Converting tank help needed please

[tankgirl]

Hi all,

Just found this forum and would like to say how great it looks. I have been keeping tropical fish for about 2 years now and now I feel its time to go over to marine fish now. Ive always loved the look of marine fish, the rocks, plants and so on and I really want to have a set up.

I would like to know would it be possible to convert a Jewel Trigon 190 tank to contened with marine fish or would it prove to give me to many problems?
I have been to a marine suppliers shop and he gave me advice telling me it could be done. I just wanted to ask this question to as many people as possible, hoping to get opinions, pro's and cons and advice to help me decide what to do.

Just to add, the guy in the shop quoted me £674.00 which included a Sea clone protein skimmer, live sand, hydrometer, lights/bulbs, heater and internal filter - but would have to add R/O water and anything else I wanted in it - is this worth it?

Once again, great looking forum,

tankgirl
(Michelle)

 

[jhnrb]

Welcome to the site. I hope your visits here are fun and informative. I would like first of all to refer you to the helpful articles forum. on the 1st page are some articles for beginners in saltwater. recommend you read um and then come back here with your questions. again welcome to the site. anything is possible but i so sure of the internal filter or the cost. you quoted. i am sure others will weigh in here also. keep us posted.

 

[Bifferwine]

Well, your lights are going to be the most expensive part, if you buy all new lights (I don't know what you currently have) that's gonna run at least $400 US for a decent set. The protein skimmer is the next most expensive part, a good one will cost around $200 US, but you can usually find good deals and stuff on sale if you wait... Live sand is not absolutely necessary (as jhnrb said, you can read more about that in the Helpful Articles section). Live rock is probably necessary (and that can be REALLY expensive, but you don't have to buy all of it at once). A filter is not absolutely necessary if you have a good protein skimmer (again, you can read about that in the articles). And a hydrometer and heater are very inexpensive compared to everything else. R/O water can be expensive, if you have a big tank it might be worth it to invest in making it yourself instead of having to buy it. So considering the coversion rate right now, I'd say that what that guy quoted you is a pretty good estimate, if you get high quality products. You can always get lower quality products for about half the price, then upgrade later, which is what I have done, and am slowly upgrading everything one at a time. This may be more expensive in the long run, but it's worked for me since I don't have a lot of money all at once. Hope this has helped! Your best bet is to read the articles and look online to get an idea of the price range of equipment you are interested in.

 

[salt newbie01]

Welcome to living reefs. I would agree to what the others have already said. You could continue to use the built in filtration system but you might want to take the filter media out of it, basically just using it for water movment. With maring aquariums the filter media becomes a host for nitrates. With marine tanks a lot of the filtration is in the live rock and the skimmer. The sea clone skimmer is not the best but it is affordable. I am currently using one now but I am going to upgrade soon. If you don't overload your tank with fish it would do fine for a while. A lot of choices depend on what kind of tank you are going to keep. Do you want fish only or do you want to keep corals? Also what kind of corals? It can be quite overwhelming at first. Do some research and ask lots of questions before you start to buy. It will safe you lots of money and headaches! HTH

 

[minireefer]

Welcome to the forum.Adding to what the other already stated.I am not a big fan of seaclone skimmers either.Another skimmer that close to the seaclone price stateside is a coralife super skimmer.I have had real good results with it.
50 us gollons will be a nice setup.With the lighting it depend on what coral you want if any?If you decide not to keep coral right now.I would just replace the 18watt bulbs with actinic and 10 k,or both with 50/50's to get a nice color spectrum over your tank.If you decide on coral wityh corner tank like your a halide light pendant would be the best maybe 20 or 15 k..
here is a t5 lighting kit from a uk vendor that I believe will work and provide a nice amount of light for most coral
Aquatics Warehouse UK D D MEGALUX LIGHT UNIT
They have some aqua medic skimmers wich are much better than the seaclone.There is one for $79.