saltwater 4?

Question

please post any tips,tricks or general knowledge you have to share about setting up and maintaining a reef tank system.salt water of course lol

Answer 1

Where to even begin!

Some things I'd definitely recommend are as follows:

1) Do some research before ever buying anything (including equipment and animals). There are different opinions as to what's needed, what works and what doesn't, and methods of keeping saltwater, so get as much info as you can ahead of time. Don't trust people at pet stores to be able to help you out - many don't keep fish at all themselves, let alone saltwater species, and they're mostly interested in making sales. Some websites are good (I posted two in a previous answer to another question), but on others, anyone can post regardless of any knowledge or experience. Books are more reliable, but even these can go out of date. I gave you two fairly recent ones That I recommend already.

2) Be patient. Anything you try to do in to much of a rush usually ends in disaster.

3) Stick to a schedule. You need to make up replacement water for changes ahead of time to adjust the chemistry/salinity. If you plan when these should be done (mix water Wednesday evening, adjustments Thusday, water change every Friday) it easier to remember what you've done, and when something needs to be done. It's also easier to get things done.

4) One of the best investments you can make is a small tank to use for quarantine/hospitalization. I don't know how many people I've answered questions for regarding buying a new fish and putting it into an established reef tank only to find it had a disease or parasite which has since spread to other fish. Live rock doesn't make for easy catching of fish, and inverts in the tank means you can't usually use medications in the main tank. This doesn't have to be fancy - a 10 gallon tank you can pick up used at a yard sale with heater and filter. I've also known people to use plastic storage containers. You don't need to have a substrate or anything in the tank, although a cave or piece of PVC for a hiding spot is usually preferred by the fish. It lets you be sure the fish is eating and healthy before you add it in with the rest, and if you need to medicate, you'll need to use less medication in 10 gallons that what's needed for a larger tank. Quarantining inverts and live rock can also be a good idea to keep unwanted (predatory) inverts and algaes out of your tank. I've been using this method for 9 years, and havent had any problems with disease, nuisance algae, or predators that I haven't wanted in my main tanks (and a peppermint shrimp is great for eating any Aiptasia [nuisance anemone] that comes in on live rock - biological controls can be found for most any problem, so I don't use chemicals unless it's absolutely necessary).

5) Spend some time watching your fish (after all, isn't this what you bought the tank for?). Get to know the personalities of the fish and what they normally do. You can often tell when something in your tank isn't "right" by changes in their behavior before you an pick the cause up on a water quality test or see physical signs of a disease or fighting.

Answer 2

well in my saltwater tank i have a clown fish a feather duster a striped damsel a domino damsel a snail and a neon goby and they are all reef animlas in my reef tank and i just got one of those cheap hydrometers thats glass and i chech it every day and its easy to use because when its in the green everything is okay and it shows the temp too. i have one twenty gallon filter and a ten gallon filter in the twenty gallon tank. starfish arent recomended for a reef tank because they eat corals and slowmoving animals such as urchines and stuff but i got one for my tank and he is doing a lot better of a job at keeping it clean than the snail i use live sand and normal sand mixed because it looks pretty and it helps keep amonia and nitrate and nitrite right. i also put the pretty shells that i find at the beach in it. people will tell you that you need a skimmer but i have had my tank now for a year without one and it is doing fine and nothing has died or gotten sick one of them got ich but that was because of the stress of the 2 hour ride back home. but he quickly cleared up and now everythong is happy i would recomend not getting a tang because they have a spike on their tail that can get to be about 3/4 of an inch long and cause serious gashes. and they get sick really easily.

Answer 3

Honestly for me to tell you everything i can go on forever. Lots of research will have to be done on your part. Generally you will need:
Tank
Filter: of your choice
Lighting (VHO or metal halides depending on what kinds of corals you plan on keeping)
Heater
Protien skimmer
Powerheads
1-1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon or more and 1-2 inches of coverage with live sand for substrate
cleaning supplies,nets, sponges, vac syphon ect..
buckets for premixing salt for water changes
water test kits (ph ammonia nitrite nitrate calcium dKH)
Reverse Osmosis water source or Your own RO/DI tap water filter

That should be a good list to get you started i may be forgetting stuff but those are the bare essentials. I can go MUCH farther in depth if you wish to email me but i didnt want to rant on like crazy here. There is so much to know/learn that i cant really begin to go far in detail here but i hope this helps a little to getting your reef tank on the way.

Answer 4

There are more tips tricks and general knowledge on marine aquariums then is possible to list, just do tons and tons of research before buying ANYTHING. try nano-reef.com and reefcentral.com and keep reading