hi, a while ago i brought a biorb with the marine conversion kit and we were all ready to set up when i went to my local aquarium shop and the owner told us we couldnt use the tap water and salt they sent with it only his water. He has shut down since and we went to a new aquarium shop (have tropical fish as well) and they say you can Which is correct i would have thought biorb wouldnt tell u anything that wouldnt work has any1 done this and were you successful? or any1 know anything about this?
thankyou
Marine tanks require Reverse Osmosis water and good quality salt. So if by his water he meant RO water then yes you need this and not tap water(which contains far to many trace elements). Running a marine tank is a little bit more effort than running a tropical tank and is conciderably more expensive. Running a marine tank is also something that requires a great deal of patience.
I'm only a complete noob when it come to marine but a couple of things you will definetly need are
1. Source of RO water, either from LFS or a reverse osmosis unit you attach to tap.
2. Good quality reef salt. Not all salt is equal but difference between high end brands is negligible.
3. Hydrometer or refractometer to measure the salinity of water.
4. Salt water test kit for Ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and high level ph.
5. Enough live rock to filter your water at about 1lb per gallon
Once you have all these things you need to setup the aquarium and mix the salt water in it. Then once the salt water has settled and the salinity is correct add live rock. Then once the live rock has cured and cycled 1week-2months you can add a fish. Then once tank has settle and you start getting coraline algea you can concider adding corals 6months+
Not trying to discourage you just give you an idea of what your getting into. This is the absolute minimum you need as far as i can tell to run a marine tank. there are plenty of other things a lot of people use. Protien skimmer, test kits for calcium + others,refugiums, sumps, powerheads for flow, filter products to remove phosphates the list goes on.
