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Salt water aquarium

  • #21
Ive just read through this thread and thought I should respond, Im not sure how many people in this forum know this, but I used to work at a fish store specializing in just salt water aquariums, I then quit that job to go be the reef tank expert at another store and ended up working there until I finished college.

I have set up and maintained many small reef aquariums ranging from a goldfish bowl full of mushroom anemones, zoanthids, and shrimp.  This thrived until my coworkers got sick and tired of explaining to the customers why they couldnt due that at home! My favorite size reef aquarium is probably 10 gallons, the biggest problem I ever ran into was competition between the different corals, I was constantly pruning.

My advise for setting up a small salt water aquarium is:
   -Keep it simple
   -Its easy to light up a small aquarium so use alot of light!
            I would use at least 8 watts per gallon
   -Start with purified water (ro) and a high quality salt mix
   -Use lots of high quality live rock (well cured)
   -lots of current (you want to see most corals really moving
   -forget the biological/mechanic filter, they are usuless here
          the live rock will provide all the necessary filtration
   -keep nitrates at 0 ppm (maybe up to 5ppm would be
          acceptable
   -and remove as much organics as possible, either through
         use of a skimmer, or in the case of a really small tank,
         large daily water chgs, most of the corals we keep in
         aquariums are very resistant to fluctuations in salinity
         and temperature caused by the tides, very few corals
         we keep in aquariums are actually collected from the
         outer reef......IMHO it wont hurt your corals to due a
         75% or larger water chg (certain exceptions do apply)
         and in my opinion they seem to due better when given
         large water chgs on a regular basis  
    -the last super important thing is regular additions of
         trace elements and calcium etc.

Now if all that is adhered to a small salt water aquarium should be really simple to maintain. But..you might be asking about fish? Generally speaking on the really small aquariums I would include none....on larger aquariums maybe one or 2, I would follow my keep the nitrates at 0 ppm rule on this!

Personally I would never use an undergravel filter or biowheel filter on a saltwater aquarium, they may work short term but not long.

Hope this helps!

coral.jpg

This is part of a 5 gallon reef aquarium
 
  • #22
do you mean mushroom corals? I think they are the same thing. they look almost exactly the same
alien.gif
 
  • #23
do you mean mushroom corals? I think they are the same thing. they look almost exactly the same
alien.gif

edit: nevermind, mixed two corals up
 
  • #24
mushroom anemones = Corallimorpharia
 
  • #25
how much is a thirty gallon setup
 
  • #26
Jmenprkr,

What do you want in it, and how much are you willing to spend?


Mike
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  • #27
maybe about athousand dollars for something huge with coral and clown fish with inenemies and stuff like that
a coral reactment
i want to put it in a 100 gallon or a 85 gal hex
how much would it be
 
  • #28
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"> Maybe about a thousand dollars for something huge with coral and clown fish with anemones and stuff like that. A coral reenactment. I want to put it in a 100 gallon or a 85 gal hex. How much would it be?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Err...Um... I think you might be able to do that for less than $1000. The lighting would probably be the most expensive part. Then the filtration and the small stuff (Meds, Test Kit, ect...) It could be done, if you shopped around and skimped on a couple things. You would really save a lot if you skimped on the lighting and got lowlight corals.

Mike
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  • #29
fancy protein skimmers can be up to 1500 dollars USD
wow.gif
 
  • #30
a ten gallon is not to small i have a 6gal nano reef - two 10gals reefs - 20gal with a triggerfish and a 125gal with some puffers. some people have even gone to a 2.5gal.
 
  • #31
Not sure if you're still setting up a 10 gal. or not, as I actually didn't notice this forum for months now (I know, I KNOW&#33
wink.gif
, but another option if you're wanting to keep costs down is a seahorse tank. Suprisingly, seahorses do WONDERFULLY in small tanks. I've kept them in as small as a 2 1/2 gal. tank before and they lived there for well over 2 years before I sold the setup to a friend where they are still doing well as far as I know. The advantages are you don't have to worry about quite so many factors like light.

Also, forget protein skimmers. Especially if you're using a smaller tank, you'll be changing the water out anyhow. I have never, ever used a protein skimmer in my tank. It does require an adjustment in your care, but by leaving in the impurities, you can actually benefit your tank if you do it right...not to mention saving yourself a few hundred dollars.

-Ryan
 
  • #32
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]don't mean to burst your bubble, but a 10 gallon is too small for a saltwater setup. there won't be enough room for coral, live sand, fish, protein skimmers, tidepool filters, etc, on such a small aquarium...

Might not want to let the folks at www.nano-reef.com know that.  The guys keeping 3/4 gal systems might have to question their own realities!

Do they even make tidepool filters any more?
 
  • #33
About setting up a 29 gallon reef system...

