Crossing to the money draining dark side...

So, all though I have researched marine many times, I've never actually kept a marine tank, but after picking up my newest tank yesterday and seeing all the goodies the guy had thrown in, well I can't help myself, I'm going marine LOL.

So what I have currently
Tank 76 cm x 48 cm x 60 cm Tall, with a sump built in the back. The main tanks capacity is 160l, and the sump holds another 40-60l
Hood, with properly wired lighting, which has been wired by an electrician
Stand, it also has the lug ht ballasts wired into there
100w Metal Halide light, wired into hood
a twin 2 foot fluorescent, one white one actinic wired into hood
a 60 cm protein skimmer
a Hagen Aquaclear 402 powerhead
Built in wet/dry/overflow/sump in the back of tank
20kg liverock
1 bucket live crushed coral
9l bioballs for the wet dry


Uuuuh I "think" thats it, the tank was a completely functioning marine system, up until the point we picked it up.

I'm going to Vietnam in a few days and won't be back until two weeks from now, so to keep everything alive during that time since I have no test kit, hygrometer or salt, I've emptied everything but the equipment from the tank and filled with freshwater to sterilise. The LR, LS and bioballs are in buckets with plenty of aeration in there original salt water to keep em going.

Because I had every intention of converting it back to fresh, up until the point I saw it, I have no marine supplies. I've ordered online 10kg red sea salt, an API saltwater master test kit and a glass hydrometer, but won't be able to use any of it till I get back.

I'm still learning but I've got a basic plan as to where I want to go from here

Leave everything as is for the next two weeks while I'm overseas
After that get the tank set up and stabilized, testing daily until I'm sure it's all cycled
Once cycled start adding in a small clean up crew
After a few months of the tank being stable start looking at fish, I'm planning on either a single 6 inch fish, or 2 3 inch fish, I want to keep the bioload fairly low.

As I said I'm a total newbie, and although theres fish I know I like, I've got a few months to work out what will be happy in my tank and what will grow larger then the tank itself LOL.

Any advice welcome, but please play nice, I haven't done this before LOL.

Oh and I'm planning on a FOWLR

Yup it's a 100w LOL, I had to double check that as well. God knows where I'm gonna get replacement bulbs from.

I have a large wet/dry filter as well as a large skimmer for filtration, the liverock gives me a pound per gallon as well...

I've read up on the crushed coral, and I'm going to chance it for now, I really like it, it looks more natural and so much like our local beaches. There isn't much of it, barely enough to just cover the base of the tank, plus it's 5 years old, so if it was gonna play havoc, I'd have thought it would have done it by now...

This is the tank as is running with freshwater. All the lights are turned on, and it's really really really bright in real life, I'm actually kinda tempted to go barebottom... LOL. Anyways the guy who made this obviously didn't put much thought into covering up the sump, I've no idea how I'm going to hide that, maybe a nice carpet of algae? But the "box" in the centre is for bioballs, the water overflows into that, then trickles into the sump, where it's pumped into the protein skimmer then out back into the tank. Oh and above the wet dry is some sort of micro polishing pad, the previous owner said he changed it every week because it got full of gunk... The filter floss in there is just to deaden the waterfall noise it makes when theres no bioballs.

LOl yeah algae seems the way to go, as I don't want paint isnide the tank and anything and everything would get behind a plastic background.

The MH ballast was made by an electrician, no brand names that I can see... The light is white light, though it's got a tinge of yellow, the guy I got it off said it was getting a tad old, he gave me some replacement bulbs as well... It's not the type of light I'd put on freshwater plants if that helps, and the theres a two foot actinic in there as well which makes it more blue.

I really want to stick the live rock in LOL, silly me thinking I'd convert the tank to freshwater LOL. Right now i have to content myself with scrubbing coralline algae off and fiddling with light timers LOL.

A new question, this is for future reference but I would like to know are there any pufferfish/boxfish/stonefish/toadfish you know fish with cute faces that are poisonous and puff up? well are there any of those that stay under 6 inches?

I'm determined to keep myself at a limit of 6 inches of fish in this, as I'd like to have that bit of leeway so that the tank is that bit more stable with a lower bioload.

Cancel that, I find 3 that are under 6 inch, the false eye puffer, the valentini puffer and solaris boxfish (also know as the reticulate boxfish)

I'm not going by an inch per gallon, I just promised myself I'd have no more then 6 inch of fish in there.

Ummm can get pics of the lights later on, there all on at the moment and need to wait till they cool down before I can get pics. There are no brands anywhere, the halide is screwed in, the two foot lights ahve the two pins at either end. The ballasts sit underneath the tank.

Juts grabbed one of the boxes with the replacement lamp in it. It says its a Metalarc lamp, by Pro Tech, and a metal halide. Its got 100w written on the bulb but thats all I can see. It doesn't really matter though does it? if I'm planning on a FOWLR I don't need special lights for corals...

I've read peoples opinions on the wet dry, and I'm completely open to converting it to some sort of refugium, or even just filling the back compartment with live rock, but will see how the bioballs work first, then go from there.