Marine or not to Marine

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Eric A

Polypterus
MFK Member
Nov 28, 2008
5,003
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92
Australia
Hello.

I have a 6'x2'x2.5' that i'm getting bored of. I have always talked about turning it into a marine tank, with multiple large angelfish. Angelfish are by far my favourite marine group. The deciding factor on whether or not I can go marine is really cost.

So, I need to know what equipment I need for this tank? If I do go marine this will have abut 80kg of live rock in the main tank. I would have to drill the tank I have for a fuge/sump. My main filteration would probably just be live rock and DSB. The tank will be FOWLR too.

I need to know everything I need to set it up, so I can go get prices for everything and decide whether or not I can do it.

Cheers, Eric.
 
I wouldn't...I dont like marine..Heh..Ok I guess some marines are cool. Lions, eels, batfish, some gobies..Groupers :)

I think freshwater would be better.
 
overall, expect to pay more for everything that is marine. chemicals, equipment, livestock, food, meds....... all will cost more. here is a very basic overview
http://www.thetipsbank.com/marine.htm
 
very nice site on marine info. personally if i were setting up a FOWL i would put 3-4 power heads in, look into a skimmer, wet dry, or some sort of canister filter, depending on what you have now, i dont see you "having" to drill the tank, they make all kinds of hang on over flows if you decide to do a sump/fuge. you will need to have atleast, ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite test kits, your heaters will be fine. just my 2cents
 
I like my 75g saltwater tank. True everything cost more but the beauty of the fish is hard to beat. I would go with a tank with an overflow, berlin sump, protein skimmer, good size pump and a good quality salt like Tropic Marin. Also take your time. First though I would get connected with a person who has experience in SW and find a local store that specializes in SW setups. It just may save you money in the long run. Good luck!
 
you fish only marine tank will probably be a failure if you dont get a very good skimmer, always get a skimmer rated for more then tank size.

if you gonna try to be cheap about filtration it will cost more in the long run. most properily setup FO salt tanks dont really need water changes, because they have a good skimmer and a lot of base rock. for good measure people have a fuge too for any nitrates the anerobic bacteria leave.
 
actually most chems can be used for SW and FW and if your only doing a fish only live rock ist TOTALY neccesary a cleanup crew is good though. glad i was the one that convinced you to think about it;)
 
If you are going to drill the tank and run a sump then you can forget about the fluval and the eheim all together. If you want to keep all large angels and this is going to be a fowlr then all you will need is some good live rock about 3-4 power heads and return pump a good protein skimmer, lights, a heater, salt, test kits. Really if its just going to be fish then it can be a very basic setup. It looks like your tank is about 225 gallons i would look to get about 200 pounds of live rock, this will act as your main source of filtration. Depending on your budget you can go with something like korlias for power-heads to help save money or you could get a higher end power head like tunze or vortechs, but that all depends on what you want to spend. Your lights can be just any t-12 fluorescent bulb this doesn't have to be anything fancy for a fish only tank. For a skimmer i would suggest getting as good a skimmer as you can afford there are so many out there to choose from I'm not going to list them all, if you want to give a ballpark figure on what you want to spend i can help point you in the right direction. Another good reason to get a good skimmer is after you set up a fowlr you are eventually going to want to turn it into a reef everyone does. So basically you already have the tank i would say on what i listed you can spend as little as $500-$600 or you could spend over $5000 on the equipment I've listed just set a budget and go from there.
 
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