New to saltwater. Just a few queries.

[Cardinal Tetra]

hi, I am new to saltwater, and I am planning to start a marine tank with Liverocks next month. But before I start into a marine tank, I want to be sure of any doubts before making the big move. This may be a bit long, please bear with me. I hope some experienced ppl like kelstorm would give some good tips and advise.

I have kept planted tanks before and am familiar to the tank cycling method (tried once successfully). I have done some research on my own (FAQ, other websites and articles) however I am still kind of 'blur' about the whole thing. My tank is a standard 2ft tank, and I plan to keep live rocks and 3-4 fishes.

1. can i use my course sand for a marine tank, or do i need to get a marine specific medium like coral chips? the sand was used for planed b4, but without fertilizers in it. how deep must it be? would 2" - 3" be ok?

2. filters - I plan to use an internal power filter by oceanfree, and the ORCA protein skimmer recommened in the FAQ. is this ok?

3. Lighting - I have 2 ft PL lights. can i use the same lighting for marine? I have read that keeping corals require a certain Kelvin for the lights, what about Live rocks? is there a difference too? i am using planted tank kelvin which is around 6500K

4. if i were to purchase liverock from the LFS, how would they pack the thing for me? do i have to bring a bucket or something?

5. when you say liverock, can the rock be placed out of water for a long period, without 'killing' it?

6. when i start the cycling process, can i do it with freshwater first, and then after the cycling is completed, remove all the water and add saltwater? is this the right way, same with planted tanks?

7. after cycling, if i were to put liverocks in the tank, won't the cycling process be disrupted as i heard that live rocks have some bacteria (berlin?) which contribute to the cycling process?

thanks for all the help/tips answered,
I just need to be very sure b4 i start my first saltwater tank.

[Jeffrey]

Hi there, I'm starting a marine setup too. I noticed that You wanted to start the hobby in a 2ft tank. What I learned from many of my friends are they gave up 2ft after 2-3 months. The reason is (1) Very difficult to maintain ideal water parameter. (2) Very limited space for aquascape. That's why they asked me to start at least 3ft tank wif sump but I'm going for a 4x2x2 wif sump. The reason behind is, if you are really into this hobby, you tends to change to bigger tank & adding more live stock. That will cost $$$ and space. So you might want to consider size of your tank before you do anything else.

Just my 2cents.

[Cardinal Tetra]

hi jeffery,
the reason why I am starting in a 2ft is due to insufficient space. I have 2 empty 2ft tanks now and buying another 3-4ft tank would be pretty pointless. furthermore, i only plan on having a basic setup.
as a student, I dont have the money to spend on expensive setups unlike others

btw i have heard of ppl using sump tanks. what is a sump tank? is it the mini tank usually located in the cabinets where there are many compartments? can someone enlighten me on that?

If i were to use a protien skimmer, is a sump tank a must?

[Jeffrey]

[quote:9285cc6c1f="Cardinal Tetra"]hi jeffery,
the reason why I am starting in a 2ft is due to insufficient space. I have 2 empty 2ft tanks now and buying another 3-4ft tank would be pretty pointless. furthermore, i only plan on having a basic setup.
as a student, I dont have the money to spend on expensive setups unlike others

btw i have heard of ppl using sump tanks. what is a sump tank? is it the mini tank usually located in the cabinets where there are many compartments? can someone enlighten me on that?

If i were to use a protien skimmer, is a sump tank a must?[/quote:9285cc6c1f]

Yes, a sump tank is the mini tank located in the cabinet normally. No, a sump tank is not a must for you to use a protein skimmer. In freshwater case, sump tanks are used for placing filter media for better quality water. In saltwater, most of them put DSB (deep sand bed) to nitrified water. This is what I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck on your setup.

[kelstorm]

