Saltwater 3?

Question

Ok someone please a post a list of what hardware items are totally and completely necessary to set up a 29 gal Salt water tank, that will include Live rock and live sand.

Answer 1

Here's a list of items I typically recommend, divided by what's necessary and other items which will be useful, but aren't absolutely required.

Since you're already planning for a 29 gallon tank (same size I started with, BTW), I won't discuss the tank. You don't mention if you'll also be buying a stand, but if you are, try to get one made of solid wood. Metal stands will corrode if they come into contact with the salt, and pressed wood'particleboard stands have a tendency for the wood particles to "unglue" if they become wet - a tank crashing to the floor because the stand failed isn't something you want to have happen.

Some other items you'll NEED:

FILTER: You want to get one that's properly sized (filters 5x-10x the tank volume per hour - check the gallons per hour rating). There are lots of choices, and what you'll need will really depend on budget, what you're trying to keep, and personal preference. I'd consider the best type to be a refugium or wet/dry trickle filter. Next best would be a canister, followed by a biowheel, then a standard hang-on-tank. Unless you're using a fine sand or oolite substrate, you can also use an undergravel filter to supplement filtration, but I'd suggest powering it with a reversible powerhead to blow the water up through the substrate (prevents stuff from building up under the filter and clogging it). From one of your previous questions, I see you're planning to use two hang-ons on opposite sides of the tank to create a crossing flow pattern, so you can divide the total filter rating between the two.

HEATERS: For a saltwater tank, I'd suggest getting 2 and putting one on each end if you get a tank. This will provide more even heating, and your tank has a back-up if one heater gives out. Figure the correct size as 5 watts per gallon divided by 2 heaters. If you need to heat the water more than 10 degrees above the room temperature, go one size higher.

LIGHTING: If you never want anything but fish, you can use the standard lighting and hood made for your tank. You might want to upgrade the lamps to a 10,000K tube or a 50/50 actinic. If you're going to try corals, anemones, etc., go with a compact fluorescent, metal halide, or combo system - these will provide more intense light that they'll need for photosynthesis.

SUBSTRATE - you want something made of aragonite to help keep the pH from changing, I like the smaller shell material that Carib-Sea puts out - it doesn't have to be live sand, either. Some folks like crushed coral, but the particle size is bigger than I like, and it tends to have a lot of dust that never rinses completely out. Another very fine grained material is oolitic aragonite (looks like small white balls) and aragonite sand. Here's an idea of the materials available: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html While it's possible to keep a marine tank with regular aquarium gravel or no substrate, the aragonite will keep the pH from falling below 7.8 (it should be 8.2-8.4). "Live sand" which has bacteria needed for cycling the tank isn't needed if you're planning to use live rock in your tank - all the bacteria needed is within the rock, and it will multiply to colonize your substrate. I'm a little leery of the bagged live sand, since it's difficult to know how much "live" bacteria is in it if it's been sitting on the shelf - the bacteria wanted are aerobic (needing an environment with oxygen) so I prefer the live sand purchased from operating tanks to seed the dry substrate (which costs about 1/2 as much).

SALT MIX: If you're only keeping fish, you can go with one of the less expensive brands of synthetic sea salt. If you get any invertebrates (shrimp, snails, crabs, corals, anemones, etc.), switch to a better quality mix before you add them. These cost a little more, but you won't need to be using additives for the trace elements they need either.

HYDROMETER: This measures the amount of salt that's dissolved inwater. There are two kinds you can get, one made of glass that floats on the surface (more accurate, but easy to break) and a plastic container that has a needle that rises and falls as the amount of salt changes (less accurate, bubbles attaching to the needle gives false readings). For fish only, you want the specific gravity to read 1.020 - 1.026. If you're keeping inverts, you want it to be 1.024 - 1.026.

WATER TESTING KIT: minimum of pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

CLEANING SUPPLIES: elbow length gloves, gravel vacuum, 5 gallon bucket, large plastic container and powerhead for mixing the salt (to be done well ahead of water changes), algae scraper, razor blades (for coraline algae and diatoms that like to attach to the glass).

WATER CONDITIONER: for removing chlorine or chloramine from your tap water (unless you plan to use a reverse osmosis filter or buy RO water, which is preferred for a reef tank).

The following are optional, but strongly suggested:

PROTEIN SKIMMER: This removes dissloved and small organic materials that would normally contribute to the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in your tank. Not 100% necessary for fish-only tanks, but will be handy if you have inverts to keep up good water quality by removing organic materials that become nutrients for algae.

GLASS COVER: This reduces evaporation and keeps the fish inside the tank (some are jumpers), although with a metal halide lighting system, it can overheat your tank.

LIVE ROCK: This give the tank a more natural appearance, provides hiding places for the fish and inverts, and increases the biological filtration. Not to mention, you get all kinds of cool critters that hitchhike into your tank (shrimp, snails, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea stars, etc.).

CHILLER: If you use metal halide lighting, or the water temperature regularly gets above 85o (for corals or anemones, fish can take a little more heat), you may need to invest in a chiller to keep the tank cool. The water temperature should run 76-80oF. As an alternative, you can put the tank in a room with good room sized air conditioner (which is less expensive than a chiller) if the water temperature is likely to be high.

There may be additional items that you could need, such as kalkwasser to raise your pH if you can't get it to 8.2, but you won't know these until you get the tank set up and running, and test your water.

Before going out and buying all this, I would suggest some reading to see what you're getting into by keeping saltwater. I did research for almost 2 years before I set up my first tank, and I had about 20 years of freshwater aquarium experience already. Rushing into a saltwater setup usually doesn't give you good results, and the equipment and fish are a little too expensive to be finding out in a few weeks you got something that's not appropriate for what you want for your tank. I'd also recommend a good reference book for some research. Either of these would be a good one to start with: The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1 or The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5

If you start with just a fish only, or fish only with live rock, you can aquaint yourself with all the maintenance and water quality/water chemistry adjustment needed for keeping a saltwater tank, then decide if you want to go on to corals and other inverts which are more demanding, and what if any additional equipment you may need to add at that time.

Some web sites you can check out for more info on keeping saltwater are the following:
http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cls=16
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I would suggest 1 pound per gallon of each live rock and live sand, a heater, a powerhead to move the water and a decent light, and by decent i mean PC, VHO, or metal halide, a thermometer a hydrometer, aquarium salt( NOT table, kosher or sea salt fro the grocery store), and reverse osmosis/distilled water . I have never used a skimmer, or filter, but some people swear by them. And i highly suggest a test kit containing atleast amonia, nitrite and nitrate testing supplies, and you will absolutly positivly have to have alot of patience, nothing good ever comes quickly in SW aquariums

Answer 4

Here is a site that tells you everything you need
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1990&articleid=2918


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB