Converting From Tropical To Marine Nano Reef Using A Rekord 96

[James42a]

Hey i am looking to convert my rekord 96 from tropical to a nano reef. I am going to use an Arcadia 4 tube T5 luminare for the lighting and around 10kg live rock. The tanks capacity is about 23 uk gallons. I was just wondering what words of advice anyone has and also how much live sand will i need, what is the opninion on a skimmer, a rough estimation of costs. I have read through the pinned articles and read up on the fish i want to keep - Percula Clowns a young pair. i would like some corals also. Would anyone recommend another external filter aswell as the live rock or just live rock? Also will i need to use a larger poerhead and keep the juwel one for extra circulation or should i just remove the whole juwel filter? I appreciate that i still have more reading to do but any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[nanocubeking]

Hi and ! Welcome to the marine side!!! Im not very formiliar with a "rekord 96". What is the wattage of the Luminares you will be using? That should be more than enough live rock for the tank. How big of a sand bed do you want; as well as what are the dimesions of your tank?(that will help get a better Idea of how much sand you will need) I personally dont think that if you keep a pair of Percs. in a 23 gallon tank then a skimmer will be nessecarry but if you go over four small fish in that tank then I would get a skimmer. But Im not one that really tries to use as much Hi-tech stuff so I dont run a skimmer and therefore couldn't recommend a skimmer for you. What do you mean by external filter. LIke a hob filter or a sump/wetdry filter? 30 to 40 times turn over rate should do just fine it the tank you have or plan on buying. I hope this helps out some.
-Miles

 

[James42a]

Hi and ! Welcome to the marine side!!! Im not very formiliar with a "rekord 96". What is the wattage of the Luminares you will be using? That should be more than enough live rock for the tank. How big of a sand bed do you want; as well as what are the dimesions of your tank?(that will help get a better Idea of how much sand you will need) I personally dont think that if you keep a pair of Percs. in a 23 gallon tank then a skimmer will be nessecarry but if you go over four small fish in that tank then I would get a skimmer. But Im not one that really tries to use as much Hi-tech stuff so I dont run a skimmer and therefore couldn't recommend a skimmer for you. What do you mean by external filter. LIke a hob filter or a sump/wetdry filter? 30 to 40 times turn over rate should do just fine it the tank you have or plan on buying. I hope this helps out some.
-Miles

The dimensions of the tank are 81cm x 38cm x 26cm. The sand bed i would like to be ideally 1 1/2 - 2 inches deep and the wattage of the luminares is 4 x 24w. I ideally would just have the 2 clonws so im steering more toward no skimmer. by external filter i meant like a tropical external one. i am just going to use live rock though. its just a question of fine tuning my plans reading up a bit more and saving money!

 

[Crazy fishes]

You will never find a cheap way to do marine, it is expensive. However even though I say that I still try to save money and do things cheaply but never can LOL! If you like externals you could put additives like Rowaphos etc in there and maybe a purigen bag as well as any other media you thought you might like to try. I would advocate that 5 more kg live rock won't hurt if any thing it would certainly help. Have you thought of a refugium to help keep the organics in check?? Just an idea because the external filter could be used to return water to the tank and the internal filter could be converted into an overflow box. I think your measurements of the tank are wrong since I have a rekord 96 (currently a puffer tank) and they are certainly deeper than 26 cm. In which case you consider stronger lighting, like a metal halide 150W 14 000K. The tank is, if I remember correctly, 2 and a half feet long so a metal halide what give better penpetration to the bottom of the tank and you would only require a single lighting unit. There would be a quarter of a foot either side which are slightly shaded. On the issue of 'doing things cheaply' this is one area where you can!!! I know its brilliant finally a cheaper option in the world of marines. If you get one of those ordinary halide units like are used for sign lighting or by builders and change the bulb to an aquarium bulb you have a ready to run MH unit. Remeber to match wattage and connection eg double ended socket in the unit to a double ended bulb.

Hope this helps

Regards