New to marine

[leanne]

Hi I'm new (as you may have gathered already). Just thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm 26 and from Macclesfield, Cheshire (England). I've been keeping tropical fish for about 8 months. I have a 38l (10 gallon) tank with 12 neons, 4 leopard danios, a ghost cat fish (and about 6 fry - was pregnant when i got it...), 3 sword tails and lots of fry, a baby silver shark, a clown loach and a diddy plec. I know it sound like a lot for a small tank but I do a half water change twice a week and have two filter and they are thriving - well they keep reproducing. Oh and I have two frogs that hog the tablet food for the clown loach. They're dead terrortorial about it and attack the other fish till they've had their fill!

My next plan it to conver the 38l to marine and buy a 125l for the tropical fish. I've got as far as putting in a second filter ready for the new tank to mature it. Then I can move my fish across and start on the marine tank... I know its going to take months but I'm patient because I want the tanks to thrive.

 

[Annastasia]

to the forums!

 

[leanne]

Thankyou.

I am beginning to think that I may have too much trouble with a 10 gal (38l) marine tank after reading some posts in here. Only problem is I can't really afford to setup a larger tank and by the sounds of it the 125l (is this 50 gal) is going to be too small anyway - even though anything larger will be too big for the space available.

Can anyone offer any advice? I am not planning to keep any more than 3 or 4 fish and I am vigilant with my water changes (though I know I can do 50% changes with marine as this is too severe) and testing...

Do you think it would be possible in a 10gal? I am not planning on keeping coral as I don't feel ready for this so light overheating wouldn't be a problem..

 

[leanne]

Thankyou.

I am beginning to think that I may have too much trouble with a 10 gal (38l) marine tank after reading some posts in here. Only problem is I can't really afford to setup a larger tank and by the sounds of it the 125l (is this 50 gal) is going to be too small anyway - even though anything larger will be too big for the space available.

Can anyone offer any advice? I am not planning to keep any more than 3 or 4 fish and I am vigilant with my water changes (though I know I cant do 50% changes with marine as this is too severe) and testing...

Do you think it would be possible in a 10gal? I am not planning on keeping coral as I don't feel ready for this so light overheating wouldn't be a problem..

 

[BIGMAC]

Hi and welcome,i too would like a marine tank but dont think im ready for it yet seems much harder than tropical and it took me longenough to grasp that.Anyway im sure someone will be able to give you great advice.Enjoy your time here with us.

 

[AquaUK]

Hi

Im too in the process of setting up a marine system and find this totally nerve wrecking!!!!!!

I have a couple of goods things on board I have a couple if friends who are into reefs big time and i also have the space. The system that I will have when finally complete will be a 800 gallon system.

I think one of the routes to success in marines is taking your time and getting it right and dont be afraid to ask no matter how silly the question.

I have asked some real silly ones but people respect you more for asking as it shows that you want to be a sucess in your reef keeping.

I was told once that the only silly question is the one that you didnt asked that resulted in a loss of livestock or some other disaster.

Good luck with your tank

 

[babyfish]

Hiya and welcome

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hello and welcome to the site

I have not got a marine tank but I have read a lot that bigger thanks are easier to keep level and topped up.

I am sure there will be info and help in the salt water section

~~Dana~~

 

[Inchworm]

Hi leanne

Welcome to the forum

 

[HeatherSweetness]

Good luck with starting a marine tank and to the forums.

 

[cutechic]

Hi and to the forum, leanne! Ive also heard that you should start out with a BIG tank if you're going marine (eg. 50 gallons). GL

 

[SaltyMist]

Small marine tanks are *not* difficult to keep. I have a JBJ nanocube that is only 11.8 gallon, but after adding all the liverock and live sand, it's more around 8 gallons.

As long as you are absolutely diligent on your water changes and topping up with reverse osmosis water when the water level drops (you dont want to top up with saltwater else your SG levels will get too high), you should be okay.

But I think that 3 or 4 fish are just too many for a 10 gallon.

A 10 gallon might accomodate 2 clown fish, or a clown fish and a firefish, but you can augment the tank with plenty of snails, and a couple peppermint shrimp to keep the uneaten food ummm.... well.... eaten. So that it doesn rot in the tank and cause amonia in the water.

I started out in the marine hobby with a 10 gallon cube, and it looked great all the time, but Im a nut when it comes to water changes (though it seems so hard to do when the water is so sparkling clear - but maybe thats why my marine tanks are so sparkling clear because IM a nut on doing my regular water changes), and NOT overfeeding.

So as long as you dont overpopulate the tank, dont overfeed and keep up on your water changes then it's really not difficult at all to keep a 10 gallon marine tank, but it depends on what you want to keep in the tank. If you want to keep corals, you'll need bright lights, and pristine water, but if you want to make it a FOWLR (Fish only with liverock) then you can let your nitrates slip to about 20ppm.

A good quality filter is required and a skimmer would be nice. I would recommend the Aquaclear 500 for the filter (and turning it into a mini refugium with livesand, liverock rubble, and maybe some macro algae), and about 15lbs of liverock and 10lbs of livesand in the main tank. A skimmer will help to keep down waste as well, and while not *absolutely* necessary, it's a good saftey precaution. for a smaller tank.

Theres a great site (hope Im allowed to post other forums urls, if not please edit my post), for nano tank keepers at www.nano-reef.com If you havnt guessed, it's all about nano (small) marine tanks. And is full of usefull information and tips.

Welcome and goodluck.

 

[leanne]

Thanks for all your replies.

I am getting a 20 gal tank on sat (off one of the members off here ) and am going to "have a go". I am diligent with my water changes and do plan to get plenty of live rock and sand. Hopefully I can start setting it up in 4 weeks or so and adding fish a few weeks later. I don't intend to keep coral so lighting and overheating shouldn't be a problem. I may get a bit of the "fake" stuff that doesn't need high intensity lighting.

Does anyone know if you can use a mature freshwater filter to cycle a salt water tank as I have a freshwater filter cooking away nicely...

Thanks for the info on the frogs. I'm not sure what kind they are. They are quite small and do not appear to have grown at all in the 4 months I have had them. They're great fun...

Thanks again all

Leanne

 

[ChriX]

I kept a boxer shrimp in one of those hexafun tanks for several years, also a tube worm. They seemed happy, although keeping the SG correct was pretty fiddley, gave it a water change every week. Was very successful, probably due to the amount of help I had from the guy in my local shop (before he moved), he breeds seahorses, those are so cool too !

Reminds me of how much character those shrimps have, it's amazing, I miss him.

 

[SaltyMist]

Does anyone know if you can use a mature freshwater filter to cycle a salt water tank as I have a freshwater filter cooking away nicely...

Thanks again all

Leanne

Here, this blurb is taken off of the ultraclear site and confirmed what I was thinking is correct:

"There is a great difference between freshwater and saltwater, and which is why UltraClear offers different products for fresh and saltwater aquariums. You would never put a saltwater fish in a freshwater tank! Nor would you drink 3.5% saline water to quench your thirst. The same applies to nitrifying bacteria. Saltwater nitrifiers really do NOT work in freshwater, and vice versa. "

Ultra Clear page

And heres more:
"You will also have to cycle the tank again since the ammonia oxidizing bacteria are different in saltwater than freshwater ( fresh water are nitrosococcus and saltwater are nitrosomonas bacteria)" Link

Theres a wealth of info on this on the web, one must only google to find it.