fish99

Hi guys and gals,

Basically I have a bit of spare space on a wall in my house and thought that a nice marine aquarium would be a nice addition to my lounge. I dont like the idea of having fish no matter what size swimming continously up and down a small tank so would like a tank about 6ft in length, and about 18-24" deep by a height whatever someone recommends. I would like to have some coral with a variety of coral friendly fish.

Can someone please recommend me a place where to go to or call and some piccys of set ups would be greatly appreciated.

I know that marine tanks are not the easiest things to set up and will make a fair old dent in my pocket but what sort of equipment do you need to run these things other than the tank.


Cheers

Neil

Stu.H

Have you ever ran a normal tropical tank?

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

Mate, marine is totally different to a tropical tank and if you don't know what you're doing even they can be a fucking nightmare. Don't even contemplate a marine tank - you don't know what you're doing (and I'm not being funny, but you really need to have experience before attempting to start one of those) and you need to do alot of homework before doing anything.

fish99

Cheers guys for the input..i have read they are not the easiest of things.. Im not the sort of person to rush into things and basically like to have a good idea before I do something. Only ever had cold water tanks when I was younger and nothing quite on this scale. I may consider tropical, just want to put the feelers out at this time

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

By all means get one, but make sure you have spent alot of time talking to people who have one and get their advice and feedback before even considering anything. Do you own homework as well

Stu.H

Ive started a successful tropical tank from scratch about 12 months ago, and even they can be quite hard to look after.

Dont get me wrong, a properly sorted marine tank would make a tropical one look inferior by far, but they are so so so hard to look after.

Given that, I've only just started to add the £25+ fish to my tank as it can take this long for the water to properly stabilise. When you consider tropical fish, most are around this price for the cheapest and even slightest water parameter difference could cause ALL your fish to die in one go. Tropical, there is only 4 or 5 main parameters to keep an eye on, with marine, I expect you can quadruple this.

Think of the fish

Stu.H

at least you are definitely sensible in this respect, get the biggest tank you can comfortably house as with the more volume of water, the more stable the water parameters will be

fish99

I have just joined that monsterfishkeepers.com going to have a browse around that site to see what the score is...deof dont want to jump into this 2 footed as killing everything would be my worse nightmare, really appreciate the comments lads

RS__vanman

keeping a saltwater tank isnt as hard as you think
once its set up and stable very little work is needed as the tank does it for you
for a six foot tank your gonna need loads of live rock maybe £400-£500 and a few good power heads to move the water at least 20 times an hour,the rock with water movement acts a filter
you will also need a big protein skimmer buy one thats rated more than the size of your tank its better to over skim
also when buying your tank try to get one with a sump there a bit more expensive but the extra water helps the tank to stay stable plus you can hide the skimmer,heater in there and put more live rock in it
take it slow is the key with marine tanks,set it up with water and live rock and leave it running for 8 weeks to mature then add 1 fish every 6 weeks.hardy ones at first it can months even years to get a good looking tank but the wait is well worth it
oh and you cant use tap water its better to use RO water mixed with a good quailty salt
you can mix it yourself or buy it from your local fish shop
heres a coulpe of sites that i use read read then read some more lol
http://www.marinefish-uk.co.uk/forums/
http://www.reefsuk.org/forum/index.php
hope this helps