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[danni21]

Hi all, as u prob guessed im new to this site but in a few weeks (2 in fact!) im moving house. Iam keeping fresh water tropicals at the mo and will be giving the to my grandad ( he has had tropical fish all his life so im leaving them in good hands!) but im keeping my tank and want to try my hand at keping marine fish.First of all tho i want all the info i can get because they seem hard work compared to keeping tropicals. I have a tank which is 40 gallons. It has a built in filter and heater,uv light and light in the hood. Would i be able to use this tank? or would i need a new one or new bits (like filter, light?) any help would be appriciated as i am keen to learn about keeping them in my new home.
Thanks
Danni x x

 

[Salt Freak]

you can keep that tank and filter a couple of things that you will need to get it started is sea salt i like instant ocean, a hydrometer to measure the salt level in the water,and coral substrate or something along those lines.

 

[Navarre]

You current fittings seem ok and could be used if cleaned out thouroughly. 1 Question, has the tank or any of its equuipment been in contact with a copper based treatment etc? (Like a treatment that would treat whitspot). If this is true then i would not advise using it for marines as Copper is highly toxic (even in the tiniest amounts) to corals and inverts.

Assuming that the tank is safe from copper then you will need ot think about Lighting and protien skimmer. At first your current light units will be ok, however i would suggest you change the tubes for a specialist marine tubes Lighting in Marines is more specialised, the tubes need ot be changed reguarly, (about every 9-12 months) as all lights, bulbs and tubes will move away from their designs output spectrum. This can be detriental for corals etc so this is why lighting is so important.

A hang on skimmer would be a good addition to the tank and this can take out waste products before it even starts to turn to ammonia.

Live rock will be needed for aquascaping and more imporantly the filtration. Liverock is the main denitrifyer in a marine tank. Its expensive but its worth its weight in gold seriously!

Hope this gives some food for thought.