Tank Setup

[RMS86]

Hi All,

I currently own a juwel rio240 with freshwater fish in, In the future I would like to convert to a marine tank with corals. I was planning on using juwels equipment which is designed to fit my tank.

My tank currently has T5 light fittings, and a standard juwel internal filter, and from what I can understand, all I need to do is fit the juwel protien skimmer & fit new tubes to my light fitting and my tank setup will be sufficient, is this correct?

The standard pump is a 600 litres/hr

the standard tank spec can be found here

http://www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk/Prod...00000000003320

the new protien skimmer spec can be found here:

http://www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk/Prod...er-3-0-GB.html

the new light tubes specs here

http://www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk/Prod...er-3-0-GB.html

Am I correct in assuming this is enough to prep my tank for saltwater fish? I know I need more test kits, live rock etc, I just wanted to see if this was OK as I dont want to add a sump.

[Cliff]

You don't need a sump to have a good marine set-up, although that is my personal preference. That set-up looks like it would work OK.

You can set this up as a marine tank. You will most likely need to get different test kits for SW as most of them do not accurately test parameters in both fresh and salt water. API is the only one that can, but you still need different color charts.

The below links might also be a little helpful

http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.co...ne-aquarium-2/

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=76398

[RMS86]

Thanks for the reply Cliff, I have just read the 1st link you posted, the 1st thing that stands out to me is the pump requirements. My tank is a 240L. the skimmer pump is 1500 l/ph & the standard internal filter pump is 600 l/h, so combined the total is 2100 l/hr. According to that article, I need a minimum of 3600 l/hr (15x240). Do you think I need a 3rd pump? Or would you remove the standard internal filter and fit a larger pump in its place?

Thanks in advance

[Cliff]

Converting to Canadian imperial measurements, you have a ~70 gallon which is 48 inches long with around 525 gph of flow (or 7.5 times flow). That is pretty low for a marine set-up

Unless you are planning a set-up with inhabitants that require such low flow, it would be a good idea to increase the flow a little.

I would suggest keeping the equipment as is, and adding a tunze or similar brand powerhead with about 900 gph (or 230 LPH) of flow. A tunze model 645 would fit it the bill, or better yet, two tunze model 625s. That would bring you up to around 21 times flow. The below website can also help you find a good deal in the UK on stuff like that.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/

[RMS86]

Thanks, in a quick search i found a pump at (4500l/h) that will bring it up to scratch, hopefully!

my next question is my lighting, is it sufficient for corals?

[Cliff]

The answer to that would depend on the corals in question

What you could do is get a 4 or 6 bulb T5HO fixture and then just use a different combinations of bulbs to get to the correct lighting requirements. LEDs are also a option but cost more up-front.

For lower light corals which are many of the soft corals, the 4 bulb with one 12,000 to 18,000K white bulb, one super blue bulb 20,000 to 22,000K, one acintic, and one fuji purple would be good.

For med light corals which are some of soft and LPS corals,4 bulb with one 12,000 to 18,000K white bulb, two super blue bulbs 20,000 to 22,000K, and one acintic would be good.

For high light requiring corals, such as SPS, corals,6 bulb with tow 12,000 to 18,000K white bulbs, two super blue bulbs 20,000 to 22,000K, one acintic and one fuji purple would be good.

You could also use the 6 bulb for low light corals using the additional two bulbs as acintic blubs. This might be your best approach as you will not limit yourself in the future.

If you want LEDs, two or three units of AI SOLs or two or three of the Radons would work well. You would just need to play around with the mixture of light using the controller to get the correct levels.

[RMS86]

thanks again for the response,

is my existing lighting sufficient for any corals at all? Ideally I could upgrade the lighting at a later date?

[Cliff]

As the current lighting is a double T5HO, you really don't have enough light for most corals. Maybe if you were to use a super blue and a 12 to 18K bulb, you could have some corals up on the rocks closer to the lights (about 1/2 way to the top of the tank).

It would certain be very good for a fish only set-up. If you would go fish only to start, I would replace the bulbs with two acintic bulbs. That will make the colors of the fish look a lot better while limiting the amount of usable light for marine algae.

You can always up-grade the lighting latter