Salt water fish tank owners?

[amdskip]

My friend setup a smaller salt tank and he has close to $1200 in it.

 

[Xavier434]

I am no expert, but I will add what I can which is reiterating a lot of what is already here:

1. It is very expensive. There are certain components which are hundreds of dollars and you NEED to have a savings ready to buy replacements if they break because your tank will all die if it has to wait for you to save cash

2. Certain species do not mix well together. You need to be very careful and consider any possible bad combination.

3. Fish die. You need to know when they die and you need to remove them asap. They have a tendency to find a dark place in a hole or something to remain and then they die. You need to be very attentive when it comes to any missing fish. If you notice one missing, you must go on a hunt for it and remove it if it is dead. Otherwise, the rest of tank could be at risk.


There are tons of other stuff to learn. I agree with one of the posters here who said you should spend a few weeks researching first. Don't just rely on random internet posters. Send e-mails and talk to experts that really know what is going on.

 

[SlickSnake]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
get fresh water with live plants and some chichlids
love it

Fresh water African chichlids are also nice fish, but they are very aggressive. I would buy a few small ones, and don't start with the larger ones. Some of them can change their colors dramatically. There are also many interesting plecostomuses that can be added to an African tank.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: SlickSnake

Originally posted by: Homerboy
get fresh water with live plants and some chichlids
love it

Fresh water African chichlids are also nice fish, but they are very aggressive. I would buy a few small ones, and don't start with the larger ones. Some of them can change their colors dramatically. There are also many interesting plecostomuses that can be added to an African tank.

Plecos grow to be much larger than the OPs target tank would allow. I'd buy snails instead.

 

[AMCRambler]

As long as you read up on it beforehand and know what you're dealing with you'll be fine. Everyone who sais they are a ton of work is over exaggerating. They are more work to set up than a fresh water tank, but as far as maintaining it you've just gotta keep an eye on your salinity, do 10% water changes every one to two weeks and feed the fish. The important thing is making sure you keep up with it. Once you find a maintainance schedule that work for you and your fish it's very easy to do.
The other cool thing about salt water tanks is that you learn a lot about reefs and how fish survive and all different species of fish and scavengers. If you go with a fish and live rock tank you'll get all sorts of cool little hitch hikers with your live rock and you'll spend hours looking up what each one is online. I started my 46 gallon fish and live rock salt water tank back in July of this year and it seems like every couple weeks I'm finding something new I didn't know was in there. There are even some things I haven't had the time to identify.
My advice if you're on a budget would be to go with the nano tank even though it's small and will require closer monitoring at first, it's going to come with alot of the hardware you need. As long as you take your time and do it right you'll be fine. In addition to the Nano kit, you're going to want to get some sea salt, sand(use aragonite based sand which is basically crushed shells, the sell it by the 20lb bag in the fish store), a net, marine fish food(small pellets or flakes), a test kit(with tests for PH, alkalinity, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia) and probably 10-15lbs of small live rock(if you're gonna do a reef tank, probably should with the small tank, the rock helps with filtration). Once you've got your water levels and live rock in there and the tank has cycled(usually takes 3-4 weeks) you can get a fish for it. Go with something hardy like a chromis or a clownfish since this is your first salt water tank. Some fish are more sensitive to water quality than others and will die quickly if things get out of whack.
That's pretty much what you'll need though. With that size tank you'll probably be able to have two small fish without having problems. Add the second one later on after things are doing well. It's not really all that hard as long as you read up on the best ways to set it up and maintain it. There's even the right way and wrong way to acclimate a new fish to the tank. Join a forum for tank keeping though and just ask questions. They will help you out. I like reefcentral.com and reefs.org. There's a lot to know but it's not hard to learn.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: SlickSnake

Originally posted by: Homerboy
get fresh water with live plants and some chichlids
love it

Fresh water African chichlids are also nice fish, but they are very aggressive. I would buy a few small ones, and don't start with the larger ones. Some of them can change their colors dramatically. There are also many interesting plecostomuses that can be added to an African tank.

