New To Marine Setups

[manxjason]

Hello,

I've kept freshwater fish for a couple years now, but I'm out of my comfort zone when it comes to saltwater.

I have an unused 450ltr Juwel Rio, fresh/salt water tank. Filtration wise I'll be using the internal Jumbo Bioflow (siliconed to glass) and a 2,000lph APS external with UV steraliser. I also have 2 heaters (one digi) and a digi PH reader & probe.

It looks like the 4x 54w standard bulbs will need to be replaced. Two of them are daylight, so would I be right in thinking that I'd need to only replace the 2 plant growth tubes?

I like the look of mixed coral (not just live rock, but actual coral) and fish tank rather than just one or the other.

I'm completely new to this so any help/advice and instructions would be appreciated.

thanks
Jason

 

[Aquascaper]

For starters rip but the Juwel box filter (takes up room and doesn't do a very good job) and just use your external for chemical filtration. The Live Rock in the tank is your primary biological filtration so make sure you budget for enough.

From what you're saying you want to go full reef rather than fish only with live rock (FOWLR) so you're lighting is going to determine what you can keep coral-wise. If it's standard T5's you'll be fine with softies, mushrooms and some SPS corals.

 

[manxjason]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I'd rather keep the filter in for now as the tank is new in May 2012 so under warranty. It'd be my luck that it starts to leak before the warranty expires. I've read online that people have managed to remove it further down the line during a partial water change.

The lighting is the standard T5 lights. They are 54w each and there's 4 of them. Will I need to replace the plant growth lights with marine ones? If so, will I also need to remove the daylight ones too or are these the same as marine daylights?

Would love to grow some coral in my aquarium. I live on the Isle of Man so I'd have to purchase it from the Internet.

The tank is a big one so filling with live rock would be a bomb. With the additional filtration I have, would adding say 25kg suffice? I'm wondering too, can I add more live rock further down the road. Will the coral also start to spread across the tank?

I'm not aiming to fill it and fully stock in one go - im happy waiting for the tank to mature a little over time before I start adding corals etc.

thanks

 

[Aquascaper]

If you have 4 tubes you'd want something like 3 marine whites (10k - 15k) and 1 actinic but it depends on how you want the tank to look....more actinic or the white tubes closer to 20k will provide a bluer look.

With Live Rock you're looking closer to 45kg for a reef, you can add it in stages but this will mean disruption not only in the rock layout but for any corals, etc. in the tank at the time. If you're wanting corals to spread then sitting then and leaving then to mature is the key.
You could always get some reef bones to bulk up the LR, this is just LR that has 'died' but will become 'live' over time. The benefit of using that would be you can fill the tank, get the layout correct from the start all for less money. I currently have about 30kg of reef bones to build my reef with and will be adding another 10kg - 15kg of cured LR when I'm ready to get going.

LR is your primary filtration and not worth scrimping on....plus you sometimes get a lot of hitchhikers like inverts and coral frags for free

 

[manxjason]

Thanks for all your help. I'm still humming and harring about marine, but where I live a haps/peacocks tank is looking more realistic. Until I can afford to blow a thousand or so to do marine properly.

 

[Aquascaper]

I was originally going to setup a Malawi Cichlid tank with reef bones and crushed coral sand to give a 'marine' effect without the cost and hassle.....but then the wife said I could setup a reef again

Could be worth a look?