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Hi, all, this is my first venture away from my Cichlids, so be gentle. I got a 4ft tank spare after I moved my cichlids to their new 5ft home. And I was considering a marine tank. Just something that Tryst said was a bit easy to look after, some live rock and a pair of banded coral shrimp. Will this be hard to look after? Any suggestions if it is as a good beginnning? Thanks all.

i've just been through my 1st marine tank setup,

and there is nothing easy than a fish only live rock set up.

as long as you have good filltration, a power head and enoguh liver rock.

it's really not as hard as some people make out. i was packing it (really scared) when i got all my gear, but i've found marine is easy to keep than discus!

for a 4ft tank get about 15kgs of live rock. remember you need marine salt, and a power head to create current.

before you know it you'll have a thriving marine enviroment.

try not to cycle the tank with fish, use live rock to do that. it takes about a month to a marine tank that size to cycle,

HTH
from fellow newbie stu

I should've put in what filters I got for it. I have 2* Fluval 304's, 1* 2800lph powerhead and a 120ish L sump.I know thats a tad over the top. I will remove what I dont need. The tank has a weir overflow for the sump.

i would run the cannisters empty or with carbon, and theres never enough movement in a marine tank

Welcome.

First off, I'd like to say there's not really such thing as overkill in this hobby. The more water volume, filtration, and movement the better!

Cannisters are okay filters for marine tanks if you're stocking a tank with large, messy fish that contribute a lot to the bioload. They aren't necessary in reef tanks or common community set ups IMO.

There's a lot of other things you'll need to run a successful tank, and you're going to be faced with many decisions in the near future. I suggest reading the articles stickied to the top of the marine forums, plus picking up some good books. I just replied to another thread, in which the aquarist is switching over to SW for the first time, and I will recommend the same books to you as I did to him, which are the same books that were recommended to me. Get a copy of Anthony Calfo and Robert Fenner's Marine Invertebrates for a lengthy but informative/fun read. Good pictures too! Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation is more advanced, but you learn sooo much from it. The Pocket Expert series is good for stocking; I have the invert and fish one and they are my Bibles.

HTH a bit! Never be afraid to ask a question. Best of luck.


-Ferret

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

For Cichlids we have Ad Konings who knows his stuff every which way possible. Is there any one like that in marine? As I have been informed by my LFS (who I trust as does everyone else in this town) that he wont let me have shrimp until the tank is up and running for some time and I can keep a Damsel alive. After inital cycling that is. I have my sump design finished (Thanks DRO ). And that is my weekend job to get it running. Fur substrate I was going to run with Calcium carbonate 1-3mm bags, as its cheap and light. Also, how much live rock would I be able to fit into a 55 gal with the weir overflow?

Stephen.

There are plenty of people in the marine world to look up to. There is Anthony Calfo, Eric Borneman, Robert Fenner, Steven Tyree, Scott Michael, Mike Paletta, Dr. Shimek, the list goes on.

As for how much rock you can fit depends on the type of rock you get (Fiji, Tonga, Bali, etc). Each type of rock has a different density and thus will play in how much rock. A good guess is 1lb per gallon, again depending on the rock and the size/shape of the pieces.

Last edited by DarkRealm Overlord at 11-Aug-2005 19:15

Dont forget Julian Sprung! And Daniel Knopp, Alf Nilsen, and Greg Scheimer too.

Chances are, if you're looking for a good book to dive into, Nate, Marc or myself either has it, have read it, or have met the author, so dont be afraid to ask.

Nate I'm curious to know which books by Paletta you'd highly recommend, if any?

And just to further add to the LR thing, I go by 1lb/1gal too; the most important thing to take into consideration about the rock IMO is how porous it is, b/c that will direct effect the capacity of biological filtration in the rock basically. Florida rock is known to be not as porous as the rock from Fiji, Marshall Islands, Tonga, etc. so typically you need more to get the desired effect.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Most of Paletta's books are outdated, even the most recent one in print that isnt more than a couple years old. Probably the one that I would recommend is Ultimate marine Aquaruims just for the simple fact that it is a book about other peoples setups....its amazing to see the great degrees of variance in how peoples tanks are set up, yet they all are thriving....*cough* well except maybe for GARFS "bulletproof" tanks that crashed not too long ago(although they do get some GREAT colors out of their SPS just using VHO.

Ok last few questions, then off to research. I can get Fiji rock here which I have been given a price of $95 a box, (forgot to ask how much I get in a box). Every fish store in town and surrounding areas get Fiji so either is cheap or good. Is it good? Lighting, what do I need, I have a double 4ft light, what bulbs should I go for? And I recently came in the the ownership of a 60L rubbertub on wheels, and was wondering if its wise to have salt water on hand and ready made for water changes? thanks all for the help.

Stephen.

Ok last few questions, then off to research. I can get Fiji rock here which I have been given a price of $95 a box, (forgot to ask how much I get in a box). Every fish store in town and surrounding areas get Fiji so either is cheap or good. Is it good? Lighting, what do I need, I have a double 4ft light, what bulbs should I go for? And I recently came in the the ownership of a 60L rubbertub on wheels, and was wondering if its wise to have salt water on hand and ready made for water changes? thanks all for the help.

Fiji is just cheap in price it is great rock and what 99% of us use. $95 for a box isnt bad either...it should be a 46 lb box.

As for lighting, the light you have will work fine for the live rock. I would switch to a 50/50 bulb though (half 10K/half actinic).

The rubber tub should work well for mixing saltwater....I would add some FW to it and let it sit overnight and then take a sample in and have it tested at the lfs (or test it yourself) for everything they have a test on just to make sure it doesnt leach anything into the water.

Alrighty Thanks everyone for the assist. Things are in motion and research is going. Thank you all once again.

Stephen.