First Dive into Saltwater: some questions

Hey all! I have about 5 freshwater tanks (ranging from heavily planted tropical to cold water tanks) so I’m pretty experienced in freshwater. But I’m about to get a 37 gallon tank from my sister who is moving and I kind of want to convert it into a saltwater tank. It will be my first saltwater tank. I have some questions so thanks in advance This tank will not have a sump or refugium but it will have a filter and protein skimmer. It will house two clown fish, live rock, lots of macroalgae, snails and crabs, some coral but not much.
1. Cycling: how should I cycle- with added ammonia like for freshwater? I’m going to use Fritz bacteria.
2. When should the macroalgae be added, during cycling or after?
3. Are water changes done weekly like for freshwater or do you just do top offs with RO water?
4. Can I use the crappy white LED that comes with the tank lid or should I invest in a saltwater reef light (even tho coral won’t be the focus of the tank but is it still necessary?)
5. Do I need a wave maker for 37 gallons even with a strong filter flow?
Ok that’s about it for now. It will be a very slow build of just gathering equipment before I even start so let me know if there’s anything else I should consider, thank you so much!

 

How To Set Up A Saltwater Aquarium Guide

I suggest you set this baby up and have fun! It takes a long time, like 2 months to cycle a salt water tank so the sooner the better right?!?

1. Live rock only. Use your bacteria if you want. I say it doesn't help, but use it if you want. Lots of aeration. It will stink for a while. When it smells like the ocean 1-2 months later you are getting there!

2. After

3.This is where your tank is technically too small . Water changes will be a drag. Make a plan to make it easier.

4. Crappy stock light will not work.

5. No but good water flow is always better as long as your fish are Ok with it.


Have fun and follow the great Fishlore guide!

 

How To Set Up A Saltwater Aquarium Guide

I suggest you set this baby up and have fun! It takes a long time, like 2 months to cycle a salt water tank so the sooner the better right?!?

1. Live rock only. Use your bacteria if you want. I say it doesn't help, but use it if you want. Lots of aeration. It will stink for a while. When it smells like the ocean 1-2 months later you are getting there!

2. After

3.This is where your tank is technically too small . Water changes will be a drag. Make a plan to make it easier.

4. Crappy stock light will not work.

5. No but good water flow is always better as long as your fish are Ok with it.


Have fun and follow the great Fishlore guide!

Thank you so much! I’ll for sure check out the guide

 

1. I'd suggest using a mixture of live and base rock to save on cost - base rock (or dry rock) is essentially just "dead" live rock that's been dried. It can be bought for a fraction of the cost of "live" rock (which, if you don't know, is a porous rock with all kinds of bacteria and critters living in/on it). For a 37 gallon tank you'll want somewhere between 25-40lbs of rock total (or so), so I might use 10 lbs of live rock and fill the rest of the scape out with dry rock. The dry rock will become "live" once the live rock you have seeds it. Technically, you can even use 100% dry rock and you'll still be able to cultivate a nitrogen cycle, you just won't get all of the pods, worms, and other critters that come on live rock.

2) After. IME, unlike freshwater plants, macroalgae are actually pretty sensitive to water quality. I'd actually wait until the tank was well-cycled and you have pest algae under control before introducing too much macro. Your tank will likely go through the "uglies" while it's young, and diatom/hair algae can smother out macros.

3) Both! So, you'll need to top off with RO water fairly frequently to keep salt levels in check. Water evaporates - salt doesn't. So as water evaporates from the tank, salt concentration will rise. Not a big deal as long as you don't let it go too far out of whack, especially if you're not keeping sensitive corals and inverts. Water changes will be for nutrient export (lowering nitrate and phosphate) and replenishing minerals via your salt mix. The latter usually becomes an issue when you have lots of macros (especially red macros that love iron) or corals (that use minerals to build skeletons) - if you don't have many of those, I'd honestly just top off frequently and do water changes every couple of weeks to keep nitrates in check. Eventually, you may find that a monthly 25% water change is plenty if you only have a couple fish. Some people don't change water at all in mature tanks - they have algae in their refugium for nutrient export, a doser to replenish minerals, and an Auto Top Off unit for keeping up with evaporation. Hands-off.

4) This is tough to answer. If you're mainly going for macros, I'd recommend getting an adjustable LED reef light so you can control the light spectrum. I'm growing some species of Caulerpa under freshwater Finnex Stingrays, and they're doing okay-ish. They'd do better under more intense light, but in general, they'll typically prefer a daylight freshwater spectrum. Red macros will typically inhabit deeper water, and as such, they'll utilize a more blue, reef-like spectrum. What species do you want to keep?

