60l tank setup

[isoniks]

Dear SeaSirs,

Thanks to your products I’ve been successful with a tropical planted tanks for several years, and now I’m going to set-up a small 60l marine tank with little soft corals, anemones, shrimps and couple of clownfishes.
I am going to cycle it for several weeks with natural sea water (from the Sea of Okhotsk) and Live Rocks and then gradually switch to artificial water: RO + Marine Salt + Marine Buffer + Marine Trace. For this tank I would like to use Eheim Classic 2217 external canister filter with Matrix + Purigen.

My questions are:
1. Is it ok to start with natural seawater and then gradually move to artificial, or better to start with artificial?
2. What water should I use to replenish evaporated: RO, normal saltwater, or RO + Marine Trace?
3. What should be the water change regime for my volume (i.e. 10l per week)?
4. Will Purigen enable me to avoid purchasing the skimmer?
5. What other products makes sense to keep handy to run marine tank (assuming I have Prime, Safe, Stress/Para/Garlic Guards, Stability, Cupramine)?

Thank you!

[Tech Support EH]

Hi Isoniks,
Thanks for your questions and your nice words about our products, and we wish you much success with your new marine setup! I'll try and answer your questions as they were posed:

1. Though the choice of whether to start with natural sea water or artificial is ultimately up to you, my personal opinion is that consistency is the best idea. For example, if you were going to continually use the natural water for your water changes, etc, then I think it would be fine to start out with it; however, since you ultimately will slowly switch over to using a synthetic sea salt, then I might suggest just starting the tank out with RO water and Marine Salt. Again, this is purely opinion, and it is your tank, but to be the most consistent with parameters, etc, I would probably start out with what you plan on doing long-term.

2. When the need for top-off water arises due to evaporation, RO water alone or RO water with Marine Trace will be fine.

3. As a general rule, a 15-20% water change weekly or biweekly will allow for optimal overall water quality. For a 60L tank, a 10-12L change will be sufficient.

4. Yes, you can use Purigen in place of a protein skimmer, and it should do a fantastic job of clearing your water and removing nitrogenous organic waste. Some call it a "protein skimmer in a bag"!

5. Wow, sounds like you have pretty much everything covered. One thing I would suggest since you already have the Stability on-hand is to add a little Stability to the tank with each water change (after the cycle has completed) to replace any potentially lost colonies of beneficial bacteria during the water change process.

We hope this information has been helpful, and let us know if you have further questions. Have a great weekend!

[isoniks]

Dear Sir,
I thank you very much for your kind suggestions also wish you a good weekend and success in a business!
Thank you!

[Tech Support EH]

Thanks for your nice words! We hope you had a nice weekend, as well!