I would recomend using lots of live rock, ditching the emperor all together, and just using a protien skimmer, when you use live rock, then the biological filter provided by a bio-wheel is just such a tiny fraction of the total biofilter it's not even worth it. (IMHO) I think if you just use a protien skimmer and a good one at that, and put a couple of good power heads (perhaps some oscilating ones) then you will do great. Remember to season the tank and add specimens slowly.

Oh.. and besides the livestock... I think the most important and expensive piece of any tank is it's lighting...

You might think about getting a small metal halide canopy for it... but you can probalby get by with one of the newer powercompact flourescents from someplace like hellolights.com.
 
  • #34
Personally, I would recommend good LR. This will be the majority of your filtration and denitrification. I would also recommend buying an Aquaclear 300 rather than using an Emperor. Biowheels are designed to produce nitrates, something of which you want ZERO of in a reef tank (inverts and corals cannot handle them). With an Aquaclear 300 you can actually use an impeller from the 150 model to create a slower flow. The Aquaclear can then be used to grow some macro algae/caulerpa (cheatemorpha, taxifola, racemosa, etc.) which will absorb nutrient that can be exported from the system via harvesting of the algae. I would suggest using some powerheads for good flow, but not oscillating ones because there is not a decent one to be found on the market right now. I would save your money and look into something called the SCWD. This is an in-line oscillator that can be plumbed into a drill-less closed loop system on a pump which will provide a wave simulation in the tank. A Hagan/Aquaclear surface skimmer attachment will create a pristine water surface as well (no more surface film which can hinder oxygenation and dissipate light). These have come out and been implemented over the last year or two...and people absolutely love them, and the polyp extension on their corals is phenomenal with the more realistic water motion.

As for light, it really depends on what kind of corals you want to keep. A 175W or 250W halide would be great, and you would never really have to upgrade. There are also some 70W setups if you know how to do some basic wiring, but this alone wouldn't be sufficient for a 29 gal tank. You could try some PC setups, although I would really recommend going with something like a 96W Powerquad or maybe even a Coralife enclosed system that can sit above your tank with small legs--pretty nice looking setups. A few places to check out for lighting:

www.hellolights.com (as suggested above, a great resource--I have always been happy with them)
www.premiumaquatics.com
www.marinedepot.com

I would also recommend going to a forum that deals exclusively with small marine tanks (referred to as nanos in the reefkeeping world) such as the nano forum on www.reefcentral.com and even better, the forums at www.nano-reef.com
 
  • #35
just a quick point...

if we reccomend people go to different forums (not complaining... just making a point... cause I want people to get the info they need.) then these forums will never grow and become a significant resource...
 
  • #36
Point taken.  Yet it's difficult to get "in-depth" information on forums that are spread over so many various topics (cp's to reeftanks). You get more specialized people and more detailed opinions which enable the poster to make a more informed decision. Smaller forums tend to host just a small handful of regulars who like things to be done "their way." I'm not insinuating that here at all...just my experience with less specialized forums.
 
  • #37
that is true, this USED to be the petflytrap.com site, it is transforming into a community for pets and plants, reptiles, plants, fish, amphibians... so on... the whole of Terra, (earth).

And while what you say is true, I think that so far some very broad ranging points of view and VERY skilled and learned people have passed on some pretty imporessive information. I am not saying that we have achieved the status of some of the other forums (which I do visit by the way) I am just saying.. ya know?
smile.gif


the more sources of info out there, the better.
 
  • #38
Gotcha. I hadn't been to this forum in a while (CP's are heading into their first dormancy and I decided to do some reading on what I need to do) and noticed there was quite a bit more here than what I remember.

I'll have to keep checking back (I'm predominantly a reef aquarist), but orchids and cp's have made it into my house as well.
 
  • #39
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I would also recommend going to a forum that deals exclusively with small marine tanks (referred to as nanos in the reefkeeping world) such as the nano forum on www.reefcentral.com and even better, the forums at www.nano-reef.com

I used to hangout at nano-reef all the time, but I stopped after I got into dartfrogs. My 29gal is currently home to:

2 Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs (Arsenic and Cyanide)
1 Common Betta (Alpha) and
1 Gold Dust day Gecko (Tweak)

I'll get a Mini-Reef someday. But first I have to work on my 55gal D. Pumilio (Dart Frog) Tank, then my Indoor Greenhouse, then my Ornate Day Gecko Tank, then my Mini-Reef. *Sigh* Too many hobbies.....


Mike
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  • #40
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]2 Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs

Sounds like D. auratus?  Nice.  The 55 gal tank will be cool for pumilio...but what would REALLY be cool is if you managed to set it up vertically.  Not sure if you have ever seen vertical 20 gal or 10 gal tanks.  Same principle, but the top-heaviness could be a concern.  If not, such an vertical vivarium would be extremely enjoyed by thumbnails, which are almost completely arboreal.

What pumilios are you looking at?  My personal favorites are the Bastimentos, Blue Jean, and the plain Green.
 
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