Re: Marine tank ..sales guy confusing me..Help please!

Hi.
I have had a freshwater tank for 3 years or so now and am quite comfortable
maintaning it. Recently I contacted the guy to set up a marine tank with all
the beautiful fishes!

The confusion is how much should I spend? He keeps saying things like we can
do this, do that etc.. if I let him have his say, the cost is around 4000
dollars! Now some things are optional he says..soemone else says they are
essential to a healthy tank..bottom line is Im totally confused. What I want
is a healthy beginning marine tank where all the fish I keep are healthy! So
what exactly should I spend on and what should I avoid? I will be extremely
grateful for any help! While I do not mind spending as much as required I
definitely do not wanna spend more than is necessary just cos I am not
knowledgable on the subject-

So far this is the itemised list given: Tank Size is 6 feet by 4 feet by 2
feet-

35kg salt
Live rocks or corals- Im supposed to pick but i have no clue..lol
black background
trickle filter
crushed sea shells
gravity meter
ph meter
some other meter
lighting

He says I can go with corals and avoid a lot of expense by choosing not to
have live rocks but i will not be able to keep sea anemone's or urchins etc-
so what should I do?

Thanks again, Please email me if you wish.
Ajay Malkani




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Start reading and don't jump into anything

http://www.reefs.org/

http://reefcentral.com/

2 great places to start.

[reefman MC]

Sounds to me like he don't know what he's talkin about. You can go with
a reef which will have live rock, corals, invertebrates, and a few
fish. You can also do fish only or fish only with live rock. If your
going to keep corals you will need strong lighting about 7 watts per
gallon of tank water. Their are three different kind of lights you can
go with PC- Power compact, VHO- Very High Output, or MH-Metal Halide
which are the best.


VHO - Very High Output: VHO looks just like your regular standard
bulbs, except with the use of special Electronic Ballasts, they can put
out more wattage. An example, standard 48" bulb is 40 watts 48" VHO
bulb is 110 watts. VHO has been around for many years and they have
more VHO bulbs in more spectrums than any other type of lighting. This
means you have a wide array of bulb choices. VHO is powerful enough to
keep any coral or clam. It does not penetrate the water as well as
halide, so it's best used for soft coral tanks up to 30" deep, hard
coral tanks up to 24" and SPS and clams should be within 18" or less
from the light. These are basic guidelines and can be broken. We
personally feel VHO has the nicest look with Soft corals and LPS
corals, and believe these types of corals thrive the best under VHO.

Compact Florescent: Also referred as Power Compacts. This is a
florescent technology, except the bulb is powered from one end, not end
to end like VHO. It's also a smaller U tube type design. Compacts
entered the market many years ago, and on paper are superior to VHO.
They have more watt for watt output. Example: 55watt Compact bulb is
roughly as bright as a 95 watt VHO tube. Their lower price (on most
sizes), more watt output, and compact size has made them extremely
popular. The biggest drawback is the 7100K Actinic blue is not a true
actinic. The lamps do not have the same glow VHO puts off, so it's a
different look and may also contribute to algae problems. Until
recently they only had a 6700K daylight bulb. So your bulb choices are
much more limited, also limited to one manufacture for the PFO/CSL
brand compacts. They recently released a 8800K crisp white and a Smart
lamp which is half blue/half white. So they are making improvements in
this technology everyday, a new 10K bulb is expected in August. We feel
compacts work great for soft corals, LPS, and even SPS and clams.
55watt is usually great for up to 24" deep, 96watt for deeper tanks, or
more clam/sps tanks. For a smaller tank, 36" length or less, it's
really tough to beat compact's price.

Metal Halide: This is your most powerful form of lighting. A halide
bulb creates an arc of light so bright that it can spread up to a 36"
wide tank. It's the closest form of lighting compared to the sun. You
can use halide for soft corals, lps, sps and clams. The most common use
is for those wanting more sps and clams. Some guidelines are 1 halide
bulb for every 2 feet of tank, up to 3 feet. 175watt up to 24" deep,
250watt up to 36" deep, 400watt for deeper tanks. It's very common for
hard core reefers to use 400watt on even a small 30 gallon tank. When
it comes to sps and clams, they can handle and thrive under intense
lighting. With halide, you also need to consider the Kelvin, which is
the color temp. 5500K warm white, 6500K warm white, 10K Crisp white to
blue tint, 12K-20K blue tint. For mixed reefs, we recommend the 10K
bulbs, for sps and clams, we recommend the 65K's. If you go 55-65K, we
highly recommend VHO or PC actinics, they will improve the overall
color and look of the tank.

This info came from Premium Aquatics.
The trickle filter will do but I would definitely get a protein skimmer
if I had nothing but a trickle filter. Your live rock will be your
biological filter if you decide to go with live rock. For the skimmer
maybe an AquaC remora Pro. I guess he's telling you to use crushed
shells for substrate, but I would definitely go with a 4 inch deep sand
bed. The specific gravity meter is necessary, and I would get a master
test kit to test PH and nitrate and ammonia. Don't forget you need to
let your tank cycle for about a month or so before adding corals or
fish. Any more questions post them up.


--
reefman MC
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