Reply With QuoteFor what? the lounge room?
G'day guys, Just wanting to know what is needed to get a salt water tank set up and how do you maintain it?
P.s you dont need to go into to much detail, I wont be getting one for a while.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers, Mick.
For what? the lounge room?
I'll presume you mean for the house to, on which I can comment, having recently converted my 3ft over to salt.
There's 3 secrets. 1 - Filtration 2. Bacteria 3. Partial water changes. Points 1 and 2 are related. More filtration = more bacteria activity which will cope with your fish's toilet and excess food particles better.
You can elabourate from here till the cows come home, and any serious saltwater aquarist will tell you that you need to invest in test kits for all mannor of things, Amonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, PH etc etc. They all cost money around $100.00 for a reasonable test kit that does most of what you want. I have not yet bought one, only having recently set my tank up without going into the red with my savings account. And when I ask the question " I test my water and find I have higher levels of Nitrate than what is considered normal, what do I do?" The answer is " the quickest way to control higher levels of Nitrate is to do a partial water change" - hence my point # 3
Start a new tank slowly, just one junk fish you caught in the river with your cast net, and wait several weeks to see how it's going before getting any more fish, and even then, one fish at a time, or you will tip the balance of the tank where the bacteria colonies have not had a chance to multiply to sufficient numbers to deal with the fish excrement, which usually results in high levels of amonia.
That's the start.. I got my girls a Nemo and several types of small Damsels a few months ago, and they are going great guns!!
Good luck!
Scalem
P.S One more thing that is essentail is the thing that measures salinity. Looks like a thermometer that you drop into the water to measure the amount of salt you have in the water. Buy a bag of salt and add until you are in the green section of the ( I think it's called a hydrometer)
Last edited by Scalem; 06-02-2007 at 08:04 PM.
All the commercial tanks here have there bacteria started of by adding a crab leg.....and when the water level gets low they top up with fresh water only..
a lot of saltwater fish are territorial, particularly angelfish and butterfly fish, and will bully a newcomer into a back upper corner.
A way to fix that is to move the rocks etc in the tank around a bit just before you introduce the newcomer. That way they all get to establish a new territory.
Check this website out as a place to help get started http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/sbegin-setup.html , you will find plenty of information if you search in google.
First question you need to answer is:
What do I want to achieve? Fish only, Reef (with coral and inverts) or even specific biotopes. Many options.
then the other answers can follow.
Marine aquariums can be a simple affair, or a much more serious (read expensive) proposition. My own tank started out as a small (30 litres) with two locally caught fish sitting on the phone table several years ago and is now an 850 litre fully presentated reef system that draws more power than a small city. It cost more than my boat. (that could be a warning to you) I don't regret a thing.
cbs
ps, no need to add "junk fish" to start the system, all you need is a food source to establish the bacterial cycle. Nothing worse than purposefully subjecting some small critter to amonia burn, then having to answer a little girls questions about why the little fishie has cloudy eyes and its fins are half missing.
Hi - make sure you have plenty of good quality "live Rock", this provides most of you baterial filtration and make sure there is plenty of water movement over it. There are various techniques around one of the most popular being the Berlin method which is the Live rock and a good protein skimmer. Depending on who you talk to you will get pros and cons for every method. I keep a 5' tank in the house and it is plumbed into 2 3' sumps outside. 1 is full of live rock and my return pumps and the other I let overgrow with algae and it basically just adds to the volume of water. I also have a protein skimmer in one of the sumps and a chiller plumbed it, as letting the water temp get to high with stress your fish and corals quite quickly. I dont change the water as often as I should but do try to change at least 25% a month. Usually gets changed a bit more if I have been out in the bay as I bring natural salt water back whenever I am out.
There are lots of good sites on the net and if you do some exploring you will be as confused as everyone else out there when they start down this road.
Good luck
Shane
Watch out for hot days, best to have tank in aircondtioning especially if youmare going to keep invertabrets. If your water is cloudy you have problems and the most imporatnt rule dont over feed your fish will create huge imbalances in nitrates
Years ago I learnt that the best way to keep a salt-water tank healthy is water movement. Not the typical suck through the sand type filter but a 2 outlelt type where one outlet is piped under the gravel/sand/shell grit in the bottom of the tank, which is on a small airating platform and the other pumps a current around the tank. This way no organic matter is allowed fall to the bottom and rot causing nasty bacteria. We used to do bi-weekly I think it was 1/3 water changes with Maroochy river water and never had any environmental issues that lead to unexplained deaths. The tank had a barramundi-cod, bream, juvenile red emporer and whatever small live food we caught in the drag net last. Live food is the best as the fish will only eat what need......hope this sin't too much detail
FIlter types and mediums are a whole different and personal choice really and as you don't want too much detail I won't elaborate yet
Mick, how close to the sea/bay are you? The best water is obviously natural if you can manage....also does away with the need for elaborate test kits and salt and chlorine nuetralisers
Last edited by 4x4frog; 07-02-2007 at 02:01 PM.
when starting a marine tank it is important to establish the basics (being) filtration, lighting, water.
The tank should be 200L + to counter against sudden fluctuations in water parameters (salt levels, temp., ammonia / nitrite levels, etc)
Filtration could include either a sump or an external canister with heaps of biological filter media (seachem matrix). A good protein skimmer is needed aswell + power heads for water circulation ( tank volume being turned over 10+ times an hour by filters). Live rock is still the best form of natural filtration
If you want coral a metal halide light is needed but for a fish only tank a couple of fluros should do the job.
Add heaps of bacteria-in-a-bottle to the tank when cycling (seachem stability is one of the best) and make sure you use good quality synthetic salts as well as RO water (reverse osmosis, pure water) when doing water changes
Last edited by efc; 07-02-2007 at 02:23 PM.
Thanks guys for all the info! I wasnt expecting that much!
Its going to be a coral/reef/fish tank hoping for a size of 6"x 3"x 3" depending in where it will be going.
Once again thats a lot guys!
Cheers, Mick.
double post.....
Last edited by cbs; 07-02-2007 at 05:11 PM.
Originally Posted by 84mick
This is the information you need to provide in the first post. A lot of the information given in the above posts will not cut it to do this properly.
To see what can be done these days go to www.reefkeeping.com and read all the back issue "tank of the months" .
Other than that,
Research research research.
Patience, Patience, Patience
Do it right, once only.
Be prepared to spend big $$$$ for a tank that size.
Good Luck.
http://masa.asn.au/phpBB2/
The Aussie Reefing forums: Very helpful bunch (most of the time). A few of them are "go search" nazi's but Meh ya get that ignore them there's plenty of very knowledgeable and friendly people on there who are more than willing to help no matter how silly the question may seem.
Kept a reef tank for 5-6 years great and very rewarding hobby and as soon as we finish reno's (if we ever do!!!) i will be getting another tank.
Joe
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