Differance In Reef And Marine?

[the goldfish man 0]

Hi all im getting a marine/reef tank this one

http://www.aquaone.co.uk/aquamarine_900.php

i want to keep coral in the tank soft and hard ones and also some blood shrimp and fish. i want lots of nice coral will i be doing the wrong thing in getting that tank. would it sustain coral as well as fish

and is a marine tank a tank with no coral but fish

and a reef tank a tank with coral and fish

[Lupin 11]

There are basically three marine setups recognized.

1. Fish only.

2. FOWLR (Fish only with live rocks)

3. Reef (corals are the main focus)

[the goldfish man 0]

by live rock do you mean live rock or coral.....

i think mine would fall under a reef tank.as there would be lots of coral

could you tell me if the tank in question would be ok. if so how many fish would i be able to keep in the tank.. the filter states it can cope with 4kg of fish feeding 1% of there body weight on a 35% protin diet or some thing like that lol would coral also put stress on the filter or would i be right in saying the coral would help the filter?

thank you

[Lupin 11]

I meant the live rocks, porous rocks that harbor a lot of critters including featherdusters, shrimps, crabs, etc. Be careful what you may get from the live rocks. There are some nasty surprises such as fireworms, mantis shrimps and crabs that may obliterate your fish and corals.

What fish do you plan to keep? It depends totally on the fish you plan to keep. Some fish may be too big for that tank and may not also be reef-safe if they eat corals.

I'll leave the question about corals to others such as Man Yu. They can answer that better than I can since I have only done FOWLR, not reef.

[the goldfish man 0]

of course the fish listed below are just ideas and may change if they cannot be kept with coral

soft coral all live

hard coral all live

blood shrimp (1 or 2)

wrasses

firfish

clown fish

seahorse (possible if tank runs 100%

surgeons

[Snider82 3]

Before you decide to buy a tank, you should look into what fish you would like to keep. Make sure they are Reef Safe. i believe all the fish you listed are ok in a smaller tank. i don't know about Sea Horses... i think if yo go with Sea horse, you are stuck with only sea horse. as for coral.. if you have the proper lighting (4-7 Watts per gallon or more) you could keep any coral/clams.

you will need 1-2Lbs of live rock per gallon.

when u pic your corals, read about their requirement before buying them, check how much flow/light they need. some corals if too close to each other will have a chemical warfare, they would need to be separated within the tank.

best thing to do is look around and make a full plan of what you like in your tank, and research it before buying.

it looks like the tank comes with the needed filtration. there is no protein skimmer, but i see alot of tanks without it.

so to get started you need

-tank

-Live rock

-argonite sand bed

-salt mix (and something to check the salinity)

go see a LFS that deals with S/W they should help you out with getting started.

[Man Yu 1]

I would stick to a strictly all-soft coral reef setup if this is to be your first attempt at a mini-reef. Hard corals are generally less hardy than soft corals and would require regular dosings of magnesium, Calcium carbonate/Kalkwasser solutions, strontium and many other mineral supplements in additon to high-intensity lighting and specific waterflow currents. Soft corals generally only require bright lights and occasional iodine supplementation and that's it (although some types require manual feedings as well... do your research well!)

Seahorses are also generally avoided in reef setups because

1: the strong water turnover rate required by the corals are not an ideal environment for the seahorses which prefer mild water movement

2: A lot of coral species can produce stinging cells or toxic secretions which are harmful to the slow-moving seahorses

3: Seahorses are actually found in seagrass beds in nature, not in the coral reef itself. The food that the horses feed upon, namely free-swimming copepods and zooplankton, are found in abundance in that area as opposed to the reef which is mainly populated by bottom-dwelling and substrate-hugging microfauna which only come out at night, which is when the horses prefer to sleep

4: There's all sorts of nasty stuff frequently present in live rock which could be lethal to seahorses, such as predatory crabs or mantis shrimps, Aiptasia pest anemones, etc.