New To This - Need Some Help Please :)

[DaveyG]

Hi all

I have been keeping tropical fish for a while now. I started with coldwater goldfish, then moved to tropical for a while and started keeping fish in the first place with the sole aim of one day keeping saltwater fish.

I feel like I'm now ready to take that plunge but I'd like help and advice from those in the know. I have asked for lots of info at my LFS but they are always keen to sell something, so as soon as I mention about saltwater they are trying to sell whichever tank or setup they happen to have on promotion at that time.

I've recently moved house and my 250 litre tropical tank didn't come with us so I'm starting from scratch with this.

Now, here comes one of the difficult bits... It needs to look "pretty" (that's the wife speaking). So what I'm really looking for is about 60-100 litre which looks classy/pretty/sleek/subtle in the living room.

We both fell in love with the look of the BiUbe Life 60 and have seen it is possible to keep a couple of marine fish in there, but it may not be that straight forward without modifications?

Really I'm looking for people to give their opinions and suggestions on suitable tanks in terms of size/lighting/looks or if anyone can suggest what I can do to achieve my aim here. I'd really appreciate any help at all as I'm not completely up to scratch on lighting/corals/LR/sand and the such!

Please let me know if I've not made myself clear, and I really look forward to hearing some responses!

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[-Nemo-]

I would first suggest getting, at bare minimum, a 100L tank. Larger will be better. 60L will be so much more difficult and you won't be able to keep much at all in it. I am not very familiar with specific all-in-one tanks, so I will let someone else comment there.

As for lighting, it will depend on two things. 1. What you want to keep
And most decidingly, 2. Your budget

The amount of live rock and sand will again, depend, on what size tank you go with. The calculator up top is very accurate when it comes to amount of live rock.

It sounds like you will want a reef tank (yay), have you seen any fish or anything in general that you specifically are looking to keep?

 

[DaveyG]

I would first suggest getting, at bare minimum, a 100L tank. Larger will be better. 60L will be so much more difficult and you won't be able to keep much at all in it. I am not very familiar with specific all-in-one tanks, so I will let someone else comment there.

As for lighting, it will depend on two things. 1. What you want to keep
And most decidingly, 2. Your budget

The amount of live rock and sand will again, depend, on what size tank you go with. The calculator up top is very accurate when it comes to amount of live rock.

It sounds like you will want a reef tank (yay), have you seen any fish or anything in general that you specifically are looking to keep?

Hey, thanks for the quick reply

100L would be the max size I could get, and am willing to listen to any ideas around that size.

In terms of what I want in it - very simple really. It needs to look nice (LR and coral - are they the same thing or completely different??). Coral needs water flow if I'm correct and lots of light and looks really nice? But in a small tank (<100L) may not be able to have much?

For stocking, again very simple - I'm after a couple of clowns and maybe a couple of other friendly tank mates (no idea what though) at most. Does that help at all?

I don't want to spend loooooads on it, but budget isn't too much of a problem as long as it doesn't get crazy and I'm getting what I want in the end...

 

[-Nemo-]

I would first suggest getting, at bare minimum, a 100L tank. Larger will be better. 60L will be so much more difficult and you won't be able to keep much at all in it. I am not very familiar with specific all-in-one tanks, so I will let someone else comment there.

As for lighting, it will depend on two things. 1. What you want to keep
And most decidingly, 2. Your budget

The amount of live rock and sand will again, depend, on what size tank you go with. The calculator up top is very accurate when it comes to amount of live rock.

It sounds like you will want a reef tank (yay), have you seen any fish or anything in general that you specifically are looking to keep?

Hey, thanks for the quick reply

100L would be the max size I could get, and am willing to listen to any ideas around that size.

In terms of what I want in it - very simple really. It needs to look nice (LR and coral - are they the same thing or completely different??). Coral needs water flow if I'm correct and lots of light and looks really nice? But in a small tank (<100L) may not be able to have much?

For stocking, again very simple - I'm after a couple of clowns and maybe a couple of other friendly tank mates (no idea what though) at most. Does that help at all?

I don't want to spend loooooads on it, but budget isn't too much of a problem as long as it doesn't get crazy and I'm getting what I want in the end...

Live rock and coral are two very different things.
Live rock is just... well rock. Much of it is made up of things such as the skeletons of coral that have died or clam shells etc.

Corals are animals. There are many different types of corals and each has its own requirements and needs. (Most) corals attach to the live rock and have it as its base.
Yes, corals need flow. Generally you're looking for around 20x the flow (an hour) for corals. For example: for a 100L tank, you would want around 2000 lph (liters per hour) of flow. This is usually accomplished by 2 or more powerheads in the tank.


If you want clownies, I would definitely go for a 100L. Definitely nothing less than a 75L for clowns. Then you could still do a few more fish. Take a look at firefish, various smaller gobies and blennies, royal grammas. Just a start of some fish that would be OK in that tank with clowns.

 

[DaveyG]

Thanks again Nemo

Did you say you weren't too sure on smaller marine tanks (<100L)? I'm struggling to find one which fits the bill and which has enough info around it on how to set up (given my lack of knowledge around saltwater aquariums)!

Thanks

 

[-Nemo-]

I said I don't know about any of those all-in-one (AKA built-in) tank systems. They aren't very popular where I live. You don't have to go that route. You can always just buy a regular glass tank and buy the equipment for it.

