Want to get into Saltwater

[WA98296]

We are hoping have a saltwater setup of some sort. At this point we aren’t even sure if we’ll be “fish only” or finding a way to create a “reef” which would be totally awesome. We would like to know what we can do with our current equipment, and what we need to make it into a saltwater environment. Particularly concerned with the lights -- would these be suitable for anything?

This is what we own now:

Oceanic 90 Bowfront with Overflow (stand and cap)
Oceanic Sump 1 (megaflow)
Coralife compact fluorescent, w/ four 65 watt bulbs 6700K
Not sure of the pump -- started with a Rio 2500, but exchanged it for another brand after reading about problems.
Heater in the sump

A side note, we need to fit new equipment into the curved stand, so there’s not a lot of space. Thanks for any suggestions or pointers to good articles for newbies.

[sausageman]

You have all the basic stuff for going ahead and starting a saltwater setup, but one thing you are missing, would be a skimmer. Probably the most important thing on a saltwater tank. theres a lot of good skimmers that you can buy to fit under your stand, but can be pricey.. do a search on this website for some good brands or even DIY (to save a lot of money).

Your lights that you own right now, could probably support some low light corals, but i'd suggest you'd go with VHO or MHs for a nice reef setup.

hope this helps out a little, its a friendly place here and a lot of knowledgable people.
adios

[ErinGoBragh]

My advice, and probably the most important is to ask tons of questions, then more questions, and do tons of reading before purchasing anything. lots of money can be lost by buying the wrong products, and then having to replace them later. Also, unless yours is an exception to the rule, don't take your lfs's advice unconditionally. They are trying to sell you something, and it may not be the best product for your needs.

One more piece of equipment I would recommend is a RO-DI unit. My lfs told me that tap water would be fine for a SW tank. I think he just was overstocked on salt and knew I would end up doing bi-weekly water changes for 2 months. Green water is no fun at all!

[ErinGoBragh]

oh, welcome to TRT!

[skeety]

I agree with everyone. The TWO things that separates a successful Saltwater hobbiest from everyone else, is this:

RESEARCH! and most important PATIENCE!

this is a WONDERFUL hobby...and I can't tell you how exciting and frustrating (at the same time) this hobby will become to you in the months ahead.

You can very easily LOWER the frustration amount by being patient and getting all the facts before making a purchase/decision.

But you started out doing the best thing you could ever have done...and that's stumble accross this site. Just 4 months ago, I was like you....a pro at freshwater, and new to saltwater. You'll learn so much here...and you'll actually enjoy doing it.

Now...enough pitching this web-site (man...you'd think I own stock! hahaha) and on to your specific question.

Agreed with Sausageman. You'll want to get a skimmer. You can get a cheap one now, and a month later realize you should have got a better one, and regret the money you wasted....or you can do it right the first time. This is one of the most important pieces of equipment you will get (and the price is going to match that fact). But it's well worth it in the end. The better your skimmer, the less problems you'll have later on down the road. Check out My Reef Creations. They have some good skimmers, and a VERY helpful staff who will step you through what you need.

Other than that...I strongly recommend you do research here, on this site. On the web. In book stores! Check out our list of recommended books...the best books picked by all the users here. (Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman is a fanTASTIC book!)

And as Erin said...be VERY careful when deciding to agree with your LFS's advice. Sometimes their right, sometime's there wrong. (Just like me. And everyone on here).

This is ONE hobby where 2nd opinions matter!

Welcome aboard, and keep the questions coming!!!

[skeety]

To give more on what Erin said about the RO/DI (reverse osmosis/de-ionization) unit. This is DEFINATELY something you'll want to get eventually.

Unless you're blessed with really good tap-water. Take your tap water into your LFS for testing (or do it yourself), and find out the level of silicates/phosphates/nitrates in your tap water. If they are high, you'll have CONSTANT algae problems (among others) in your tank.

You can either get an RO/DI fitration system now, or just buy RO/DI water from your LFS/Walmart/grocery store/etc until then.

But with a 90 gln tank, that's gonna be a LOT of lugging around of water, seeing as you should do a 10-20% water change every other week.

Just wanted to give you some more info on that.

[ErinGoBragh]

Originally Posted by skeety

Unless you're blessed with really good tap-water. Take your tap water into your LFS for testing (or do it yourself), and find out the level of silicates/phosphates/nitrates in your tap water. If they are high, you'll have CONSTANT algae problems (among others) in your tank.

If you are on municipal water, you will have phosphates in your water. It is a Gov't mandate. It is added to "counteract" other dangerous chemicals they put in at the water treatment plants. I am not sure how good well water would be in the tank either, you would probably end up with a ton of buildup from the minerals in the water, and who knows what else would be in the water.

[WA98296]

Wow, thank you. I am overwhelmed with the responses.

