Hoping To Get A Marine Tank Soon

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ghostknife

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Right i have been keeping freshwater tropicals for nearly 9 years, and have kept various harder to keep fish successfully, so finally i think it is about time i got a marine tank.

This is my plan.

I am hoping to get a 240L Fluval Roma aquarium, this includes the fluval 305 external filter and a heater, which i will use. I will be swapping the bulbs included for some more beneficial marine and coral bulbs, but i have forgotten the name. Other things i plan to get are a protein skimmer and 2 power heads. I will need a substrate of sand and some live rock.

I also have decided to use a bit less live rock than normal, and then use other rock to fill up the gaps as i am not the richest prson in the world and live rock is expensive!

I am wanting a reef system. but i have a few questions

1) are there any protein skimmer availiable in the UK, which you place in the aquarium cabinet and have pipes going into the tank, as i don't like the hangon ones, and they don't fit in the space in my house?

2) Where should i place the power heads?

3)How much live rock would i need?

Oh and i have an idea for the fish, but i shall talk about that later
 
Hi
Rock can be got a fair bit cheaper than LFS prices! Mine wants between 10 and 13 quid per kilo, but it can often be had from classified ad's and ebay for about £5/kio
Rule for rock is normaly 1lb/gallon of water. Theres 2.2lb in a kilo and 240l is just shy of 53 gallons. So i reckon 22-25k should do you. Dry ocean rock can be used in place of some of this but would take 6 months to look the same and seed off the real stuff.

I have my powerheads in the corners. One quite high up shooting along the back wall. So far its keeping the algae away and makes ther surface quite choppy. The other points round the front of the rocks so it moves round in a circle

For some corals you will need more than the tanks standard lighting so research what corals you want before you buy anything

I have seen people use skimmers in the cabinet with no sump. They where fed and returned by little pumps. No idea on the make of these as mine sits inside my sump.
 
thanks for the reply.

yes my LFS sells live rock for £12 per kilo, but i get discount :) but still 25Kg of that is expensive. so i will definitely mix it with some ocean rock or something. does it matter how i organise the ocean and live, like should the live go on the bottom and ocean on top or the other way around?

thanks for the tips on powerheads. what size powerheads would i be looking at? and what are good makes?

I have seen skimmers like that as well, thats why i asked, but i don't know what make they are. can anyone help?
 
You would need to get one hell of a dicount to match a fiver a kilo that pop up on classified sections on other forums and ebay! just shop around. I got 17 kilos for 80 quid a 20min drive from my house. Id have the LR on top if i was using a mixture. As the colour difference is massive. Live rock is full of life that you want to be able to see.

You want to aim for at least 20x turnover with powerheads so 4800l/hour upwards. So you could get a pair of 2400l or a few smaller ones. Tunze, koralia and vortech seem to be the best makers of porhead and skimmer. TMC skimmers are also decent
 
thanks mate. my boss and his assisstant type person lol, say that they could possible get me trade prices on the live rock which would be like £7 a kilo or something, so i may do that. and yeah thats what i thought, using the other rock underneath.

How much would i be looking at for 2 2400l powerheads?
 
great thanks again, you've been very helpful. just got to get saving now lol.

i have got a plan for fish, but i shall post that up another time lol
 
lol the money bits the worst! The build, plumbing and test filling is all exciting. I put my first fish in my first marine tank today and im well chuffed! Feels like a really big thing compared to my fresh water tanks
 
I honestly do not think you will find a skimmer to do what you want. The closest I can think of is the mini sump set ups from Tunze. For a skimmer to work the skimmer has to be able to let the air drive up and out of the skimmer, for this reason it cannot be a closed unit (such as a canister filter). Having pipes down to an open cylinder would mean in a power cut the tank would drain into the skimmer and overflow.

On the mention of canisters, I would not trust a Fluval external anywhere near any of my tanks, but certainly not near my SW tanks. The reported rate of failure on fora is just too high for my liking, especially as all but one fishkeeper I know in real life that has had a Fluval canister has had it fail and dump water on the floor.
 
ok well thanks for the positive remarks lol :D

ok well after looking at some pics on here of peoples marine setups with the skimmers on the side of the tank, i have decided that it looks ok, so i shall probably just do that.

and i have used fluval externals on my freshwater setups for ages, and have had no problems at all, they are great to work with. however the tetratec is better :)
 

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