A beginners guide reefs!!! By Jojo22 (c) captiverefing.com 2007

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jojo22

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Sep 21, 2006
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The beginners reef guide!!
Many people look at a saltwater fish tank and whether it be at an aquarium or a local fish store and are amazed by their beauty. Then they go home and try to recreate this beautiful thing that they saw and all does not go well. All does not go well because these people without knowing it where selfish and careless with the lives that they took into their hands. These animals are extremely sensitive and require lots of care and knowledge. The environment they live in must maintain a perfect balance of many different chemical levels and have proper recreation of their natural environment. I have done a lot of research on keeping marine and reef tanks and would like to take the time to share what I have found with all you new guy (and girls) to the hobby. If anything in this article confuses anyone or leaves them with more questions please use the search feature at the top in the navigation bar and if after your search you still have questions ASK AWAY!!! There are many kind and very experienced people on this board who would love to help you out.
The first thing one needs to know is that saltwater fish can be expensive. There is no way around this. Many people come to this hobby and think that they can get really cool fish for 10 or 11 dollars, while some like myself find even the “cheaper” fish like this cool you will not find a powder blue tang or a acropora frag for this price. If one wants to properly and successfully keep marine life they must be willing to accept this fact. They must also be willing to be up all hours of the night to take care of a tank that has an ill fish or even miss a planed event or vacation if there are problems with the biotope that they have created. Now that we have that out of the way we can move on to more interesting topics.
In my experience the two most important elements of a saltwater fish tank are water quality and the amount of water flow. Water quality being the more important of these two. Some people judge water quality by how clear their water is and that just doesn’t work. In my short time as the aquarist of a pet shop that is no longer around, I can not tell you how many times people would come in with a dead fish and when I asked about their water quality they would say something like “My water is crystal clear!” These people always got my standard response “So is vodka but your fish wont live in that either!” To properly test water you would need basic test kits. For the beginning hobbyist I would say the least amount of test kids needed would be four. These should consist of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. These will allow you to monitor the levels of these compounds to make sure they are at acceptable levels for your fish. If one wishes to keep a reef tank they can expect to by many more test kits that I will not get into at this moment. Water movement is the next thing that needs to be addressed. In nature water is constantly moving and in nature this is called water current. In the home aquarium you need current or water turnover. It is important to use a pump or powered in your tank that will move all the water a set number of times. This would be your turnover rate. For a fish tank that does not contain corals I would suggest a turnover rate of not less than 15 times an hour. That means that if you have a 100 gallon fish tank that all your pumps combined need to move 1500 gallons of water per hour or GPH. If the same tank did contain corals it would need a turnover of thirty to sixty times which would be between 3000 and 6000 GPH. There are many factors to think about when you are figuring out your water movement. You do not want to have any dead spots, these are areas of your tank that do not have proper water flow. The easiest way to get around this problem is with a closed loop water manifold. This is a system that allows you to change the direction of flow from multiple different points in you tank.
The next thing one should consider is what is known in the hobby as “The Cycle”. The cycle is the process of building up bacteria to process wastes or fish poo into less harmful compounds. This is where you will begin using the test kits mentioned earlier. There are many ways to start a cycle. You would add a fish and when he goes to the bathroom it would create waste that would begin the process, you could add a raw table shrimp and it would decompose to start this or you could just add pure ammonia and this would do the same thing. As ammonia is presented bacteria will grow and turn this into nitrite, more bacteria will grow and turn nitrite into nitrate and nitrate is removed by changing part of your water. This is why water changes are important. All of the compounds mentioned are toxic to fish. Ammonia being the most harmful and nitrate being the least. Your cycle will be complete after you get a high quantity of ammonia and nitrate and then they are eliminated by the bacteria until they are undetectable by your test kit.
Lighting is very important to a reef tank but is of no real importance to a tank with no corals. In a fish only tank the lighting is only for the pleasure of the person looking into it. Corals on the other hand are photosynthetic animals that require certain amounts and types of light. This can get very difficult to set up and maintain depending on the type of corals you wish to keep. I would suggest that the beginning hobbyist start with their tank and get it cycling and learn some of the basics before buying their lights so that they can get the lighting that will suit what they need from the beginning as these lights are not cheap and upgrading later only makes things more expensive. This is also where research comes in very helpful. One should look into what they want and find out what they want to keep in their tank and what the requirements of those animals are so that they can build their tank around that animal. If you try to make animals fit into the tank you want it will not work as you will be changing the environment that the fish is supposed to live in and it will either be unhealhty or die.
If after reading all this someone still wants to start a saltwater tank I would say go for it. But remember do your research before you start. Not all fish get along together and not all fish will live in the same type of tank. It takes a responsible person to take care of these animals. If you don’t have the time, money, or drive to do things right you will only give this hobby a bad name when you tell others about your experience.

So I guess I still have your interest if you are reading this far. So Now I will go into more depth about the topics mentioned above and a few extras.

