Saltwater help?

Question

Ok bla bla bla i want a saltwater aquarium. Could anyone tell me how much it will cost to set up a 75 gallon saltwater? Is 2000 dollars enough? At my pet store live rock cost 6 dollars a pound. In the price estimate dont include corals or fish.

Also im confused about sumps. I went to the fish store the other day and looked around. They had this huge plexiglass thing called a sump for 55-75 gallon aquariums. It cost 400 dollars. Is a sump absolutely neccesary? What is it anyways? advice please?

Answer 1

You could probably, not including fish/corals, set this tank up for about $1,000. That would be the tank, stand, protein skimmer, live rock, sand, heater, and power compact hood. If you get fancy and go with a sump setup and metal halides you are going to be looking more at $2,000. You will need about 75-150 pounds of live rock depending on your taste and whether it is Atlantic or Pacific live rock (Pacific live rock is less dense so you'd aim more for 1 pound per gal of tank capacity). Don't go too crazy with the live rock - many reefkeepers wish they had not put so much rock in after their corals start growing!

You don't absolutely need a sump. A sump sits underneath the tank hidden in the cabinet. It is nice because you can hide the heater and protein skimmer in there so you don't see them in the tank. Sumps also increase the effective capacity of the tank (those extra gallons are essentially part of the tank's total volume). Sumps can also be used to grow macroalgae (if lighted) or copepods or as a refuge for an injured or harassed animal. Sumps are nice for this reason but the pumps tend to be noisy, the plumbing is more complicated, and if something goes wrong with the plumbing you will have a flood around the tank.

Frankly, for a reef tank all you need are a couple of powerheads for circulation and a hang on the tank protein skimmer. Some creative arranging of rocks and corals can hide this pretty well and save you the expense and problems associated with a sump. Sometimes simplicity is good. But if you really like the idea of a sump, go for it.

Answer 2

lol cammo I thought that looked familiar ;)
Anyway, you've had a lot of good answers, and I don't know whether anyone has mentioned it, but try to find a complete set-up. When people move, get out of the hobby, need cash, you will often seen complete saltwater setups for sale, and they include liverock, live sand, inverts/cleanup crew, and fish, and lights, sump/fuge, protein skimmer, heaters, powerheads, etc etc, and usually for less than half the cost of starting a new one. In that case, 2000 would be more than plenty. I live in Canada, and everything is more expensive here, and I've been seeing 80, 100, 120 gallon SW setups going for $1000 or less.

If you want to set it up yourself, it should still be enough. You can get pre-drilled tanks with built-in overflows for $200-$300 (less, if used). A stand will cost 100-200$.
You will need a couple heaters (60$ total), a lighting system (100$-1000$, depending on what you are lighting for). You'll need a protein skimmer (50-200$), a few powerheads for water current (20-60$ each).
You will need liverock (6$ / lbs is a decent price, and you should get at least 80 lbs, so set aside 500$ for live rock). You won't need livesand - just get regular sand and the liverock will seed it. By the time your cycling period is over, the sand will be "live sand". Just buy 1 lbs of live sand to help the process.

Sumps are not absolutely necessary, but they are very helpful. You don't need to spend 400$ on one, that's for sure. A sump is basically just extra water. If you have a 75 gallon tank and a 40 gallon sump, that's a total of 115 gallons of water. Anything can be a sump - you can get a used tank, a rubbermaid, whatever. It goes under your main tank (like in the cabinet) and you can also put your heater, protein skimmer, etc in the sump, so it won't be in the main tank taking up space.

Anyway, I still suggest you get a used set-up that is complete. Try ebay, craigslist, and your local fish club.

Oh, someone mentioned just using an undergravel filter... I hope you know NOT to do that. Firstly, UG filters are overall poor methods of filtration. They work for a while, and then the bacterial population explodes. In a SW tank with sand, a UG filter would clog and not even work.

Anyway, good luck with your tank! It's a lot of work, but with a 75 gallon you're off on the right track, and it should be fairly simple to maintain once it's all set-up. The one word of advice I can give you is to READ as much as you can. Read articles, join forums (http://www.fishforums.com), buy books, and read and re-read them while your tank is cycling (a process which takes 4 weeks or more).

Answer 3

i hade the same drama, by the way i think 2 grand is plenty if you shop right,start with the basics tank and stand if you dont already have one then into your lighting(depending what you want to keep)coral tubes for coral (ask at pet shop what they suggest)etc.. then filtration, the rule of thumb is one pound per gallon (for live rock) thats if you have corals and inverts and stuff but about 3/4 to half that for just fish or you could buy a canister filter or you could go for a sump/fuge or all (preferably all, a fuge is different to sump)."A sump is a small tank under your main tank. It has extra water in it, so it adds more gallons. Say, if you tank is 50 gallons and your sump is 20, then you have a total of 70 gallons of water, which keeps the tank more stable, and cleaner. You can also put your equipment / heater(s) in your sump, so it doesn't have to be in your main tank. It is usually kept in the cabinet underneath your main fishtank, and is connected to your main fishtank via a hole drilled in the bottom of the main tank, and it is continually pumped through your main tank. Sometimes they are hung beside/behind the main fishtank, and the water is moved between the tanks via water pumps, so drilling a hole is not necessary.

A refugium (fuge) is the same idea, except it has a light over the tank and some live sand, so it can also filter the water that goes through the fuge.

Pics, sump:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bombay/tank/...
Fuge:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/gr...
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?...


DIY:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariu...
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diysump...
"coutesy of zoe thanks a bunch!
also are you making fun of my messige when you said "ok bla bla bla...." ? anyways hope this helps! all i needed when i was going from fresh to salt was someone to help me with some basic yet complicated questions so i hope this does that in some way ! cameron

Answer 4

Before I type a thousand words to tell you what you should and should not do go to this web page: saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/How_to_Start_a_Saltwater_Aquarium.htm

This is one of the BEST sites for starting and maintaining a tank. I don't mean to cop out but there is a lot of great info here.

The more you read from a trusted source the better off you will be. I have had salt water for around 25 years. Since I was very young. If you cannot find what you need from this site, email or im me at [e-mail] I also raise pond fish and fresh water.

Good luck and please, with salt water, have patience and move slowly. These are beautiful creatures and do require care.

Lots of luck and I hope I have guided you in the right direction.

Answer 5

100 years ago, there were Whisper power filters and undergravel filters. I find that today, they are just as effective. I have NEVER used anything but and have had great success with my marine aquariums as well as my customers. It depends on how extravagant you want to get. If you are going for basic marine, than the easier way of setting it up is a way to go. However, if you are going into live rock reef, and anemones and such, you will need protein skimmers and sumps and different things. That is up to you how you would like to go.

Answer 6

There is so much to talk about with saltwater filtration that it would be hard to cover it here.

Check out the line below about the saltwater chat this week and also stop by the beginning mariners forum at FishGeeks.