setting up a marine aqurium from scratch and need help pleae

[Tigger1975]

Hello Everyone,
First I must say this site is wonderful!
Here is my situation. I have finally settled and would now like to set up a marine aquarium. I used to have a FO 75 gallon one about 10 years ago but due to divorce and moving to Scotland I had to give it up.
So basically I am looking at setting up an aquarium that is roughly 60 US gallons. I would like a FOWLR this time. The aquarium I was looking at is a Juwel and comes with a built in filter that filters about 180 gallons an hour. I know I will need more filtration than that but I am not sure which is best. I have done alt of research but everyone seems to have different ideas. How much more filtration will I need? I plan to have a protein skimmer but not sure if I should go with a canister or bio wheel filter or possibly something else all together.
Any help would be very appreciated

 

[jaiden]

newbie answer

OK I'm a newbie too, but I've read a TON lately, and the opinions herein are not mine, but those of people i'm listening to...

1) build a sump. 20 gal should be good.

2) Get a good skimmer for your sump.

3) get a pump for your sump that flows a LOT, but doesn't overrun your system draining back to the sump

4) build a refugium, either in your sump or otherwise, which has a DSB and macro algae, but with relatively low waterflow. I plan to build a baffle system into my sump when I build it

5) Get at least 1.2 pounds of "live rock" per gallon. you can start with 90% good "Dry" rock.. then cycle your tank using a dead cocktail shrimp. After this is done, add the last 10% of true Live rock.

6) Use a very fine aragonite sand as a base. "tropical play sand" sometimes is this kind. it will fizz when hit by vinegar. Add some true "live sand" to seed it as well. Do not use a DSB in your main tank if you want fish that will disturb the sand bed. This is the basis of my refugium recommendation

7) get enough PH's to get at least 10x flow

8) buy good lights, especially if you want to keep corals.

the above is my plan based on weeks of heavy reading.