moving from fresh water into reef

[baruch mor]

i have a 450l tank with 5 t8 florocents, ehaim external 1000 l/h 300w heater, co2 tank with regulator and defuser fully planted with discus and tetras- i lost almost all my discus from a co2 accident and im think this is the correct time to move into reef. i have another 80 l that i can use as a sump. the temp in israel with the full light on in my tank can reach to 32-33 c in jul-oct. where do i start? i dive in the red sea and in the medditerenian sea. we r not allowed to collect anything from the red sea-so my next question is if i can use live rocks from the medditerenian sea ?
i have petience so ill do what ever u suggest even if it will take time. i know this hobby cost a lot of money, i have money , but ill b happy to save as much as i can and do what ever i can do by myself and not by proffessional person - because of the fun and the cost.
im thinking of a tank with mainly stocked with sponges stone corals anemones and stuf and only a few fish to complete the reef...

 

[Anonymous]

baruch-you got p.m.

if you're going reef, you'll have to 'relearn' some aspects of filtration(it works abit differently in saltwater reef setups)basically you'll need:

a sand bed of about 10 cm deep,of very fine grain stuff-sugar grain size and smaller.(preferably CaCO3 based oolitic-although very fine beach sand may work, too.-clean it well!)
a good protien skimmer(and a sump tank to put it in).
probably a chiller as well(or an ac for the room)
you may need to redo your lighting(some of the wholesalers there carry 'em, but i'd suggest looking into d.i.y. halides-you'll save lots!)
a good salt(red sea may be the cheapest there-i've used it and i think it's o.k.)

live rock from the med should work

unfortunately-the knowledge level of reefkeeping lags behind the u.s. and europe abit, over there-but the folks here should be able to offer plenty of advice to get you started!

read as much as you can..... :wink: good luck!