Silly newbie question

[roseselene]

Hello!! I'm quite glad I found your board. Lots of info!!! I'm just brand new to setting up a marine tank. I have been doing freshwater for years. Right now, I just have my tank, the water, live sand, and live rock. I'm waiting for cycling to do anything else. My question is this...is there a difference in termonology when someone refers to "marine aquariums" vs. "reef tanks" ?
Thanks!

 

[tangir1]

Welcome to RDO, roseselene!

reef tank is a type of marine aquarium. If you have a reef tank, you can call it a marine tank. But not all marine tanks are reef tanks. For example, some of us may have a cold water marine tank, and there is no tropical reef critter in there.

Oh, for cycling, do you have a skimmer setup?

 

[ChrisRD]

I basically think of any saltwater system as a marine aquarium (ie. fish-only systems, reefs, cold, temperate, tropical, etc.)

To me, a reef tank is a saltwater system that has tropical reef fish/corals/inverts in it...

...and BTW...

 

[roseselene]

Oh, for cycling, do you have a skimmer setup?

Hi! We do have a protein skimmer -- SeaClone brand. I do have a question about filtration though. We have gotten a lot of conflicting advice from the employees at the LFS and have just managed to get more confused then when we started. We have two aquaclear 300 hang on the back of the tank power filters that we used to use for our freshwater. One person said that was fine...as long as we didn't want corals or anenomes. Another person looked at us like we were the stupidest people on the earth and had no business trying to do a marine tank...and the third said, that it should be fine for now and we may want to consider investing in a wet/dry down the road as we get more experienced and learn more. Then.....we read that wet/dry's are good, but that haveing a deepsandbed may be just as good if not better, so we were just considering getting more sand...We have a 55 gallon and have 60 pounds in there right now and it is about 2 1/2 inches right now. If we just get more sand, should we be ok? Do we need the hang on the back filters? or are they a detriment?
Thanks!!!
Amy

 

[ChrisRD]

IME, if you have enough live rock/sand and a decent skimmer you really don't need any additional filtration. IMO you have enough sand now and I doubt adding more will have any effect either way - positive or negative.

The hang-on filters are OK if you're cleaning them regularly. Personally, I wouldn't run them continuously - I'd just throw one on there for a few days a month to run activated carbon.

They can also be useful for periodic detritus removal. You can "storm" your rockwork periodically with a powerhead or turkey baster to get all the crud suspended in the water column while running the hang-on filters...

The problem with running them continuously if you're not keeping them really clean is that detritus and uneaten food can get trapped in them and start decomposing, reducing your water quality. Another option is to just leave them running (for additional circulation) without the cartridges in, and then just put the cartridges in peridiocally as needed.

IMO if you're going to invest anymore money in filtration, you'd be better served by getting a better skimmer.

HTH

 

[tangir1]

>...IMO if you're going to invest anymore money in filtration, you'd be better served by getting a better skimmer.

Ditto. Depends on what you end up in the tank, the SeaClone may not be sufficient for it.