First marine aquarium

L

LostFisher

AC Members
Jun 23, 2003
33
0
0
Visit site
I have always done FW planted tanks but my wife and I have talked it over and would like to do a marine tank. We want to put this tank in our main living room as a show piece. On another important note I have only done small tanks before, 10 gallons being the largest.

I would assume a larger tank is better when doing a marine tank for stability reasons. I dont mind doing a larger tank, like 20 - 30 or more gallons. First question I guess is what do you reccomend for a stand, I imagine a 30 gallon tank is pretty darn heavy. My second question is maintenance, every week are you supposed to do a 10% water change? If this is true what do most people do to keep salt water on hand? I was thinking of getting a 5 or bigger gallon bucket with a heater adding salt and sealing it until needed. Does that make sense?

What would you reccomend, I am not even thinking about fish or live rock right now, just what size aquarium, and what would routine maintenace entail?

Thanks everyone

LF
 
I am a newbie myself, but 30 gallons is a bare minimum for a newbie tank in my opinion. The less gallons the harder it is to control the water. I just got my tank a few weeks ago and i love it, spent the extra money on the 135 gallons but is well worth it with crystal clear water, and i changed 25 gallons of water every month on my tank, i made a little mark on the edge of the glass, i drain the water to that, and add the PREMIXED saltwater to the tank. Yes you do need to premix the water, in a bucket or trash can specifically for the aquarium for anywheres between 48 to 12 hours depending on the heater sutiuation. The size of the tank depends on if you want a reef tank or a fish only tank. Thats where you start off, but a the rule is, The bigger the better for marine aquariums!. Oh plan on having the tank up and running with cocktail shrimp being dissolved in the water for up to a month before even thinking about adding fish. Only add the fish after the ammonia and nitrites are at 0 and nitrates below 20ppm.
Hope this helps!
 
Your planted tank experience will certainly help, since you're probably accustomed to maintaining fairly precise water chemistry.

I agree that bigger is generally better, but a 20-30 gallon tank is certainly doable if you are a little more attentive in the beginning. My 20 has been great fun for years, but it limits the numbers and types of corals and fish I can keep. A 30 is a little better.

The maintenance depends on what you want to keep. Once the tank is cycled, a 10-20% water change every week or two is good. If you want to keep corals, especially stony corals, then you will have to add in a little extra time for routine additions of supplements to maintain your calcium and alkalinity.

What are you most interested in keeping?
 
I really want to keep a few fish, like 1 clown, I really like the blue damsel with the yellow tail, I would get a blue tang but I know you need a pretty big aquarium for them. In all honesty I dont know what fish I want though, I dont want alot of fish though, just a few, I would probably be happy with just 2 fish. I then need some snails and maybe a shrimp.

For coral I am not sure what I want, I have not even given it any thought. To start out and for awhile I imagine I will be happy with live rock, and dont you have to wait awhile before even thinking about adding coral to a new aquarium?

So instead of basing this off of coral, lets say I first want to establish this as a "fish" tank. Lets say I want to keep 4 fish and then a cleanup crew. How big of an aquarium will I need to be able to safely accomplish this and of course keep all inhabitants happy.

Thanks everyone!

LF
 
It all depends on the fish that you want, and of course how much time you want to spend on the tank every week or 2 weeks or whenever you do your water changes. The smaller tanks have a harder time controlling water chemistry and have the saying the only things that happen in a marine tank happen fast, while in larger tanks hopefully you can find the problems and fix them before anything happens to your livestock. Its all a matter of preference and the effort you'd put up for the tank. First off finding the fish you want would be a big help because then you base your aquarium setup on the needs of those fish. Hope this helps!. Justin
 
Lostfisher,

One thing to look at when you are deciding on fish is how much personal space they need and how they react to others entering it. Damsels and clownfish require very little space, but defend it against all intruders. Damselfish are pretty much fearless and known to attack divers that invade their little corner of the world. They also have little mercy towards anything that remotely resembles another kind of damsel.

The smaller your tank is, the more this sort of thing needs to be watched. (So I'd advise a lot of caution towards a clown and a damsel together in a 30.) In a really small tank, a mated pair of clowns can be a good way to go. Another good way to go is very peaceful fish. No matter how you go, look for fish with a lot of personality if you're only going to have two. They should at least be fun fish. ;)

Another fun possibility might be a shrimp/goby symbiosis pair . ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom