Austin {Aquarist}

Hey guys

just today i started thinking about having a saltwater tank. I currently have a 25 gallon and a ten gallon, both are freshwater planted with fish. I have a lot of questions after reading the articles on the sight about saltwater aquariums. But before i go into all of them I was wondering if anyone had any input for me as far as the pros of saltwater and why I should get one.

GouramiGuy

You go dude!

I have no experience with saltwater but I support your mission.

Austin {Aquarist}

thanks gourami guy :]

I think I am going to go through my room and sell some old toys and books and things on craigslist so i can afford to pay for the tanks, equipment, fish etc. if and when i get a saltwater tank. I am thinking about maybe a 55 gallon with another 55 gallon sump under it
is this a good idea filtration wise?

au01st

A 55 gallon sump would be huge. For my 75 gallon I have a 20 gallon sump. You can buy ready made sumps for around $200 or make your own. I got a 20 gallon long tank and had baffles made of acrylic for $30. With a sump that big you could have a nice big refugium for growing algae, mango, copepods, etc, too.

Oil_Fan

A 55 gallon sump would be huge!! Now I don't think that large of a sump is needed for a 55 gallon tank. The biggest issue is LR. That's what will cost ya. If you can afford the LR, then you're off to a good start.

Austin {Aquarist}

I am assuming lr means live rock

do you have any tips on where to get cheap, quality live rock?

travie

www.craigslist.com or www.kijiji.com are you best bets for getting cheap, quality live rock. Even then there really isn't such a thing as cheap and quality in the same sentence when talking about live rock.

Oil_Fan

LR does mean live rock. LR is what makes a SW tank and is it's source of filtration.

Now what you can do to cut down the cost is use base rock for most of it. That's the artificial stuff. It's man made but it will turn into LR. Once the bacteria takes hold, then it is essentially LR but you won't have any critters on it. And it will take a lot longer for coraline algae to grow but since this hobby is all about patience.... Now you should still get a couple of pieces of actual LR for seeding but using base rock will cut your costs down big time. Also keep in mind it's all about surface area. The more porous it is, the better the rock is.

au01st

I got some live rock at Optimum Aquarium in Marietta, GA. It was $1.99 a pound, labeled as "seeded base rock" and it doesn't appear manmade. One piece even appears to be a coral that covered a rock, and they were crawling with critters.

Oil_Fan

That's really cheap. Considering I just bought a couple pounds of LR from Marine Fish, also in Marietta. That was $6 a pound.

Though I do have to say the LR I bought is pretty cool looking. It looks like it has a purple background to it. And it's very porous. It's probably equal to most LR twice it's weight.

au01st

Yeah, the sign said $3.99 per pound. As the guy was weighing it, he was using kg, not lbs, and I saved him there, I figured the price at checkout was karma, lol. If I had known it was going to be that cheap I would have gotten more. The purple is coraline algae and is good! Mine didn't have too much, but it does now.

Matt

YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO GO FOR SALTWATER!!!!!!!!!!

I started off with a planted FW Aquarium then i moved on to SW. My SW Tank is doing great and once you have it setup it actually doesnt take as much effort as you think except if your tank's filtration system is wrong or bad then it may take a while to sort that out.

Anyways Salt Water rocks and you should join the SW Club.

GouramiGuy

Somthing Fishy if you live any where near minnesota this place is worth checking out. It's a little store absolutely crammed with aquariums. they are saltwater specialists and all there stuff is cheap.

Angela_96

I do know when it comes to sw (actually fw too) you get what you pay for. Equipment, livestock, and so forth.

I vote for going SW! Its a wonderful challange, and experience! you will love it!

I got the expensive premium live rock crawling w/ critters, it even had a hijacking clam on it, I got 10lbs of it, then I got 10lbs of base rock. That saved me money and then I got double my live rock. My coraline algae has taken hold in my tank, and my base rock might not be as bright and cheerful as my premium live rock (it is underneath) but it is seeded, and has stuff growing on it.

When it comes to your lighting, filitration, skimmers, water (r/o unit) it pays to get the top of the line stuff if you want to be successful.

