Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

[bhammer]

All, the wife and I are looking to start a saltwater tank. I have done a bit of reading and visited our local shop. We would ultimatley like to move up to a reef tank and would invest in the front end for the right equipment. I wouldn't want to go any smaller than 55 gal. tank. Any thoughts on the right equipment, initial fish and any links to good forums and sites would be great. I am sure there are all kinds of questions I should ask so please let me know.

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

must have is a protein skimmer, I suggest that you stay with fish that cost less than 40 dollars a piece and only have maybe 5 for starters, you will have losses as you learn. one lesson is that when water evaporate the salt level goes up, so you add fresh water. except a amount of salt does form around the exterior, so you need to measure you levels,

 

[bhammer]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

Thanks for the info. we are looking at a tank on CL: http://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/for/1299781016.html What are your thoughts on this. The price seems great compard to prices we have been quoted at the local dealers. It's about 2 miles from us so transporting the live fish shouldn't be an issue.

 

[airframer]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

pay close attention to the fish you buy and the others that inhabit his tank. i had over eight hundred dollars worth of coral, fish, and shellfish die within a month cause of a healthy looking mistake

 

[Splat]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

I would jump all over that tank, and get it if you can.

The only thing missing is the lighting. That tank your looking at comes with a T5 fixture. This is good for just fish but will not be adequite for reefs and corals. You would need to upgrade to either a HQI or a Mercury vapor setup. These can be very expensive and usually add between $250-700 for a tank of that size.

The larger the tank the better, this is because the water is more forgiving in large amounts. It takes longer to get the water parimeters out of sync, than having small amounts.
Bill

 

[RollingWanderer]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

When we got started with our tank, we found a lot of good advice on this message board. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/

The other advice you've been given here has been good also...

-RW

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

I would jump all over that tank, and get it if you can.

The only thing missing is the lighting. That tank your looking at comes with a T5 fixture. This is good for just fish but will not be adequite for reefs and corals. You would need to upgrade to either a HQI or a Mercury vapor setup. These can be very expensive and usually add between $250-700 for a tank of that size.

The larger the tank the better, this is because the water is more forgiving in large amounts. It takes longer to get the water parimeters out of sync, than having small amounts.
Bill

FYI...
Do not invest any $$ or buy a hood with mercury vapor lamps..MV is being phased out as it is highly inefficient. What the Gov has done is to ban the actual ballast, so that you will not be able to burn them.

T5's are OK, but you must use a T5 that is Acetinic, in the higher light spectrum for coral growth...They aren't perfect, but are a decent $$ compromise.

Absolute best is a T15 (test tube shape) 10,000 Kelvin HID lamp. They vary in wattages from 175 watt to 1,000 watt with a E39 screw base..There are also 14,000 kelvin & 20,000 Kelvin as well..however the 1,000 watt 20k's are really used by SeaWorld sized installs..

And for smaller set ups, they have a double ended (RX7s base) in 70 watt up to 250 watts.

 

[KurtG]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

I went to grad school in Marine Science and had a reef set up for 10 years, but took it down a few years ago as I didn't like fighting maintenance while overseas. Now I have a planted tank that is a little more forgiving when I am away.

If you are not doing a reef to start with, then don't run reef lights! You'll end up with an algae nightmare. A fish only tank doesn't require near the same light intensity. I'd look towards light levels that can do some soft corals and then plan to upgrade a year down the road when you have all the water chemistry down.

90-120 gallons is about right, but frankly I wouldn't want anyones live rock if I were planning a reef in the near future. They probably already killed anything interesting. If you are going in for new live rock, then you will need reef-like lighting.


two of the best reef tank sites were/are reefcentral.com and reefs.org

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

I have some experience with saltwater tanks and my advice is to listen to CheapBoatKev...he is a lighting guru...and also I like the idea of getting your own new live rock. Kurt is right when he recommends this to maximise species diversity.

Also look into Pistol Shrimp/Watchman Goby for a nice symbiotic relationship within the tank if you do a reef/liverock setup. The shrimp is mostly blind, using antennae for locating objects(including the goby) and they spend al their time digging out caves in the substrate. The gobies stand watch, as the name suggests, and keep an eye out while the shrimp maintains the residence. And they live together. Kinda neat anyway and hours of entertainment.

If you are just getting fish then trigger fish are something to consider. We had a Picasso trigger and it was pretty neat to watch swim/eat. Be aware that they will kill ANYTHING you put in the tank though.

 

[And-Con]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

www.reefcentral.com very similar to the iboats forums, you can get any aquarium question answered there. hope this helps

 

[new boat guy]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

t5s can work very well just use individual reflectors and corals grow faster under lower kelvin ratings, think of the sun, is it blue? blue lights make the coral looks better to the human eye, it makes the colors pop out, IMO www.reefsanctuary.com is way better the rc

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

t5s can work very well just use individual reflectors and corals grow faster under lower kelvin ratings, think of the sun, is it blue? blue lights make the coral looks better to the human eye, it makes the colors pop out, IMO www.reefsanctuary.com is way better the rc

nbg..
You are correct..Gee..Some guru I am...kelvins are kelvins..But the sun is 5,500 kelvins to 6,500 kelvins...Man made light sources in those kelvin temps are typically blue however...

I meant to say T5's have high CRI..Color rendering Index #'s.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

Dolimite is a cheaper route then crushed coral You will need a hydrometer that can read around 1.20 to adjust salt to water. If you have city water you will want to get a 55 gallon garbage can in your basement with a heater and a air stone so you have water for water changes. You will need an external power filter. A twenty gallon sick tank might be in order in case a fish gets sick. Problem is by the time you notice it is sick the others in the tank already have it. We had a dragon wrasse get sick and killed almost 300 dollars in fish. Algae is a problem. Cant put a pleco or Chinese algae eaters in those tanks so you will have to scrub algae off the glass probably daily. This is by no means a cheap hobby.

 

[new boat guy]

Re: Any Saltwater Aquarium Folks?

crushed coral is by no means the ideal substrate, as you have to vaccum that, you want reef tank grade sand, also hang on back filters (hob filters) are not ideal at all, preferrerly you'll want a sump with a refugium, a sump is under your tank that adds water volume to your tank which is always good, also all your equipment goes down there, a must for a reef tank is a protein skimmer, a good brand is reef octopus, also get a skimmer that is rated for more then the size of your aquarium, refugiums are natural filters, you put a deep sand bed in it along with various species of macro algaes, the most popular is chaetomorphia, it grows very easily and filters the excess nutriuents out of the water very well (the stuff algae feeds on, i rarely have to scrape my glass, also do not use tap water! get an ro/di unit or use ro/di water from your lfs or distilled water, in the long run having your own ro/di unit it best. also a refractometer is way more acurate then a hydrometer, the salinity of your water for a reef tank should be closer to 1.025, 1.020 is way to low for a reef tank