Begining saltwater tank please help me?

Question

Ok, I have had freshwater tanks successfully for the last 2 or 3 years, and have decided to make the jump to saltwater. I am not going to set this tank up for several months to make sure I plan well. To start, I am going to go extremely simple, and with an overly big tank to ease up on water changes and quality things. I am planning a 75 gallon FO tank, with a crushed coral and white sand bottom. I will have dead coral as the main decor. I think i will be going with mostly easy beginner fish like various clowns and damsels. My daughter likes the "Finding Nemo" theme, lol. I am going to have 3-4 powerheads, maybe a wavemaker, and a very high glp rating eheim canister. I was thinking with just keeping the flourescents that come with the tank, but is this ok for a FO set-up? I have not been planning to have a sump or protein skimmer, but would you suggest one? As you can tell, just in case i screw up, I dont want to have thousands of dollars invested into this tank, hence no LR or LS. Thx

Also how much do you see this tank running me with out livestock?

And do i just cycle this tank with mollies or guppies since i will have no live rock? Thank you!

Answer 1

Equipment-wise, it okay to use just the fluorescents that came with the tank and most of the filtration/circulation you've planned for a FO setup. Rather than invest in a wavemaker (which is uses mostly with reef tanks to simulate the daily changes in tides) you can do the same with just timers to alternate which powerheads are on when. These can still be used with just fish, and they're a good way to keep debris from accumulating behind rocks/corals at the back of the tank.

I'd go with a "sand" (aragonite) substrate rather than crushed coral - the coral has pieces about the size of aquarium gravel to slightly larger and debris can accumulate between the pieces. Since saltwater organisms are a little more sensitive to water quality, going with a smaller substrate will keep most of the debris on the top where the fish will find the food, and the waste is more easily seen and removed by your siphon. You can get an idea of the sizes in this link: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html

As far as the fish, a pair of clowns are a good easy beginner fish. Most of the fish in "Nemo" aren't that suitable for a community tank - puffers should be kept alone, tangs need large tanks (a yellow tang [Bubbles] would be okay in a 75, but a hippo [Dory] should have a larger tank). Also, tangs tend to be sensitive, so you might not want to try one of these at first. I'd personally avoid damsels (Deb). They are hardy, but they're territorial and quite aggressive for their size (other than chromis), and as such, they'll terrorize any fish you try to add to the tank after them (and possibly many in the tank already). Moorish idols (Gil) and butterflyfish (Tad) are extremely difficult to feed and usually die. Seahorses (Sheldon) aren't fast swimmers, and don't compete well for food against other fish, so these usually slowly starve unless kept in a tank of their own. So that pretty much eliminates most all the fish but the clowns and Gurgle (a Royal Grama).

Some other choices that aren't related to the movie that may be better suited to your tank are cardinalfish, scissortail goby, clown goby, jawfish, canary blenny, longnose hawkfish, or the chromis. That's more than you may want to keep at first.

A protein skimmer is helpful to keep organics (chiefly nitrate) down, but they aren't 100% required for FO tanks. The sump mostly gives additional volume to dilute wastes, and the sump can be used for plants to remove nitrate and phosphate (it also makes a convenient place to hang your equipment so it's out of sight). Since you want to deliberately understock, as long as you don't overfeed and do regular water changes you should be fine without either of these.

As far as equipment figure on getting the tank, stand if you need one (get solid wood - metal corrodes! and particleboard softens if it gets wet), 3-4 bags of substrate, filter, powerheads, and heater (I'd recommend 2 - 200 watt heaters on opposite ends - this way you get more even heating and have a backup if one fails), salt (2 bags will be needed to fill the tank, plus a little left over), a hydrometer (for mixing the salt), and a API Saltwater Master water testing kit. I also keep a plastic garbage can and extra powerhead for mixing the salt prior to water changes.

A good book will also be a lot of help in planning, setup, and troubleshooting/disease prevention. I like 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

Since there are a lot of options in the above equipment, you might want to look through a catalog to choose features you want, and use this as an idea of your total cost: http://www.thatpetplace.com/

You can use either guppies or mollies to cycle, starting them in the tank with freshwater and increasing the salinity right up to marine strength (and both species will survive - you can keep them with the marine fish, or put them in another tank and gradually reduce the salt). From my experience, the guppies are hardier in full saltwater than the mollies, but mollies are a larger fish, so you'll need fewer to cycle. I would take about a week to bring the salinity up to full saltwater for either, although it can be done in less time.

Answer 2

The best thing to cycle your tank with is damsels, these are cheap. If your going to have clown fish than you will need to have an anemone for it to live in. Anemones need to have rock to attach to, so you will need to have live rock, this is also great to cycle a tank. If you have anemones you will need to have better lights than the lights that come with the tank. You will need a sub-compact light with atinic lights. Also with live rock you will need a protein skimmer.
I have had a salt water tank for years and I think that a wet/dry filter with and sump are the best. You can add chemicals and extra carbon to the system by way of the sump. With the sump you can get a kit to put waves into the tank at half the cost of the wavemaker.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

well ita a good thing to start with a tank as big as u can afford
if u want to have fish only system it will be pretty easy to care for well remember thatu can put more than one clowfish in tank cause they will fight over space
but u can put more damsels i have a 20 gallon with 15 pound of live rock, 2 clarkii clownfish 6 damsels and fire and coral banded shrimps remember also that after u set up ur tank u cant add live rock cause it will start cycling process over again and best thing is to use a special product for cycling ur tank as guppies will immidetaly die or u can use damsels for cycle process ohh and i think that portein skimmer will be much more needed for reef set ups not as much for fish only


good luck

Answer 4

im starting a saltwater tank too and i heard that a protein skimmer is only necessary after aquiring an established tank..
sounds like you understand that patience is key when dealing with fish aquariums. About the lights. I heard that it was good to have one blue light to simulate dawn and dusk i the real world. It adds a sense of realism to the fish. Since im only begining to, im only telling you what ive heard from tons of sources, they all seem to say the same thing.