Saltwater & Sand

[friendofish]

Hi fish friends,

I'm new to fish keeping so obviously new to the forum.
Anyway, i have some questions that are better answered by non-biased experts like you rather than that of an aquarium shop employee.

I'm putting together my first self funded aquarium and have decided to jump straight into keeping marine fish. I have visited a few aquarium retailers and i really like the marine setup. Somehow i think you all know why. My first question is am i being over ambitious?

So i visited my local aquarium and asked for a quote for a 125lt tank and stand and i believe that i have a good price. However, i did notice that the extras seem quite expensive. This leads me to my next set of questions. My brother has a freshwater set up and has all the testers except nitrate. The guy at the fish store told me that i could use his kits barring the the pH test kit. Why is this?

Secondly, the price of coral sand and instant ocean is exorbitant. I have access to salt and sand. The salt is food grade and the sand would be filter sand. Is there a problem with useing these cheaper alternatives?

Thanks in advance
Friendofish

 

[shibby]

the ph freshwater kit generally measures low range ph's whereas a marine one will measure high range, so if it is a high range tester then i dont see why not.


i would use proper salt not food grade, if there were cheaper options i think everyone would be using them. red sea coral pro or seachems arent bad priced salts, specially on the interent even with delivery you can grab bargains.

sand use crused coral or aragonite.

marine tanks are an expensive hobby but totally worth it

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Welcome to the forum.

In terms of keeping marine tanks they do require more knowledge and work then freshwater tropicals in my opinion. Personally I think you could start right off with a marine tank but you need to read up on it a LOT first (and some of the reading is a lot harder if you have never kepts non-marine fish before).

I would have a good read through all of the journals on here as well as the sticky posts as they contain a lot of very useful information. Ask questions about anything you need to as well.

With regards to the Salt and cost, food grade salt will not work. I'm sure someone else will be able to explain the exact differences if you really want to know why but basically you can either use something like Instant ocean or actual sea water (if you happen to live near the sea).

Unfortunately even a budget marine tank is going to cost you quite a bit to get going. Some test kits will wortk only for SW others for FW and some for both so you may need to buy some of them. Then you need a hydrometer/refractomer for measuring the salinity of the water (how salty it is). Also you will need things like live rock (probably the most expensive part and this is the main filtration method in most marine tanks), power heads for water flow, etc, etc.

 

[CageUK]

Hi and Welcome

Marine salt is not just salt. It contains dozens of trace elements made to exacting specifications (some more than others) to try to faithfully replicate sea water. The ingredients list looks like some kind of mad scientist's wish list. Food grade salt is no more suitable for marine aquariums than marine salt is fit for us to eat...yeeeuch!

As far as sand is concerned, as Shibby says crushed coral or aragonite sand is what should be used. Again it is more than just decorative and the correct sand can help buffer the tanks PH. Builders sand and play sand often contain silicates which is what you don't want in your tanks as you are likely to have big problems with algae.

As has already been said the test kits can often be used for freshwater or marine but not all of them. Read the instructions for the individual kits and they will tell you if they are ok or not.

Barney's good advice to do your research is seconded by me. There are lots of assumptions you can make which can cause a lot of grief. If something can go wrong in an aquarium it already has and someone has experienced it and most likely posted this experience on the forum. There are a lot of people on the forum who have recently started and it's well worth reading through their stories.

Once you've got your head around it though, it gets a lot easier.

Good Luck

 

[friendofish]

Quick question.
What kind of pH's would i most likely be testing in a marine setup?

Cheers

 

[SkiFletch]

High range, ~8.2 +/-0.4