New to marine tank

[troy999]

Hi

Wanting to learn from this site to set up new tank.
My first question is i have ro system and additives for fresh water, it appears i need to buy all new water additives for marine.

Could someone direct my to link area to find this info or explain which ones and products are needed to correct ro water for marine.

Thanks

[dobejazz]

Welcome to The Reef Tank Troy999
I moved your thread here to General Reef Discusion so more people will see it.

For a marine tank all you need is RO/DI purified water and a quality salt mix for you water.

[Reef-Keeper]

Originally Posted by dobejazz

Welcome to TRT Troy999
I moved you thread here to GRD so more people will see it.

For a marine tank all you need is RO/DI purified water and a quality salt mix for you water.

you will only need additives if you dont want to do water changes every couple of weeks, and have a heavily stocked tank, IMO. the salt mix should have everything you will need already in it, so doing water changes also replenishes used up minerals (not to mention, removes unwanted wastes).

BTW ... welcome to TRT

[zxcv123]

You dont normally nead chemicals put in a marine tank as they do in freshwater. Regular water changes will keep everything in balance.
You should, however, pick up some marine test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Calcium, PH, and Alkalinity/ carbonate hardness, preferably by seachem or salifert to moniter you water conditions.

So all you need right now is the appropriate ammount of salt mix to get you going.
Tell us what equipment you have already and what you would like to do with this tank so we can help you fearther.

Welcome to the board BTW!!

[hng]

Welcome to TRT! I don't think you will need any additives to beging with. You just need ro water and salt mix. Most people use Instant Ocean for their salt. I don't know what's available in New Zealand, but any major brand of artificial salt should work fine. You will also need a refractometer or some instrument to check your salinity or specific gravity of your salt water. Most people aim for around 1.025 for coral reef tanks and 1.022 for fish only tanks.

[ChrisPrusha]

Welcome aboard!! w00000000000000000000000000000000t!!!

[Glockafella]

yeah welcome and good luck! This is the place to get all the info u need. Dont be afraid to ask questions.

[medicdiver]

Welcome troy999, this is your stop for learning. For the rest of your life, you will be learning and learning and learning. Ohh, did I mention its a heck of a lot of fun 2. Anyway, use the search bar to your advantage, search and read. If you have any ?'s, feel free to ask, there is only 500,000,000,000,000,000 members here who can you out. Again welcome to TRT!!!!

[ChilisREasy]

never use chemicals to run a marine tank..use R/O or Distilled water..not drinking water...or get a R/O machine & use a good salt mix..Instant Ocean is one of the best IMO. & wait for the cycle...test water Quality throughly during cycle..then add fish & coral

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT!

[VWD]

Welcome to The Reef tank!!!!



Glad to have you Here

[troy999]

Thanks for the great welcome and information all.
This a great site to learn from.

pleased i dont have to treat my ro water, that was a surprise.
I have kept and breed discus fish for the last 5 years.

Water change of 25% every 2 weeks sounds a lot better than having to do water changes every day as with my discus.

I going to turn one of my smaller display tanks into marine to begin with, Tank is 140 litres.
My goal is to have a few types of fish likes of the clowns , live coral , anemones and plants etc.

first step for me is the filter system. i was going to use external canister, then decided with further learning to buy hung on refurgum, and now thinking go all the way and design one under the tank,
I have to say this the most confusing part to figure out, not seeing one in action.

So i think i need help from this site to figure it out a design. Not to worry i do joinery and made all my tanks and should be capable of my new challenge.

I will post pic soon of the tank and ask for some first step advice on sump design to fit in limited amount space.

cheers

[tims]

Welcome to TRT Troy
here is a link to our FAQ section, we have a few articles ( more to come soon) on reef tanks. you might want to give them a reading, they will help you out big time.
140 liters is around 36/ 37 us gallons, if that will help you when you look at things ( also for everyone else posting)
as you gather things ( like the salt and test kits you will need ) you want to have an idea of the type of corals you may want. this will help with the lighting issue. Doing the lighting right for your tank in future will end up saving you money.
the sump you are talking about is one of the articles ( tons of pics!)
your main filters for the tank will be the skimmer and your Live rock.
Anemones are not a very easy animal to care for, most require intense lighting , either Metal halide or T5's. also the tank should be mature ( perferable 1 year +-).

also we have a free blog area on here, you can start one anytime you want if you want to show your build off and not worry about others posting to it.
the photo gallery we have is also free, you can uplaod your pictures to that and then add them to your post.

please remember to ask as much as you need to. everyone started out in the beginning.