Increasing tank size

have you used any medications in your fw tank? if so dont use it. depending on what you are wanting to set up will determine what your needs are. you can go to http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/ theres alot of info there that will help you with your tank.

 

It depends on what you plan on having in the tank, how much work you are willing to put into the tank, and what your goals for the tank are. For example, a FOWLR tank (Fish Only With Live Rock) does not require a lot .  Standard, all purpose aquarium lights, live rock does the biological filtration, however, you may still need additional filtration depending on the fish that you have in there. Now, if you plan on doing an SPS (small polyp stoney corals) focused tank, the recommendations are quite different; high intensity lighting, high quality water treatment (including RO/DI filtration for new water, good quality skimmer, carbon and GFO reactor, auto-top off to maintain salinity), high flow, good, mixed cleanup crew (snails, crabs, etc)

A good entry point if you plan to have corals in your tank is a softie tank. In a softie tank, you can get medium grade lighting (power compact fluorescent), drill the tank for a small overflow box, build your own sump and all your other gear could run in the sump. This would let you keep soft corals like zoanthids, mushrooms, leathers, kenya tree, xenia, and other various polyps. These are good growing corals and are a little more tolerant of water quality issues.

So what are your plans for the tank? That really dictates what you will need to purchase to maintain it well. Also, where are you located at? I would recommend talking to someone face to face or getting some ideas from a tank tour to help you figure out what you want to do with the tank. Most of the areas have two tank tours a year and socials monthly.

--AJ