Tropical To Marine Swap Questions

[tmreynolds]

Hi,

I am a fairly experienced fishkeeper and currently have an established Tanganiykan cichlid setup in a Juwel Vision 180 tank. The tank is 180 UK litres.
I now want to try my hand at marine fish, however I have relatively little knowledge or marine fish or what is involved in swapping over.
I want to keep the same tank, and will be after a fairly easy to look after "fish only" setup.
Can you give me some advice on the following

The Juwel Vision 180 has a built in internal power filter and heater. Will the current filter media in the vision 180 be OK?

What extra equipment will I need, I understand I will need a protein skimmer ideally, but will this fit my Vision 180 tank ok, will I need another pump for this?

The tank is in my living room, will there be an issue keeping the water cool in the heights of summer?

I have coral sand in my tank already (a good buffer for cichlids), will this be OK with my marine setup?

As my tank has been used for tropical, will I need to properly clean it before introducing marine fish, or just a water change + additives (salt etc) do?

I want some colourful, fairly peaceful and easy to look after fish, can you recommend any that would be suitable for my Vision 180? my girlfriend wants a "nemo" fish ;-)

Anything else I should know.
Thanks in advance, and sorry for all the questions.

Tim

 

[robbhp]

the internal filter will be ok if it is just for fsh only, if you want to have coral as some point i would dich it and use live rock. but you will also have to upgrade the lighting as well so i gess you are doing it as a fish only system. if that is the case then the standared filter will be ok, i would also add a few power heads in there just to keep the water moving about. you will find the fish will like this more (dont forget most salt water fish have come stright from the ocean and into are tanks, so we should try to get as close to the ocean as pos ie plenty of water movment). the heater you have will also be upto the job so you can leave that as it is.

skimmers=yes, try and get onle that is a bit bigger than what the tank needs. also i have found that the TMC V2 units are very good and every one seems to like them (dont think i have heard a bad word about them) , and they are a very good price.

yea coral sand will be great for your tank, you will find that it will buffer a bit but most of the buffering is done by the salt you add to the water ( well i think so anyway)

i would defo give the tank a good clean, also wash out the gravle, although it may be a pain in the ass it will be worth it in the long run. the filters sould be ok to leave though. you normal find that 75% of the bac will die when you chage over to salt water, but 25% is better than none. you should find that the die off will help fuel the cycle of the new tank as well .


fish wise it would be good to start off with a clown as they are a hardy fish, after that it is up to you but i would say two perc's (Nemo) a 2 fire fish, a goby and shrimp, (srimp only if you have a RO unit , as the RO will take the copper out of the water. copper in inverts = bad ) ,pos a flame angle but i don't know if he would get along with the firefish, and a few more fish that take your facy. but what ever you do dont over stock

small note !

if it was my tank i would dich the internal filter and heater, replace with 20 KG of live rock (it costs a bit but by god it is worth it) and run two maxijets 1200 in there. although diching the filter seems crazy, the live rock will do it all for you , and a far better job than any filter can do. after that i would buy an RO unit these are only about 60 squid but are worth there weight in gold, they clean the water from the tap , stripping it of every thing that should not be there. you end up with 98%-100% pure H20. it has to be the 2nd most improtant part of buying a salt water setup. any way i hope that helps you out abit, and good luck

rob

 

[tmreynolds]

the internal filter will be ok if it is just for fsh only, if you want to have coral as some point i would dich it and use live rock. but you will also have to upgrade the lighting as well so i gess you are doing it as a fish only system. if that is the case then the standared filter will be ok, i would also add a few power heads in there just to keep the water moving about. you will find the fish will like this more (dont forget most salt water fish have come stright from the ocean and into are tanks, so we should try to get as close to the ocean as pos ie plenty of water movment). the heater you have will also be upto the job so you can leave that as it is.

skimmers=yes, try and get onle that is a bit bigger than what the tank needs. also i have found that the TMC V2 units are very good and every one seems to like them (dont think i have heard a bad word about them) , and they are a very good price.

yea coral sand will be great for your tank, you will find that it will buffer a bit but most of the buffering is done by the salt you add to the water ( well i think so anyway)

i would defo give the tank a good clean, also wash out the gravle, although it may be a pain in the ass it will be worth it in the long run. the filters sould be ok to leave though. you normal find that 75% of the bac will die when you chage over to salt water, but 25% is better than none. you should find that the die off will help fuel the cycle of the new tank as well .


fish wise it would be good to start off with a clown as they are a hardy fish, after that it is up to you but i would say two perc's (Nemo) a 2 fire fish, a goby and shrimp, (srimp only if you have a RO unit , as the RO will take the copper out of the water. copper in inverts = bad ) ,pos a flame angle but i don't know if he would get along with the firefish, and a few more fish that take your facy. but what ever you do dont over stock

small note !

if it was my tank i would dich the internal filter and heater, replace with 20 KG of live rock (it costs a bit but by god it is worth it) and run two maxijets 1200 in there. although diching the filter seems crazy, the live rock will do it all for you , and a far better job than any filter can do. after that i would buy an RO unit these are only about 60 squid but are worth there weight in gold, they clean the water from the tap , stripping it of every thing that should not be there. you end up with 98%-100% pure H20. it has to be the 2nd most improtant part of buying a salt water setup. any way i hope that helps you out abit, and good luck

rob

Brilliant Rob cheers.

I've been down my local marine dealer today and asked alot of questions.

This is what I have learned and decided upon

I'm going to use around 18-20kg of live rock, and maybe buy some live substrate aswell. I'm going to get a decent protein skimmer to hang off the back too.
I'm going to use the internal filter mainly as an added powerhead for circulation, with just some carbon and maybe some other specific filter media, but mainly use the live rock for filtration.
I'm also going to buy another powerhead for increased circulation.

I'm not sure about an RO unit? Does it need to be plumbed in, or is it a standalone unit you can use on an ad-hoc basis? If not the store can provide RO water relatively cheaply.

I only plan on having a few fish, maybe 5 or 6, missus insists that we get a "nemo" fish ;-)

I like the idea of having a "cleaner crew" aswell, shrimps, snails, hermits etc. I have read the article in the stickies on this in a nano tank setup.

How does this sound?

 

[robbhp]

mate you sound like you have it spot on there, abut the pumps get the maxijets for cheapness(1200 should do all the flow you need) nice and cheap to, think mine where 19.00 squid each.

on the skimmer side of thing what ever you don't buy the red sea one can't remember the full name at the mo, but it is utter crap, well that seems to be the genral rule of things.

an RO unit would have to be fitted to a pipe some where in your house, you can just hook them upto the hose pipe but after you have finnished you must take the membrain out and pace it in some water to keep it wet. if you are happy to buy from the shop then that cool, but make sure you figure out the running cost of doing this. most of the time it will cost you more, don't forget you will have to drive to pick it up as well .

stock levels seem write to me, if you keep them on the low side, the whole set-up and running of the tank will be a doddle. try to get yourself a watchman goby and a nice shrimp to pair off with, can't wait to get my tank up and running for this to happen.

also as you will be using live rock as your main filteration good you will have to stock the fish over some time and not all at once. you will have to give the live rock time to build up the bact it needs. if you do rush stock ,it could all end in . saying that you have done every thing by the book so i dont think you will go wrong. keep up the hard work and don't forget the pics (when you get started)


many thanks rob