Change to a new 220G Marine

[dingo_53]

I am planning to change my tropical tank to a marine tank. I'm living in China so some of the stuff here is not such good quality. I have some ideas from reading on this forum and plan to take the change slowly and try to avoid any stupid mistakes.

Right now the tank is 220G and 2 metres long with two large canister filters, standard tropical lighting etc. I don't plan to keep much at all until I learn more. I hope that someone can give an opinion on what I had in mind.

First step. I already have 3 inches of good quality sand from when I had stingrays which I will keep. I would add a powerhead or wave maker, retain the two canister filters for now, add required chemicals and run for a few days.
The whole top of the tank is now closed of with flouro tubes which I was going to discard.

Second step. Change the lighting, (any suggestions), and add some live rock which I can get easily and already cycled. I guess if I move it in water it would be better? Let that run for a week or so.

Third step. Run two very large protein skimmers that can combined handle up to 300G. Run for a few days. Disconnect the two canisters (do I need to keep them, as I don't want a sump and feel live rock and two large skimmers may be okay) Run again for a few days.

Last step: Introduce a few smal fish when I can see everything stabalized.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions but I know little about Marine tanks and guess that I could easily make a stupid mistake. I'm interested if I have enough filtration and if the method of changing in these steps is correct.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[rockethippo]

With the canisters, jsut replace the media with liverock rubble. After adding 220 and over pounds of live rock, wait until the tank cycles (when ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates rise then fall to 0) before adding fish.

[rockethippo]

Also, use an RO/DI water because the tap water is not clean. I remember when I was in China, we always had to boil the water before drinking to get it clean. What lighting you get depends on if you want corals and what kind. I would just start with one T8,T5, PC, or VHO tube that is 6 feet long, or maybe a couple smaller ones.

[SuperScro]

If you want to keep corals you will need good lighting. If you get MHs you can keep anything, but they are expensive and heat your tanks up. If you don't go MH I would suggest next best thing with T5s. You can still keep a lot with them.

I think you may know this already but make sure you tank is cycled before you add any fish. You can add the cured live rock to the tank first and it will start the cycle. Even though it is cured, chances are there will be dieoff to get it going, its what I did.

[dingo_53]

Thank you both for your replies. It's nice to know I may at least be on the right track. There is very little good advice in China. Everything can work here if you're paying money.

The tank still has water now from when I had my ray and I kept the pumps going so its very clean. I'm guessing this water is okay. For any new water, are small top ups okay from the tap or should I let that water stand for a few days first?

Do you think wave makers are worth the money or just power heads? I want to get very good water movement and it somehow seems important to me.
Any idea what I;d need for a 220g tank?

[SuperScro]

Water movement is very important, and with 220g you will need a lot of flow. I think 20x over is pretty good if you can get that, you just need to buy some strong powerheads.