Plecos grow to be much larger than the OPs target tank would allow. I'd buy snails instead.

Indeed. I have a single Chocolate pleco in my 55 and I think he's going to outgrow it in the long run.

 

[SlickSnake]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: SlickSnake

Originally posted by: Homerboy
get fresh water with live plants and some chichlids
love it

Fresh water African chichlids are also nice fish, but they are very aggressive. I would buy a few small ones, and don't start with the larger ones. Some of them can change their colors dramatically. There are also many interesting plecostomuses that can be added to an African tank.

Plecos grow to be much larger than the OPs target tank would allow. I'd buy snails instead.

Indeed. I have a single Chocolate pleco in my 55 and I think he's going to outgrow it in the long run.

For that matter, even the Africans can grow to be 3 feet long or more, we have some in a local aquarium here. I think most fish won't make it that far, though. And if they do, they get dumped in the lake.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: jdoggg12
Ok... so how about this... say you have a roughly 50 gallon tank.. what do you have to do daily, weekly, monthly to keep it healthy?

Honestly?

Time is about 20-30 minutes per day. You can add it all up to make weekly but that is what it takes.

What do you have to do? Weekly here's the low down.
Clean skimmer
Clean walls of tank
Water changes - takes about 30 minutes of work, don't have to do weekly but it helps.
Check levels - need to add calc/alk at least 2/wk.

If you don't keep up on the maintenance, it will bite you. I'm staring at my tank that is taken over by red slime because I didn't keep up on maintenance. And once you are in my hell it is almost impossible to get out.

Spidey sounds like you put a lot of work into your tank. I don't think you should be having the issues you are. Is it a fish only tank? Or do you have live rock in there. I had a red algae bloom start in one spot on my rocks and found the cause of it was that I was getting some direct sunlight on the tank when I wasn't home. Algae loves sunlight and will go crazy quite quickly.
The other possibility is the water quality. On the forums I read they are always extolling the virtues of reverse osmosis de-ionized filtered water. I've got town water where I live and found my tap water is pretty darn good. I use a Pur water filter with carbon in it on my tap to help clean it up some more and add some de-chlor to get rid of any chlorine it might have. But even when I don't filter I don't get a huge algae explosion. Just a little bit. You might want to test your water you are using for water changes. But honestly once you've got your water parameters inline, the algae should subside on it's own.
I spend probably about 15 minutes a day feeding the fish and just looking it over to make sure algae isn't getting out of hand and that none of my snails have fallen off the rock and are stuck upside down in the sand(they do this more often lately stupid things). Water changes I used to do weekly but I'm stretching it to bi weekly now and I haven't really noticed any issues. I only have 2 small fish at the moment, so maybe you have a higher bio-load than me? Other than the water changes I usually have to scrape sprial feather dusters and corraline off my front glass pane every one to two weeks. I also turn the lights on and off as I don't have a timer. It's not too bad though and it's been a fun hobby. Maybe if you give us some details we can help you figure out your algae prob.

 

[Doodoo]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: jdoggg12
Ok... so how about this... say you have a roughly 50 gallon tank.. what do you have to do daily, weekly, monthly to keep it healthy?

Honestly?

Time is about 20-30 minutes per day. You can add it all up to make weekly but that is what it takes.

What do you have to do? Weekly here's the low down.
Clean skimmer
Clean walls of tank
Water changes - takes about 30 minutes of work, don't have to do weekly but it helps.
Check levels - need to add calc/alk at least 2/wk.

If you don't keep up on the maintenance, it will bite you. I'm staring at my tank that is taken over by red slime because I didn't keep up on maintenance. And once you are in my hell it is almost impossible to get out.

