saltwater tank?

Question

hey everyone out there.i would like to start a saltwater tank and ive decided to go with fish only with live sand and live rock soo my qestion is i want a list of everything i need to do this . i dont want to ask the guy at the exotic fish store he might try to sell me something i dont need but i just need a list . thank you

Answer 1

It's good that you're researching this yourself rather than trusting salespeople to tell you what you need. There are several ways you can go with your tank, depending on your budget.

We get this question quite frequently on the forum, so I've put together a "shopping list" of sorts I give based on my own saltwater experience (9 years now). Here's what you'll need, plus some optional things you may decide to use:

TANK: 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 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.

STAND: 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).

FILTER: You'll want to get one that's properly sized (filters a minimum of 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 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. at some point in the future, 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 They also have a line of "live sand" (http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/aragalive.html ), but if you also use live rock, the bacteria from the rock will colonize the sand as well. By only using live rock, you'll cut the substrate price by about 1/2. 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: If you're only keeping fish, you can go with one of the less expensive brands of synthetic sea salt like Instant Ocean. 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/
http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cls=16

ADDITION: There's good reason to do water changes every week. The cleaner crews eat algae and excess food, they don't eat the "poop" and inorganics/precipitates if these occur. And the person who asked the question specified they want a fish-only tank, so they may not plan on any inverts, including cleaners - not all fish are compatible with snails and crabs. And filter only remove wastes that are in the water, not those that sink to the bottom of the tank. A protein skimmer (if used) only removed very fine or dissolved matter. I prefer to get wastes out of the tank before they cause a water quality problem.

In addition, the fish and any organisms/algae that's on the live rock use the minerals from the water (calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, and others). The easiest way to replace the minerals used it by adding more - these are contained in the salt mix, but you can also buy separate "additives". The only problem with using the additives is that these only contain a few of the necessary elements (so you need a few types of additives and have to try to keep the amounts in the correct balance) or use just the salt which is mixed to have them in the correct proportions. I know what I think is the best for my fish. Several other authors and marine scientists and aquarists seem to agree:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/water.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/scottsh2ochgart.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/watchgantart.htm

Answer 2

I have both fresh water and saltwater. you need live rock to help clean the tank because saltwater fish need a much cleaner environment. If you put sand in with live rock it will become live sand eventually so no need to spend the extra money for live sand I honestly don't know if you can use gravel. like most fish tanks once its cycled it's not really that much work. If you have the money I would say go for it. It's much more entertaining watching a saltwater tank in action then freshwater. however you will learn that you can't fit many fish in a 20 gallon tank with saltwater. 3 at the most. And non of the big beautiful fish like angel fish or butterflies will work in that small of a tank.

Answer 3

1-Tank, The more water the better, for fish only with live rock I would suggest 45gal. or larger.
2-lighting, if you are NOT planning on having corals or clams or Anemones, Lighting is not important but to bring out the full colours of your fish, I would recommend 1x10k or more daylight white and 1x Actinic blue flourescent tube.
If you are planning on keeping Clownfish WITH an Anemone, lighting IS important, MOST Anemones NEED good strong PROPER lighting (6 or more wats per gallon)
3-Hydrometer to test the salinity of the water when making Saltwater.
4-Test kit for saltwater.
5-At least 2 power heads for current, I would use 3, one pointing down behind the Live rock and one at each end of the tank criss crossing each other, this should eliminate most dead spots in the tank and most saltwater fish like the current.
6-Heater, designed for the tank size.
7-Protien skimmer, This is not nessesary BUT is better than using a standard filter, I would recommend saving the $$$ and NOT putting a filter on the tank and spending the $$$ on a Skimmer,
"Explination" A skimmer removes organics Before they have a chance to desolve back into the water as nitrates, The only work that you have to do is empty the collection cup once a week.
You say that you are using Live rock and sand? That is the BEST biological Filter that you can get for saltwater tanks so you do not need a mechanical filter.
A Mechanical filter, IF not cleaned and cartridges replaced on a REGULAR basis (Time and $$$) will eventually start to produce Nitrates.
8-A good cleaner crew, Snails, Hermit crabs, Shrimp... will do a great job of cleaning algae, Ditrious and leftover food in the tank and also add to your enjoyment, You can also add a couple of different sea stars to help out.
Just remember, A few saltwater fish Eat them so you will have to do some research on the fish that you plan on getting.
*There are Hundreds of fish that DONT eat them*
9-A sump with a Refugium is Always a good idea but is not nessasary, It adds to the water volume, is a place to put equipment (skimmer and heater and carbon bags if used...)
You can also get a hang on back refuge if you don't plan on using a sump or you can make your own refugium out of a used cheep aqua clear filter.(you can look them up on the net).
10-Keep it as natural as possable and you will find that there will be less work for you and more enjoyment.

Why would you want to spend all of your time vacuuming your tank when you have animals to do it for you??
Why would you want to spend tons of $$$ on filter cartridges when you have animals to do the sane job??
It takes me about 2 minutes to empty a skimmer cup, how long does it take to shut off,disconnect, Clean, reconnect and restart a canister filter???

I do water changes on my REEF tank every 2 months, NOT every 2 weeks and I dose only with Bio Cal which has all essential trace elements in it (takes me 20 secconds to do that every 3 days) Not 2 days to get new saltwater ready for water changes.
Good luck and have fun.
Welcome to Saltwater.

Answer 4

live sand
live rock
canister filter/ wetdry system/ or bio filter
protein skimmer
power head
and u might want to get a good light that has both the blue and white light on it so the fishes colors can shine brighter