8 Responses to “how can i start a salt water aquarium?i have a freshwater aquarium w/ 2 flowerhorn on it.is it quite the same?”

1. me Says:
   February 6th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

   Slat water aquariums are SO different. There are tons of complicated filters and stuff. before getting one you definitally need research it before you get it. You can’t just take water and add salt and call it a salt water aquarium.

   Salt water aquariums are so much work! unless you are sure you want to devote hours and hours and constant care, i wouldn’t get one. you have to really look at how much work you are putting in for how much reward. You have to really love those fish.

   Very expensive. Think about before you get it. They are more work than a dog.

   Good Luck! Sounds like you have a TON of researching to do.

2. catxcatxx Says:
   February 9th, 2009 at 1:49 am

   saltwater is 5x more expensive to set up than freshwater tanks.

   starting in a 10-15 gallon tank is not recommended, that’s classed as “nano” and should only be attempted by someone who knows how to keep a saltwater tank stable. start with 30 US gallons or more, any smaller and the stability of the tank is affected and you may have problems.

   work out how much you have ready to spend on equipment, live rock, etc. if it’s less than £500 (or equivalent) you may want to do some saving. a good quality set up can climb astronomically cost wise!

   theres a 6ft reef tank at my local fish store, to buy that whole set up you’d have to hoof out about £10,000, bargin i say! -_-

   the forum below is full of marine experts and beginners asking similar questions.

3. Stealthy Ninja Says:
   February 10th, 2009 at 1:42 am

   Posted by Stealthy Ninja

   Well, if you have an undergravel filter put in you’ll need some sand (at least 2 inches on the bottom). If not keep the sand thin to stop building up bad gasses in it.

   You WILL need a protein skimmer!

   You should buy some live rock (it helps with filtering, some nano reefs use it as the sole source of biological filtration.

   You will need a good filter (canister should do it).

   You should get something to move the water around (powerhead or bubbler - airstone) because you’ll need more surface movement (for more oxygen…the sea has a LOT of oxygen in it).

   Beginner fish:
   Damsel fish (can be aggressive)
   Clownfish (more delicate, but less aggressive than the damsels…they are related actually).

   You will need to wait for the nitrogen cycle to complete. Some damsel fish can help here because they can take ammonia etc. more.

   Live rock will speed up your cycle.

   Get some decent beneficial bacteria and start a treatment straight away (mircrobelift is the best - IMO. Nutrafin’s Cycle is also good).

   Use a decent activated carbon in your filter.
   Get a hydrometer (to measure salinity)
   Get some decent marine salt (from a fish shop).

   Keep doing water changes (I do 10% each week).

   DON’T add too much fish at once!!!

   Keep fish stock low (much lower than freshwater.

   Buy or borrow from your local library a book on marine aquariums (read, read and read some more).

   Don’t worry, it is not too hard. I’d say my planted tank is more work actually. There is a myth that it is super hard, but the main difference is you need to mix salt and have a protein skimmer. Just get a nice large capacity slow flow canister filter and you’ll be fine keeping it balance. Take your time, you WILL make some mistakes (don’t buy $100 fish too soon ) before long you’ll be an expert…maybe.

   BTW I’ll say it again, get as much live rock as is reasonable to fit in your tank. It really makes a big difference to the amount of good bacteria in your tank (they live in microtunnels in live rock). Oh and make sure you stack the rock with as much space around them - and under them - as you can, it increases the water flow around the rock. Make sure they won’t tumble down though
   Oh and don’t forget a heater if you need it where you live. I live in Hong Kong and I don’t use one…I do use a chiller though.

   Lastly, on the cost. The main extras over a normal tropical tank is:

   Protein Skimmer
   Bigger filter
   Airstone/powerhead/wavemaker to move the water around
   MAYBE a UV sterilizer (some people use these in freshwater tanks too…I use to but not anymore - I DO use one in my marine tank)
   Live rock (this can be expensive in some countries. In Hong Kong it is $20-25 HKD per pound…that’s $3.20USD per pound…

   According to this:
   The cheapest I saw was about $1.7USD per pound. So it isn’t terrible.

   You can get Chinese made versions of equipment cheap or you can go for the German (European) stuff. Chinese usually are good enough IMO. Japanese stuff can be really good sometimes. The European stuff lasts forever…but is more expensive.

   My favourite brand is Red Sea from Israel. You can’t get a bad thing from Israel I say.

4. hello s Says:
   February 13th, 2009 at 3:38 am

   DO NOT use an undergravel filter for a marine aquarium.this is a big no no.also you will need a larger tank in the 50+ gallon range.their is some great forums to read.the one i like is
   also it doesnt take hours everyday to take care of one.it is an expensive hobby.most of what you do depends if you want just fish or just coral or both.

5. Buzzard Says:
   February 16th, 2009 at 7:04 am

   Go to this site.
   And start reading.
   It’s not as hard as a lot of people say and I find it takes me less time than freshwater to mantain, about 10 minutes a day MAYBE.
   Sand, Live rock, Boi-wheel, Good lights, Heater to start a Nano tank.
   My reef tank is the most expensive due to the lighting and AMOUNT of live rock.
   My filter in my 75 gal reef tank (YOU DO NOT NEED FOR FISH) consists of a sump tank underneeth with a protein skimmer and pump for it and return pump.
   In the tank I have 3 timed powerheads (to move the water so there are no dead spots in the tank), about 75 lbs of live rock(Best filter I have ever owned), 3 inches of sand(does what the live rock does), about 30 snails, about 30 hermit crabs, a red sea star, a sand sifting sea star, a emerald crab, 3 different shrimp, …
   NO chemicals, NO foam or floss, NO canister filter or ANY mechanical filter at all (I guess ya can call the cleaning crew mechanical, Kind of.)
   NATURAL.
   I have been doing saltwater for close to 20 years now and this is the easiest and HEALTHIEST way that I have found.(a little more expensive because of the live rock)
   MOTHER NATURE
   They even sell complete KITS for a couple hundred dollars, Add water, a couple pieces of cured live rock and in a week or so you can add fish.
   NO JOKE.
   I really wish people would stop dishing out CRAP to someone interested in saltwater, Are they jellous because the fish look so much better or there are so many MORE interesting animals that we can keep.
   DO some research and try it!!!!
   Have a good one and don’t let other people discourage you, just do some research.

