switching to salt water .

Question
QUESTION: Hi there I currently own a 60 gallon hex tank with african cichlids in it, thinking about going to a salt water setup w/reef.  Did a little bit of reading, question is can I still use my original tank for the salt water setup if I want to change to a tricle filter (which I heard is the best for salter water fish) does my tank need to be drilled?, also I got an e-heim filter should that be throuwn out. any info would help, I just don't want to get myself into a big mess, want to get all the facts straight before i start spending money.


ANSWER: yeah you can use it as long as you haven't used any copper based treatments with your cichlids. same goes for the eheim really, don't use conventional media in the filter as its useless for marines.

run carbon, live rock rubble and some kind of poly filter and if you have room get some phosban or something to stick in there.

you will need to get a protein skimmer capable of skimming twice the tanks total volume, something like a TMC V2 600.

your tank will only need to be drilled if you are gonna run a sump, they are not essential just benificial, with your tank being a funny shape i would just stick to heavy skimming and the external filter.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the answer Paul!

Have you ever heard of the e-heim wet/dry filter w/skimmer(canister filter)?, does it work for salt water fish? A store recomended it to me. I was thinking about running two external filters, any you would recomend? I heard external filters need to be cleaned like once every two days, is that true?
Also you mentioned if I run a sump, are you refering to wet/dry filter? sry still new at this.

I currently have a t5 lighting setup (coralife 6700k and 65W)is that good enough for salt water if I have soft corals.
Thanks Paul, sry about all the questions.

Answer
it depends if the heating element in that eheim is exposed to the water, if its a covered element then it will be fine, if not it will rust. i have never heard of 1 with a skimmer built in???

as for cleaning the external every 2 days seems odd! it depends on what media you use. i would advise you tokeep it simple if your new to it all, just stick to 1 external with carbon, liverock rubble and some phosphate removing media in it.

tha coralife light sounds ok but it would be better if it was a 10,000K tube, you will need an actinic (blue tube) to supliment colour.