Researching To Set Up My First Saltwater Tank

[fishlette]

hi there

im thinking about setting up my first SW tank. ive had FW fish for some time now and seeing as i am trying to clear out the store room at my newly acquired pet shop business and there is a bunch of skimmers and chillers we will never sell, i have decided to make use of some of them and set up a SW at home. ive wanted a SW tank for ages but couldnt afford it...until now

i have a million and one questions though as i have little experience with setting up and keeping a SW tank.

firstly, the tank i want to convert to SW is a 45gallon tank. the smallest chiller at work carries these stats (most of this stuff means very little to me so if people could tell me what stuff means to that would be )

chiller stats:

Uni-Star UNI-300
260(W)x320(D)x410(H)
Power 75W
Ice Media: R-134A (???)
Chilling Capability: 240Kcal/H (???)
External Connection Tube 16 or 19mm
Water Circulation: 10-30 litres per minute
Power of external heater: not exceeding 600W

is this suitable for my size tank?

now the filter stats:

Via Aqua Multi-Skimmer (What is the purpose of a skimmer?)
"The complete skimmer, biological and chemical filter, UV steriliser system for salt water or reef aquarium" (UV Steriliser not included)

Says its for aquariums up to 80 gallons so im assuming this is ok for my tank. cant find many other specs on the box. but tis supposed to feature:

adjustable variable venturi with exclusive air/water mixing chamber (Why is this supposed to be good???)
adjustable collection cup, built in biological chamber
ozone compatible

i cant find any other stuff like lph etc

ok, so i have a chiller and filter/skimmer organised. are the normal glass heaters suitable for SW? do i need a halide light? can i use a normal case with a marine flouro inserted?

do i go about cycling in the same manner as a fishless cycle for FW fish? do i need live rock etc or can i decorate with artificial ornaments etc? i am happy to get live rock but i was curious about whether it was needed or not?

and finally, for now, what fish would you suggest for my size tank? i am looking for colour and uniqueness in my tank. eventually we want sea horses. what requirements do these guys have and would i be able to keep a couple in this size tank?

sorry about all the questions but it wasnt until i started writing i realised there was a lot i needed to know that i hadnt thought of

p.s. is it best to use salt water from a shop or is the 'instant ocean' stuff ok?

 

[SkiFletch]

to the marine world Fishlette, glad to see you're starting a saltwater tank.

That's a decent sized chiller you have there. 240 kcal is equal to 270watts or 950btu's worth of cooling. While it will be well suited to keeping a 45g tank cool in the summer months, that shouldn't be much of a concern for you this time of year in australia . Furthermore, if you ask me, its better to buy an air conditioner for the room the tank is in and just keep that cool and use fans on the tank for evaporation. That way you AND your fish are cool . The electrical energy required to chill the room is similar to that required to cool the tank directly, and a commercial window-mount AC unit is MUCH more reliable than an aquarium chiller.

A protein skimmer is used to remove dissolved organic compounds that can foul up tank water, inhibit coral growth, or most importantly decompose into nitrates/phosphates and contribute to algae blooms. I have to be honest I have no experience with Via Aqua skimmers, although I do know that their products are "affordable" which doesn't always mean they get the job done... Just a guess there though.

As for lighting, it really depends, do you want to keep corals or other photosynthetic invertebrates? And if so, do you have any ideas on species you might want to keep? Lighting needs to be tailored to the requirement of the organisms.

Live rock is by far the best marine filtration method out there. If it's good enough to filter the world's natural reefs, its good enough to do so in my tank . You CAN use ornamental things in your tank, but I'm just not a fan of them aesthetically. If you're going with a fish-only tank, you can get away without liverock but you'll miss some of its natural filtration abilities for sure.

And lastly in response to sea horses... Very few other fish can be kept with seahorses if you really want the seahorses to live. The problem is that other fish will eat food too quickly. The zeal/speed with which most fish eat will scare the seahorses into hiding until the fish settle down. By then the food is gone and the seahorse slowly starves. Alas, as beautiful as seahorses are, they are better suited to a species tank.