6. angelsj247 Says:
   February 19th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

   start out with a good book.
   you will need to read ALOT… to understand fully how to run a salt water tank.
   this is a good book to start with
   The New Marine Aquarium: Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide, by Michael S. Paletta

   Here are most of the equipment you would need..
   powerfilter that has biological, chemical and mechanical filtration.
   Salinity meter
   Thermometer
   1-2 powerheads
   10-15 pounds of live rock- main source of filtration (I started my tank with no rock, but then got talked into it by the site I go on) so it is possible to do without rock, but its a great filtration source also you can find mini crabs and tons of starfish and other very benifitial creatures.
   live sand or sand from home depot
   Salt (ex: Red sea salt, Ocean salt brands)
   Heater or cooler, depending on where you live.
   you can have a protein skimmer- helps with less water changes. for my 20 gal I do not own one and ive had my tank for over a year now.
   LOTS OF MONEY- its pretty expensive
   either an ro/di water source or distilled water- You will need to fill your tank with the best water, tap water has to many bad things in it that will kill your fish. to start you will need how many gallons your tank is. and then you will need to do 10-15% water changes every two weeks.
   to find out more helpful information on the best website out there for starting a tank go here:
   this place is my guide for anything that goes wrong!
   good luck and remember read read and read some more

7. Erick B Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 7:56 pm

   i know it sounds dumb, but…. Read some books!!!!!, check out some online forums like reefcentral, nanoreefs. com and you should get all the answers you need

8. Joe M Says:
   February 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 pm

   As everyone here has already mentioned, there’s a lot to know about aquariums. The best thing to do is to speak with someone at your local pet shop — not one of the big chain shops — a privately owned store with a nice aquarium section. Look at the size and selection of their stock, and at the maintenance of their tanks (if you see a lot of dead fish in their tanks, then this isn’t the store for you). Usually a pet store will have only one or two people who specialize in aquaria, so talk to that person. Tell him what you’d like to do, and ask him for recommendations. He’ll WANT you to succeed (because that’s good for business), so take full advantage of his advice.

   But since you asked for advice here, I’ll give some general information. When you keep a fish tank, the biggest obstacle is that you’re trying to simulate a natural environment in a very limited space. Fish are used to living in rivers or the ocean, where there’s a lot of free-flowing water. Aquariums have limited water that isn’t going anywhere. So the trick is to get as close as you can to a functional eco-system within a limited space. Now, while it may seem like bigger tanks are more work (they are) they are nice because more water gives you more to work with in terms of a “safety-net” when it comes to water quality. That’s why many of the other respondants recommended bigger tanks for a beginner; with a 10 gallon tank you don’t have much of a margin for error. But, assuming you have your chemistry worked out, and you’re dilligent about maintenance, it can be done. It can be risky, but it’s do-able (I’ve seen successful “micro” reef tanks as small as 5 gallons, but that’s not for the feint of heart).

   Now, when you’re keeping an aquarium, while it may look like you’re keeping fish, what you’re really trying to do is maintain a healthy stock of bacteria and other microorganisms. I know, that sounds nuts, but let me explain.

   Fish give off waste (duh), and food that fish don’t eat become waste, specifically nitrogenous wastes (like ammonia). Because an aquarium is a closed tank, those wastes stay put. Nature has a way of using these nitrogenous wastes using bacteria that, over time, break down the harmful compounds through a series of steps and turn them into relatively harmless chemicals (which actually can be further used by live plants, if you have them). It takes a few weeks for this “nitrogen cycle” to get rolling, and most hobbyists keep only a few “starter” fish in the tank during this time, and eventually there will be enough microorganisms living in the substrate, water, and filter of your tank to break down harmful wastes, almost as quickly as they are made. Because it’s only “almost”, most hobbyists also use artificial filtration. Most filters clean the water mechanically (running the water through a strainer), chemically (using activated carbon to neutralize wastes), and some filters also have “bio-wheels” or “wet and dry” components that help to develop the natural nitrogen cycle.

   Now, if you want to go the above route and just keep a few nice looking saltwater fish, go for it. Talk to your Pet Shop contact, tell him (or her) your budget, they’ll give recommendations, and you’re on your way. But some of the respondants here mentioned “reef tanks”. To explain briefly, a reef tank is an attempt to very faithfully reproduce a natural eco-system. The ultimate goal of a well-developed reef tank is to use very little artificial filtration. Nearly everything is handled by organisms already living in the tank. It can take months to develop a self-supporting reef tank, starting with full filtration, slowly building up the eco-system of the tank so that it can sustain itself, and removing most of the artificial components (as mentioned above, a skimmer and a UV filter are usually kept). Reef tanks also tend to be expensive, both in maintenance time and money spent. Now, you mentioned that you’re not even that interested in keeping plants, so this may not be for you. Again, ask your pet shop about it (reef tanks are a recent “fashion” in the aquarium world, so chances are he or she will know all about it). But there is no law requiring you to start investing in a full reef setup if all you want to do is keep some pretty saltwater fish. So long as their water is clean and they’re well-fed, the fish don’t really care.

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