Considering Going Salty

[saltynay]

Heya,

Haven't been on for a while, been travelling. I am now living and working in Vietnam at a beach club and watching the local fisherman has made me curious about starting up a marine tank instead of my usual freshwater. I have infinite amounts of seawater on my doorstep and want to know if I can use this water in my tank changing every day so that I just have to run a simple pump and light and not have to worry about the other extras marine tanks require. I will be purchasing my fish from the fisherman after research and initially they have some lovely angelfish I have been eyeing and maybe some of the squid they regularly catch all though I will obviously need a supply of inverts if I do that. I am an experienced fish keeper and of course know not to buy fish that I haven't researched yada yada yada and the other rules.

I just want to know whether it is a good idea to use sea water from a clean source to supply my tank and skip out on the protein skimmer and other extras.

 

[-Nemo-]

Welcome to the salty side

There good and bad to using real sea water. The obvious being you can get many unwanted things from it, such as parasaites and other diseases. The water would have to be filtered but that won't keep the microscoptic things out.

It is very possible to have a tank without a skimmer, you would just need to do more frequent water changes (imo artificial would do just as significant a job as natural here and the changes don't need to be dailey). What size tank were you looking at doing?

 

[saltynay]

These would be fish from the same water as is being placed in that tank, therefore they would have a natural resistance to the parasites and other nasties in it. I am talking about a water change each day around 5-10gallons. The tank would probably be 100 gallon perhaps larger depends on the amount of space I can create indoors.

 

[seffieuk]

With a name like yours it just has to be done and living on a beach, well...........

Can't wait to see you start do you have a thread about your life on the beach?

Seffie x

 

[saltynay]

Hey seffie,

You still on here I would of thought an old gal like you would of moved on by now . I am still umming and ahhing freshwater is so simple to teach my staff how to care for.

 

[seffieuk]

You still on here I would of thought an old gal like you would of moved on by now .

You cheeky young whipper snapper this old gal is still very much a fixture on TFF

Would love to hear about your life in Vietnam?

Seffi ex

 

[saltynay]

I live 400metres from the beach and work on the beach. I am managing a beach club we currently have a bar, restaurant and water sports centre next on the agenda is the pool and dive centre. I have 25 staff with only 2 that speak English to a basic conversational level. The club has been open for 2 months now however we won't be fully operational for another 1-2 years. I feel like my life atm is a constant battle with my staff to get them to do things the correct way not the way they assume things to be done e.g. atm the way they take out and in the boat causes minor structural damage every time which takes 2 days out of the water to repair, they are under the impression that the boat can go in the water whatever condition it is even with a water soluble filler patch on the side. I am venting though as it has been a tough few days in general life is good beautiful and fun.

Back on topic what would I require for this tank then I am thinking 2 pumps and a sump do I use the usual filter foam to filter floss arangement I would use in freshwater? Alternatively I am thinking of using a suspended fluidised sand system as outlined in my previous thread here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=293522&st=0&gopid=2844689&#entry2844689

 

[seffieuk]

Will you be using live rock to filter the tank?

You will need more than two powerheads for a tank that size - you want to be looking for approx 15 x flow an hour between the live rock

Love to see some photos of where you live

Seffie x

 

[Pearsondesign]

awesome choice youve made!

also, can i come and work for you? pretty please?? ive done loads of bar and restaurant work! and i really wanna go to vietnam! spent 3 months in thailand and didnt want to leave!!

go on, say you need good reliable staff!!

back to the aquarium.. what about seahorses? are they available to you? ive heard lots about seahorses being bred in vietnam, so i assume they must be in the sea too

 

[saltynay]

I am thinking a berlin sump for hiding all the ugly stuff with a combination live rock and sandcrete background in the tank to create a living filter/background. I will hide the pumps inside the rockwork if possible, one pointing along the length at the back of the tank and one pointing horizontally to the opposite front corner.

I want to keep seahorses however from what I have read they are difficult to keep, there are a ton of them at the local market like 30 in one 30 gallon tank. I am thinking a devil lion fish, a cow box fish, A puffer, a cat or bamboo shark with remora, an eel, a bubble anemone with a pair of false clown fish (hopefully they won't get eaten by the numerous highly predatory fish), a larger damsel species, some cleaner shrimp a lobster stolen from the restaurant food tank and some corals. Still need to research all this though for compatibility.

The view from my office to the left (click to enlarge)

The view from my office to the right (click to enlarge)

 

[the biffster]

I am thinking a berlin sump for hiding all the ugly stuff with a combination live rock and sandcrete background in the tank to create a living filter/background. I will hide the pumps inside the rockwork if possible, one pointing along the length at the back of the tank and one pointing horizontally to the opposite front corner.

I want to keep seahorses however from what I have read they are difficult to keep, there are a ton of them at the local market like 30 in one 30 gallon tank. I am thinking a devil lion fish, a shark with remora, a bubble anemone with a pair of false clown fish, a larger damsel species, some cleaner shrimp a lobster stolen from the restaurant food tank and some corals. Still need to research all this though for compatibility.

The view from my office to the left

The view from my office to the right

looks like you have paradise on your door step
all you need to is go diving to see the real thing
wow it looks lovely

 

[saltynay]

I am a dive instructor btw with my own centre soon to be built on site. Its one of the reasons I want the tank is to get people interested in the marine environment.

 

[the biffster]

you lucky lol i am very jealous now
it must be awesome diving over there the stuff you
must be able to see i used to dive many moons ago
before i got ill but only around the UK coast there
is some nice places around the UK coast but its always
so cold even in the middle of July and august what the temp
like out there for diving a lot warmer than over here i could
imagine brrrrrrrrrrrrr over here

 

[saltynay]

UK awesome for wrecks, unfortunately never dived it myself although I want to. Maybe if I go to uni and return to the UK, I will have the chance. I dive in a rash vest most of the time the water is around 28C we get lows of around 23C in January time which is warmer than the air temperature which gets down to around 19-20C. So max you need is a 3mm and 2mm hood

 

[the biffster]

a lot of the wreck stuff
is good but some are getting a bit dodge
these days and i could never enjoy them
with been so cold even in a dry suit.
i think your better off staying were your
at blue skies clear seas warm air i wish
sometimes i could win the lottery
and move somewhere like that might
make me feel better