Biorb Marine Setup Advice
Biorb Marine Conversion
This post serves as a brief guide to setting your Biorb up as a saltwater tank.
Keeping a Biorb marine fish tank is a little more involved that some other setups, but not beyond anyone’s capabilities. A little extra care has to be given when introducing live stock – especially invertebrates, as they are very sensitive to changes in salinity of water and temperature. There are a fascinating range of shrimps, snails and other salt water creatures that would make ideal pets. I would not suggest keeping any form of marine fish unless you have a 60 litre tank as an absolute minimum.
Its worth taking a look at the article on Biorb filtration elsewhere on this site.
Now, lets get down to the actual conversion…
Reef one sell a marine conversion kit, all you need in addition to this is add a heater. The conversion kit will get you up and running pretty fast. Its a convenient way to update the tank. What I would urge you to consider is adding a small quantity of live rock to the tank, in addition to the built in Biorb filtration.
This needn’t cost the earth and will greatly increase the filtration capabilities of your setup.
Prepare the water
I’m assuming at this point you have fitted the marine filtration filter as supplied by Reef One. You will need to add salted water to the tank. However, we can’t just add plain tap water for the kitchen! Within the marine conversion kit will be some sachets of water conditioner. What these will do is remove harmful substances from the water (e.g Chlorine). Once the water is conditioned as per the instructions, then you can mix in the salt.
It is important to always add salt to cold water and not the other way around. You should add the salt slowly mixing well. You may wish to consider purchasing a refractometer further down the line. These are generally considered to be more accurate than swing arm devices. A refractometer is basically a hand held device you apply a couple of drops of salt water to. It is operated by looking through the eyepiece. Light refracts as it passes through salt water. Using this refraction, a measurement is obtained against a scale that is printed on the device; which you can read off.
Get Cycling
An initial cycle needs to take place. You will need an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit to check for the cycle taking place. This does mean unfortunately that you can’t add stock immediately to your tank. Patience is always rewarded in a reef tank though.
The cycle may occur as you get some die off from the live rock you have added to the tank. This will depend on whether the live rock is cured, or maybe it is fresh in which case you may not get a noticable cycle.
Clean Up Crew Time
After a couple of weeks you can add a small clean up crew. We will look more closely at clean up crew in another post, however when we refer to clean up crew (sometimes called Reef Janitors) we are referring to snails, shrimps, hermit crabs, bristle stars. All of these
invertebrates will eat left over food that remains in your tank. They will also eat some forms of algae. Any decent local fish store will be able to advise you on what to add.
Top up your Water
You need a source of treated water to hand to perform the odd top up. Lets look at this concept a little more closely. Water will need occasionally topping up due to the natural evaporation from your tank. This may only be 1 litres a week or so. You literally keep an eye on a reference point on your tank when water level falls below this, you top up with treated water. It is essential that you don’t add salted water when you are topping up.
Only water evaporates. Salt does not evaporate. If you were to add more salt water, you would overall increase the salinity of your water.
Water Changes
You need to rota in a 10% water change every two weeks. By this I mean, remove 10% of the salt water from your aquarium and replace with exactly the same amount of fresh salt water you have previously prepared. I know the instructions state 25% every four weeks, but trust me – 10% every two weeks will be better. This assists with nutrient export. Even though the Biorbs have excellent integrated filtration systems, you still must carry out water changes.
So there you have it, a basic guide to getting your tank converted to marine Biorb status. We will look at some basic stocking suggestions in my next post.
I set up a 60L Biorb on 19th Feb and have completed the set up accordingly so far. I have the LED Intelligent light and extra false plants to add some colour (pink, blue, purple, green and orange). The plan is to add some small pieces of live rock next weekend. From there we will be adding some clean up crew, maybe one or two weeks after adding the live rock. This will consist of one or two cleaner shrimps and possibly some hermit crabs.
Any suggestions for the fish that should be kept in this tank?
Good choice of tank!
There is a small list of recommendations on the offical Reef One website.
Fish wise, I’d take a look at some of the Gobys such as Neon Goby, twinspot goby etc. You would be able to stock a pair of small clown fish, but they can tend to be a little bullish towards other occupants in the tank – and in some case can be complete bullies! If you decide that you would like a pair of Clown fish, I’d probably look at introducing them into the tank last of all.
You want to be looking at some of the smaller fish (as above). They won’t add a massive bio-load to the system – which is what you don’t want. I would recommend against anything like a mandarin fish (Dragonets), although beautiful animals – they have pretty specialised diets).
Its worth adding the stock gradually as well, keeping a check on the water parameters. Glad to hear you are going to introduce a little live rock too. Not only does this look good, you will be amazed at some of the life that grows out of it.
Let us know how you get on
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This blog post was very helpful, thank you! We’ve had a 9gl BiUbe for over 6 years now with freshwater fish and LOVE IT!
We’ve most definitely decided on a BiOrb 16gl for a marine tank set up. I am doing all the research first then will buy. After reading this setup advice, once my new tank is set up and the water is done, I want to buy live rock. I have a few question please.
(1) How many lbs of live rock should I buy for the 16gl tank?
(2) There are so many types of live rock,(South Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Caribbean, etc. what kind is the best for the BiOrb, or does the type not matter?
(3) Where is the best placement for the live rock in the tank? Can they go up against the sides toward the back of the BiOrb tank, or do i just let them sit at the bottom all around?
(4) Will the live rock cause water flow “dead spots” and if so, should I purchase a power pump to resolve that issue, or is the BiOrb filtration strong enough to handle this?
(5) Do i need to buy a protein skimmer, or is the 10% water change every 2 weeks and the BiOrb filter system handle that issue?
Appreciate your help!
Cheers, Greg Bruns
Howell, NJ USA.