My 1st ever saltwater tank!

[mrwizard]

Hello every1, just been to my Lfs to pick up some sand and rocks for a cichlid tank, end up coming home with a 400litre marine tank with sump, should be getting delivered the end of this week I've just bought my skimmer 2, also gonna pick up a rodi unit, I need lights, power heads, sand and rocks, I'll need some help with this so any advice will be greatly appreciated
I'll post pics of the tank and skimmer I just picked up.

 

[Mrc8858]

I'll be following along..what do you plan on stocking in this tank

 

[fort384]

Any idea what you plan to keep in the tank? It is pretty deep so if you are after coral you will need to get some good lights.

What size is the sump? Are you planning on a refugium? How about an auto top off system? Have you considered an RODI filtration system? It might save you some headache down the road with algae issues.

 

[mrwizard]

Any idea what you plan to keep in the tank? It is pretty deep so if you are after coral you will need to get some good lights.

What size is the sump? Are you planning on a refugium? How about an auto top off system? Have you considered an RODI filtration system? It might save you some headache down the road with algae issues.

Not sure what I'm gonna keep in the tank, I keep tropical fish at the moment so I'm a newbie to all this lol, I probably will go with corals but that won't be till a long time down the road I wanna feel comfortable running the tank before I think about corals, but might be worth looking at lights that will be good enough now I suppose saves me changing over in the future.
I'm not sure what to do with the sump was hoping for some ideas, can't remember the size of the sump tho will let u know in a few days. The auto top off sounds like a good idea.
I'm gonna pick up a rodi unit on Thursday.

 

[Mrc8858]

If you can keep a FW tank comfortably then a fowlr setup really isn't much more difficult just need to use RO water and add salt...I think you'll be surprised at how easy it really is to keep a reef it can just be overwheling during the researching process but once your hands on its pretty straight forward

 

[mrwizard]

If you can keep a FW tank comfortably then a fowlr setup really isn't much more difficult just need to use RO water and add salt...I think you'll be surprised at how easy it really is to keep a reef it can just be overwheling during the researching process but once your hands on its pretty straight forward

Yeah my freshwater tank has been up and running for over a year now no problems hopefully it'll be the same with this tank. I find saltwater fascinating I should of changed over sooner, I can't wait to get started now.
I'm gonna pick up everything else on Thursday, do I need to use live sand? How about the rock? My Lfs sells cured rock I could pick some
Of that up?

 

[fort384]

No need for live sand.

You can buy a majority of your rock as base rock and then seed it with just a few pounds of cured live rock if you wish. that could potentially save you hundreds of dollars.

Several of us have been happy with rock and sand from http://www.reefrocks.net. Be advised though he does take his time with shipping. Seems like it takes most folks 2 weeks or so to get it from the time of ordering. It is really nice rock and sand though and I don't think anyone else can touch the price.

 

[mrwizard]

No need for live sand.

You can buy a majority of your rock as base rock and then seed it with just a few pounds of cured live rock if you wish. that could potentially save you hundreds of dollars.

Several of us have been happy with rock and sand from http://www.reefrocks.net. Be advised though he does take his time with shipping. Seems like it takes most folks 2 weeks or so to get it from the time of ordering. It is really nice rock and sand though and I don't think anyone else can touch the price.

Cool, so will any sand do? I suppose that becomes live over time 2?

I like the sound of save me hundreds of dollars haha even tho that would be pounds for me, I'm in the uk. Guess that's that website out of the question, thanks anyway tho. Hopefully my Lfs sells base rock 2, They sell reef bones or ocean bones 2, is that stuff any good?

 

[fort384]

You want to use aragonite sand.

I am sure you can find some base rock. It will be a fraction of the cost of cured LR

 

[mrwizard]

You want to use aragonite sand.

I am sure you can find some base rock. It will be a fraction of the cost of cured LR

I'm sure I seen aragonite sand there so thats good.
I'm gonna make a list of what I need I don't wanna be forgetting anything lol.

 

[fort384]

Sorry it's argonite. Autocorrect got me.

 

[mrwizard]

Sorry it's argonite. Autocorrect got me.

Lol no worries

 

[mrwizard]

Just having a think about what I'll need, and realised I'm gonna need a qt as I don't want any diseases or anything like that, my Lfs is quite clean and the guy who runs it was telling me today he's been doing reef for the past 20yrs but still I don't wanna take any chances, how big would I need a qt? Would a ten gallon be ok?

Just bought my first salt water book on the app store 2 lol got a feeling it's gonna be the first of many

 

[mrwizard]

Made a mistake the photo above is wrong this is the actual tank I'm getting

 

[fort384]

Nice.

10 gal QT ought to be sufficient.