Do I need anything else for a fish only tank?

[Dracko]

I see where your getting a lot of advice. It's not bad advice, but I consider it to be very incomplete.

What needs to be understood is that keeping a SW system requires a completely different mindset from a FW system, In other word, you have to almost unlearn and relearn what your doing. While a lot of equipment is the same, there are often advantages to using something different. There is also equipment that is used in SW that is seldom used in a FW system. If it's any consolation, the same things occur for someone going from a SW system to a FW system. While the goals are similar, how you get there is usually very different.

One example is biological filtration. In a FW system the bio media is usually in the filter or the gravel if you use an under gravel filter. In SW the bio media is your live rock. That's just one example.

What you need to do is to get some background information so you'll be able to ask all the right questions. Not that the questions you asked were bad or anything, but you need to know how this all fits together.

Now you can do a lot of reeding on the net, but you will tend to find this very confusing because it's overwhelming and conflicting. I recommend you get a few good books on the subject and study them first.

Here are two I recommend -

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner

The New Marine Aquarium by Michael Paleta <---This book has an especially good section on fish suited to someone starting off in the hobby.

BTW, there is no sin in getting them used off of Amazon, or similar vendor.

Getting back to your specific questions -

With chemical media you can reasonably go any way you like. Some rune with none at all, some use carbon, other like Purigen, others like Chemi Pure. There are also a host of other chemical media you might want to run. It's a wide open field. To add to the fun, some run chemical media only part time. Other people may differ, but if this were my system I'd run a good quality carbon to start with. You can remove it later if you don't need it, or change to something else.

As for test kits, you'll need new ones made for SW. Personally, I like Sailfret or Seachem for aquarium grade test kits. I'm not a fan of API here. I also highly recommend you get a refractometer over a hydrometer. A refractometer will be a lot more accurate over time, and you only need about 2 drops of water for a test.

Other areas to consider.

You may wish to rethink your filtration system. Hang on the back filters, while they will work, are often less then ideal in SW systems.

What is the make and model of your skimmer? There are a lot of good skimmers out there, but there is also some of junk out there. See what the people here think.

Lastly, your going to find that most LFSs for one reason or another are not experts on any type of advanced aquarium system. Trust but verify everything they tell you.

Good luck.

What this text is missing, and you need to consider, Is that YOU WILL GET HOOKED. Prepare in your research to grow with time. It is easy to skip over things that you don't feel you will need to know. I too have several, and have had many FW tanks. I started out, like you, with a FOWLER tank, and a minimalist attitude. I too am on a tight budget. But that has not stopped me. I am using hang on filters and so far so good. But I have 100 g worth of filter on a 55 g tank. I also do regular water changes and test at least 2x week. I hope you have a good CUC also. Start big with that, eventually some will die off and you wind up with what you need. But, WARNING! YOU WILL BUY YOUR FIRST CORAL, AND THEN ANOTHER, and then you are hooked. I changed my thread title to reef just recently. But do not fret. You can still stay in budget. Get corals that you can afford. Stick with softies and you can add beauty at a reasonable cost, and spread that out over time.

SW is much more exciting than FW, and that is why I thought to warn you...... you will get hooked.

 

[Pat24601]

What this text is missing, and you need to consider, Is that YOU WILL GET HOOKED. Prepare in your research to grow with time. It is easy to skip over things that you don't feel you will need to know. I too have several, and have had many FW tanks. I started out, like you, with a FOWLER tank, and a minimalist attitude. I too am on a tight budget. But that has not stopped me. I am using hang on filters and so far so good. But I have 100 g worth of filter on a 55 g tank. I also do regular water changes and test at least 2x week. I hope you have a good CUC also. Start big with that, eventually some will die off and you wind up with what you need. But, WARNING! YOU WILL BUY YOUR FIRST CORAL, AND THEN ANOTHER, and then you are hooked. I changed my thread title to reef just recently. But do not fret. You can still stay in budget. Get corals that you can afford. Stick with softies and you can add beauty at a reasonable cost, and spread that out over time.

SW is much more exciting than FW, and that is why I thought to warn you...... you will get hooked.

This is actually a great point. I started off thinking I was going to do FOWLR and that I really didn't even care about coral. I was so wrong. Coral are awesome.

I think you make a great point too that coral doesn't have to be expensive or hard to care for to look awesome. I know I (and others) throw a lot of money at sharp looking coral, but you really don't have to at all and in the long run you may be better off if you don't because the cheaper stuff often looks great and grows fast...that's why it's cheap.