Tropical to Marine In a month! - Let the journey begin!

Hello all!

I hope to spend lots of hours on here in the future to come :)

I bought my first fish tank 1 month ago, A juwel Rio 125 And have it set up as a tropical tank and loving it!

Now i think thats me hooked! :D

I went And bought a juwel Rio 180 Yesterday and plan to convert to marine! :)



So far I have The tank W/Built in filter,

Ive purchased a juwel built In skimmer and 7kg Of Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

I have also purchased 2x 3000lph power heads,

Now my few questions to get started if you lovely bunch wouldnt mind helping out! :)



My plan is to take things very slow! I plan to add dry live rock and leave the tank for a while to cycle, I do plan to add corals in the future as well as fish.

I know i will need to upgrade the lighting to do this.



** I require a substrate and im unsure of what to go for? Crushed Coral ? Coral Sand? Live Sand?

Ive came accross TMC Sand/Gravel just wondering what the better one is to go for?



** Next is what do i need to place in the filter to get that going? Rowa Floss(sp) and filter floss?



** And lastly, I plan to fill 8x 25LTR Drums with RO Water and add 955g of salt to each drum,

Can i do this okay? as i was advised against filling the tank then mixing in there?



Also any other pointers would be very much appreciated! :)



Thanks all! :)