Hi,

i currently have a 6ft x 2 x 2 tropical tank with 2 x t5 lighting a external 1200 filter and 400 internal filter for watermovement and added filteration and 2 300w heaters with loads of rock as is a malawi tank at present.
ASKING ANYONE FOR SOME HELP AS WOULD LIKE TO SWITCH TO MARINE BUT NOT SURE WHAT OTHER EQUIPMENT I NEED AND HOW TO SET UP,

WOULD BE MOST THANKFULL

DUNCAN

ill do my best, right, keep the tank,what power are the t5s?might be better going for metal halides on a big tank but depends on what ya wanna keep!filter ok at a pinch but sling out all ceramic tubes + sponges,replace with live rock rubble,bin the internal,for water movement get some big powerheads aim for x30-50 turnover,heaters keep,rock i take it is ocean rock? if so bin it + replace with appx 150kg live rock,if ya can, set up a sump, youll need a big skimmer summat like a v2 1200 the list can go on + on depending on what ya gonna keep, how big is ya bank balance etc...check out http://www.reefsuk.org/forum/index.php or http://www.ultimatereef.net/ or http://www.ultimatereef.net/ do as much research as poss as getting it wrong with marines is a whole lot more expensive than it is with fresh trops id aim to spend at least£800 on setting up a tank that size you may get lucky like i did + get a lotta help from friends or find good second hand stuff on the cheap but dont count on it good luck

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hi tel
cheers for that my bank balance aint to great lol is anyones ;-) just been classed as disabled 36 with arthritus not what i had in mind.
just would like to start off with some basic marine ya know bit colourfull and then as timegoes by upgrade and go formore specialised fish i have a 4ft tank as welli was wondering wether to have a go with that 1st might be a little cheaper lol to start with or i have even got 2 x 2ft 6 tanks which might be cheaper as you say if things go wrong with marine its alot more expensive would it be good idea to start with something smaller .
your advice is much appreciated as is tottalydifferent to tropical
cheers
duncan

hi duncan, sorry to hear bout ya bad news mate...i have 2 marine tanks the 1st is only 35litres,it has a pair clowns,bare bottom,live rock,filtered by the live rock + a eheim 2213 filled with live rock rubble/alfagrog,600lph powerhead, weekly 25% water change, marine t8 whyite + blue light...the other is a rio125 i have 7 fish,anenome,corals[soft],crabs,snails...live sand,filtered by live rock + fluval 405 lrr/alfagrog,lights are x3 24W t5,1200lph powerhead,v2 600 skimmer,weekly 25% waterchange...i was lucky i sold off a loada fresh trop live stock + tanks etc to get what i needed to start marines + some freebies from pals to get me going...its more expensive to setup a bigger tank, but, easier to look after...if you have ya heart set on marine id go for a 2.5ft setup then when youve got experience + more spondoolee maybe upgrade,dont buy live sand waste of money,live rock is the most important thing when starting up,always go for the best you can afford matured rock is best you can get lots of stuff cheap on forums,try the reefs uk for sale section loadsa bargains on there

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hi teli have just purchased a 1400 power head quite cheap i think 20 quid ;-) i am watching a few protein skimmers like v2 800 and a red sea prism and a deltec 500 think can get 1 for about 75 quid im running 4 4ft t5s with normal aquarium lights at min but gonna switch bulbs to marine i have around 500 malawi at min most breeding going to see if i can do a deal at local shop for othermarine bits like sand live rock etc. do you need to get a ro filter for marines to seperate nitrates etc out of water as i have never needed 1 due to hardy nature of malawis straight out of tap with tap safe 7.5 ph all the time and 0 nitrates all time. how long do you have to let tank mature fori presume i will have to drain and scrub tank out and start from scratch.
cheers
duncan

yeah everyone i know uses RO,cheaper in the long run to buy ya own unit otherwise like me its off to the lfs every week...tank matures at its own rate depending on how much die back ya get on live rock[thats why i said buy mature]normally at least 6 weeks but can be longer,then ya add some clean up crew[cuc]hermits,starfish,snails...give it another few weeks till all parameters are spot on then slowly start to add fish + corals

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well got me power head should do the job skimmers finish tonight so hopefullywin one of them on the intial set updo you have to use ro water or can u use tap as if leaving for few weeks shouldnt be a prob i would have thought couldyou recomend a ro unit to buy notto expensive though for starters lol,just trying to find a good deal on somelive rock think thats gonna be the expensive part

hi duncan,if you can stick with RO,i used tap when i 1st started but had untold prob's with nitrate nitrite, phosphate etc,switched to RO all prob's disapeared...dont get the red sea prizm skimmer as everyone slags em off! as for RO unit i think there's a sponsor on here osmotics? you can get em cheap on ebay but you'd prob have to buy new membranes etc...as for powerheads,i use just the one with 2 outlets 1 pointing upward the other midflow but i only have a small tank,if you're using the big tank id go for a minimum of 2 one at each end remember to make surface agitation as there's less O2 in salt water as for live rock check here

http://www.reefsuk.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=6f0a72017235eea5ec6237193af98417

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oooops, dont know what happened to the link? just copy + paste the entire thing

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try again with copy and paste