Brand New Rio 180 Setup

[ful56_uk]

hi all,

i ma really new to this and brought a rio 180 that was on offer really cheap.

i want to keep clown fish and maybe a couple of others which i havent chosen on as of yet.

i need major help, what else do i need apart a from a lot of time.

this is what i think i need but i need help on what to buy and any other item i migth require.

I got the tank!
do i need a new heater because they heat may not be good enought? if so what one
Filter do i need a new filter becuase the one that it comes with is not good enought if so what one
i think i need coral sand is that right?
UV light? or will the light comes with it be ok?
live rock
coral? do i need this
plants what about these?
salt mix?
how do i go about cleaning the tank at mo it is empty what can i clean it with?

anything else i need for this?

any help would be excellent as that i have no clue and people i have asked already are useless

thanks for any advice

mark

 

[N1z]

hey, well u win the award for most questions lol! nahs its all cool.
right nice tank for start.

I hate to sound rude but you have done freshwater for a while before marine?
But ill still answer your querys.

To wash it out just use hot water and ive it a good scrubb, 9 times out of 10 it looks all smeary when nothing in them but that clears once filled with water.

You wont want coral sand as it doesnt look as nice but also if you use argonite sand it give better levels of calcuim, ph and bacteria. you will probs want a 2 inches think.
Get a new heater eg a shatter proof one 200watt u will need and put a protector on it so that if snails was on it they didnt get fried.
The filter u say is it the box filter in the corner or something else? either way dont use it unless u can tell us what it is.
For other things you can use externals where u can put live rock in them but also specialist media eg phosphate remover. or you can build a sump where u can hide protien skimmer and other things.

For water use RO, you can buy it from ur LFS or buy a unit for say 60 pound. make sure u have enough pressure though to run one if u was to buy one. for salt mix u would need roughly 8 kilos but getr like a 10kg box just to be safe. you can the sg level at levels between 1.022 and 1.025 u can test this with a hydrometer.

You dont need a UV light really its a preferance between fish keepers. it kills pathogens and some swimming staged parasites. i have one due to i dont have a quarantine tank.
As for LR i think you would need 20kilos minmum.

Youdont need corals as you can do a fish only with just live rock or you can do reef but it can be harder.

how do u mean clean the tank, as you can put snails and hermits in that make up your clean up crew.

You will also need a protein skimmer to remove organics etc but ill let other help u on that.

And as for lights if uve got the juwel light unit which is t8 u can get away with soft corals or even easier just a fish only as you are only trying to show the fishes colours.

oh oh and last but not least u will need some circulation pumps best for your tank i would say seio pumps which run low wattage for their high output. i would get like a good 20x water amound circulation so atleast 2 m620s.
Hope that helps there are a lot more thinks to chat about but tbh i cant type all night.
Best thing todo is get a big book on marine fish keeping and read lots!

Adam.

 

[ful56_uk]

hey, well u win the award for most questions lol! nahs its all cool.
right nice tank for start.

I hate to sound rude but you have done freshwater for a while before marine?
But ill still answer your querys.

To wash it out just use hot water and ive it a good scrubb, 9 times out of 10 it looks all smeary when nothing in them but that clears once filled with water.

You wont want coral sand as it doesnt look as nice but also if you use argonite sand it give better levels of calcuim, ph and bacteria. you will probs want a 2 inches think.
Get a new heater eg a shatter proof one 200watt u will need and put a protector on it so that if snails was on it they didnt get fried.
The filter u say is it the box filter in the corner or something else? either way dont use it unless u can tell us what it is.
For other things you can use externals where u can put live rock in them but also specialist media eg phosphate remover. or you can build a sump where u can hide protien skimmer and other things.

For water use RO, you can buy it from ur LFS or buy a unit for say 60 pound. make sure u have enough pressure though to run one if u was to buy one. for salt mix u would need roughly 8 kilos but getr like a 10kg box just to be safe. you can the sg level at levels between 1.022 and 1.025 u can test this with a hydrometer.

You dont need a UV light really its a preferance between fish keepers. it kills pathogens and some swimming staged parasites. i have one due to i dont have a quarantine tank.
As for LR i think you would need 20kilos minmum.

Youdont need corals as you can do a fish only with just live rock or you can do reef but it can be harder.

how do u mean clean the tank, as you can put snails and hermits in that make up your clean up crew.

You will also need a protein skimmer to remove organics etc but ill let other help u on that.

And as for lights if uve got the juwel light unit which is t8 u can get away with soft corals or even easier just a fish only as you are only trying to show the fishes colours.

oh oh and last but not least u will need some circulation pumps best for your tank i would say seio pumps which run low wattage for their high output. i would get like a good 20x water amound circulation so atleast 2 m620s.
Hope that helps there are a lot more thinks to chat about but tbh i cant type all night.
Best thing todo is get a big book on marine fish keeping and read lots!

Adam.

cheers for that excellent information i will do some reading also have you got any suggestions on books i could purchase that will help me.

mark

 

[SkiFletch]

For books, get "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner, "Aquarium Corals" by Eric Borneman if you're interested in corals.

Make sure you visit the Marine Startup Sticky over in reef chit chat here too . That'll get you started