I answered your questions pretty quickly without much detail. I'd suggest you read through the stickies atop this section for some more information on setting up your own marine tank. Read read read, and remember that in saltwater tanks, beauty takes time but disaster happens quickly. Good luck

 

[fishlette]

to the marine world Fishlette, glad to see you're starting a saltwater tank.

That's a decent sized chiller you have there. 240 kcal is equal to 270watts or 950btu's worth of cooling. While it will be well suited to keeping a 45g tank cool in the summer months, that shouldn't be much of a concern for you this time of year in australia . Furthermore, if you ask me, its better to buy an air conditioner for the room the tank is in and just keep that cool and use fans on the tank for evaporation. That way you AND your fish are cool . The electrical energy required to chill the room is similar to that required to cool the tank directly, and a commercial window-mount AC unit is MUCH more reliable than an aquarium chiller.

A protein skimmer is used to remove dissolved organic compounds that can foul up tank water, inhibit coral growth, or most importantly decompose into nitrates/phosphates and contribute to algae blooms. I have to be honest I have no experience with Via Aqua skimmers, although I do know that their products are "affordable" which doesn't always mean they get the job done... Just a guess there though.

As for lighting, it really depends, do you want to keep corals or other photosynthetic invertebrates? And if so, do you have any ideas on species you might want to keep? Lighting needs to be tailored to the requirement of the organisms.

Live rock is by far the best marine filtration method out there. If it's good enough to filter the world's natural reefs, its good enough to do so in my tank . You CAN use ornamental things in your tank, but I'm just not a fan of them aesthetically. If you're going with a fish-only tank, you can get away without liverock but you'll miss some of its natural filtration abilities for sure.

And lastly in response to sea horses... Very few other fish can be kept with seahorses if you really want the seahorses to live. The problem is that other fish will eat food too quickly. The zeal/speed with which most fish eat will scare the seahorses into hiding until the fish settle down. By then the food is gone and the seahorse slowly starves. Alas, as beautiful as seahorses are, they are better suited to a species tank.

I answered your questions pretty quickly without much detail. I'd suggest you read through the stickies atop this section for some more information on setting up your own marine tank. Read read read, and remember that in saltwater tanks, beauty takes time but disaster happens quickly. Good luck

thanks for your quick reply. im pretty sure i am giving it enough time before put fish in. im going to have it running for about 3 months before anything goes in. we are going overseas for a while and i dont want to risk a new saltwater set up with fish, to my mother in law who will be looking after my fish while we're gone. so ill wait and make sure everything is 100% ready

i have also decided to go with a 4x18x18 so yay i get a new tank too

i spoke to a friend of mine has also has an lfs and he showed me these new lights that are supposed to be better than the halides and quite a bit cheaper (Only 380 for a light for a 4ft) and it has the moonlight option so we can watch anemones and stuff at night

he also spoke to me about a hydrometer, a sump and substrate. do i NEED a sump? or will adequate filtration through other filters be ok? i have the previously mentioned filter plus two powerheads and a canister that can go on the tank.

i bought some substrate home. its white and kinda like fine gravel. i am going to mix this with some other substrate recommended to me. the gravel i have is one he recommended to me in the shop also so ii was pretty proud of that choice by myself it better be good substrate though as it costs $65.00 a bag

i also looked at some fish i would like eventually have in there. at the time i was only going to be using the 3ft so my choices were limited. its been since then i decided to get a new tank as well. but yesterday the guy was suggesting some coral gobies, a nice pink dottyback, some clown fish ??? i think thats what the "nemo" fish are called , some other funky looking fish that would eat algae and some different corals. (i have yet to research evderything but these were the suggestions he had)

so now i have much research to do. i am going to get the tank started this weekend. my marine fishy friend is going to come around and help me with everything. basically on his advice, im going to get everything set up and the live rock in and then leave it be other than for maintenance, water tests etc. while thats doing that i can be researching and reading and asking questions until im happy i know what im talking about

will also read pinned sections

p.s. will that chiller still be ok in a 65gallon? you are right though with regards to temp here at the moment. my coldwater tank is on 23 at the moment. can someone please tell me what the 240kcal thing means please? and also what is btu?