I am going to turn my 36 into a reef tank, and I am going to buy one thing at a time for it until I get it put together. Then sell the biocube I have and take the critters (live rock and all) and move them into it, and ad more live rock. Its going to be a pricey move. I actually have considered my 56g oceanic being a reef.

Matt

I completely Agree with Steve.

From Matt

CLOWNFISH ROCK MY SOCKS!!

LOL!

Angela_96

Actually its Angela but thanks

as far as the fish goes, Steve is only allowed to look at the fish and occasionally feed them (with close supervision). not that he isn't an intellegent person but he is not good with fw or sw fish.

Matt

LOL. What sort of fish you got angela?


From Matt

Angela_96

Right now in my nano I just have the inverts (coral and clean up crew), then in the majority of my larger tanks I have at least 14 different species of african cichlids that I keep and breed I have kept at least 18 different species at different times but found some impossible to keep due to aggression, etc, all mbuna but 2 species which are malawi peacocks. I have sold african cichlids off of aquabid for a few months now. Then in my smaller tanks I use them as my grow out tanks after the mommas spit them out. I also have one dedicated tank to a trio of plat guppies that are dropping fry like crazy. Then their is my albino bushynose plecos that have been breeding for a few months now.

NanoAddict

Get a 20 long, with a canister filter.

Are you going reef, or fish with live rock?

My first tank was a 20 gallon long with the canister filter, and basic equipment, and I had terrific success with it.

Get some nice live sand, and i just went to an independent store for live rock.

For fish, get some chromis or something in the damsel family to start, and then clowns are always fun

Angela_96

I was curious about how an eheim ecco would do w/ a salty tank? I have one on the tank we are talking about turning into a salty tank. The eheim works great for the fw cichilds in it now. I will be adding a protien skimmer in the mix when I go salty, and numerous power heads.

Matt

I think an Eheim will do fine because it is a very highly recommended brand and they are very god filters.

Also for some starter fish in your SW tank when u get it i would start with 2 clownfish because they are extremely hardy and trust me when i first started my SW tank they survived very bad water conditions etc. But heck even the PRO's make mistakes.

From Matt

soldieroffortune1974

The eheim ecco works great in fresh or salt water. I have never had any problems with them,eheim and my own builds are the only 1's I use.

Angela_96

To Matt, I prob will not put any fish in the sw nano, 14g is too small for a fish imo, unless I get a tiny firefish, or goby and that will be it. I am enjoying the inverts. When I get the larger SW tank I will stock it with a couple fish.


Thanks Matt/Soldier about the eheim info, I am running eheim eccos on 3 of my tanks right now and I love them. The one I will be converting to SW has an Eheim ecco right now, so chances are I will just use the Eheim then too.

au01st

There's plenty of species of gobies that will do fine in 14 gallons: neon, watchman, court jester, clown, red stripe, catalina, red banded, orange spotted, etc, a few species of blenny, or one clownfish.

Keep in mind inverts add little to the bio load, so 1-2 small fish (like a clownfish and a goby) would be fine with a cleaner or coral banded shrimp.

NanoAddict

I had a blue banded sgt major (or blue velvet damselfish) that i kept in a 10 g tank that lived for 3 1/2 years before it died

Angela_96

I guess I am just stand offish about getting fish for the sw tank. For now I am getting corals lined up in it. I might go ahead in a month or so and ad a fish or two. I really love the yellow watchman gobies, and the purple firefish, any type of blenny. I am honestly all clownfished out, it seems like I see them everywhere.
When I get my other tank going which will either be the 36 or the 58 (depending on the funding for lights and filters, etc) I am going for a dwarf angel for sure.

NanoAddict

ive always wanted one of those flame angels but i never got one....

Angela_96

They are so beautiful, my only beef w/ the dwarf angels, is the coral nipping. If I can get one that can with-hold from coral nipping I will get one. My husband loves the flame angels, I do too.

NanoAddict

haha i know what you mean, they would look great in a FOWLR tank, if you got some good rock with a ton of stuff on it

Oil_Fan

Have you tried putting a piece of dried seaweed on a veggie clip? If I don't do that 3 times a week, then my flame angel does the same thing. As long as I remember to do that, my polyps don't become his snack.

It's a must for my yellow tang but that's also what keeps my flame angel in line!!