Setting up first salt water tank.

[Merc Dr.]

I have a 90gal tank that had been previously used for fresh water fish. It's been in storage for about 5 years and I'm planning on trying my hand at salt water. So far I've read a few books and have "The New Marine Aquarium" that I've been using for all my reference.

I have 2 filters from the freshwater tank I was planning on using after replacing all the media. I plan to buy 2 powerheads and a protein skimmer. I plan on using a live rock filtration set up. So here's my questions so far.
1. What brands of skimmer should I look at? I want a reliable, budget friendly, easy to maintain,tank mounted model. How is Coralife?
2. What brand powerheads? Like wise, reliable, budget friendly.

I don't want generic, but I also don't want the most expensive, professional models available.

 

[wontonflip]

Welcome to the site!

1. Skimmer brands: Octopus is always at the top of the list. Sure you can find much cheaper ones, but they won't be as effective.

2. Koralias or Vortechs are good powerhead brands.

Do not use your freshwater filters in saltwater. You'll just be asking for trouble with those. They're best left for freshwater. The only filtration you need are the sand and rocks.

Are you going to have a sump? If your tank is not predrilled, you'll have to get a couple of hob overflows. Otherwise, you can drill your own overflows. There are lots of people here who have done it :) Just search for it.

If you are not getting a sump, then you can get a good HOB Octopus skimmer.

Hopefully you never dosed your freshwater w/ copper, because if you did, you will have an extremely difficult time keeping inverts or corals, since they are extremely sensitive to small amounts of copper. And copper tends to leach into the silicone that binds the tank.

 

[ErinCahir]

Reef Octopus makes fabulous, budget friendly skimmers.
And I was always happy with Korelias as far as water movement goes.

Welcome to the site

EDIT: Ninja'd by the midget! :D

 

[cvcdrk]

Edit: Both of you beat me! haha

A lot of people are really fond of the Reef Octopus skimmers and they typically have great reviews. They're priced really well too in my opinion.

Powerheads are a different story. It depends on your budget. If you can afford them, nothing beats the EcoTech Marine Vortech pumps (MP10 or MP40) and what you can do with them.
If that's outside your budget there's plenty of other options. I would probably go with more than just two powerheads for a tank that size, personally. You want to turn over at leas 30x your tank volume per hour (I currently turn over about 66x). The more the better and you want to eliminate dead spots and keep the flow random, this is usually easier to accomplish with more powerheads.

As far as cheaper recommendations, a lot of people like the Hydor Koralia powerheads. I have a 750gph one. It is fine, but they have their issues from what I've experienced....they don't like to be shut off and they need to be cleaned more than I'd like.
I recently bought a 500gph JBJ Oceanstream powerhead and I couldn't be happier with it. It is much smaller than the Hydor (a plus for me) and it uses special tech to disperse the flow better. It also uses a magnet like the Hydor to secure it to the glass, which is MUCH MUCH safer than using suction cups (and usually looks better).

As for the filters, you don't really need them. You might benefit from using one of them for some media like carbon or something but it isn't necessary and using them with regular media will require you to clean them far more often than you had to when they were used for freshwater.

 

[Merc Dr.]

Thanks for the replies. Now that a couple people said it, I think I do remember omitting the filters. I think I was considering one of them for the carbon and the fact that it has biowheels for the bacteria.

Do the Octopus skimmers have a built in pump? Or do I have to buy a seperate one?

I don't plan on running a sump just yet. I want to keep it simple for now. I'm just doing live rock and fish.

 

[wontonflip]

EDIT: Ninja'd by the midget! :D

UNGH we SO think alike ;)



Mine came w/ the pump.

No need to have biowheels for bacteria because the rock and sand will have all the bacteria you'll need. The biowheel is just good for fw. You should keep a filter to run carbon in emergencies. I have lots of spare tank parts in my drawers :)

 

[ErinCahir]

UNGH we SO think alike ;)



Mine came w/ the pump.

No need to have biowheels for bacteria because the rock and sand will have all the bacteria you'll need. The biowheel is just good for fw. You should keep a filter to run carbon in emergencies. I have lots of spare tank parts in my drawers :)

Yeah hi. That's because you're my internet wife.

 

[moncapitane]

Welcome to the site. I currently have a 55 gallon with two used Koralias 1400s. That should be more than enough flow but they are nice fans so far.