[quote="Cardinal Tetra"]hi, I am new to saltwater, and I am planning to start a marine tank with Liverocks next month. But before I start into a marine tank, I want to be sure of any doubts before making the big move. This may be a bit long, please bear with me. I hope some experienced ppl like kelstorm would give some good tips and advise.
hi, let just exchange views and share our experiences
I have kept planted tanks before and am familiar to the tank cycling method (tried once successfully). I have done some research on my own (FAQ, other websites and articles) however I am still kind of 'blur' about the whole thing. My tank is a standard 2ft tank, and I plan to keep live rocks and 3-4 fishes.
for 2ft, u mentioned u want to keep 3-4 fishes.. can.. provided they are at the size of 1" max... seriously, i dun recommend having a 2ft tank although i have one myself to keep just 1 seahorse and 1 clownfish and 2 boxing shrimps and already, i think the bio-load is very high and mind u, fishes have higher bio-load than SH and shrimps.
1. can i use my course sand for a marine tank, or do i need to get a marine specific medium like coral chips? the sand was used for planed b4, but without fertilizers in it. how deep must it be? would 2" - 3" be ok?
coral sand is used coz it has a buffering effect. River sand aint suitable. For your 2ft, u can consider 2" max... but that is already a lot... i'm using less than that. For coral sand, consider either grade 0 or grade 1... coral chips are too big and useless for DSB(Deep sand bed)
2. filters - I plan to use an internal power filter by oceanfree, and the ORCA protein skimmer recommened in the FAQ. is this ok?
even for 2ft, and that biio-load, i'm using a 2213 eheim and supplement it with a skimmer. U can dun use ORCA skimmer cos space will be a premium for u.. do look for a air driven pump skimmer instead of those long pipe skimmers in the LFS.. they dun work.. as for filtration, u need to check whether the filter is suitable for marine or not.. my guess would be that it is not suitable. Also, space is already a premium, u should consider getting a canister at the very least.
3. Lighting - I have 2 ft PL lights. can i use the same lighting for marine? I have read that keeping corals require a certain Kelvin for the lights, what about Live rocks? is there a difference too? i am using planted tank kelvin which is around 6500K
6500k is not sufficient for corals and for LR, u dun need much lights and your light system is sufficient if u just want to keep fishes and Live rocks although it will look a bit yellowish.. can consider adding a blue FL tube to brighten up the tank. Since u are not keeping corals, the lights intensity is not an issue.
4. if i were to purchase liverock from the LFS, how would they pack the thing for me? do i have to bring a bucket or something?
nope.. dun have to... they will usually pack for u.. for LR, i always get styrofoam boxes from them to pack them in..of course, me talking abt 50kg and above and not 1-2 pieces.
5. when you say liverock, can the rock be placed out of water for a long period, without 'killing' it?
dun worry.. unless u come in contact with FW or submerge it with FW for a long time, they wun die on u if u just leave them out for a while..i dun think it will take u 5-10 hrs to go home right?

6. when i start the cycling process, can i do it with freshwater first, and then after the cycling is completed, remove all the water and add saltwater? is this the right way, same with planted tanks?
totally wrong, what u are doing now, is cycling for FW and not SW. cycle it with SW all the way
7. after cycling, if i were to put liverocks in the tank, won't the cycling process be disrupted as i heard that live rocks have some bacteria (berlin?) which contribute to the cycling process?
my advice is to cycle the system with a prawn and wait for 2 weeks before u take out the decomposing prawn and test the water parameters before adding some LR to speed up the cycling process with the bacteria and then wait for another 2 more weeks for the water to stablise. Then just before u confirm that the water is mature enuff, u can change the water abt 50-75% and then add more LRs and wait another week before adding LS slowly... of course, if u are only adding just 2 small pieces, u can put both pieces in at the same time instead of breaking them up in 2 separate sessions.

[kelstorm]

[quote="Cardinal Tetra"]hi jeffery,
the reason why I am starting in a 2ft is due to insufficient space. I have 2 empty 2ft tanks now and buying another 3-4ft tank would be pretty pointless. furthermore, i only plan on having a basic setup.
as a student, I dont have the money to spend on expensive setups unlike others
i also started when i was a student, i know how it feels... thus, my advice is go for fishes with live rocks, they are the simplest to maintain and cheapest
btw i have heard of ppl using sump tanks. what is a sump tank? is it the mini tank usually located in the cabinets where there are many compartments? can someone enlighten me on that?

If i were to use a protien skimmer, is a sump tank a must?
a sump is not needed to have protein skimmer. but a skimmer is a must

[kelstorm]

Yes, a sump tank is the mini tank located in the cabinet normally. No, a sump tank is not a must for you to use a protein skimmer. In freshwater case, sump tanks are used for placing filter media for better quality water. In saltwater, most of them put DSB (deep sand bed) to nitrified water. This is what I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck on your setup.

just to correct one small mistake, DSB dun nitrify the water in that actual sense, it creates huge surface area to break down the waste and reduce the ammonia to nitrite to nitrate before it reaches dangerous levels.

[Jeffrey]

[quote:fd963d511a="kelstorm"]Yes, a sump tank is the mini tank located in the cabinet normally. No, a sump tank is not a must for you to use a protein skimmer. In freshwater case, sump tanks are used for placing filter media for better quality water. In saltwater, most of them put DSB (deep sand bed) to nitrified water. This is what I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck on your setup.

just to correct one small mistake, DSB dun nitrify the water in that actual sense, it creates huge surface area to break down the waste and reduce the ammonia to nitrite to nitrate before it reaches dangerous levels.[/quote:fd963d511a]

kelstorm,

thank you for correcting me. guess what? i learned something new again. guess i still got long way to go

[kelstorm]

[quote:6705444ea1="Jeffrey"][quote:6705444ea1="kelstorm"]Yes, a sump tank is the mini tank located in the cabinet normally. No, a sump tank is not a must for you to use a protein skimmer. In freshwater case, sump tanks are used for placing filter media for better quality water. In saltwater, most of them put DSB (deep sand bed) to nitrified water. This is what I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck on your setup.

just to correct one small mistake, DSB dun nitrify the water in that actual sense, it creates huge surface area to break down the waste and reduce the ammonia to nitrite to nitrate before it reaches dangerous levels.[/quote:6705444ea1]

kelstorm,

thank you for correcting me. guess what? i learned something new again. guess i still got long way to go [/quote:6705444ea1]

it is ok.. we are just exchanging ideas.. i'm also learning at the same time..