Comments on: How To Care For A Saltwater Aquarium?

By: da bandit

da bandit — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:09:25 +0000

First off, you need to understand that saltwater fish needs care on a daily basis. They’re more fragile than freshwater fish. They are also costly, but however, they are enjoyable and precious, once you set the tank up and having the fish, you wouldn’t want anyone coming close to it.
Anyways, you need to plan your tank out, if you want a reef tank or fish only tank. I would recommend live rocks which contributes to a reef tank. The reason for this is because most saltwater fishes needs hiding places to make them feel secure, also, live rocks contains nutrients and minerals, although it will reduce nitrates, it’ll also produce ammonia, that is why it is very important to get cured live rock.
After you plan on what you are going to have in your aquarium, you should consider looking at different types of equipment and how each functions, for example, a protein skimmer collects excess foods, fish wastes and other things that regular filters doesn’t pick up. A sump with salt creep control, helps you with the flow of water to your aquarium along with water filtering out from your aquarium while the bio balls is a home for the necessary bacteria to grow. There is a UV Sterilizer, a Diatom filter, regular biowheel filters, there is canister filters, powerheads, refugiums and more…….
After you have planned out and got your equipment, you need to have salt, hydrometer (floating preferred), themometer, aquarium heater is not necessary but useful during the winter months, water conditioners, ph, ammonia, nitrate test kits, extra items needed for your filtration and cleaning of the tank and items needed for the fish.
After you have added water to the tank and have adjusted the salinity level to 1.020-1.025, you can add the live rocks. Of course you should have your gravel or sand in the tank already. After you have added the live rocks, you must and VERY Important that you cycle the tank, testing the water parameters every week. It is very important that you cycle the tank between 2-4 weeks, however, because this is saltwater, it is recommended to go beyond 2 weeks. You can use a product called stress zyme to boost your filtration with the necessary bacteria and to speed up the process time for cycling the tank.
Next step, you must do research on the different types of fishes that you want. You can go to http://www.saltwaterfish.com and look at the different fishes on that website. After you do research on the fishes, you must do researches on the diseases that marine fishes carries, because without the knowledge of them, you wouldn’t know how to treat them and it could lead to casualties and frustration. The four main diseases is : Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon Irritans), Marine Velvet disease, Black ich, and Clownfish diseases. The most common being Marine ich.
After researching the fishes, you must go out and look for their specific diets, these fishes are picky and you must have their diets on hand to be successful in keeping them for a long time.
After cycling and having the fish in your tank, you must monitor the tank everyday. Whenever the water evaporates, the salinity of the water goes up and it will do harm to your fish. You must also do weekly water changes of 10-15% once a week, once a month you should do a 25% water change, but you should never clean your whole tank out, you will kill your fish this way. Always have spare buckets on the side for your replacement water, you can use a pump and an airstone while mixing your salt into the replacement water, let it sit for at least 24 hours before putting the replacement water into your tank, so in other words, don’t take out water from your tank until your replacement water is ready. You also will have to test the salinity. Use the water conditioners after you add the replacement water to the tank.
Whenever a fish dies, you must conduct a water change at that time. You should do at least a 15% water change. When a fish dies it’ll release toxins from its body into the water which will contaminate your tank.
Anyways, after following all this, and upkeeping your tank, you can have a saltwater fish tank that can last a very very long time. I hope this helps, thanks for asking……………

By: Blackbea

Blackbea — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:20:23 +0000

Check this out:http://www.ehow.com/how_5796_set-saltwat…

By: Michael L

Michael L — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:36:30 +0000

Read, read, read. There is no exact answer for what you ask and even after running one successfully (whatever that may mean) for several years you will still not be able conclusively answer this question. A good place to start is at http://www.wetwebmedia.com .
First do you want Coral? Live Rock? Fish only? After you determine that you need to determine your lighting requirements, filtration and flow requirements, etc etc.
If your ready to start now, I think a good choice is to start with something like the biocube, pretty much all contained in one package. Set it up with some “live” substrate and some live cured rock and place it in a darker part of your house (to prevent algae growth). Let is run without anything else in it for a few weeks and slowly start by adding some snails and crabs and then add other livestock. Read up on proper water parameters and temperatures for the animals you want and how to introduce them to your environment. It can be daunting at times but well worth the effort.
One extra note, water quality is important, consider whether you have a source for aquarium water (not the ocean or your tap) or if you need to by a reverse osmosis filter.

By: bvbvjk in Ral. NC

bvbvjk in Ral. NC — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:15:52 +0000

Salt water tanks are awesome. They do require upkeep but the trade off(so far for me) have been great.
Largely the bigger the tank the less you have to do. However the cost increases to fill it. There are so many different aspects to salt water to talk about here. I would recommend visiting some sites and stores.
It is an expensive hobby to get into and it can be expensive to maintain. The more color the more $ for fish corals and such.
I don’t recommend jumping into it. Try a large freshwater tank first; maybe a 30 gallon or bigger. This way you have minimal $ spent and if the fish die than you haven’t lost an arm and leg with cost all the while learning as you go like; how much time it can take, different lights, pumps, etc…..
I will attach a ling to a company that I use. They have some great information.
I will warn you that salt water tanks can crash(everything dies) in a relatively short time if water conditions are not kept within certain parameters. It largely depends on whats in the tank.
Good luck and enjoy it.
Hit up this link for starters;http://www.drsfostersmith.com/?ref=4397&…
When it’s time to buy a tank take a look at used ones on
Craigslist.com

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:38:06 +0000

This site is probably the best site for setting up a saltwater aquarium because it’s simple, yet it goes into a bit more depth than others. I used it to set up my saltwater aquarium, and mine has had no causalities so far.http://www.essortment.com/all/howtosetup…
Good Luck!
I Hope This Helped
(Btw, you may want to reread my question, there has been an edit )