Saltwater aquariums

[ItsMandy227]

Again thanks everyone for the advice. Once I get started I'm sure I'll be sending a lot of PM's. I'll most likely start with freshwater cichlids and work my way to salt in the future. I won't be collecting anything myself. I know it sounds corny but after seeing Finding Nemo I don't think I could bring myself to take anything out of the ocean and putting it in a tank. I'll leave that to the professionals. Also scuba-jenny I'll make sure and ask how they harvest them.

 

[bcsean]

the other thing you can look into doing for a saltwater system is looking into captive raised corals, if you're getting into this. They aren't being harvested from the environment, they're far heartier in an aquarium environment, cause they're being raised in a tank like yours. Yes of course at one time they came from the ocean, but this is becoming quite popular up here in BC, Canada anyway as the corals come from a long freeking way away.

If you do a sump setup, put the heater in there. Less chance of it being banged around and possibly failing. Also, a backup heater isn't a horrible idea, just incase.

 

[Zacrifice]

www.reefcentral.com
the only site you will ever need for information on setting up a reef aquarium!!!!!!!!!

I'll see you in a few months when you finally come out and see the sun after reading everything you can on that website! (go to the forum)

 

[Groundhog246]

Mine are all fresh water. At the moment a 75G in our living room with a colony of Frontosa's (an African Cichlid) and a divided in half 65G (2X32G) 2 10G, 1 15G and a 20G. I typically sell off a number of fish each spring to reduce the load on my filters. Fry and new aquisitions in the fall bring it back up over the winter months.
My advice would be decide what fish to start with based on your local water. Around here it's very hard, so African cichlids do very well, as it's close to their native water. South American cichlids don't do near so well, unless you invest in RO equipment (or buy a lot of bottled water). And once you start messing with the water chemistry it becomes a lot more work to keep stable.
Good luck

 

[Snowbear]

www.saltwaterfish.com Their msg board is to salt water tank keeping what SB is to diving...

 

[Mad_diver]

I have a 120 Gallon Salt Water tank. And It really hasn't been a pain at all! It cost me about $500 initally to set it up (With out fishies)... But after I bought some (8 or 10) demsils, setup the External filter with bio balls, everything has been easy going.
I have 5 Demsils left after a few committed suicide and went for a cool ride through the gravity fed filtering system. But once they figured out that was a bad spot, they're still swimming around every day.
I also have a Yellow Tang in there too. He's supposed to eat algea but doesn't eat as much of it as I would like. So I do a 1/4 of a tank water change once a month. And check the Salinity PPM is hanging at .021-.025. That's pretty much it.
People LOVE to check out my fish when I'm having parties... And no one has tried to feed them any beers...lol
I've read that you can use Mangrove seedlings as a natural filter for the Algea problem, but haven't found anywhere to purchase them yet..

Conclusion: It will take at least a week to set up your Saltwater tank... but with minimal maint. you can make it work... Plus you have somewhere to put your "harvest" when you dive a new SW spot....

 

[hcs3]

i've kept SW tanks about 20 years now. i've seen it progress quite a bit to say the least. about 4 or 5 years ago i helped start a place called www.reefcentral.com - it was linked above (thanks Zacrifice!). it is the single largest source of information available for SW aquariums. about 2.5 years ago reefcentral started a magazine. you can find it at www.reefkeeping.com . i help out with the mag writing a monthly fish column.

SW aquariums do not have to be expensive at all. whats more, if they are a lot of work, you are doing it wrong. i average about 1 - 2 hours of maintenace per month on my aquarium, if that, and it is loaded with corals which i have to cut back so they don't grow over each other or out of the water. actually trimming coral growth is my single longest maintenance task. with the cuttings from corals i trade to hobbyists or stores, i pretty much do not have any maintenance costs. the tank virtually pays for itself.

drop me a PM if you have any questions.

henry

 

[ReefGuy]

hcs3, there were three boards that I used to be on, and reefcentral was one of them. It is a very good board and was very helpful when I set my tanks up originally. Thanks.

 

[adder70]

People LOVE to check out my fish when I'm having parties... And no one has tried to feed them any beers...lol

I knew someone who found out the hard way why drinking and aquariums don't mix. Someone had drunk way too much, and their stomach was understandably upset. They suddenly felt it, and opened the first thing they saw to avoid puking all over the carpet. About 3 seconds later, their alcohol hazed brain realized what they had done, but it was too late for the ~$800 of fish and coral. :dropmouth

 

[johncliff]

The simple truth is that saltwater fish and invertebrates are not necessarily more difficult to keep, they just have different requirements than freshwater fish and are a bit less forgiving when it comes to mistakes. The key to fully understanding this section is to understand the basics presented there.

johncliff

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