Tropical Tank Into Marine Tank ?

[Matty01429]

I have a 125 litre 3 ft jewl tank which is tropical at the moment and was wondering if it was possible to convert to it to marine if so how much would it cost and could anyone tell me how much it would cost

 

[Matty01429]

If so what would I need *

 

[baker360360]

Donno how much for you to buy all the bits seperatly. But I just got my juwel this year and it would have cost an extra £250 to convert it when bought.

 

[Matty01429]

What things would I need and would the tank need to be thourghly cleaned or would it be cheeper to buy a new tank ?

 

[Donya]

Freshwater tanks can be converted to marine and visa versa provided they are cleaned well before the transition and given a soaking period after that with equipment running if any pumps are being reused (helps get rid of any residual gunk). Cost varies a lot with what animals you want to keep. See these two threads if you haven't already:
Marine Aquarium FAQ
Marine Tank Equipment

 

[ech0o]

I'm not sure why it would be cheaper to buy a new tank, that is another expense, unless you mean buy a complete saltwater setup ready to go, in which case I would say that is certainly the easiest way to do it.  The things you are going to need depends on what kind of saltwater tank you are doing, they are broken down into a many categories, the following which i find most relevant.
 
Fish only - refers to stocking non-sensitive fish without any live rock, depending purely on a filter just like with freshwater.  This requires more frequent water changes as nitrates build just like in a freshwater tank, and most saltwater stock is more sensitive to them.  
 
Fish only with live rock (FOWLR) - refers to stocking fish only, but now you are using live rock and live sand, and while you still run a filter, it is really more for mechanical filtration, you should be removing and rinsing the sponge often to keep it as clean as possible, and the bacterial filtration comes from the live rock and sand (you need powerheads to direct current running through the live rock as this is where most of your bacteria will be housed).  The liverock actually absorbs nitrates into it, where they believe denitrification occurs deep within the rock, keeping your nitrate in the water column to a very low number.  This is good for stocking the more sensitive fish.  **SOMETIMES** people are able to keep very easy/hardy corals and inverts in systems like these.
 
Reef  - refers to stocking many different kinds of life.  a lot of marine life will not eat dry or frozen foods, and need to eat plankton, zooplankton, and phytoplankton, which occur naturally in the water.   The tanks require a seperate "refugium" or sump, without any predators, so they can populate and flow into the tank and be consumed as food by anemones, corals, and other marine life.  These refugiums also house chaetomorphic algae and liverock, and are lit.   The chaetomorphic algae will actually absorb phosphates/nitrates/silicates from the water, this is a huge deal in reef tanks, as most inverts are extremely sensitive to these things.  Also suggested for a reef tank are a protein skimmer, and phosphate reactor.  The protein skimmer will actually remove dissolved organics from the water, and the phosphate reactor will remove silicates and phosphates from the water, with the use of ferric oxide granule media.

Freshwater tanks can be converted to marine and visa versa provided they are cleaned well before the transition and given a soaking period after that with equipment running if any pumps are being reused (helps get rid of any residual gunk). Cost varies a lot with what animals you want to keep. See these two threads if you haven't already:
Marine Aquarium FAQ
Marine Tank Equipment

this was posted while i was typing, it will explain things WAY more detailed than i did, was trying to explain things in lamens terms as I had understood them best  

 

[Matty01429]

Thanks so I wanted clown fish and mandarin and fox face and some others but not shure what could go with theese
And would these be put in the FOWLER tank

 

[ech0o]

Mandarin and clowns could work in a FOWLR tank, but unless you have an established refugium, you will have to manually feed your mandarin live food until you get him switched over to something else, IF you get him switched over to something else.  You can order and dose your tank with copepods, or feed baby brine shrimp.   There are easy DIY setups for saltwater brine shrimp hatcheries and you can get decapsulated hatching eggs, so no worried about the shells, every bit is edible.
 
There is no foxface that will fit in that small of a tank.   They require quite a bit larger tanks from what I understand.

 

[Donya]

125L is too small to safely/easily keep a mandarin, particularly for a first marine tank. When kept in small tanks they require a LOT of feeding attention and starve really easily even with some of the methods ech0o has listed. They are incredibly difficult fish to feed and keep healthy when they have to be "fed" on a schedule rather than forage on their own. Even a refugium and/or pod supplements are usually insufficient in the long-term since the in-tank populations get depleted too fast. Mandarins and other dragonets are best kept in large tanks more in the 300L range with a lot of biodiversity so that they can feed naturally. 
 
A clown pair would be fine, but as ech0o said a foxface is not an option in a 125L.

 

[Matty01429]

Thanks for advice think I'm gona get a 280 l tank what could I keep in That size