 

[DaveyG]

Ah ok, I will probably go with an all in one tank as it might be easier for a newbie like me, but if I didn't what would you recommend for a 100L setup?

Does anyone else have any tank suggestions?

 

[-Nemo-]

100L, equipment wise, for a reef tank you would need:

-Hydrometer/Refractometer (the refract is preferred)
-Test kits
-Lighting (What kind depends on the corals you want. I would suggest some sort of T5 lighting. 2-4 Bulbs would give you good options)
-Protein Skimmer
-At least 2 Powerheads
-Heater

Optional, but would recommend at least reading up on:
-Sump with refugium
They are great for adding water volume, keeping levels stable, removing nitrates and phosphates, and hiding most of your equipment


Other than that, you would need other obvious things like,
- LR, about 10-12 kilos
- Sand, about 12 kilos
- Marine Salt
- Water

A word about water, you're likely going to need to use RO water if you're going to keep corals. RO can generally be bought at your LFS, or many people opt to buy RO filtration systems.

 

[seffieuk]

Take a look at the orca 550 although that is 126 litres but it does have a good footprint. Are you saying 100 litres because of space requirements? You can also look at the D&D cubes. Stick marine tank in ebay or the like and see what comes up, you can then see the sort of thing you like and we can help you from there. Also, have a read of some of the journels listed by size (at the top of the marine chit chat area) and again let us know

We are here to help you, so you really dont need to go the all in one route unless you really want to

Seffie x

 

[DaveyG]

Hey guys

thanks for the replies again. A few questions, and I will be reading into some of the suggestions tonight as well.

What is RO water?

I was looking into the all in one solutions because they look a bit tidier. The tank is going to sit on a side unit we have in the living room, not on a stand so I was trying to stay away from external filters, sumps and generally anything which had to sit outside of the tank. I have read good things about the Red Sea Max 130D but obviously you seem to pay A LOT for that, maybe it's not quite worth it?? So what I had looked at was the BiUbe Life 60 and I had also seen a Wave Vision 60 (I think) which seemed to fit the bill quite nicely in terms of fitting in, but I wasn't sure on the recommendations of people who actually kept these. For instance it seems most people who turned the Life 60 into a marine tank actually never used the filter which was in there??

I am limited to about 100L solely because of size. As I said it needs to fit on a side unit (don't worry, it's very sturdy!) and after I got my way with the last tank (250L tropical) I agreed to get a smaller, neater one to fit our new house.

I will do as much reading as possible on here about tanks but as I said any advice you guys can give is really appreciated as I venture into the unknown!

Thanks

Dave

 

[DaveyG]

Oops, double post! Sorry

 

[-Nemo-]

Hey guys

thanks for the replies again. A few questions, and I will be reading into some of the suggestions tonight as well.

What is RO water?

I was looking into the all in one solutions because they look a bit tidier. The tank is going to sit on a side unit we have in the living room, not on a stand so I was trying to stay away from external filters, sumps and generally anything which had to sit outside of the tank. I have read good things about the Red Sea Max 130D but obviously you seem to pay A LOT for that, maybe it's not quite worth it?? So what I had looked at was the BiUbe Life 60 and I had also seen a Wave Vision 60 (I think) which seemed to fit the bill quite nicely in terms of fitting in, but I wasn't sure on the recommendations of people who actually kept these. For instance it seems most people who turned the Life 60 into a marine tank actually never used the filter which was in there??

I am limited to about 100L solely because of size. As I said it needs to fit on a side unit (don't worry, it's very sturdy!) and after I got my way with the last tank (250L tropical) I agreed to get a smaller, neater one to fit our new house.

I will do as much reading as possible on here about tanks but as I said any advice you guys can give is really appreciated as I venture into the unknown!

Thanks

Dave

RO water is basically just a very purified type of water. The filtration system takes out just about everything that would normally be in your tap water, including potential toxins to the corals.

From what I know, red sea maxes are way over priced. I do not know of the other tanks you mentioned, however 60L will greatly decrease your options for stocking, and is a very tight fit for clownfish, you generally want at least 75L for clowns.

Going by knowing nothing about the life 60, if the tank was made for freshwater fish, it probably only has a regular external filter that would find in freshwater set-ups. Those type of filters are almost useless for marine, because the liverock essentially does the same job that the filter would do. It would probably be best to find a set-up made for keeping marine. They will usually have better, more suited filtration and appropriate basic lighting for low-light corals.
The D&D seffie mentioned is one i know of, and goes well. I am personally a fan of All-Glass Aquarium's BioCubes, although I don't believe they're too popular in the UK.

 

[DaveyG]

OK so I like the look of the D&D Nano Cube 90 litre, although it may not be quite what I'm after it might be a compromise. I also really like the look of the Wave Vision 60 - is that more like the all glass ones which would require an external filter etc? Am I narrowing it down at all??

I can't find the journals listed by size on the chit chat bit

It sounds as if keeping corals may be a bit too difficult if I actually have to buy the water in order to do water changes, as I doubt an additional filtration unit would fit where I want it to go.

 

[seffieuk]

Here you go:

Marine journel section and at the top the tanks by size

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/105-marine-aquarium-journals/

Are these the tanks you are talking about? Which one, the cube or the curved one? Neither looks big enough for a pair of clowns
http/www.stm-shop.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Wave_Box_nano_Tanks.html
Seffie x