First let me reply to the water. We live in Washington state and are blessed with some decent drinking water from our well. At least it tastes good to me but I guess we'll need to understand what's in it! LOL Since hubby is also a marine engineer, he likes to do the water testing, so I can't say off the top of my head what have out of our tap other than PH 7.5. I'll find out though and and compare them to what you've mentioned here.

I do know that we'll want a protein skimmer. The only thing is it will need to be housed in our sump area, which is not huge becuase it fits the bowfront tank, but the setup looks nice and neat so hopefully we'll be able to work within it. I have noticed that prices vary widely, but I'm not sure why yet. I'll be following your suggestions here to find out all I can. So I guess the first order of business will be to do a lot of research on protein skimmers, and learn all about our supply of water.

Thank you again, we don't mind spending some money, however buying things over and over again becuase we don't know what we're doing yet could get frustrating.

As far as researching on this site, I didn't run across many articles yet, I may be missing something. Should I just be doing a Search by topic -- not always easy when you don't know what you need.

Thanks again!

[ErinGoBragh]

no real articles really, but there is tons of information, you could start by checking out the discussions of the week in the archives. You will get a lot of good stuff there, and if you have any questions, ask them. If it has already been discussed, someone may put a link to the previous thread, and we will be glad to answer anything else that isn't clear. I am still fairly new to the sw thing, but there are others here that really know a ton. Good luck with your new sickness...Oops, I mean hobby!

[skeety]

Originally Posted by WA98296

As far as researching on this site, I didn't run across many articles yet, I may be missing something. Should I just be doing a Search by topic -- not always easy when you don't know what you need.
Thanks again!

Not exactly articles on this site. But if you just do a search (by keywords) for Skimmers, you'll get ton's of topics related to Skimmers. You might get lucky and find a few that actually have something like "What kind of skimmer should I get?" or "Which skimmers are the best" etc.

You have to read through some junk (us BS'n with each other) to get to some good info...but it's there. (plus...you'll get to know some people by reading all their BS. )

As you read a few threads, you'll start to get a better understanding of what you're looking for, and can go back and do a different, better educated search.

Each time, you'll be smarter than when you started.

Problem is..there's SOOO Much information here, that it's hard to organize it. So instead...they just keep everything, and let YOU sift through it. hahaah

if you give an honest effort, and still can't find the answer's your looking for, just post a new thread with your questions. No one here ever seems to get tired of answers questions. We're each learning, just like you, and when you ask questions we know the answer to, it makes us happy. We feel like we're actually made progress since we started as newbie's.

Also, if you want some more interesting reading, you can check out this site:

http://reefkeeping.com/index.htm

they have monthly articles on some interesting stuff. And you can look through their archives for past articles. Very good, informative information!!

anyways...glad to have you with us...and good luck!

[Tim224DT]

Just keep asking questions and more questions, This is a great site i have learned alot from this site. I wish i knew about this site before i bought some of my equipment i would have saved some money but i guess thats part of this hobby is to learn from your mistakes. But just asking questions.

Tim

[jamba]

To go Marine you will need:
- Fish & invert compatibility chart (so you can pick a harmonius family)
- Protein skimmer (Hang on tank, in-sump, or in-line)
- Salt (of course): Special salt is required from aquarium stores
- Suppliments: Calcium and buffer
- Test equipment: Temp, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates (you should have these from fresh water but make sure the test kit also works for salt), Salinity, Ph, Kh, Phosphates, Calcium (and optionally iodine, strontium, magnesium). You can get electronic testers but these cost $$. A good refractometer for measuring salinity is a good idea ($45-99), as the hydrometers are not too accurate.
- Lighting: If you want to grow coral you will want special lights to help them grow.
- Optional: Calcium Reactor, Refugium, UV light


Everyone around is crazy about RO/DI filters. If you have a good water source you do not need it. You can test your water to determine the levels of everything, and if it looks good then you can forget the RO/DI.

Good luck

[wharyat]

Good advice so far, welcome to TRT and saltwater!

[ErinGoBragh]

I'm not sure that I agree completely with Jamba's statement regarding RO-DI water not being necessary, but maybe I am incorrect. I have excellent water in my area, with low phosphates. I believe the problem is that as your water in the tank evaporates, the phosphates remain in the water, and over time as you add more and more top off water the phosphate levels will increase. Algae can not live without phosphates, so If you have a low phosphate level, you won't have any big issues with algae. In my case, within a couple of days (from using treated tap water) my tank got so full of cellular algae you couldn't see more than a couple inches into the tank. I fought this for months, and finally completely tore down the tank and started over. In hindsight, RO-DI would have been purchased before any of my other equipment. In my point of view, it is worth the expense for a large tank. Since my saltwater tank went from a 75 gallon tank to a 20 gallon tank, I just buy RO-DI water every week.

If it lessens the chance of a tank crash, I feel it is worth the 100 dollars.

[jamba]

An easy way around it ErinGoBragh (mighty Irish!) is to have a refugium with macro algae. That will outcompete other algae. Plus the algae will suck out other micronutrients.

Or, use phosban or other phosphate remover.