Spidey sounds like you put a lot of work into your tank. I don't think you should be having the issues you are. Is it a fish only tank? Or do you have live rock in there. I had a red algae bloom start in one spot on my rocks and found the cause of it was that I was getting some direct sunlight on the tank when I wasn't home. Algae loves sunlight and will go crazy quite quickly.
The other possibility is the water quality. On the forums I read they are always extolling the virtues of reverse osmosis de-ionized filtered water. I've got town water where I live and found my tap water is pretty darn good. I use a Pur water filter with carbon in it on my tap to help clean it up some more and add some de-chlor to get rid of any chlorine it might have. But even when I don't filter I don't get a huge algae explosion. Just a little bit. You might want to test your water you are using for water changes. But honestly once you've got your water parameters inline, the algae should subside on it's own.
I spend probably about 15 minutes a day feeding the fish and just looking it over to make sure algae isn't getting out of hand and that none of my snails have fallen off the rock and are stuck upside down in the sand(they do this more often lately stupid things). Water changes I used to do weekly but I'm stretching it to bi weekly now and I haven't really noticed any issues. I only have 2 small fish at the moment, so maybe you have a higher bio-load than me? Other than the water changes I usually have to scrape sprial feather dusters and corraline off my front glass pane every one to two weeks. I also turn the lights on and off as I don't have a timer. It's not too bad though and it's been a fun hobby. Maybe if you give us some details we can help you figure out your algae prob.

I would make sure you're bulbs are still good, check your phosphates, and make sure you have enough flow.

 

[5to1baby1in5]

Tons of information for the newb on the net:

If you want more, PM me.

http://www.pier55.com/Home-Gar...ltwater-Aquarium.shtml

http://ozreef.org/diy_plans/

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/SWCompatibility.php

http://www.aquarium-design.com/beginerreef.html

http://www.advancedaquarist.co.../jan2003/featurejp.htm

 

[jdoggg12]

Wow, you guys really came through in this thread... i was expecting a lot more useless posts. I will be going to the sites/forums suggested, I just wanted to get some input from a community i'm already established in first, especially with the sheer number of people here i knew there were bound to be some experts.

Thanks guys!

Here are the fish i'm considering:

A Clown
http://ftp.pcworld.com/pub/screencams/fish_2.jpg

A cople Cleaner shrimp (haha, with his clown buddy)
http://www.aquaticsworlduk.com/CleanerShrimp.jpg

Maybe a goby
http://www.smbaykeeper.org/ima...s/Blue-banded-goby.jpg

And couple crabs/snails...

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler

Spidey sounds like you put a lot of work into your tank. I don't think you should be having the issues you are. Is it a fish only tank? Or do you have live rock in there. I had a red algae bloom start in one spot on my rocks and found the cause of it was that I was getting some direct sunlight on the tank when I wasn't home. Algae loves sunlight and will go crazy quite quickly.
The other possibility is the water quality. On the forums I read they are always extolling the virtues of reverse osmosis de-ionized filtered water. I've got town water where I live and found my tap water is pretty darn good. I use a Pur water filter with carbon in it on my tap to help clean it up some more and add some de-chlor to get rid of any chlorine it might have. But even when I don't filter I don't get a huge algae explosion. Just a little bit. You might want to test your water you are using for water changes. But honestly once you've got your water parameters inline, the algae should subside on it's own.
I spend probably about 15 minutes a day feeding the fish and just looking it over to make sure algae isn't getting out of hand and that none of my snails have fallen off the rock and are stuck upside down in the sand(they do this more often lately stupid things). Water changes I used to do weekly but I'm stretching it to bi weekly now and I haven't really noticed any issues. I only have 2 small fish at the moment, so maybe you have a higher bio-load than me? Other than the water changes I usually have to scrape sprial feather dusters and corraline off my front glass pane every one to two weeks. I also turn the lights on and off as I don't have a timer. It's not too bad though and it's been a fun hobby. Maybe if you give us some details we can help you figure out your algae prob.

I just let up on the maintenance and water changes, all the corals and invertebrates died (about 2000+ dollars worth) and the tank basically spiraled out of control real fast. I use my own RODI, I just didn't keep up with the maintenance. There's just two clowns left and red slime covered live rock. I also think the sand bed had something to do with it.