Tropical Fish Forums

[Kanard]

Hi
I've been looking a bit around the forum but didn't find anything about this type of project so I take the risk to start a new thread...
Basicaly I've got a empty BiOrb 30 (the goldies on it where moved to a better place, see my other threads) that sits on my desk and I want to do something with it. The other day I saw on my usual web retailer some conversion kits to "go marine", I don't know much about marine set up yet so I started looking a bit in this section of the forum and it's quite hard to know where to start.

By experience with the plexy-bowl they (the manufacturer) tends to do things it's way to sell you as many things as possible yet having a tank that last ( I kept succesfully my fishes without any major crash for several years in a biOrb and one my friends is on it's second year on a similar set up with tropical fish), so some of the usual steps might be different as they will have the magic powder/thing that bypass the usual way to do it.

My goal is not to have a superb fancy marine nano-corral set up, I just want to do a first step in marine things and create a relatively stable/coherent set up (if it is possible)

So my questions would be:
1) do you guys thinks it's possible or not?
1 bis) has anyone done it yet?
2) I live in London where the water is so hard you can make bullet proof tanks coatings out of it, will this be a problem.
3) Dreaming of all the above is not a no-no what kind of fish/things could I hope to keep on it? I have to reckon I love the kind of fire prawn things, my main goal here would be to find something cheap/sustainable (because the failure risk is relatively high I guess I don't wnt to accelerate the decline of already overexploited breeds).

Thanks in advance for your help!
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\_*< {Koin, Kouac}

[diademhill]

IME don't bother.
I know quite a few people who have started marine biorbs (local retailer conning people) but none have managed to keep them going without major work and mega water changes.

The dealer has one on the counter and every time I go in ( not that often but about every six weeks or so) the fish are different. Newbies don't know this and copy what they see.

You could try a shrimp set up but fish are a no no IMO.

BTW you would have to use RO water to mix saltwater or buy it ready mixed, you couldn't use you tapwater.

Forget the magic powder.

[nes999]

the biord doesn't have poerful enough ligjhting for corals but as for fish id stick with some shrimp and other small inverts
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WHY doesn't my flying fish fly?

[FloridaBoy]

Kanard, based on what I am seeing on the Web, the filtration on these things is relatively weak, and a 30 liter (7 gallon) system is really too small for marine applications because there is not enough VOLUME to provide chemical and environmental STABILITY. Can it be done? Sure, I think something like that might be okay for a crustacean like a small Mantis Shrimp but in my experience & opinion you would be better off with a more traditional set up and a minimum of 30 GALLONS (not liters) for long term success with marine species. See my list of Marine Aquarium Myths, and please notice the first item:
http://www.aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=24970
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Keepin' marines happy for 25 years