

Colly

you can't use tap water in a marine tank, either buy r/o water and mix in the salt yourself or buy it mixed, both can be bought in lfs.
a setup without corals is a fowlr tank and i would recommend that setup to beginners with a view to later venture into corals. a fowlr tank requires little maimtenance compared to a reef tank which requires more of an effort to keep conditions for corals. lighting is also not nessicarily needed for a fowlr tank. as far as i know though some fish could need (although not essential) a suitable coral but if you pay seahorse a visit.
i've seen people using small tanks without external filtration that get good results but i wouldn't personally go for the edge, its not designed for marine, and there are alot better choices in small tanks. a sump would not be needed on a tank that size but if you went for a larger tank thats not designed for a sump you could use an 'overflow box' to flow the water down into a sump below it and a return pump back to the tank again.

I'm not convinced that the Fluval Edge is a good marine system.....it lacks the option for flexibility as well.

Keeping marine water in good condition is not hard if you put the effort in to making sure good fish-keeping techniques are followed.
Where things get awkward is when the good fish keeping techniques are ignore and things get run-down and you end up trying to recover failed system (by this that or the other, including adding this and that).

However, where there does need some skill is in the method of acclimatising new fish and the selection of appropriate fish.
Fish that are awkward feeders, especially those requiring a nice mature set-up, are best avoided until a bit of experience is gained (and with that, there comes having a hard-neck to cope with a fish going down-hill slowly as it simply refuses to eat).

There are, though, a good few varieties of fish out there that are good starter fish.

ian

igmillichip wrote:

I'm not convinced that the Fluval Edge is a good marine system.....it lacks the option for flexibility as well.

Keeping marine water in good condition is not hard if you put the effort in to making sure good fish-keeping techniques are followed.
Where things get awkward is when the good fish keeping techniques are ignore and things get run-down and you end up trying to recover failed system (by this that or the other, including adding this and that).

However, where there does need some skill is in the method of acclimatising new fish and the selection of appropriate fish.
Fish that are awkward feeders, especially those requiring a nice mature set-up, are best avoided until a bit of experience is gained (and with that, there comes having a hard-neck to cope with a fish going down-hill slowly as it simply refuses to eat).

There are, though, a good few varieties of fish out there that are good starter fish.

ian

+1 on the fluval comment, i dont really think theyre nicely designed for the rigors of marine fish keeping especially if you are thinking of corals and the likes.

if youve successfully kept tropical fish before i think you should have very little issues crossing over into the boundaries of the marine world. like the other lads said its not elusive nor is it rocket science. if you want to go fish only its pretty simple and probably more so than keeping a nice planted tank. a few things to bear in mind initially are the notions of having to monitor and adjust salinity when doing a water change and keeping your water quality that bit tighter as marines are a bit less forgiving than freshwater fish. they dont tend to handle fluctuations to kindly but generally there are some extremely hardy specimens that make great beginner fish. one thing i will say is once you do your basic husbandry properly theres not a whole lot which will go wrong. stick to the fundamentals of stocking correctly, feeding right amounts and performing routine water changes.

fist thing you wanna look at is what do you want to keep? fish only, fish with liverock, small soft coral reef? maybe the prospect of lps corals down the line? buy your equipment to keep up with your progress. if you think you wanna keep nice corals when you get a little more acquainted to the marine world then buy a tank or purchase a unit that will throw out adequate light for your proposed livestock. no point in realizing youl have to make serious upgrades down the line and will have to spend more money. if you just wanna keep some fish with some rockwork though you can make some equipment savings.

personally i love the look of a reef tank, its a little more expensive to set up but much more enjoyable to look at. there loads of little nano reef tanks on the market that are basically plug in and play models. most of which around the 100ltr mark, i think red sea does a 130 ltr cube too. then if you wanna get a bigger tank i know betta do a 180 litter 'life space' that comes with a sump, halide unit and stand/cabinet. it was my first serious marine tank after a highly modified reckord 800 lol and i couldnt fault it for what i paid. all these tanks will come ready suited to look after a vast array of soft corals, suitable reef friendly inverts and fish and will be more than adaptable to look after some more demanding livestock when you feel your ready. one addition i would add would be a protein skimmer and there are plenty of nano and hang on the back skimmers that will do the job. although not entirely necessary if you want to be doing more regular water changes they do pull a lot of gunk out of the tank and keep the water free from organics and suspended waste matter.

try to get the biggest tank you can afford, larger volumes of water fluctuate less and fluctuation is bad. at a push id say 4 small fish would be your max in an average 100 litre set up. keep an eye on your nitrate count. fish like grammas/pseudochromis, firefish, oscilaris clowns, cardinals, gobies, blennies (not madnarins or scooter blennies), dwarf angel at a push would be what your looking at in anything less than a 100 litre.

setting up is a simple as adding sand (about .5 to 1' is fine, bare in mind some fish like to burrow, there is advantages and disadvatges to having a deep sandbed or shallow one, some reekers use no sand :0), salt water and live rock and leaving it to cycle just like a freshwater tank. personally i would add a clean up crew consisting of hermits and snails after the tank has fully cycled, then maybe a few soft hardy corals and finally once the tank has settled into holding your clean up crew and corals adding a few fish providing your water parameters are in check. from there its really just a case of doing your standard husbandry and being vigilant. take your time no need to rush adding fish and inverts. good things happen slowly in a reef and bad things happen fast! the more research you do the more prepered and undaunted youl be! its surprisingly easy really. hope ive been of some assistance, there are plenty of saltwater specialist shops around that can help you out when your ready to take the plunge