Hello all
As the title says, I'm in the very early stages of setting up my first ever marine tank, which will be a mixed reef (initially softies and lps I think). I've kept FW for years and always wanted to try marine - with the help of this forum I reckon it's time to give it a go! I thought if I kept a diary it might be of interest to someone else in the future. I'll doubtless be posting lots of questions on the main forum, and I'll use this thread to keep track of where I am.
So, first things first, the tank itself. A year ago I bought a tank from Ian at aquariums4life (who I *highly* recommend). It's a 72 x 24 x 30 tall on a white gloss cabinet with central weir and sump. The front glass is Optiwhite. All in including sump it works out to 1000l or so. The tank set me back a fair bit cost wise so for the last 9 months or so it's housed my Tanganyikan setup while I saved and worked on persuading the wife....
*******Pictures to appear here but not allowed to post links yet!
The sump is a simple 3 section with double baffles, and at the moment I run it as a big external filter - masses of alphagrog and a load of moss balls, with a Fluval SP4 return pump.
Going Salty
Step 1 then is to move on the Tangs and drain the tank. I have struck a deal with a chap to trade the fish for around 80kg of dried live rock and various marine bits, so hopefully picking that all up in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, today I've ordered an RO unit (100GPD 4-stage with DI) and I'm in full research mode. So far I'm thinking:
Lighting: 2 x Evergrow IT2060 units
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 9 or Red Devil RDC-1800
Auto Top up: I'm assuming I will want one due to the rate of evap on the tank, and there is space in the cabinet for maybe. 60l reservoir.
Wavemakers etc: to be determined!
I'm hoping that lot will cover the equipment side for now? I know there's huge amounts of other things I might want in the future but that should get me started, right...!?
As the title says, I'm in the very early stages of setting up my first ever marine tank, which will be a mixed reef (initially softies and lps I think). I've kept FW for years and always wanted to try marine - with the help of this forum I reckon it's time to give it a go! I thought if I kept a diary it might be of interest to someone else in the future. I'll doubtless be posting lots of questions on the main forum, and I'll use this thread to keep track of where I am.
So, first things first, the tank itself. A year ago I bought a tank from Ian at aquariums4life (who I *highly* recommend). It's a 72 x 24 x 30 tall on a white gloss cabinet with central weir and sump. The front glass is Optiwhite. All in including sump it works out to 1000l or so. The tank set me back a fair bit cost wise so for the last 9 months or so it's housed my Tanganyikan setup while I saved and worked on persuading the wife....
*******Pictures to appear here but not allowed to post links yet!
The sump is a simple 3 section with double baffles, and at the moment I run it as a big external filter - masses of alphagrog and a load of moss balls, with a Fluval SP4 return pump.
Going Salty
Step 1 then is to move on the Tangs and drain the tank. I have struck a deal with a chap to trade the fish for around 80kg of dried live rock and various marine bits, so hopefully picking that all up in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, today I've ordered an RO unit (100GPD 4-stage with DI) and I'm in full research mode. So far I'm thinking:
Lighting: 2 x Evergrow IT2060 units
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 9 or Red Devil RDC-1800
Auto Top up: I'm assuming I will want one due to the rate of evap on the tank, and there is space in the cabinet for maybe. 60l reservoir.
Wavemakers etc: to be determined!
I'm hoping that lot will cover the equipment side for now? I know there's huge amounts of other things I might want in the future but that should get me started, right...!?
