Hello From Greece

L

ludachris

Member
Hello everybody how are you?

My name is Xristos (Chris) from Athens, Greece and I’m new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. In the past I had a planted freshwater aquarium with focus on the plants.

I would like to setup a reef aquarium but as I research I realize that it is not that easy and quite different compared to a freshwater system.

Since this is my first saltwater attempt my plan is the following: I will start with a 350L (92 US Gallon) aquarium with live rock, live sand, protein skimmer and sump. Gradually I will add very few reef safe fish and continue form there. If I can keep up with all the demands of a saltwater aquarium I will then add some “easy” corals and invertebrates.

My current focus is on the aquarium itself, the sump and the protein skimmer.
The aquarium will be custom built with an overflow for the sump.
As far as the sump goes I know that bigger is better as long it is easy to maintain.

Protein skimmer: Euro-reef, life-reef or Tunze. Since I live in Europe I plan to buy a Tunze protein skimmer since I can find the skimmer and spare parts nearly everywhere. I would prefer something from Euro-reef or Life-reef but I’m worried what happens if something goes wrong or something fails with the skimmer….? By the time a spare part arrives by mail here I think it will be too late for my aquarium. On the other hand with the Tunze I can just run to the LFS.



Any suggestions, comments and/or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!
 
Warnberg

Warnberg

Well-Known Member
Hello and welcome.

Best thing I can tell you to do is read, read and read some more.... find a local fish store that you trust and that carries marine fish and supplies, ask them lots of questions. There is also a section here on this forum with some basic info.

As far as skimmers go I have no experience with Tunze skimmers but I love their power heads. I have a Euro-Reef skimmer and love it, if the skimmer goes down for a few days it will NOT hurt the tank, as a matter of fact it is possible to run a reef tank without a skimmer at all but it is not recommended. So I suggest getting the best skimmer you can afford.

One other recommendation... get a refractometer for salinity measuring.

Have fun and ask lots of questions we are all here to help as much as we can.

Welcome Again
 
BoomerD

BoomerD

Well-Known Member
HOWDY! Welcome to the Sanctuary.

Being in Europe, you have available to you some GREAT skimmers, lke Deltec and H&S, both of which IMO are far superior to the Tunze skimmers. They can be found in Hang-on, in-sump, and external models.
 
L

ludachris

Member
Warnberg ,

Thanks for the advice, I forgot to mention that I bought The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium by Svein A. Fossa & Alf Jacob Nilsen. I'v been looking around this forum alot and also reading Wet Web Media.

Any more books or sites are welcome.
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
Hi Chris welcome to RS:)
BoomerD mentioned some excellent skimmers available in Europe if you can't find them then look into Aqua Medic skimmers they're also good and should be available in your area.
 
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