as you can see in my sig i have a 55 gallon that is a over stocked freshwater tank and im going to be donating the fish to my local lfs for them to put in a huge display tank.. what i am wondering is what do i need for saltwater besides a tank filters and heaters.. i even need to know what type of water conditioning and salt to use
What stuff do i need to start a saltwater tank
- Thread starter almsk8s4life
- Start date
amquel is the best purifier IMO for SW tanks, and the best mix is instant ocean IMO. and special things you will need are: 1. a protien skimmer, an extra type of filtration to help reduce the number of dissoved organic matter in the water. all SW tanks over 20 gallons need one. 2. a hydrometer, for measuring the Specific Gravity of the water, which is how much dissoved salt there is in the water. is is essential for all SW tanks, so you know you have the right salinity for your fish and inverts. most fish and inverts like a SG of around 1.020. 3. a test kit for PH. this is essential for SW tanks, as you musty maintian a constant PH of around 8.0 for your fish to be healty.
fishcatch22 said:
without a test kit for amonia, nitrite and nitrate, you are just asking for trouble. Without those, your goig completely blind on wether or not the water is safe for aquatic life, and you could be putting fish that were in the perfect(ish) ocean not to long ago into a death trap.
Also, prime and amquel are the two best water conditioners; I prefer prime becuase it is consentrated and a small bottle lasts foreverm even with all 5 of my tanks.
I'll add to your list:
4. enough powerheads/ filters with no media to give you a 10-20x turnover rate per hour, or 550-1,100 gph for your tank
5. for most fish, 1-2 pounds of live or base rock per gallon is needed/ is a very a good idea to provide hiding spaces for the fish. Remember, most marine fish come from the ocean, and there tank should look like a reef enviroment so the fish aren't in a completely new world.
6. atleast 1-2 months of research before you buy ANYTHING. Fish that are messy eaters will do better in a bare bottomed tank, where you can clean uneaten food, while fish that aren't messy eaters will do better in a tank with a deep sand bed, where denitrification will be provided. BTW, I suggest you start your research here: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=624151#post624151
well, a A/N/N test kit is important, but it isn't an absolute necessity in my book, although maybe it is for SW aquariums, because SW animals are a lot more sensitive to changes in water quality than FW ones.dorkfish said:
fishcatch22 said:
In freshwater, that is true, but in saltwater, ammonia in a concentration that would be considered low in freshwater, will outright KILL most if not all marine fish. Invertebrates will die if there is ANY ammonia or nitrite in the water. AND how will you know when your tank is safe for fish if you don't have these test kits?
Besides the point, the aquarium pharmicueticals master test kit, wich contains PH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kits is only $30 canadian at my old LFS, and only $17 US from live aquaria. Most marine fish go for $15-$30 each, so I think it's almost a waste of money not to get those test kits.
Everybody here has pretty much summed up the essentials. The only thing I would add is PATIENCE! Start slow. Build your species list ahead of time, think long term. Then continue your research and place species in slowly, and in the right order, ie. least aggressive fish first.
A deep sand bed is highly recommended, helps the overall filtration.
Good luck, and feel free to post more questions, or your species list, once you make it.
------------------------------
100 gallon tank
35 gal wet dry/sump
3.8 watts per gallon
protein skimmer
UV sterilizer
1 Coral Beauty
1 Yellow Tang
1 Pac blue tang
mated pair perc clowns
1 diamond watchman goby
3 reef chromis
3 spotted cardinals - new additions!
Star polyps, yellow colony polyp, bubble coral, pulsing xenia
Purple tip anemone - new addition
cleanup crew: cleaner shrimp, blue leg hermits, turbo snails.
A deep sand bed is highly recommended, helps the overall filtration.
Good luck, and feel free to post more questions, or your species list, once you make it.
------------------------------
100 gallon tank
35 gal wet dry/sump
3.8 watts per gallon
protein skimmer
UV sterilizer
1 Coral Beauty
1 Yellow Tang
1 Pac blue tang
mated pair perc clowns
1 diamond watchman goby
3 reef chromis
3 spotted cardinals - new additions!
Star polyps, yellow colony polyp, bubble coral, pulsing xenia
Purple tip anemone - new addition
cleanup crew: cleaner shrimp, blue leg hermits, turbo snails.
one major piece of equipment is missing from this list:
a very fat wallet.
Sure you can do this in an inexpensive way but to ensure you don't spend your dollars in the wrong place you must research this hobby very very carefully. Get or borrow a couple of good books such as "The New Marine Aquarium" by Paletta and "The Concientious Marine Aquariust" by Fenner. Both are very very good places to start......then make your list carefully and ask about the equipment you are looking at on any of these forums as someone here has it or had it and can give you an opinion of the quality.....don't take the LFS advice that a Seaclone skimmer is a good skimmer for the money.....to me it is money wasted.....same goes with lighting etc......
a very fat wallet.
Sure you can do this in an inexpensive way but to ensure you don't spend your dollars in the wrong place you must research this hobby very very carefully. Get or borrow a couple of good books such as "The New Marine Aquarium" by Paletta and "The Concientious Marine Aquariust" by Fenner. Both are very very good places to start......then make your list carefully and ask about the equipment you are looking at on any of these forums as someone here has it or had it and can give you an opinion of the quality.....don't take the LFS advice that a Seaclone skimmer is a good skimmer for the money.....to me it is money wasted.....same goes with lighting etc......