300 gallon aquarium

Question
i recently purchased a 300 gallon aquarium, which was previously used to hose a snake. I have two questions, the first being how can i fully clean and prep the tank so i can convert it to a salt water aquarium? the second question being is where do i start once im done with the preping of the tank? i have no idea what to buy, and was wondering if you could give me a quick starters guide to building a good tank? i.e. pumps, lighting, etc.

thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Answer
Hello M,  btw, i switched this message to public...

I would clean the hell out of that tank...

I would use a 30% bleach and 70 % water and scrub and soak.

Then i would rinse with the same ration but use vinegar and water...

And soak forever.

As for the perfect tank setup... that is totally personal and relative to what you want to try to kee (fish only, mixed reef, predominately hard coral or soft coral,etc...

But, most systems have filtration in common.  We use protein skimmers to remove organics and oxygenate the water.  we perfer Sumps to place our equipemtn, heaters, probes/sensors, skimmers, pumpss etc...

Lighting is depending on what you want to keep. I have metal halide lighting.  It is bright but generates a lot of heat that needs to e addressed by a 'water chiller'.


There are other things that reefers buy, like 'powerheads', and media reactors, and calcium reactors, and lots and lots of cool reefer toys and someeven have 'baller status'.  (over priced but looks great)

I would definately recomend you read up on 'how to start a saltwater aquarium'  on about.com

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/How_to_Start_a_Saltwater_Aqu...


After that, I would love to address specifics with you.

Or, you can join my new forum and chat live with meor anyone one else who is logged on at that time...

WE also have Blogs where you can keep track of your adventure or you can even keep track of your water peramter and tests...

And of course, we have some very cool and very silly games


www.thelittleocean.com

Thanks,

Bill