Debating first salt tank.

[Ballyhoo]

Hi,
this is my first salty post, I'm a fresh kinda girl lol

I have an empty 72 gal bowfront that I was considering turning into a salt tank. I have no idea what I'd need or what kind of expense I'm looking at. Any advice would be super appreciated

 

[DoctaQ]

if you only plan on doing fish, not much more than freshwater except for more powerheads and the live rock, if you are looking to keep coral it will be much more expensive

 

[Ballyhoo]

From the quick browsing I did ( about 30 min ) I'd like to do a Moray eel and/or gobies.
Those are the few fish that I have looked into

 

[peasofme]

it can be as expensive or as cheap as u want it to be really. with aggressive fish like moray eels it really limits what u can have in the tank. like say only 1 eel would really be safe to do. but with community fish such as gobies, u could have a bunch of those. stay away from sand sifting gobies cause they starve by only eating organisms in live sand. sleep gobies get aggressive. some nice gobies are clown gobies (gumdrop gobies), many kinds of shrimp gobies, yellow watchman goby, and many others. check out liveaquaria.com for good information on them.

 

[Ballyhoo]

With Gobys could other fish be put in as well?
The "typical" saltwater fish. Clown fish,the blue one ( Tang? ) etc...

 

[peasofme]

yes, gobies are community fish. other community things are occellaris clownfish (little nemo), green chromis (1 per tank), skunk cleaner shrimp, nassarius vibex snail, mexican turbo snail.

easy corals are discoma mushroom corals, rhodactis mushroom corals, zoanthid button polyps.

sleeper gobies get aggressive.

one thing thats different in saltwater is that u MUST quarantine anything that goes in your tank for 6-9 weeks before putting them in ur main tank because fatal diseases among marine fishes are so high. read about it here:

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marin...e-treatment/20321-marine-ich-myths-facts.html

 

[Ballyhoo]

Thanks for the link and for tolerating my inexperience

 

[GuppyGirl1230]

Ballyhoo~ Did you want to do a sump? You can buy them cheaper than you can build them IME, although through building them, you can customize it. SW equipment is expensive, and typically so are the fish. But, IME, very rewarding. A couple things I would def recommend- A sump/refugium- is absolutely priceless. QT the fish is a must, like peasofme said above. Research the fish you buy, there is a great sticky in the general marine forum as to what fish you should not get. And last, have fun with it! There are many fish that are incompatible with coral so make sure that if you want coral, you look that info up. Liveaquaria.com is great for info on fish, coral, liverock, etc. And they have some rockin sales most of the time! Good luck and I hope if you do start a sw, you share pics and everything so we can all ooohhh and ahhhhh!!!

Maribeth

 

[Ballyhoo]

I have a 30 gal out side, it has a few slight cracks in the corner. I don't know if it can be repaired or if I have to get a completely new one.

Cracks are in the top left corner of this picture

 

[Ace25]

So much advice I completely disagree within this thread.

Gobies.. there is a limit.. they are not "community" fish as they need a certain amount of space for each of them, or else they will fight to the death. Sure, you can have multiple in a 72G tank, but they have to be far enough apart that they feel another goby isn't invading their space. Sand sifting gobies eat other food and will not die simply by not having enough food in the sand... sand sifting starfish on the other hand will.

Green Chromis are schooling fish and do A LOT better when put in groups. Putting only 1 in the tank is doing that type a fish a disservice.

QT is a good practice for certain fish, but other fish do not tolerate it so it isn't a "must do" rule for everything.

I would recommend avoiding "Dori" in a 72G tank, that is a little too small of a tank for that fish IMO. Only tang I feel suitable for a 72G is one from the bristletooth family, even then a 72 would be bare minimum on size.

You can have about 3 gobies in that size tank without issues, as well as other types of fish that do not have the same look/behavior, like clownfish, angel, etc.

JMO from all my experience.