what equpitment is needed for a saltwater tank?

Question

iam setting up a saltwater tank and want to know what equpitment i am gong to need to get it started

Answer 1

An awful lot.
What kind of saltwater tank are you getting? Fish only? Fish only with live rock? Reef tank? A dedicated tank for one fish? Corals, if so, hard or soft? Anemones?

Anyway, you will have to be a lot more specific, but I can definitely give you some rough guidelines.

First, you'll need the tank. No smaller than 50 gallons and the more the better. This'll cost you 50-100$.
*You can get tanks that were built for saltwater. This means that they have built-in overflows and holes drilled in the bottom for a sump. These are more expenisve, naturally, but can save you time and money in the long run.
You'll also need a stand for the tank.
You will probably want to a sump, which is a smaller tank or rubbermaid that goes under your main tank. You can put your equipment in there so it doesn't have to go in the big tank, and the water cycles through the tanks, adding extra gallons. Say, if your main tank is 60 gallons and your sump is 30, that's a total of 90 gallons of water flowing. If you add live rock and a light above the sump, is become a refugium, and it will also filter your water.
You will need filtration of some sort. Personally, I just use a skimmer and live rock as my filtration, but other types of filters exist like canister filters and wet/dry filters. 100-300$
You will need a protein skimmer, this removes all the gunk from the surface of the water. 50-200$
You will need heaters. I suggest using two half-power heaters. Say if you need a total of 300 watts of heat - instead of getting ONE 300 watt heaters, get two 150 watt heaters. That way, if one malfunctions, your fish won't freeze or boil too quickly. 100$
You will need lighting. This is very important, and depending on what you're keeping, you may need actinic or metal halides. 200-600$

You will need lots and lots of live rock, 1 to 1.5 lbs per gallon of water. This will be the structure in your tank and your main method of filtration. 3-10$/lbs
You will also need sand. I suggest you start with normal sand and get a handful of live sand. The live sand and live rock will seed the sand, so by the time you cycle is complete, your sand will be 'live' - 30-100$.

Testing supplies - you will need to test frequently for various water parameters including ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, etc, because SW fish are very sensitive to water conditions.

Salt - I use Instant Ocean, which contains the various minerals and salts needed.

You will need books! I mentioned most of the big parts you'll need, but salt water is very complexe and you will have to spend a lot of time researching and reading. I suggest you buy a book, read it, then start buying your materials and setting up your tank. Once your live rock is in, your tank will need to cycle for at least 4 weeks without any fish. During that time you can read your book over again and get some new books to read, and read articles online and join a saltwater forum and ask questions.

Answer 2

This depends greatly on what you want to keep in the tank. If you are doing fish only then you'll need a heater, filter, and preferably a protein skimmer.

If you want to do a reef you'll want to add addtionaly filtration and lighting.

I recommend you stop by the Marine forums at FishGeeks and they will help you through the new filtration systems for SW tanks.

Answer 3

initially like quite a few experienced marie aquarist will tell u reasearch learn learn. and maximum heavily endurance. u'll choose the tank i could decide for fifty or above for a newb, (greater ordinary to maintain parameters good). additionally the two stay rock or stay sand not a bad theory for the two stay. choose a ability heador 2, heater, can use filter out or sump, marine salt, hydrometer or refractometer. lay the stay rock straight away on glass, lay sand on floor of tank approximately 2 to 3 inches. trick to not stirrin up sand get black trash bag decrease around the rocks lay ontop sand use a plate and have some one slowly pour water onto plate. take out trash bag and there u are. thats the undemanding set up u additionally would desire to enable it cycle for cycle era look it up its merely in certainty attempt ur parameters no water adjustments and cycle is over while parameters are as close as posssible to 0. if u can get them to 0 great the decrease the greater advantageous. some stuff i prob. skipped over im at wrk sry so merely learn learn and endurance

Answer 4

Keeping salt water tropical fish? Very difficult to get right. Get a book from the library, or google it.

Answer 5

get a really good skimmer!! amoungst all the other suggestions and let it stand for a while on first set up ideally month or your fish will die

Answer 6

Hey know what i would do if i was you got to your local pet store that sells saltwater fish and ask them to help you and say you are just starting.

Answer 7

go on web and print care sheet you will get all the answers you need,

Answer 8

a tank
water
salt