salt water aquariums!!!?

Question

i need to know everything there is to salt water aquariums!!!!!!!!... i need to know everything before i start....PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!1

Answer 1

First I will caution you with regards to web pages on the internet. Ones like wikipedia are updated by anyone and do not always contain accurate or complete information. Sales web pages won't tell you everything about the fish you are buying (mostly the bad things) or diseases, only what they sell medicines for. What where you get your info from.

It is impossiable for me to tellyou everything I know about salt water fish keeping. I will tell you what ever you thought you knew about fish keeping (fresh water) pretty much toss that out the window. A tank does not take a week or two to cycle. It will take 6 weeks. A salt water tank will take 6 months to a year to mature. Patience is the best advice I can give you.

Never buy on impulse. Know your tank and your fish.

Here this should get you started with setting up your first tank.

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 Two months. 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.

A good book to have is the Marine Keepers Bible. It has information on just about everything you can possiably need for salt water. From the fish, to the water, lighting, feeding, breeding, diseases, problems etc.

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

Welcome to the wonderful world of salt!

Answer 2

first you need to have $$$ because the fish are more expensive- and if your going to do it right you need a hospital tank (10 gallon works fine) this way you can put newcomers in that tank for 2 weeks before putting them in your big tank. if they are sick it is easier to treat a smaller tank and you don't give the illness to all the other fish(some corals can not tolerate the medication and will die if treated). get a good book and learn which fish are compatible- do not count on the store clerk to know everything-buy your own test kits and learn about salt ratio etc before you begin- once you get it going you should be OK- start small - only a couple of fish at a time and build up slowly- filters are so different, you need to research these, again don't count on a clerk to know everything- but if your blessed with a knowledgeable person use them to the fullest.however; most are highschoolers working part time.

Answer 3

First, let me commend you for researching FIRST! You'll run into far fewer problems.

There's a lot of info out there, so read as much as you can find. I have to agree with others who have told you to get a good book or two. Websites and forums contain lots of misinformation - once you get some experience, you'll be able to separate the good info from the bad. Until then a good book will guide you through different equipment and methods of creating a saltwater tank that will be appropriate for your fish and won't be (too much) of a pain in the wallet. And websites can disappear - the book you'll have to see you through future questions and problems.

I also suggest that you start by researching the types of fish you'd be interested in keeping - adult size, tank size requirements, compatibility with other fish, and so on. Then plan the tank around the fish you want.

Two books that I found very helpful when I first started were The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1 and The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5. Also, anything by Julian Sprung is good - he's just got too many to list them all!

Here's one website for a beginner for things you should consider before you start: http://www.apapets.com/MarineEcosystem/whatto.htm

Answer 4

Marines are a LOT of work. You need FAR more info than can be given here, so here are some starter websites to check:

http://www.reefindex.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_aquarium
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pCatId=15
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/browse.php?section=marines
http://www.thepetstop.com/

You'll find everything in there. Happy fishkeeping, it's something even I don't have the strength for, the up keep is way too much for my lifestyle, but to those that have the time, it's so worth it. Enjoy!

Answer 5

In addition to the above websites, I would suggest you invest in a good marine aquarium book. Not one that just lists lots of fish and tells something about them, but one that spends most of it's pages on settingit up, care and keeping of a marine aquarium. The other kind of book is good too... once you get that far along.

MM

Answer 6

You can probably find 100X more information on the net than you can in any ONE book!!!
I can probably write a book for you to read but that would just be MY opinion.
Do some searches for "saltwater aquarium setup,
Saltwater aquarium filtration, saltwater aquarium lighting and so on.
these are some examples
http://www.reefsaltwateraquarium.com/Setup_saltwater_aquarium.html

http://saltaquarium.about.com/

http://www.petplace.com/fish/lighting-your-saltwater-aquarium/page1.aspx

There are many different ways to setting one up so read all you can on the different setups.

No 1 persons way is the best way
you can cycle a tank in 2 or 3 days one way and get the EXACT same results as cycling the tank for a month another way.
Good luck, Good reading, And welcome to saltwater