Marine Tank Upkeep

[MrMashashin]

I was thinking of getting a 55g tank and setting up a reef community. Is salt water upkeep hard?

 

[Max]

once you get it started it is prettie easy, are you talking about keeping fish alive? keeping fish alive has been easy for me, so far... i had one fish die but i think it was sick when i got him...

 

[MrMashashin]

just the upkeep of a marine tank in general. Is it hard to do? like get the salticity of the watter up and balance the ph and all that.

 

[Max]

just the upkeep of a marine tank in general. Is it hard to do? like get the salticity of the watter up and balance the ph and all that.

well once it is going no... at first yes... but after not really... although the saltanity im not sure about... just about to ask that myself...

do you have to add mroe salt if you do water changes, anyone know?

 

[ade]

do you have to add mroe salt if you do water changes

DON'T add salt if topping up he water lost to evaporation (the salt does't evaporate so that stays in the tank)

DO add salt for maintenance water changes. The water you remove will be "salty water" so the water you replace it with should be also.

IMHO, marine tanks require more atention, so you could therefore say they are "harder", but none of it is rocket science either, so I'd say it's more consuming (at least to start with) but not necessarily "harder".

HTH

Ade

 

[Navarre]

I agree with ade, its not harder to be honest but it needs a little more attnetion to detail. PH SG etc are not difficult to adjust, they are relatively easy to maintain etc. But you just have to keep a closer eye on the stability of the tank (especially early on)

 

[TBLightningFan]

Attention to detail as others have mentioned plus patience usually equals good results. Take your time and don't be afraid to ask questions.

If you are not sure on how to do it.... take the time to look it up and read about it first.

 

[Teelie]

How often and how much do you guys do water changes? I'm still in the early planning stages but so far I've got myself set on getting a 65 gallon long tank with live rock, (maybe live) sand and a few fish, inverts and eventually corals and anemones I want to add.

 

[3fsh]

Well... it all depends on what your definition of "hard" is. My sw tank is cycling right now and I have to check the water parameters every day. Every two or three days, you have to replace evaporated water with dechlorinated fresh water to keep the specific gravity at a set point. (Mine is at 1.024) On top of that, you should (ideally) do water changes once every week. Also, my trigger needs to be fed twice a day (I feed frozen trigger formula supplemented by some brine shrimp once in a while), and I have to check him every day to make sure he is not stressed or injured. (He crams himself inside holes in the live rock at night and sometimes it messes his fins up a little bit. ) Would [/I] say that a sw tank is hard to maintain? Yes... but it is definitely more rewarding than a fw tank because the fish are much smarter and more interactive.

 

[ostrow]

My 75G reef takes more time simply because I love it so much and the tinkering is more fun than is good for the tank. But it does not REQUIRE more time.

With the live rock and live sand water changes are less necessary than in f/w. With the evaporation far more clean water gets added regularly than in f/w. If you automate the things you need to keep added for a reef (calcium and alkalinity, everything else is snakeoil stuff the companies try to take you for a ride on) with a calcium and/or kalk reactor, or a dosing pump for the 2-part additives, then you are home free. I'm nearing the point when I will start testing only on visual indicators in the tank, but not weekly.

Salt mixed in 5min to the required level. Because you need to use RO water pH will generally be ok unless something weird happens. So that part is simple.

But it is pricey.

Course, with a reef, I am now starting to sell soft coral frags ... have orders for almost $150 as I type!!!

 

[Teelie]

Course, with a reef, I am now starting to sell soft coral frags ... have orders for almost $150 as I type!!!

My plan is to breed some of the fish or inverts I want to get to offset costs myself.