Taking a step into the marine world

[LondonDragon]

Hello everyone,

I am sure you guys will be able to help me, I am in the process of looking for an upgrade for my planted tank, I will be going from a 29g to a 60g/80g for my planted.

I was thinking in converting my 29g into a marine tank rather than having two planted or selling it, and it will give me an oportunity to get me started in the marine world. As it looks so much more interesting than the planted tank world.

I am just wondering what extra equipment I need and if I can use most of my existing equipment.

I have a Juwel Rio 125 tank, holds 125 liters or 33 US Gallons

At present it has an internal filter that comes with the tank 168 gallons per hour and I also have an Eheim 2224 canister filter that runs at 185 gallons per hour. I was thinking about removing the internal filter? or maybe I should leave it? Is the combination of both enough for a marine? or would the external be enough?

At present it as 4 x 24w = total 96w T5 lighting, I was thinking of adding two more 24w T5 to make it a total of 6 x 24w T5 = total of 144w, or would the 96 be enough?

I have a 200w heater in the tank also.

Would I be able to use the above equipment and what else would I need?

I was thinking about a seahorse tank, but have been told they are dificult to keep, the tank is probably too small and not a good start for a beginner. So I am thinking about a fish, soft coral and some live rock to start with, maybe a couple of clowns, couple of shrimp, hermits and snails.

Just to show what I will be upgrading, here is my current planted tank:

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5151/pict0025mv2.jpg


Many thanks

[Roy G. Biv]

Some things you need to consider... People frown upon using a freshwater tank for saltwater, mainly because freshwater keepers tend to use too much medication that may bind to the silicone and leech back into saltwater. I dont know how true this is.
Your lighting probably is ok, you just may want to look for 10K bulbs instead of plant bulbs. Its not that critical, it mainly looks better.
You should pick up some sort of skimmer.
Use liverock as your main filtration, it just needs to be in the tank. Craigslist always has ads from people breaking down tanks. Live rock is pretty cheap. Also Ebay. I bought 50lbs from this guy in FLA. It was smaller sized but pretty decent.

[LondonDragon]

Thanks Pmolan,

I already have the 10k tubes that came with the light unit, I replaced them with tubes for my planted but kept the 10k tubes just in case. And I am looking at adding another 2x24w light unit to the tank.

I will have to look into that about the chemicals from the planted tank as I do use quite a few powder and liquid ferts.

So I guess with the live rock my filtration will be enough, guess I will need a couple of powerheads for circulation.

The skimmer I will have to get something decent to start with, I have seen them mounted on the side of the tank, I will have to investigate whats available for my size tank.

Cheers

[wiscsaltwater]

Just wanted to say that looks amazing, im not a huge fan of freshwater but that looks beautiful.