5) Nope. I'd recommend just investing a couple small powerheads - the Koralia Nanos are a great value for a basic, budget powerhead. A HOB will be a great place to store carbon if you end up needing it.

 

1. I'd suggest using a mixture of live and base rock to save on cost - base rock (or dry rock) is essentially just "dead" live rock that's been dried. It can be bought for a fraction of the cost of "live" rock (which, if you don't know, is a porous rock with all kinds of bacteria and critters living in/on it). For a 37 gallon tank you'll want somewhere between 25-40lbs of rock total (or so), so I might use 10 lbs of live rock and fill the rest of the scape out with dry rock. The dry rock will become "live" once the live rock you have seeds it. Technically, you can even use 100% dry rock and you'll still be able to cultivate a nitrogen cycle, you just won't get all of the pods, worms, and other critters that come on live rock.

2) After. IME, unlike freshwater plants, macroalgae are actually pretty sensitive to water quality. I'd actually wait until the tank was well-cycled and you have pest algae under control before introducing too much macro. Your tank will likely go through the "uglies" while it's young, and diatom/hair algae can smother out macros.

3) Both! So, you'll need to top off with RO water fairly frequently to keep salt levels in check. Water evaporates - salt doesn't. So as water evaporates from the tank, salt concentration will rise. Not a big deal as long as you don't let it go too far out of whack, especially if you're not keeping sensitive corals and inverts. Water changes will be for nutrient export (lowering nitrate and phosphate) and replenishing minerals via your salt mix. The latter usually becomes an issue when you have lots of macros (especially red macros that love iron) or corals (that use minerals to build skeletons) - if you don't have many of those, I'd honestly just top off frequently and do water changes every couple of weeks to keep nitrates in check. Eventually, you may find that a monthly 25% water change is plenty if you only have a couple fish. Some people don't change water at all in mature tanks - they have algae in their refugium for nutrient export, a doser to replenish minerals, and an Auto Top Off unit for keeping up with evaporation. Hands-off.

4) This is tough to answer. If you're mainly going for macros, I'd recommend getting an adjustable LED reef light so you can control the light spectrum. I'm growing some species of Caulerpa under freshwater Finnex Stingrays, and they're doing okay-ish. They'd do better under more intense light, but in general, they'll typically prefer a daylight freshwater spectrum. Red macros will typically inhabit deeper water, and as such, they'll utilize a more blue, reef-like spectrum. What species do you want to keep?

5) Nope. I'd recommend just investing a couple small powerheads - the Koralia Nanos are a great value for a basic, budget powerhead. A HOB will be a great place to store carbon if you end up needing it.

Thank you so much! How long should the live rock sit in the tank to cycle? My freshwater tanks usually level out within 4 weeks but I’ve heard longer with saltwater.

 

Thank you so much! How long should the live rock sit in the tank to cycle? My freshwater tanks usually level out within 4 weeks but I’ve heard longer with saltwater.

Honestly, it really depends on the rock. If you get "cured" rock (which essentially means it's supposed to be free of most dead biomatter from shipping), the cycle will probably be pretty quick. If you get rock fresh off a shipment from the gulf, there's a good chance you'll get a lot more critters and life, but you may also see a longer, more-intense cycle.

In general, plan on at least a month, but I've seen people report up to 2-3 months until they saw good stability. I'd also say that a SW tank really takes 6-12 months to really stabilize, and 3-5 years to become mature. My oldest live rock has been with me nearly a decade (moved into different tanks over the years, though), so whenever I put it into a new tank, it's essentially "insta-cycled", to a point. Kinda like moving cycled filter media from an old filter to a new one.

 

Honestly, it really depends on the rock. If you get "cured" rock (which essentially means it's supposed to be free of most dead biomatter from shipping), the cycle will probably be pretty quick. If you get rock fresh off a shipment from the gulf, there's a good chance you'll get a lot more critters and life, but you may also see a longer, more-intense cycle.

In general, plan on at least a month, but I've seen people report up to 2-3 months until they saw good stability. I'd also say that a SW tank really takes 6-12 months to really stabilize, and 3-5 years to become mature. My oldest live rock has been with me nearly a decade (moved into different tanks over the years, though), so whenever I put it into a new tank, it's essentially "insta-cycled", to a point. Kinda like moving cycled filter media from an old filter to a new one.

Ok great thank you!

