Help On Setting Up Marine Tank

[mark28]

Hello

I've had a tropical fish tank for many years and now I would like to buy a marine aquarium.
I've read a lot about it on the Web but because there is so much information out there I am getting a bit confused.

Can anyone please tell me what are the essential things I need for a Marine tank with live rocks?
Tell me if I am wrong but these are the essential things I think should get:
Tank 55 gal..it has to be shallow so light penetrates better
1 power head ( if so which one?)
protein skimmer (if so which one?)
under gravel filter
lights...if i understood well i need 5w for each gallon of water...am i right?If so what light should i buy and how many K (colour temperature)?
test kit

The other question I have is do i need extra space for all these bits for the tank or can everything hidden inside the tank or in the cabinet? I have seen pics of other people's marine tanks with all the equipment and pipes hanging out. Not very nice since the tank has to be placed in living room and my wife will go mad!

thanks M

 

[clareriley]

I have no idea but good luck cant wait to see it

 

[jayjay]

why don't you ask in the marine section??

you'll get better advice.

 

[andywg]

The most essential things will be a heater, the live rock (1kg per 2 gallons) and some form of circulation.

The powerheads that most use for circulation vary greatly in cost (both to purchase and run) as well as their efficiency. You need to look at turning over the entire tank's volume 10 times per hour as a the very bare minimum. You will need to aim for 20x turnover to ensure adequate circulation for the live rock. You also have to spread the flow around so that there are no dead spots. If you end up with an SPS tank then you will find that 40+ turnover rates are not un heard of.

A Protein Skimmer will be extremely useful. There are some different views on what to do depending on the tank's goal:

1) If you want a reef it is believed to be beneficial to "underskim" (that is, get a skimmer rated smaller than your tank) so as to allow more nutrients to stay in the water for the corals.

2) If you want to go FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) which normally ends up with larger, messier fish then overskimming by a factor of 2-3 is recommended (so a skimmer rated for 100 to 150 gallons for a tank your size). Deltec are generally regarded as the best (think like Eheim for filters) but there are other brands around, or you can make your own.

An Undergravel filter is, to all intents and purposes, a dinosaur in the marine aquarium. It will clog up and provide a space for waste to get trapped and become a nitrate factory. Dilligent maintenance of the filter plates can prevent this, but this maintenance will never allow the tank to truly settle, which is one of the most important things for a marine tank to do.

The lights you need depends on the end result as well. Any Watts Per Gallon rule is fairly pointless as it all depends on the type of corals (if any) you want and the depth of the tank. If you only want Fish and LR then you only need normal flourescant lights. If you want polyps and soft corals athen you should be ok with high power flourescants (like T5 HO or Power Compact) and if you want to go for hard corals (such as SPS) then you really have to look at Metal Halides or High Pressure Sodium.

The most ideal colour temp is that of sunlight (around 6,500K) but this tends to be very yellow and as a result people tend to go for higher temperatures, around 10,000-14,000 K.

I would also recommend you invest in a refractometer and do some research into sumps. With a sump you have somewhere to hide most of your gear (and to grow macro-algae).

If you take a trip further south in the forum you will find a whole world of information for you.

HTH

Andy