p.p.s. decided on all natural so no ornaments when i saw some of the corals and things i can have, why would you have fake stuff i will however put some ornaments in while the tank is cycling so its a bit more colourful

 

[n3ont3tra]

thanks for your quick reply. im pretty sure i am giving it enough time before put fish in. im going to have it running for about 3 months before anything goes in. we are going overseas for a while and i dont want to risk a new saltwater set up with fish, to my mother in law who will be looking after my fish while we're gone. so ill wait and make sure everything is 100% ready smile.gif

i have also decided to go with a 4x18x18 so yay i get a new tank too smile.gif

i spoke to a friend of mine has also has an lfs and he showed me these new lights that are supposed to be better than the halides and quite a bit cheaper (Only 380 for a light for a 4ft) and it has the moonlight option so we can watch anemones and stuff at night good.gif

he also spoke to me about a hydrometer, a sump and substrate. do i NEED a sump? or will adequate filtration through other filters be ok? i have the previously mentioned filter plus two powerheads and a canister that can go on the tank.

i bought some substrate home. its white and kinda like fine gravel. i am going to mix this with some other substrate recommended to me. the gravel i have is one he recommended to me in the shop also so ii was pretty proud of that choice by myself smile.gif it better be good substrate though as it costs $65.00 a bag unsure.gif

i also looked at some fish i would like eventually have in there. at the time i was only going to be using the 3ft so my choices were limited. its been since then i decided to get a new tank as well. but yesterday the guy was suggesting some coral gobies, a nice pink dottyback, some clown fish ??? i think thats what the "nemo" fish are called smile.gif, some other funky looking fish that would eat algae and some different corals. (i have yet to research evderything but these were the suggestions he had)

so now i have much research to do. i am going to get the tank started this weekend. my marine fishy friend is going to come around and help me with everything. basically on his advice, im going to get everything set up and the live rock in and then leave it be other than for maintenance, water tests etc. while thats doing that i can be researching and reading and asking questions until im happy i know what im talking about wink.gif

will also read pinned sections smile.gif

p.s. will that chiller still be ok in a 65gallon? you are right though with regards to temp here at the moment. my coldwater tank is on 23 at the moment. can someone please tell me what the 240kcal thing means please? and also what is btu?

p.p.s. decided on all natural so no ornaments when i saw some of the corals and things i can have, why would you have fake stuff smile.gif i will however put some ornaments in while the tank is cycling so its a bit more colourful smile.gif

Lots of smileys in that post.

Okay, 48x18x18 = 65 US gallons, exact same size I'm going to set up in a few months.
I have no idea about the kind of lighting you're talking about, but it might be LEDs, maybe. Someone more experienced will answer that.

About the anemones you mentioned, I'm just forwarning you - these are NOT for beginners!

Hmm... hydrometers, sumps, and substrate:
Hydrometers - They're a lot cheaper than refractometers but tend to drift over time. They aren't as accurate as a refractometer. Most people here would suggest a refractometer over a hydrometer.

Sumps - You don't NEED to have a sump, but there's so many advantages to it, and hardly and against it.
-- It adds more water to the system, making it more stable
-- It provides a place to hide all the equiptment and extra live rock
-- And those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there's a few topics on it somewhere...

Substrate - Most people here use Aragonite sand with some Live sand mixed in. If the sand you're getting costs $65, it's probably live sand. All that means is that it's already seeded with all the stuff that lives in the sand.

For fish ideas, one site I would recommend is liveaquaria.com, it's one of the best online places for fish. The information isn't too accurate, though, so if you have any doubts, ask here.

As for the chiller, I have no idea.

And the live rock-cycling-ornaments thing, I'd rather watch the live rock, 'cause you'll probably be getting all kinds of hitchhikers.

And one last thing, not sure if you know this, but for reef tanks the general recommendation for live rock is 1 to 1-1/4 pounds per gallon. For a 65g I would say about 75-80lbs.

Good luck.

