Salt water setup help needed.

[Sayf]

Hi there, I bought a tank set up. It's a 200 tank has a external filter which cycles 600lph, uv steriliser, protein skimmer, 250w halide and the tank has 20kg coral sand.
Now the thing is those sand been in a fresh water tank for long time. Someone told me if I keep them sand in ocean salt water for few weeks it will become live again. Is that true?
And second thing is my tap water is soft can I use this to mix ocean salt to set up for marine or do I need to buy water curing filter or some device?
Need help asap cos if it's going to cost me too much then I'm gonna turn this to fresh water. Thought while I have all the equipment why not use it what's it made for.
Thanks.

 

[mr_X]

rinse that sand out thoroughly and put it back in the tank in salt water. after the tank cycles, the sand bed will become live.
it would be in your best interest to use reverse osmosis water or better. all of the dissolved solids in tap water can end up being a problem in tanks with inverts. at least they could fuel algae blooms.
you may be able to get away with tap water that's been treated with a tap water conditioner, but you'll never know without an actual analysis of the water.
that said, salt water tanks, especially reef tanks, are not cheap to maintain. be prepared to spend a LOT more money on components, additives, and livestock, than a fresh water setup.

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

Mr. X is exactly right! If money is of concern on a tank that size, freshwater is gonna be better for you.

 

[hackteck]

be prepared to spend, spend and spend some more lol

 

[Dary421]

On the other hand..., having a saltwater tank is soooooooooo cool but it also requires a lot of research and effort to get things going on the right track,...but if you like challenges then by all means join the party,there's so many people here that'll help you out ,....it's so rewarding to create a slice of the ocean in your living room,....but, it's also not cheap to do it properly,....IMHO ,...it's worth every penny!

 

[Henry405]

200 gallons means about 200 lbs of rock! Thats around $1000 already

 

[kurtyboh]

Henry, you dont have to purchase your entire stock of rock as live rock. You can do perfectly fine with base rock which can be found for a buck a pound or less. Yes the hobby can be expensive but most of sayf's expense is already covered. He has a reef setup and wants to know how to do the rest. Also I dont see the harm in getting some of the base rock to start and adding more in a couple of weeks or longer especially if only a few fish are added when the tank is cycled to conserve money. 50 lbs worth of rock and a tank stocked as if it were a 50 gal wouldn't harm anything... Just give a budding aquarist some extra water for small mistakes to be made.
A 200 gal tank will save money using a ro/di on nearly the first fill especially if you can get one off craigslist or ebay. There's a portable unit on purewaterclub.com which carey will hopefully be for us today which is like 60 bucks. That and a test kit will put the rest of your purchases (like fish) about a month out while the tank cycles. This time is also well spent planning the fish for your tank (make sure everything you want is compatible and generally finding out which fish interest you.)
There is a sticky in sw reef aquaria section about cost of ro/di for a yr so reading that may lead you on how to figure out what your water cost will be per yr. Since that is the min. cost you will have without adding fish or corals it would be a good factor in determining whether or not you can afford it.
After all that typing I would just like to say, if you're concerned about cost you may be able to trade for a fully setup smaller tank. I see deals like that on cl all the time, so you could end up with a tank full of rock coral and fish then all you need is the ro/di. Just a thought though.

 

[Sayf]

Thanx everyone.
The reason why I was thinking to run it as marine is i keep breeding cichlids and thought to set the saltwater set up and but pair of breeding clown fish and just keep them to breed. As I live in Uk things are bit expensive lol. But hey £200 for all that stuff I bought is really cheap cos the halide it's self worth 150 for sure. It's a Arcadia 250w halide with two t5 24" tube.
If it cost me another £200 to get it all going I don't mind spending that but problem is live rock is around £5-7 pound per kilo!

 

[Sayf]

200 gallons means about 200 lbs of rock! Thats around $1000 already

It's 200litre tank which is just below 50 gallon.

 

[kurtyboh]

You don't have to start your cycle with live rock at all, it will help and if you have enough can eliminate your cycle completely, but it doesn't hurt anything to either dose ammonia or add raw shrimp and cycle your tank that way. It may take a bit longer but like I said before it gives you time to research the fish you want and learn what you need to while nothing is in your tank except bacteria!
Also if your not planning a reef but staying fowlr for a while then most can get away with lower water quality, such as using treated tap water; still I personally would say getting a ro/di would be best but... can't force you to get one.
also a pr of breeding clowns will lay eggs approx. every 3 weeks and hundreds of them if your used to cichlids i believe you should get about 40-50 a time... many more with clowns and an lfs will want adult size fish so your looking at holding them for 6 months if that's what you plan on doing... just warning you-although the first few times not many may survive. maybe its not an issue just a warning if you're worried about cost the cost of keeping several tanks for raise babies in may complicate matters, although in the end could offset... who knows and once again your decision.

 

[Sayf]

You don't have to start your cycle with live rock at all, it will help and if you have enough can eliminate your cycle completely, but it doesn't hurt anything to either dose ammonia or add raw shrimp and cycle your tank that way. It may take a bit longer but like I said before it gives you time to research the fish you want and learn what you need to while nothing is in your tank except bacteria!
Also if your not planning a reef but staying fowlr for a while then most can get away with lower water quality, such as using treated tap water; still I personally would say getting a ro/di would be best but... can't force you to get one.
also a pr of breeding clowns will lay eggs approx. every 3 weeks and hundreds of them if your used to cichlids i believe you should get about 40-50 a time... many more with clowns and an lfs will want adult size fish so your looking at holding them for 6 months if that's what you plan on doing... just warning you-although the first few times not many may survive. maybe its not an issue just a warning if you're worried about cost the cost of keeping several tanks for raise babies in may complicate matters, although in the end could offset... who knows and once again your decision.

First of all thanx for your reply. As I said my plan is to breed that's all so here's few more thing I would like to know, let's say I manage to save 50 babies will I be able to keep them all in a big enough tank for them to grow up or will they start fighting and killing each other after few month? My thing is if keep them for 3 month and sell them for £10 each I'm making £500 pound after the expense I should come out with few hundreds. As I have few 4foot tank for my cichlid breeding which I mainly breed oscars and yellow lab. I hatch brine shrimp all most every day for them so expense isn't much apart from salt.
Once again thanx for replies.

 

[kurtyboh]

When buying 50 fish the lfs is going to be paying you bulk they may not have enough customers and sell to another lfs
Im not trying to discourage you, just inform
Im not sure as i dont breed clowns myself but i think you need seperate tanks for each batch you plan on keeping. There a several clown breeding threads on aa which you can answer many of your questions, but if you wanted more answers id start a new thread.