 

How much harder is saltwater? To set up and maintain? I have a 40 B that’s empty now & I don’t want to hijack this post I’m just so curious. My in-laws want me to start a saltwater and I’m like too hard to $$$$. Is this true? I’m willing to do the work but I’m super intimidated.

 

How much harder is saltwater? To set up and maintain? I have a 40 B that’s empty now & I don’t want to hijack this post I’m just so curious. My in-laws want me to start a saltwater and I’m like too hard to $$$$. Is this true? I’m willing to do the work but I’m super intimidated.

IMO, it isn't "harder", just different than freshwater. Now, it's inherently more expensive because you have to buy a salt mix for your water, and there tends to be a bit more equipment needed even if you aren't keeping corals and macroalgae.

That said, a 40B would be a great size to start with and try out a FOWLR tank. You'd be able to use a low-powered freshwater light, a simple HOB filter or set of powerheads would handle the flow, a heater, and then you're really just left with getting together your rock, substrate, salt mix, and cycling it.

Oh, and this goes for KribensisLover1 and GouramiGirl100 - quarantining is VASTLY more important in a SW tank than a FW tank. It's important in FW, but if a sick fish makes it into your display tank, you can usually treat them (and whatever other fish may have caught that disease) in your display tank, since most FW meds are safe for inverts and plants. SW diseases are not the same - most treatments tend to have to be harsher, so treating in a display tank for something like ich (which you'd need to use copper, hyposalinity, or CP for - there are no gentle medications for SW ich) would at best "kill" your live rock and disrupt your cycle, and at worst cause a die off of everything living on your rock, an ammonia spike, and then the death of the entire tank. Kinda brutal and dramatic, but it's the truth.

A QT tank and a QT period of at least 3-4 weeks is pretty essential to avoid issues, IMO. I wholeheartedly recommend reading through Fish Diseases to learn about various saltwater diseases, what they look like, their symptoms, their prognosis, and how to treat them. He also has some proper QT methods on there.

 

IMO, it isn't "harder", just different than freshwater. Now, it's inherently more expensive because you have to buy a salt mix for your water, and there tends to be a bit more equipment needed even if you aren't keeping corals and macroalgae.

That said, a 40B would be a great size to start with and try out a FOWLR tank. You'd be able to use a low-powered freshwater light, a simple HOB filter or set of powerheads would handle the flow, a heater, and then you're really just left with getting together your rock, substrate, salt mix, and cycling it.

Oh, and this goes for KribensisLover1 and GouramiGirl100 - quarantining is VASTLY more important in a SW tank than a FW tank. It's important in FW, but if a sick fish makes it into your display tank, you can usually treat them (and whatever other fish may have caught that disease) in your display tank, since most FW meds are safe for inverts and plants. SW diseases are not the same - most treatments tend to have to be harsher, so treating in a display tank for something like ich (which you'd need to use copper, hyposalinity, or CP for - there are no gentle medications for SW ich) would at best "kill" your live rock and disrupt your cycle, and at worst cause a die off of everything living on your rock, an ammonia spike, and then the death of the entire tank. Kinda brutal and dramatic, but it's the truth.

A QT tank and a QT period of at least 3-4 weeks is pretty essential to avoid issues, IMO. I wholeheartedly recommend reading through Fish Diseases to learn about various saltwater diseases, what they look like, their symptoms, their prognosis, and how to treat them. He also has some proper QT methods on there.

Thank you for the advice. For the QT saltwater tank what do you need? Is it just essentials like my FW QT- heater, low flow filter?

 

Thank you for the advice. For the QT saltwater tank what do you need? Is it just essentials like my FW QT- heater, low flow filter?

Yep, exactly the same.

I've used sponge filters, HOBs, and internals for QT tanks. If you're on a budget, the Top Fin internal filters from petsmart actually work fairly well for QT tanks, because the "cartridges" are just sponges.

You can see the filter in action around 4:50 into this video - it's a gentle flow, and is basically a powerhead with a compartment for a sponge on the bottom, so extremely simple to clean and they last for years.

 

Thank you! SO much! This is exciting!

 

Yep, exactly the same.

I've used sponge filters, HOBs, and internals for QT tanks. If you're on a budget, the Top Fin internal filters from petsmart actually work fairly well for QT tanks, because the "cartridges" are just sponges.

You can see the filter in action around 4:50 into this video - it's a gentle flow, and is basically a powerhead with a compartment for a sponge on the bottom, so extremely simple to clean and they last for years.

Thanks so much for the detailed info!