First SW Aquarium on it's way! Completely unprepared

[GJD]

Hey Everyone,

New to the forum and fairly new to fish-keeping with my experience dating back a whopping 6-7 weeks!

Started with a 240L freshwater tank but before it had even finished cycling I was constantly in the marine section of the LFS.

Started discussing a Marine tank but the cost was an obstruction, Cue a few days ago and the beautiful display tank that I'd be having dreams about got offered to me at a steal and it has been running a year so no need for a prolonged cycle, will still let it settle and test the water before diving in just in case the breakdown and re-setting up caused any issues.

Now I wasn't expecting this so have been caught a bit on the hop!! cramming research and this site has been a goldmine, have a few newbie questions to pop here though please :

Tank is a 120cm x 60cm x 60cm. So this is fairly deep?

Is there a particular reef arrangement for a tank of this layout? It will have the back and side against the wall in the corner
Is there anything I need to be aware of when buying an ex display tank?
It has all of the live rock in the tank so it's wet and cycled, what is the best way for me to work on the layout and glue together if needed?
Part of the tank will get about an hour of early morning sunlight, will this be a big issue? The light will hit the side with the background?

I'm sure I will update with tons more questions, please throw in any newbie tips, I've read the newbie sticky 3 times now but the more the merrier

 

[PTXReef]

Welcome!

For reef arrangement, I liked to look at other members' tanks for inspiration while taking into account the livestock you want to keep. It helped me a lot when I was learning about all the different kinds of coral by browsing vendor sites (AquaSD, LiveAquaria, Tidal Gardens, PacificEastAquaculture, just to name a few).

For an ex display tank, I would mostly worry about the seams to make sure there are no bubbles/gaps/scratches that could potentially lead to a leak.

For gluing rock, I have mostly done it out of water with dry rock so not much experience here.

My tank also gets some early morning sunlight. It may contribute a little to algae but not that big of an issue imo.

What are you planning to keep? You should start a build thread!

Happy Reefing!