saltwater aquariums
- Thread starter jewelrox1
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gfisher4792
Guest
Hey jewel,
Try this thread on for size: http://www.scubaboard.com/t48525.html
I've always thought about getting a saltwater aquarium, too, but just never bit the bullet and got all the stuff. Good luck with yours!
Try this thread on for size: http://www.scubaboard.com/t48525.html
I've always thought about getting a saltwater aquarium, too, but just never bit the bullet and got all the stuff. Good luck with yours!
H2Andy
Contributor
the biochemistry of a salt-water aquarium is very hard to balance and get right.
have you tried a fresh-water aquarium yet? i would get a book like "Aquariums
for Dummies" and a 20-gallon fresh-water tank and try my hand at it for a while,
to get the basic concepts down. then, after you've done taht for a while, you
can move up to the big leagues.
have you tried a fresh-water aquarium yet? i would get a book like "Aquariums
for Dummies" and a 20-gallon fresh-water tank and try my hand at it for a while,
to get the basic concepts down. then, after you've done taht for a while, you
can move up to the big leagues.
Yep, they are a lot of work to start up, but once extablished and everything is in balance, all they need is feeding, fresh water top-of to make up for evaporation and and periodic water changes to replenish minerals.
www.saltwaterfish.com has a BB which is a great place to ask about getting started....
www.saltwaterfish.com has a BB which is a great place to ask about getting started....
We have had a 120 gallon reef tank for 7 years. If you set it up properly and patiently, it will practically maintain itself. I feed the fish once a day and clean the glass once a week because the bio system is self maintaining at this point. My son bought this, his first saltwater tank when he was 12 years old and read about reef tanks for a year before he got it going. We have one of the orginial clownfish which we used during the set-up period to make sure the tank was balanced before adding new fish. He's still going strong. I add fresh water periodically and we haven't done a water change in over a year. My son went away to school and I will be selling the tank soon. Interested?
Look online for aquarium stores in you area (Not just a regular pet store) you want a shop that is dedicated to keeping fish. Go and talk to these people. A tank of any size is time consuming and probably more expensive than you think to start up. However the cost and time of maintaining it once it's set up is minimal. If you haven't ever had a tank you might want to think about starting off with a small fresh water tank but if you're sold on salt think about purchasing only raised fish. The reefs are taking a beating from the harvesting of aquarium fish. MOST aquarium fish are taken from the reefs we dive by stunning the fish with cyanide..the same stuff they used to in the gas chamber.jewelrox1:
darylm74
Contributor
I had a 30 gallon FO (fish only) tank in college and now I have a 55 gallon FOWL (Fish only with liverock). I haven't had as much luck with this one because I got ich going for some reason. I lost an angel and a royal gramma but my maroon/gold clown and my firefish gobbie are doing great. Just have to take your time. I took my time with the first but my wife pushed too much to add fish. We also picked up a hermit crab as a straggler on a piece of liverock. He's cool but he ate all of my turbo snails......they were too small to fend him off. My suggestion is not to go below 55 gallons and most people will tell you the same. I disagree though that MOST aquarium fish are stunned with cyanide now. Many of the fish, and especially the clown fish are "farm" raised. They tend to do better than wild fish and most of the fish stores know this. Otherwise you have to worry about agression problems more. I would look at Robert Fenner's site and some of the other places online. I could write a book about my experience with salt water aquariums, and I don't even have a reef tank........yet.
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