Saltwater Fish tanks?

Question

Can anyone give me any good information abot saltwater fish tanks... the best equipment, a good starter size for tank, or past experiences? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Boy is this a loaded question. I just finished typing the answer below for someone else who is going to start a salt water tank. I have three tanks and have had them more than 30 years. Here is what I told him: By the way a 30 gallon is the smallest you really should go with salt water. Also, various types of filters, lights etc all depend on what kind of fish you want to end up with.

Congratulations! At least you are starting on the right foot. Figuring out what you will need to get started. First and I would like to stress this one word, PATIENCE.

First step for your tank is figuring out where you are going to put it. Remember with a salt water tank, you are going to have to leave room behind the tank for access, filters etc. About 8-12 inches. (This will also help to protect walls from salt evaporation. I'll explain later) Once you have that, we are ready to start.

Do you have a local fish store to trust? One that relies on good fish keeping and good advice to stay in business. Find one even if you have to drive a few miles out of your way. They can be a large asset when it comes to fish.

Do you have any ideas on what you might want to keep? Or is this a "we'll start with a blank canvas and see where it goes?" thing?

To start, a regular hood, no special lights will suffice for now. (until you see if this is what you really want to advance to)

To start, you do not NEED a skimmer. They are prefered but, my 30 gallon has never had a skimmer or power heads and still doesn't. I hate to use the word cheap, just less expensive. And you can still have a healthy tank.

A rear whisper filter designed for a 75 gallon tank will suffice for now. This will run around $50 at walmart of all places. Your best bet is to shop around. You can if you choose to go with a back pack filter which come preequiped with a protein skimmer for around $150.00. This could save time and money later when upgrading.

For a beginner, I would suggest dolomite (Crushed coral) for the bottom of your tank (Easier to care for). If you are not going to be runninga protein skimmer, this will make cleaning much easier. You will also want to get a gravel siphon for cleaning (these can range from a couple of bucks to upwards of $50. You don't need anything fancy, just a siphon). A heater is a must $10-15), thermometer $1.95 In the tank only a floater of one that attaches doesn't matter. It should be placed the farthest from your heater as possible.) A hydrometer These can run from a few dollars and up. Just a floating hydrometer is fine. around $4.00. Some packages of salt you will purchase sometimes come with a hydrometer, so this may help. Instant Ocean makes a quality synthetic salt. ($22.00). (When you start moving up in the salt water I would suggest switching to Red Sea Salt.) Power heads are beneficial, but at this point not necessary. They can be added on at any time. Get a quality Dechlorinator. (DO NOT USE start right or stress coat in your marine tank) AquaNova + is a good dechlor and it also adds back trace minerals to the water. One or two 5 gallon buckets. $2.29 each at home depot.

Ok I think we are ready to start. Be sure your tank is clean. You can use a salt water mix to clean your tank. There is also an aquarium cleaner you can buy but for your tank, a mix of 1/2 cup of salt dissolved in a gallon of water will do. (no specifics here.) Clean the tank rinse and let's get started.

If you chose to use the dolomite you do not want to use more than will cover 1 1/2 - 2 inches across the bottom. (Sand will require the same) Use a kitchen sive and clean the gravel by rinsing it. Dump the gravel into the bucket and swish the heck out of it. Drain and rinse again.

(You will only do this if you are using dry dolomite. LIVE dolomite and live sand do not get rinsed)

Pour the gravel into the bottom of your tank. Doesn't need to be flattened yet since you are going to be dumping water into your tank and this is going to dislocate it anyway. Using your 5 gallon buckets, fill just about 4 gallons or 4 1/5 depending on how much you can lift. Add the required amount of Dechlor and then the salt. (Usually 1.5 pounds or 24 oz per 5 gallons, however I have never used that much to obtain a 1.022 gravity in my tank.) I start by adding a cup mixing to disolve (and I use warm tap water here) I will check the hydrometer to see how far off I am and either add more salt or more fresh water. Since you are setting up your tank, obtaining an exact 1.022 is not that important right now, getting close is. Continue dissolving salt and new water until your tank is about 3-4 inches from the top. Attach your filter (be sure it is rinsed well as well as the filters) if you choose to use a rear filter. Even so a back pack filter also needs rinsed. Now we have water movement.

I did not mention anything about live rock or any other items for your tank yet. At this stage since you REALLY should not try to cycle your salt water this early with live rock. If you only knew what things grow on and in the rock, don't waste your money now. It really isn't needed. Now that your tank is running. Check the water with the hydrometer. you should be pretty close to your 1.022 range. Slightly higher or lower isn't going to matter. Turn your heater on and set it for around 78. Finish topping off your tank with salt mixed water. Don't forget to add dechlor to every bucket. Congratulations, your tank is now set up. Now comes the waiting. And you will wait. To aid in the tanks cycling, but does not replace cycling, take a few pieces of raw fish or shrimp, chop them up and toss them intothe tank. This will help the bacteria establish more quickly leading to a healther tank later. Get a notebook. Markdown the day you set your tank up and what you did and what you used. Do this with water changes and tests. This way you have a record of what was done.

