Getting Ready To Get Salty

[idlefingers]

I've been keeping freshwater fish for a while now and have been dreaming about making a salty tank for about as long.

I'm starting to research everything involved in setting up a reef tank and am finding the sticky posts very useful but am feeling a bit overwhelmed and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good, beginners guide kinda book for me to tuck into? But not complete beginner to fish keeping, just beginner to marine?

There's so much I don't know about marine, I don't know where to start. I feel like I could write a book with my questions alone, let alone the answers.

Thanks for any help!

 

[FLcracker94]

I have the perfect book for you!
I have learned alot from this book, sure it's boring when you know some of the stuff, but it is useful.
The book is called, "The Simple Guide to Mini-Reef Aquariums" by Jeffery Kurtz. The tittle might not sound like its for all marine aquariums, but it is. It gives you simple fish to start out with and avoid, how to set up, what lights to use, what the parimeters should be, and lots more. The book is about $17.00, but is well worth the money.

By the way...
WELCOME TO SALTWATER!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[idlefingers]

Thanks! I've just ordered a copy.. Can't wait for it to arrive now!

 

[sophos9]

Hi mate, slowly but surely the tropicals are moving over!

I was in the same boat, check my journal (linky in sig) for whats been done so far - got my first 2 fish in on Saturday!

 

[idlefingers]

that's an interesting read, sophos.. i hope it goes that smoothly for me!

How are you finding it.. going from tropicals to marine? Looks like you haven't taken your algae curse with you

 

[sophos9]

that's an interesting read, sophos.. i hope it goes that smoothly for me!

How are you finding it.. going from tropicals to marine? Looks like you haven't taken your algae curse with you

Finding it great! Much less effort to keep than the tropical tank and sooooo much more rewarding, the fish have much more character, the functioning systems of live rock, corals, anemones and inverts is amazing. I still have the tropical tank although its stripped on its T5's and CO2, only dose trace now.

In my opinion, keeping a high-tec tropical is harder than marine. Water parameters are measured the same (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH) but with the addition of salinity and if you are keeping types of corals, magnesium, calcium etc. Water change is 10% per week, not the 50% and all the pruning of EI dosing.

As I'm sure you are aware, water source is much more important with marine, in my opinion RO water is a must, some will be for - some against. A RO unit is not expensive and you will make your money back in a matter of months + convenience and being able to use RO for your tropical too! If so, buy a TDS meter, this measures solids in the water, my tap water is 488ppm, RODI water is 12ppm!

If you are using the berlin method, you dont even need a filter. I was going to rob my external eheim but I opted to keep the internal Juwel so I can hide the carbon and have something for the protein skimmer to dump into without causing micro bubbles....

algae is growing through its cycle, seen the coming and going of brown diatomacious algae, now seeing some green dust on the glass (please no GDA!!). My nitrates come in a cool 2ppm. If you see phosphates rising, get rid - throw a bag of rowaphos in

I love the marine system and I hate to say it but I've kinda lost interest in tropical, I love my L species plecs but to me, there is no comparison!!!

 

[idlefingers]

Cool, sounds good.

What's "the berlin method"? I heard it mentioned in pfk but have no idea what it means?

Also, with RO units, do they need to be hooked up to a water pipe or just one end in a bucket full of water and the outlet in another?

Here's where I prove quite how little I know about marine . Looking forward to learning!

 

[sophos9]

Cool, sounds good.

What's "the berlin method"? I heard it mentioned in pfk but have no idea what it means?

I could run on about it but this link summarises it much better >> http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Method

Also, with RO units, do they need to be hooked up to a water pipe or just one end in a bucket full of water and the outlet in another?

An RO unit will be connected either directly to your cold mains water (pressure needs to be >50psi) or it can connect to the neck of a tap. Mine is plumbed into my mains water and the waste is plumbed into the waste pipes so all I have is a hose that feeds into a 20ltr container. RO produces a lot of waste (I get 1ltr RO to every 4ltrs of water). This may sound like a lot of waste but work out tangibles like travel, cost per ltr of salted/fresh RO from your LFS and you will see your return on investment is rapid.

Plumbing the thing in is dead easy, uses needle valves which are self cutting. RO comes with differing stages of cleansing, I've got a 4 stage which is particle, carbon, RO then DI. You can drink the waste water if you like, will just be a bit harder than normal!

Fresh water is just used to top up the level of the tank. Its important to use a mark to keep it topped up, as salt water evaporates, the salt remains therefore increasing the salinity. Always top up to your mark and things will stay good. Some will say buy a hydrometer, pay a little extra for a refractometer - much much more accurate!! Making salt water should be easy (I'm making my first batch tonight), buy some marine salt (not table salt ) and follow the directions, keep checking the salinity until you reach your desired measure - I target 1.023

Here's where I prove quite how little I know about marine . Looking forward to learning!

No problems fella, tropical is an excellent head start and keep on posting them questions!

 

[idlefingers]

Thanks sophos.. that clears a couple of questions up!

I have the perfect book for you!
I have learned alot from this book, sure it's boring when you know some of the stuff, but it is useful.
The book is called, "The Simple Guide to Mini-Reef Aquariums" by Jeffery Kurtz. The tittle might not sound like its for all marine aquariums, but it is. It gives you simple fish to start out with and avoid, how to set up, what lights to use, what the parimeters should be, and lots more. The book is about $17.00, but is well worth the money.

By the way...
WELCOME TO SALTWATER!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks again for the recommendation.. I got it today and am enjoying reading it.. It seems very informative.

 

[norite]

Welcome to the saltie side of things....once you go saltie, you won't want to go back!

 

[Musho3210]

when was that book written? I found the other book he wrote (the simple guide to marine aquarium) was terrible since it was all old fashioned, but that was written in like 1999

 

[SkiFletch]

"The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner is great for beginners

 

[idlefingers]

when was that book written? I found the other book he wrote (the simple guide to marine aquarium) was terrible since it was all old fashioned, but that was written in like 1999

2005 so hopefully it's more current..

"The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner is great for beginners

After a quick search, it definitely gets a lot of good reviews. Do you think it would be worth getting it as well??

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, its up to you, do you wan't to spend tons of hours lurking through forums and asking questions for free, or spend a few hours and dollars to have a nice handbook at your side?

 

[idlefingers]

I quite like having books to refer to, so if you think it would benefit me to have this one as well as the other, then I'll go for it.

I'll still be asking loads of questions on here, I'm sure!