-neon

 

[fishlette]

yes, i always smile a lot

ok, seeing as i have a few months before im thinking of stocking fish in there, im going to try something other than the sump. i have the multi skimmer which is 800lph. plus i will have a 1200lph power head, a 500lph internal filter and a 1982lph aqua clear HOB filter. this gives 4482lph or 17.5 times per hour. if this doesnt seem to work i have a spare sump system here at work i could use. i find the aqua clear filters brilliant in the FW tanks and seeing as they are suitable for FW and SW i figured they should be good

have done a lot of reading about live rock and its purposes etc. im planning on buying 25kilos of rock. this is slightly less than i figured it out to need but tis also a perfect amount in other ways

the light has normal globes, actinic (??? cant remember how to spell that) and the moonlight option. they are supposed to be brilliant for growing coral etc and the tank they are using the light on at their shop is brilliantly lit with that light and drop dead gorgeous corals

can anyone tell me what i need to do to deal with algae while my tank is cycling? is there some SW snail i can put in from the get go???

 

[SkiFletch]

I'll add three more bonuses to a sump; it provides a place to safely do water changes without disturbing livestock; A refugium can be incorporated to help with nutrient export and to lessen diurnal pH swings; And it provides a safe place to dose without pouring concentrated minerals directly on sensitive livestock

Anyway you can ask your LFS for some more technical data/terms about the lights?

On the topic of flowrate/filters, remember you do not need to use man-made media in the filters. In fact it is not reccomended as many mechanical filtration can trap detritus and become nitrate factories (nitrate is more toxic to marine aquaria than it is to freshwater). It's better to use LR for your main nitrogenous filtration, add a skimmer to remove DOC's, and vaccum the substrate to clean up detritus when you water change. And remember, the tank may look cluttered with all those powerheads/filters/etc. Sumps and smaller powerheads look a lot "cleaner"

Lastly, kcal, and btu are measures of energy just like watts and represents the full cooling capacity of the chiller.

 

[fishlette]

I'll add three more bonuses to a sump; it provides a place to safely do water changes without disturbing livestock; A refugium can be incorporated to help with nutrient export and to lessen diurnal pH swings; And it provides a safe place to dose without pouring concentrated minerals directly on sensitive livestock

Anyway you can ask your LFS for some more technical data/terms about the lights?

On the topic of flowrate/filters, remember you do not need to use man-made media in the filters. In fact it is not reccomended as many mechanical filtration can trap detritus and become nitrate factories (nitrate is more toxic to marine aquaria than it is to freshwater). It's better to use LR for your main nitrogenous filtration, add a skimmer to remove DOC's, and vaccum the substrate to clean up detritus when you water change. And remember, the tank may look cluttered with all those powerheads/filters/etc. Sumps and smaller powerheads look a lot "cleaner"

Lastly, kcal, and btu are measures of energy just like watts and represents the full cooling capacity of the chiller.

ok. so a sump it is theres too many important things they do

will it matter if i start the tank running with what i have for a week or so and then add the sump next weekend? or would it be best to do it straight away? oh scrap that, ill just do it straight away lol twas a silly reason why i didnt wanna do it straight away

youre right too about the clutter thing. i didnt think of that before but i do hate clutter

thanks for all your help everyone. i have the tank at home now all cleaned and ready for saturday morning when i can go and get all my goodies

just quickly, now im getting a sump, thats eats further into the budget i had for the tank (i think we all know the initial budget is nothing like what it will be lol) so, could i get 15kgs of live rock this weekend to start it going and then add a bit each week for the next couple of weeks then leave it be to cycle or should i get it all at once?

 

[SkiFletch]

Your LR plans will be just fine, especially if it is reasonably cured and you live reasonably close to your LFS.

 

[fishlette]

Your LR plans will be just fine, especially if it is reasonably cured and you live reasonably close to your LFS.

distance isnt a problem. the shop i will be going to for LR is only about a 60 second drive away (most of the time i walk there). they are very reputable and i asked them about the LR this morning and he said the tank it would be coming out of has had them curing in there for about 3 weeks now. they are certified quarantining peoples there so they are pretty strict with their stuff cause the council keeps a close eye on them being that they are a quarantine station. so hopefully the LR will be good too