OK, I have a 50 litres (13.2 US galons) aquarium which I want to make a marine aquarium. Its quite small so I will not keep more than 4 fish but I have no clue about marine aquariums when it comes to filtration, maintanence and I would like to add corals and anenemies too. Is it really difficult to make it work? I am quite experienced with freshwater tropical aquariums so I am up for it.
Any personal experiences and any helpful websites would be much appreciated.
Thank you and have a happy new year!
2006-12-30 05:25:14 · 6 answers · asked by Nostromo 5 in Pets ➔ Fish
This can be a difficult size marine aquarium to start with, I generally recommend a 40 gallon (150 liters) to start.
This is basically a Nano Reef sized aquarium, and as such I would recommend clown fish such as Percula or Ocellaris. Be carefull with clowns that get larger such as Tomato Clown. Less aggressive Damsels such as blue, yellow tail or Chromis, but not clowns that will get large and very aggressive such as Domino or Three stripe.
Small blennies are a good choice, so are some Pseudochromis or firefish, Cardinals also will do well.
I would recommend adding fish first and waiting 3-4 weeks just in case a disease is introduced and you need to medicate.
As for other supplies, you will need:
* Filtration;
Good filtration is a must for a successful marine aquarium. There are many different filters available too from wet dry to sponge to UGF.
*Proper Lighting; Two power compact light, changed every six months and cleaned regularly in between. They should be one daylight and one actinic or two 50/50.
*Test Kits; An ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, Hydrometer, and KH (alkalinity) test kit are all important.
*A proper substrate; A fine #00 sand with a ½” layer of #3 sand on top works best in my opinion for cleaning and de-nitrification.
*Cured live rock is a must, this will actually help with bio filtration
* A Gravel vacuum
* A UV Sterilizer is highly recommended even for a small aquarium Redox Potential and disease prevention.
*Proper foods
This is such a broad subject, I have much of what you need covered in my article about Marine Basics:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Basic_Saltwater.html
Please try and read this article AND MORE,
And good luck!
2006-12-30 11:00:40 · answer #1 · answered by Carl Strohmeyer 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
As you know, it is much harder to keep a smaller aquarium stable, fresh or marine, but with marine aquariums even minor fluctuations in stability can cause you to lose your fish, inverts, and corals because they are so much more sensitive than the freshwater varieties. For that reason, most people recommend you try with a 29 gallon or larger aquarium for your first saltwater setup. If you do decide to go with the 13 gallon, you could have a few inverts, some live rock, and some small corals, plus one small goby like a yellow clown goby. To boost your systems stability and give the fish more swimming room in the display tank, you can add a refugium to your aquarium where you put all the live rock and macros. If you have a 25 gallon fuge, then you really have a 28 gallon system (more stable), and your fish, inverts, and coral now have 13 gallons of space in the display (because the biological filtration like live rock has been moved to the fuge). See http://www.reefcentral.com for more information on saltwater setups. You are going to want to look at info on nano and pico setups specifically (small aquariums).
2006-12-30 08:14:48 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
You need to start much larger than that if you want to do saltwater. Get some good literature on salt water fishkeeping, and expect to spend a lot of money. One fish is all you can have in that tank.
Anemones and corals require lots of light and very clean water. This is why it is hard to do in smaller tanks, waste can build up easily and with lots of lights the water will evaporate quickly. These fluctuations will be deadly for the tank.
The filters used in fresh water do fine for marine, you just need about 5 times the circulation of the water in marine tanks (20+ cycles an hour). Live rock is essential. Do 30% water changes weekly. The guy who was talking about the refugium has a good idea there, it is a lot of work and equipment for a small tank though.
Get some books, and spend lots on the books and the tank.
2006-12-30 14:05:41 · answer #3 · answered by Johnny 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will be incredibly hard to keep a marine (saltwater) tank that is only 13 gallons. Generally to have a healthy tank, the size must be about 50 gallons. The tank must have a lot of really expensive equipment (sumps) and the corals will make cleaning a tank that small very hard. If you start off by putting a small marine population in a large tank, you will learn how to care for it and then you can see what you want to do from there.
2006-12-30 05:42:42 · answer #4 · answered by Chris D 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in a tank that small the maximum amout of fish you can have in it is 1. Plus your cleaner snails/crabs and maybe a shrimp.
These tanks areextremly hard to maintain. I had one at one time, and it was just way too much work.
That being said the people who helped me the most were those at tropicalresources.net
you may want to join that forum and they will give you step-by-step info on how to set up and maintain your tank.
2006-12-30 05:51:49 · answer #5 · answered by lunar_flame 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
www.nanoreef.com Its a forum dedicated to small reef tanks...nano tanks is what they call them. Take a look, read through peoples experiences and there are a lot of tank diary's where people track their progress so you are able to see how people go about setting it all up.
2006-12-30 14:15:55 · answer #6 · answered by Mr.Robot 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