Saltwater Tank Questions?

Question

Okay my fiancee and I just purchased a 55gallon tank stand etc. for a saltwater aquarium. We want to have fish and invertebrates no live corals. We're not ready to tackle live corals yet. We would like to have sand as we want to have gobys, and other fish of that nature. Is it possible to have sand and to also use an undergravel/sand filter? What kind of sand do we need to have? Were getting a couple of pieces of "live rock" to help with getting the tank cycled, so do we really need "live sand"? We have a big duel biowheel filter and we'll have two power heads as well. Being experiencecd in fresh water I really like undergravel.

Thanks in advance for all the help and information! :)

Answer 1

The "sand" in saltwater isn't the sand that you find at the beach or regular aquarium sand. Sand really refers to the size of the particles, not the composition.

Beach and aquarium sand are made of silica and don't do anything for the water. The snad sold for marine tanks is actually made of small shell and coral material and is composed of aragonite (a calcium-magnesium carbonate) that will help buffer the tank pH. And if you have live rock, it's not necessary to buy live sand as well. That would about double the cost of your substrate over the dry material. The bacteria that are present on the live rock will colonize the sand within a few months.

The challenge you'll have trying to use an undergravel filter is to find a grain size that won't allow the substrate to fall through the slots where the water moves through. If you can do that, a UG is fine to use. You can take a look at this website, which is the brand of saltwater substrate I use to get an idea of the sizes: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html If you can, I would advise using a reversable-flow powerhead to run it. It may seen counter-intuitive to the way most people run them, but running the powerhead in reverse (water is pulled down the tube and forced up from beneath the filter plate) keeps gunk from building up underneath. With stacked rock, it's not as easy to pull the plates up to clean every few months. This also improves the performance, since no debris can accumulate to block water movement or create anaerobic areas where hydrogen sulfide gas can build up. You don't change the biological filtration capability at all, either.

Answer 2

in case you've by no skill executed salt water before be waiting for stickershock a 50 gal reef set up is going to run you about $2000 before you purchase any existence varieties. there is not any thanks to really inexpensive out on saltwater coral and clams choose very effective and really good lights fixtures and also you won't be able to make saltwater with tap water it must be filtered with a opposite osmosis or deionizer equipment before you combine it. you'll choose about seventy 5 -one hundred pounds of stay rock the more advantageous colourful it is the more advantageous extreme priced that runs $4 - $9 a pound you pick a precise high quality protein skimmer and tank heater. then you actually'll choose about $one hundred well worth of attempt kits each and every 3 or 4 months merely to keep song of your easy water high quality. it is not any longer an complete record of the cost you'll incur so that you'll be able to pick to cost it out before you commence finding out to purchase stuff. yet another aspect to keep in thoughts is the stocking means of a saltwater tank is about 2" in line with 10 gallons so that you won't be able to have many fish in a 50 gal tank. Seahorses are very complicated to keep alive they favor to be fed stay nutrition 5 cases an afternoon contained in the wild they stay 2 years in captivity maximum die in decrease than 6 months. The small tanks (50 gal is small) you spot in a puppy keep are many times hook to a wide person-pleasant sump (one hundred's - 1000's of gals) that will strengthen the carrying means of those small tanks. i'd get the most important tank you could manage to pay for the quantity of water might want to help you keep the ecosystem and water high quality sturdy the smallest tank i'd evaluate is 100gal. yet another aspect to remember is you tank will weight about 10 pounds in line with gal so that you pick a floor and stand which could help it. i'd advise you get the "Marine Reef Aquarium education guide" by technique of Dr. Robert J. Goldstein that's a good standard assessment for in easy words $20 and that's a speedy study.