TANK SELECTION
This will be your first step in starting a marine or reef tank. As a general rule beginners should not start with a tank smaller than 30 gallons. This does not mean that a beginner can not get a smaller tank it is just that the smaller your tank is the harder it will be to maintain. I would suggest that any person buying a tank purchase the largest tank that they have the space and money for. This not only gives you a more forgiving volume of water for the mistakes that all beginners make but also allows you more options for aquascapeing and stocking choices. If you are planning to use a tank that was freshwater I would just clean it out really well and you should be good to go. The only exception to this would be if you have ever used copper based medication in your tank. There is then the possibility that the copper leached into the silicon seals and could leach back out and make it impossible to keep invertibrets and corals alive.

FILTRATION
This is an area that confuses a lot of people when they are first switching to saltwater. While you still need filtration with a marine tank you would normally go about this in a totally different way. Unlike a freshwater tank you usually will not be using filter floss, sponges, carbon or bio-balls. These types of filtration although effective in their job only produce nitrate as the end product just like in freshwater. With a saltwater tank you ideally want your end product to be nitrogen gas that is expelled at the surface of the water. This happens by utilizing the denitrifying bacteria in your sand bed and live rock. Most experienced reef keepers help to accomplish this with the use of a sump or a sump / refugium combo. Both of these will be covered later. A skimmer is also an important piece of equipment for filtration in any marine tank. These items used properly will help you have many happy years of reefing. If you currently have an undergravel filter you will want to remove this as it will collect deitrus and cause you to have excess nitrates.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRUSHED CORAL AND A SAND BED
Crushed coral can come in many different sizes. This ranges form large pieces that resemble rocks to a fine sand like crushed version. If you decide you want to use crushed coral for it's great Ph buffering abilities ONLY use the fine sand. The larger pieces will hold deitrus and cause all sorts of problems with your water quality. This WILL eventually lead to a tank crash in any reef as you just cant keep it clean enough. This may take a few months or it may take a few years. A sand bed is far superior. It is compact, looks good, proveds a home for all sorts of awesome little critters and most of all the wastes stay on top of it for easy siphoning. there are two different types of sand beds, shallow and deep, both of these will be covered in the next section. No matter which you decide to go with rest assured you have made the right choice going with sand.

DO I WANT A SHALLOW SAND BED OR A DEEP SAND BED
There are pro's and con's to either type of sand bed. I feel that the most important factor in this decision is the size of tank you will be using. A sand bed that is less than 1.5 inches deep is usually considered shallow. Any sand bed greater than 3 inches is what would be considered deep. Deep sand beds or a DSB is usually reserved for larger tanks. This is because the DSB takes up quite a bit of water volume which is very valuable in a smaller tank. However in a larger tank the denitrifying bacteria that would live in the anerobic (or oxygen free) area of a DSB is very helpful. A shallow sand bed or SSB is great for a smaller tank mostly for it's ascetics. It is much nicer to look into a tank and see a nice layer of sand than it is to see a peice of glass with some fishy poo laying on it. A SSB is also useful when keeping animals that prefer to to sift the sand bed and you don't want to go deep. It allows them to play and hide in their natural enviroment and still leaves you not having to worry about nasty build ups associated with a DSB in a smaller aquarium.

WHAT IS LIVE ROCK, DO I NEED IT AND HOW MUCH SHOULD I GET
Live rock is just that. It is pieces of rock that came from natural coral reefs and has been collected for use in the hobby. On and inside the rock there are thousands and possibly millions of living creatures and bacteria that will help you to keep your tank parameters at an optimum level. Live rock or LR is an essential part of any reef aquarium. While most of the things that come on LR are desirable there are on occasion nasty little hitchhikers that you will want to remove from your tank. These would include mantis shrimp, some types of nudibranches, along with many others that you will learn about along the way. The other basic and very essential function that live rock serves is that it IS your filter. Water flows through the live rock which contains millions of tiny little crevices and passages that catch debris and serve as breeding grounds for you aerobic and anaerobic bacterias.
You will HAVE TO HAVE LR to have a successful reef, as a general rule of thumb 1 or 2 pounds a gallon will work. But this is a case of the more the better, as long as your fish have room to swim.

WHAT IS SUMP AND HOW DOES IT WORK
A sump in a nut shell is a tank under your tank. It works kind of like a wet dry filter with a few differences. First of all you don't want the dry area. Water should drain into the sump where your, heater, skimmer, thermometer, and other nasty little pieces of equipment that you don't want cluttering up the look of your main tank will go. The water will then be pumped back into your tank. I will take the time to explain a little more. Water will leave your tank either through a bulkhead fitting for pvc pipe in your overflow, or a hang on the back overflow. it will then flow through pipes into your sump. Once in your sump it will flow through two or three main sections. The first is known as the intake section, then there is the possibility of a refugium (this will be covered in just a minute), and finally the return section. The intake section is where the water enters, you will also want to place your protein skimmer in this section (also covered soon)and your heater if you do not decide to build a refugium, then the refugium where you add there heater and other things, then the return where water is pushed up through another pipe and back into your tank. Each of these sections are separated by baffles, every set of baffles should consist of at least three dividers, one siting on the bottom of your tank and stopping a few inches below the top, the next starting at the top and stopping one inch before the bottom, and the last one setting on the bottom like the first.

