Starting A Marine Aquarium

[Truck]

when you add live rock, you usually test the water every day until you get a reading of
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
and nitrates 10-20 ppm

then perform a 40% water change, wait 12 hours and test again if water stats are the same its safe to add some CUC and a few weeks later some fish!

3 * 3 inch fish will be fine, im having that in a tank half your size, but im stocking SLOW!

you definatly need a heater, dont listen to your LFS they dont sound repitable come to us for advice before making a move. what are you planning on stocking?

i would say get 4 600 lph power heads, and a good skimmer. for a tank your size a boyu wg 310 would be a good adition, there only £9 on ebay + 4.50 postage.

and what are you doing lighting wise? planning on having corals??

 

[omega59]

I don't think i will get any special lighting i won't have corals, just liverocks and fake plants from my fw tank. I'm hoping my setup will be as follows.

30Gal aquarium
Anemone ClownFish atleast 2-3
Hydor Koralia 3 - 850GPH (so there will be just the 1 i don't like too many)
Aquarium Systems Visi-Jet Protein Skimmer 70gallons
Sand for gravil
heater from fw tank

what temp does marine tank usually need 76-80F? and sorry what is CFC?

 

[millie1]

lucky you - 30g!!

mines going to be about 50 litres or so... hopefully a little more

depends where its going to be honest!!!!!


If it is going in my room then it will just be 50litres - if i can pursuade her to have it in the living room/kitchen - shall be bigger lol


she may just murder me first though haha

 

[omega59]

haahhaha good luck!

why can't i re-use my FW filter if i recycle it for salt-water??

 

[karaim]

lucky you - 30g!!

mines going to be about 50 litres or so... hopefully a little more

depends where its going to be honest!!!!!


If it is going in my room then it will just be 50litres - if i can pursuade her to have it in the living room/kitchen - shall be bigger lol


she may just murder me first though haha

You don't really need a "filter" but you may need something to remove physical debris. While the bacteria in the "live" rock remove ammonia and nitrite, they don't actually eat the physical waste of your fish. So over time that waste can/will accumulate. You remove this via WATER CHANGES and a skimmer. Skimmer isn't always necessary, but water changes are.

 

[omega59]

so is it better to just get a filter cycled, and save on buying live rock?? cus i have a filter already i can just swap the media.

 

[Truck]

I don't think i will get any special lighting i won't have corals, just liverocks and fake plants from my fw tank. I'm hoping my setup will be as follows.

30Gal aquarium
Anemone ClownFish atleast 2-3
Hydor Koralia 3 - 850GPH (so there will be just the 1 i don't like too many)
Aquarium Systems Visi-Jet Protein Skimmer 70gallons
Sand for gravil
heater from fw tank

what temp does marine tank usually need 76-80F? and sorry what is CFC?

clown fish in trios will not coexist happily or friendly.
clownfish are a specie of damsel fish (a very aggresive species of fish. 2 clownfish will only coexsist if they are a mated pair or introduced into the aquarium young. the more dominent one will develop into a female and the less dominent one a male, females growing bigger. if there is a 3rd he/she will remain genderless. and because its the "weakest of the group" it will be bullied and will probably die. so my advice is 2 ONLY!!!

ditch the hydor. and buy 3 hydor nanos, or somthing of similar size. its important to have multiple power heads so ALL of the LR gets blasted with water not just one side(if you are not prepared to follow COPULSARY rule i suggest you go fresh water.
protein skimmer sounds ok although you dont need one that big, have a look on ebay at the Boyu WG310 (got mine for £10 BARGIN!!) and it will do up to 150 litres, and your tank is only 120 ish.

sands is good but make sure its for fishtanks reef sand, (dont buy "live" sand its a gimmick).
heater from FW tank will be fine, (give it a good clean)
temperature is genarally 24 degrees i dunno farenheight sorry.

