what equipment do i need to set up a marine tank?

Question

Im thinking of settin up a marine tank, in my bedroom, with real nice fishes in! :D anyways what equipment do i need before i get my fishes? like a pump etc. and what i need to have in the tank? i was told you have to have 2 lights in the tank?!? ^o) help meeee pleassse! :D

and whats with the water?? do you just use normal water then put salt in? or you have to buy it?

Answer 1

you'll need a protien skimmer, full spectrum lighting, live rock, live sand, algae fonds, coral gravel, crushed coral mesh, and a crate. this is the basic set up with a crate at the bottom with air space flolowed by crushed coral mesh then coral gravel then a UGF then live sand then live rock and algae fonds on the rock(optional) and a priten skimmer with full spectrum lighting above. the salt needs to be special aquerium salt for salt water fish and the dealer of the fish will need to help you with salinity levels for your new fish. salinity must be kept constant in a salt water tank slight salinity changs will kill your fish.
good luck

Answer 2

It depends on the type of tank you want to set up. Do you want fish only, fish only with live rock or a reef tank?

With all 3 you will need a protein skimmer, a hydrometer (to measure specific gravity), a heater and obviously a tank.

With fish only you will also need a filter. Any type of light will do with this tank. Adding aquarium salt to regular dechlorinated water will be fine for this type.

With fish only with live rock you will not need a filter as the bacteria in the live rock act to filter the water. You will need better lighting for the organisms on the live rock to thrive, at least compact florescent, bu you will need to add at least one powerhead to make up for the circulation the filter adds. How many depends on the size of the tank.. Adding aquarium salt to regular dechlorinated water will be fine for this type also.

With a reef tank you will not need a filter the live rock acts as a filter here also. You will need much better lighting at least a couple of compact fluorescents and possible metal halides depending on what you want to keep and the size of your tank. You will also need several powerheads in the tank to keep the circulation up. This type of tank may also require various types of supplements to keep coral and other inverts thriving. With this tank you will have to use Reverse Osmosis Deionized water with aquarium salt added. You can either buy your own RO/DI unit or you can by the water.

Just remember that with all salt water tanks the stocking level is much lower that with a freshwater tank because the water holds less oxygen. With a reef tank it is even lower because the coral can't handle the toxins the fish produce if you have to many.

Answer 3

It would help if you told me the size of your aquarium, and what type of system i.e. FOWLR or FO or reef, and the salt you use is not kosher salt you need to get salt from a pet store, also you need to do a lot more research and know that you have enough tiime to do this, I researched for almost a year until I was sure I knew what I was doing, but if I were you I would find a local pet shop PRIVATELY owned is best, don't go to a a Petco or Petsmart! Go to the library and read some books!!! Saltwater Aquariums is where I started!!! And make sure you can afford to handle this!!

Answer 4

To do it right and to avoid losing fish you need 2 external filters,a protein skimmer a heater,a uv steriliser,live rock ,coral sand and other expensive bits and bobs,with fish included you are talking over a £1000 ...expensive but worth it :D

Answer 5

There's a bit to keeping a saltwater tank. I would strongly recommend that before you go too far in planning, that you do some research into the different types of tanks (fish-only, which is the easiest and cheapest; fish-only with live rock, which give you added biological filtration; and reef, which is the full-blown marine set-up with corals, anemones, shrimp, etc., which can be the most difficult and IS definitely the most expessive type). That's not to say you can't start with a fish-only, then add other items to the same tank as you get some experience and want to try more organisms.

Obviously, you'll need a tank, unless you've kept freshwater in the past, and already have one you're planning to convert to salt. The larger of a tank you can use, the better - saltwater fish tend to be larger and more territorial/aggressive than traditional freshwater "community" fishes and more like cichlids in their behavior, so some planning is necessary on just what you can keep together. The larger the tank you have, the more options that are open to you. I would suggest starting with something in the 29-55 gallon range at least, unless you already have a larger tank for use. The smaller "nano" tanks aren't necessarily the best place to begin and are harder to keep up (not to mention more limiting on what you can keep in them!). The best way to determine the size, though, is to research the fish you want first, to be sure they are all compatible, their adult sizes, and the minimum tank size needed for each, and plan the tank and equipment from there.

If you need to get a stand for the tank, try to get solid wood. The particleboard stands won't hold up if they get wet and the glue separates, and the iron/metal stands will corrode if any salt gets on them (or, you could get a metal stand, just use a flannel-backed tablecloth under the tank to protect the stand from splashed water).

Some of the other items you'll need:

FILTER: You'll 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).

POWERHEAD(S): To provide more water circulation in hard to get to places. This also helps circulate dissolved oxygen to the bottom of the tank. Have at least two for a larger tank.

HEATERS: For a saltwater tank 30 gallons or larger, I'd suggest getting 2 and putting one on each end. 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 (for a single heater) divided by 2 (if using 2 heaters). If you need to heat the water more than 10 degrees above the room temperature, go one wattage size higher.

LIGHTING: If you never want anything but fish, you can use the standard lighting and hood (single bulb) 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).

SALT MIX: You need to use sea salt for marine tanks, not ordinary salt you can find in supermarkets. 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.

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.

You may decide that you want to use a UV sterilizer, but in my opinion, these are unnecessary. They don't necessarily kill all the parasites and disease-causing organisms, and they only affect free-floating algae, not any that's attached to your glass, rock, or substrate. The bulbs also need to be replaced yearly. Rather than pay the high price for one of these, you'd do better to buy an inexpensive 10 gallon setup kit and a heater and use these as a quarantine tank.

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

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

As far as the fish, what species are good for starters will depend largely on the size of your tank. Even though they are hardy, I recommend against damsels, mostly because of their aggressivness - add one of these, and they'll terrorize any fish you try to introduce later. The exception I'd make here is the green reef chromis.

You'll want to add the smallest and most peaceful species first, and this will reduce some of the aggression in the tank. It's a general guideline that you shouldn't mix fish of the same color or body shape, or different species from the same families to prevent any of the fish from seeing another as a potential rival. There are a few species that can be kept in schools or in mated pairs, but this is the exception rather than the rule. I prefer the smaller semi-aggressive and peaceful species myself, but your preferences might be different. Some of the ones I would recommend as starters are the chromis, a pair of ocellaris clown (the "Nemo" fish - any two juveniles will work because the dominant one will become a female, the other a male), Bangaii cardinalfish (if you have a good saltwater person at your fish store, they should be able to pick out a male and female for you), longnose hawkfish, canary blenny, jawfish, clown goby, scissortail gobies, and firefish. That's more than you should keep in a 55 as adults, so you'll need to so a little choosing of which you like, or you might want something completely different. Here are a few links to look at, so you get an idea of care level and prices:

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/
http://www.tropicalfishoutlet.com/
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=15
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/

I do recommending that you buy your fish locally - you get a better idea of the size and health of the fish, plus you won't have to pay for shipping. If you do decide to buy online, only buy from a company that guarantees live delivery of the livestock (some also extend the guarantee for a few days after arrival, which is even better!).

As you can see, there's quite a bit to planning your tank, but the more research an planning you do first, the easier the tank is to care for and the more succes you'll have with it.


NOTE: It's best if you use reverse osmosis water. This goes through a different filtering process than most tap water so any nitrate and phosphate (which may be present in tap water and causes algae blooms) is removed. It's a step better than distilled, since some of the beneficial elements remain, but you may need to add buffers to replaces some of what's lost in the calcium and magnesuin content. All you'd need to do is add the salt to the water and allow it to mix, then use the hydrometer to adjust it to the correct concentration. I keep a large batch mixed up in a large plastic garbage can so I have it handy for water changes. I keep a spare powerhead in the can for mixing and aeration so I don't need to mix the salt by hand.