WHAT IS A REFUGIUM AND SHOULD I ADD ONE TO MY SUMP
In a nutshell a refugium is a place where you can hide some extra live goodies that you may not want or be able to fit in your main tank. This would include anything from LR to a DSB to macro algae or cleaner clams. Most people I have seen use the refugium to hold LR and a dsb as both are very helpful in maintaining your water quality. I have also see these areas used to house fish that are harassing other fish or have minor injuries so that they can heal in peace.

WHAT A PROTEIN SKIMMER AND DO I NEED
A protein skimmer is one of the most important pieces of equipment you will buy or make. It is also like lighting an area where you will get what you pay for (unless you have some DIY skills and can find a mod for your skimmer). The purpose of a skimmer is to remove all of the protein strands (or dissolved organic compounds) that are in your water column and carry them to a cup at the top of the skimmer where they can be removed. The process is fairly simple and straight forward. Your protein skimmer will come with a pump attached to it. This pump will more than likely have a venturi unless you are buying a huge skimmer then the design changes a bit. The pump will suck air and water into the skimmer, in the process the air is chopped up into tiny little bubbles that are known as micro bubbles. The water is then either forced up and down thru a baffle like system inside the skimmer or in the case of recirculating skimmers it is taken from the top at and redeposited in the bottom of the skimmer. The whole purpose of this is that the longer air stays in contact with water the more proteins can attach to it. This greatly improves you water quality because the more proteins you remove the less that are in your tank to cause high nitrate and possibly nitrite. Skimmer ratings are not always accurate, as a general rule of thumb I suggest reducing the skimming capacity listed for the skimmer by anywhere from 40% to keep soft corals and most LPS to 60% for keeping SPS and the more difficult LPS corals. So in the end YES YOU NEED A SKIMMER!!

WHAT IS A UV STERILIZER AND DO I NEED ONE
A UV sterilizer is a piece of equipment that is generally used to kill water born parasites. It has its place in the home aquarium but there are a few downfalls that go along with the benefits. As I said before this is a piece of equipment that is usually used to kill water born parasites, it does this by passing the water through a chamber that has a very brought light in the middle that produces a ultra-violet light spectrum bright enough to kill any living organism that passes through it. The down side is that it will kill any benifical bacterias that is currently waterborn along with any pods or other small organisms that you may and probably do want it your tank. For this reason I feel that the cons out weigh the pro's and do not recommend using this type of product. I would have to say however that it would be nice to have on hand for emergence use when battling a sever case of ich or any other parasite that may otherwise be hard to get rid of. But keep in mind that you may want to reserve this type of action as a last ditch effort after trying other remedies that will be far more safe for you tanks stability.

WHAT KIND OF WATER RETURN TO USE (CLM OR POWERHEADS)
This is an area of a little debate. Some people like powerheads or PH for short (although there are getting to be fewer of these people) and there are those who like the closed loop manifold or CLM. For this reason I will give a brief explanation of both, they both serve the same purpose of water movement but they go about it in a totally different way. A powerhead is a device that is but inside the tank and it basically sucks water in and then pushes it out with enough force to create a current in your tank. While a powerhead will do its job it is somewhat limited in it's positioning and leaves unsightly equipment inside your tank. A closed loop manifold is much more efficient in its job and is easier to adjust. The downside to this type of set up is that it requires a little more planning and assembly. Basically a CLM is used with a sump application and is run off of your return pump. The water is pumped from the sump into plumbing that wraps all the way around the top of your tank with "T" fittings that allow the water to exit the manifold.
 

jojo22

Salt-aholic Xtreme
Sep 21, 2006
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Yeah I'm still working on part two. Took a break after the baby was born but it's time to get back at it.
 

joshuacpr99

AC Members
Sep 19, 2007
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houston, tx
very helpfull.....answered my questions about u.v. sterilizers and the use of refugiums. THANKS!!!
 

jojo22

Salt-aholic Xtreme
Sep 21, 2006
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I write to help!!!
 

SHK_ATK

Clam Chowda
Nov 4, 2006
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(805)-CA (336)-NC
this would be the thing I would want to make copys of at kinkos and give to all the people who start out in the sw hobby. Nice write up joe.
 

Charlesr1958

Working DiveMaster
Oct 30, 2004
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www.chucksaddiction.com
I didn't see it mentioned, but would like to suggest that a quarantine tank be the first "item" one should research, purchase and use for each and everything you ever plan to put into your main tank/system. This is a very important habit to get into right from the start and will most likely save you a lot of grief.

Chuck
 
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