 

[rabbut]

when you add live rock, you usually test the water every day until you get a reading of
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
and nitrates 10-20 ppm

then perform a 40% water change, wait 12 hours and test again if water stats are the same its safe to add some CUC and a few weeks later some fish!

you definatly need a heater, dont listen to your LFS they dont sound repitable come to us for advice before making a move.

i would say get 4 600 lph power heads, and a good skimmer. for a tank your size a boyu wg 310 would be a good adition, there only £9 on ebay + 4.50 postage.

I agree with most of your comments, but you contradict yourself in the italiced section The Boyu skimmers are not descent, and you might as well not run one, over actually buying one. They don't pull much out and are a right faff to set-up. Waste of cash. For a 120l tank, a Large Air-driven jobby would suffice, or for motorised skimmers, look at AquaMedic, Deltec and Tunze Some will recomend TMC skimmers, but I know of a few people that have had issues with them

A skimmer must be capable of running a tank twice the size of the one you are buying for. If it isn't, it will under-perform. As with filters, skimmer manufacturers tend to be a little optimistic over what it will do...

why can't i re-use my FW filter if i recycle it for salt-water??

The media in the freshwater filter can be re-used after a VERY good clean.

You don't really need a "filter" but you may need something to remove physical debris. While the bacteria in the "live" rock remove ammonia and nitrite, they don't actually eat the physical waste of your fish. So over time that waste can/will accumulate. You remove this via WATER CHANGES and a skimmer. Skimmer isn't always necessary, but water changes are.

This is a very good point. I don't run any aditional filtration in mine, and I wouldn't add anything to the current formula of mine now it is working

so is it better to just get a filter cycled, and save on buying live rock?? cus i have a filter already i can just swap the media.

You can do it that way, but you need a large protien skimmer and a good water supply for larger waterchanges if you choose to run this way IMO, you'd be better off ditching the filter and using liverock only (With a skimmer and pumps for flow of course ). Well worth the cash, and you will save back the cash spent of liverock, in water you diden't change (salt and RO in reef systems cost a fair whack over time). Live rock also gives better water chemistory stability

All the best
Rabbut

 

[omega59]

okay so protene skimmer, power head and live rock is all i need? and what is wrong with the skimmer i want to buy? image below..

Visi-jet is an economical protein skimmer for aquariums up to 70 gallons. Visi-jet ps has a turbo-venturitm injector system to mix filtered air and water within the pump impeller chamber, creating a froth of micro-bubbles for maximum skimming efficiency. The built-in flow meter provides accurate visual monitoring of true flow volume through the pump and into the protein skimmer. Micro-bubbles contribute to improved gas exchange. Dissolved organic compounds are separated from water to produce a concentrated foam mixture of waste products that is pushed up the column into the foam collection receptacle where it can be easily discarded. The directional output sends oxygen-rich water down and out into the aquarium. Visi-jet(r)ps protein skimmer uses a prefilter to filter out large particulates, algae, and aquarium animals, preventing them from entering the pump impeller chamber.

 

[Truck]

nothing wrong with that skimmer, my bad rabbut has taught me something

you need power heads

 

[omega59]

okay. does a 30gal really need more than 1 power head?? they are expensive.

 

[Truck]

yes you need 3. if your planning on just using LR as filtration, 20* turn over so 120 litres *20 = 2400,so you going to need 3 or 4 power heads that colaterally add up to that value, look on charter house aquatics, the maxi jet ones are around 16 pounds for 900lph, and you would need 3 of these,
1 WILL NOT suffice,

 

[omega59]

i was told 850GPH is good enough for a 30gal haha.

 

[Truck]

yes but 1 power head will not be able to cope with the hole tank alone, thats why we use a few so all of the LR is getting circulation.

thinks of it like this if a powerhead was the sun and the LR was you no light gets to the shadow does it, (well a bit does) well its the same with one powerhead you will have rock shadowed from flow.

Hope this makes sense,
and when you get your power heads remeber to have one on either side and one on the back wall

 

[omega59]

ahh okay i understand now. i will get 2 of the Hydor Koralia 4 - 1200GPH which will make it 2400GPH