Let it run. Continue to run the lights during the day and off at night. After about a week, check your water quality. I would suggest a really good test kit, and strips. I use the strips (I call them dummy strips since they are very broad ranged and are not accurate enough for fishkeeping) to initially test. Then I compair them with what I get from my water tests. I mark the results down in my note book with the day. If you don't trust yourself enough to read the water, take it to your LFS. They will do it for you. Your tank will have to run a minimum of 6 weeks with nothing in it. Do not try to rush this process. Salt water is not the same as fresh water. Shrimp, anemone or even fish are less tolorent of water conditions.

If you really MUST have something swimming around, after 3 weeks, you can buy a black mollie or a couple of guppies. They will live fine in your tank at this time. They are the only fish to attempt. Placing damsels would kill the damsels since they are not the same kind of fish mollies and guppies are. You really do not need to do any water changes during the break in time. If you are showing spiking of nitrates, you may want to do a 20% water change. After your 6 week break in period, test your water. If all the parmiters are ok, you can begin with the lower end fish. Damsels. DO NOT TRY to place triggers or tangs or puffers into your tank. The bacteria is present, but not established and it will kill these fish. If your damsels are doing fine in two weeks, you can start adding live rock to build up your substraight. You can buy as little as pound or ten pounds. You can buy dead corals, fake corals, or whatever you want to decorate your tank. Your tank will need to sit for a minimum of 6 months before you can attempt the higher end fish.

I test my tanks every three days. I only do a water change of 25% once every three to four weeks. My tanks are established however and are pretty much on their own.

A few rules of thumb when dealing with salt fish. Keep your hands out! The more your hands remain out of the tank, the better your fish will be.

DO not spray anything in the room your tank is in.

Now you can start thinking about breeding brine shrimp, and what other fish you are interested in getting. Remember to do your research, since fish require different lighting, water paramiters and are or are not compatable with reef, invertabreas etc.

Good luck. If you have any additional question feel free to email me.

Answer 2

Im going to make this short and sweet- Saltwater fish tanks are awesome. Size i'd suggest is a 55 gallon, Instant Ocean salt mix and NOTHING ELSE is the best to use to start up your tank. A Wetdry filter is probably the best way to go, however you can get away with two marineland 80 gallon bio wheel filters (the more filtration the better) and depending on what kind of tank your going to do you should consider a strong power compact for lighting. Live Rock is always a must, it carries good bacteria for the tank and provides a natural habitat for your fish, and for substrate i'd suggest crushed coral, only because in salt water you need a high PH, and crushed coral will provide that for you.

Answer 3

There's really a lot to cover for this question. Most will marine aquarists recommend a large tank for a beginner - 30 gallons or more. The reasons behind this are twofold: 1) the larger the tank is, the more stable conditions (temperature, water chemistry) will be and 2) the stocking rate for saltwater (# of fish per tank size) is much less than it is for freshwater. More marine fish are aggressive & territorial (cichlid-like) than peaceful, although there are some that are good "community" fish as well. I suggest you start by researching the type of animals you want to keep, and plan your tank around these.

There's no real "best" as far as equipment - even experts have differing opinions of how to set tanks up, and equipment will vary somewhat depending on the size of the tank and if you want to keep only fish (the easiest) or go for a full reef set-up. There is some additional equipment, such as protein skimmers (not used at all in freshwater and not required if you have a fish-only tank), hydrometer/refractometer (used to measure salinity), and saltwater test kits. Live rock is sometimes used as a biological filter (I like it and have it in all my marine tanks - it's coral an rock fragments that can have - in addition to the cycling bacteria - corals, snails, shrimp, algae, urchins, sea stars, feather worms, etc.). If you want to really bring out all the life forms on live rock, or keep any of the macroalgaes or photosynthetic corals, you need a strong lighting system - either compact fluorescents (I use CoralLife 130 watt compacts) or metal halide. Temperature is a factor, and most of the fish you see in stores or order online needs water temperatures 76-82. Too far outside this range (in either direction) usually has bad results - if the temperature in you house gets too high (even with air conditioning), you will need to invest in a tank chiller.

Maintanence is more important than ever - marine fish don't do well in less than ideal water - so this means testing and cleaning/water changes on a regular schedule.

As you can see, there IS a lot of info - there are a few good books that you could use for reference - these were of great help to me when I was first starting. The first two are the basics of setting up a marine tank including fish that work well (and those that don't):

The New Marine Aquarium – Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist – Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5

I couldn't locate the book I recommend for corals, so I'll provide a link if you are interested in these:

http://www.amazon.com/Corals-Quick-Reference-Guide-Oceanographic/dp/1883693098

In the meantime, here are website where you can get some of the basics and saltwater fish profiles:

http://www.fishlore.com/SaltwaterBeginners.htm
http://www.liveaquaria.com/
http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cat=1987
http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cat=1986

Aquarium magazines (Freshwater and Marine Aquariums, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Practical Fishkeeping) are also a source for info on product and method comparisons, feeding, species profiles, disease & treatments, etc.

Hope all this helps! Welcome to the hobby!

Answer 4

Saltwater aquariums are far too big of a subject for a quick answer here in my opinion.

Here's a few links to some web sites that will get you started and I would strongly suggest you also buy a saltwater aquarium book. Like in most things, knowledge is power.

Best of luck!

MM

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/sbegin.html
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/tp/topmistakes.htm
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/bookreviews/tp/topswaqbooks.htm
http://www.melevsreef.com/overview.htm