Saltwater Aquariums???

[CarreraDan]

Guys,
Is anyone here into saltwater aquariums and would like to discuss their setup? I have had a 29 gal freshwater aquarium for almost 4 years and I am growing very tired of it (its boring). I think a saltwater tank would be more challenging and the fish are much neater to look at, imho. I asked the "expert" at Petco about switching my freshwater to salt and he said just add the salt and you are good to go--is it really that simple? Is the equipment the same? I already have an undergravel filter with 2 powerheads, a nice Penguin filter with bio wheel, and a heater that works great. As for my current fish, if I decide to switch my neighbor wants them for her tank--better than feeding them to the cats who show a strong interest in them.

So guys would a 29 gal be ok for a saltwater setup? Am I stupid for even considering this? Or should I just flush what I have and give up on fish?

[Joeaksa]

A lot more money and time. Love the look but its not easy.

[Tobra]

It is more work, and everything about a saltwater tank is more expensive. More work, because there are more variables to control. A tank is a tank, and a filter is a filter, your current equipment should be usable. If I were doing a saltwater tank, I would go with at least 55 gallons, it is a little more foregiving, takes longer for pH and Salinity changes due to evaporation.

Have you considered doing an African Cichlid tank? They are pretty brightly colored, and extremely active.

[cbeers]

Daniel,

It all depends on your goals. If you simply want bright fish, it's not much different. If you want to get into more delicate fish, inverts etc. then it gets more involved, but even then very manageable. I started with fish I rescued from a drying stream and end up with full blown reef tanks. No matter what though, the cost per fish is higher in most cases.

So, for a basic fish only salt tank, Mr. Petco is about right. You will need a few other things, but nothing major. I would highly recommend that you seek out a real pet shop though, sometimes Petco places can be hit or miss.

Go for it, have fun!

-Chris

[Jims5543]

I have a Very Simple Saltwater tank. I do not have it for a hobby, its more of a decoration. I have a good friend that helped me set it up and I can share what little I know to help you decide if its right for you.

The bigger the tank the better. I went from a 55 Gal fresh water tank to a 150 Gallon Salt water setup. I do not have any living coral and only stock the tank with hearty fish. A smaller tank will change more dramitically faster. In other words my 150 gallon will take 3x longer to de-stabilize than my 55 gallon setup.

I hired a local fish tank maintenance guy to come buy once a month, clean the tank and filters, do the water change, and fix any other problems that may arise.

If I had more time I would do it myself. I try to stick around and gleam as much info off the guy so that I can to the water changes myself one day. He is moving away and I am toying with doing it myself soon.

This tanks challange was the setup. Its used a divider between my kitchen and living room and stand in the middle of the floor. Everything had to be hidden underneath.

[Les Paul]

I had freshwater tanks for over 20 years. About a year ago a friend who needed money sold me his 85 gallon SW for a real steal. My wife is really into to it too and before she didn't care about it at all. It is addicting. We inherited the fish so were limited with what we could add.. Once certain fish get established they think they own the tank so be very careful about what you put with what. It is way more complicated than just adding salt if you don't want to lose your fish overnight. The salinity, calcium and most important of all nitrate are your key elements. Nitrates are caused from over feeding or dead animal matter, or bad filters. One of the best web pages out there is below. They know everything. It is the pelican of saltwater pages.

My wife and I are into exotic corals now. The colors are amazing and they usually don't die overnight like fish can. It is a time consuming hobby if you do it right. If I still smoked dope I could see watching it (the tank) for hours. There is so much going on in there it is amazing. Check that web page out.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/index.phpyou selection.

[CarreraDan]

Thanks guys,

I knew some of you would know about saltwater tanks. I am going to do more research and see if one of the local pet shops is more knowledgeable. I just didn't trust the "fish expert" at Petco because his best interest is selling me more fish. What I would really like to do is build a tank into a wall and have it divide a room but that isn't an option right now. Jim, your tank looks awesome and most of the doc's who have big tanks use a fish service too.

Thank you again, and I am going to have to do some serious research before I jump into this.

[RickM]

NIce tank Jim. It sure looks like its heavey as heck.

The other day I was in a large salt water aquarium/fish store and they had lots of very large tanks. I couldn't help but notice that some of their display tanks (not for sale) looked like they were simply made of large pieces of plate (tempered?) glass. Could one DIY a large tank?

[JeffO]

under gravel is the worst thing to use for salt.Impossible to cleanwell, if a dead spot exists it will eventualy cause a bad problem. The key is to increase the oxygen in the water, and the way is to use the drip filters with the large volume of bioballs.This creates a very large surface area for nitrafying bacteria colonys and great oxygenation of the water. Then a prefilter for large contaminates, a uv sterilizer, a ozone maker, special lights for soft corals. You may think porsche's are an expensive hobby, but the initial exspence of salt is amazing but once bought maintance is acceptable,Remember the larger tanks are easier.just add fish slowly over time to let the tank adjust to increasing nitrogen cycles.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by RickM
NIce tank Jim. It sure looks like its heavey as heck.

Funny thing, rail road tracks run on the other side of the hill behind my house. When the heavy sand trains run my house vibrates like there is an earthquake. I look at that tank and the stand sometimes and wonder if it will shake apart.

I put my hand on the tank one time when a heavy train was passing. That was the first and last time I did that. It scares me. The water alone weighs over 1200 lbs!!!

Could you DIY a tank. I am sure you could but would you be willing to take the chance of 100+ gallons of water running through your house?

BTW - I have a Dog faced puffer fish that if hysterical. It is like having a pet dog in the tank. It gets excited when I come to the tank and it eats so much it will make you laugh. Its belly blows out as it eats and then it can hardly move. It tries to hide and it cannot fit so it 1/2 crams itself into the spot it likes and looks so funny sticking out of it.

You'll have a ball with your tank it is very relaxing and fun to watch it.

[Jims5543]

This is my filtration system. I had to ditch my fresh water stuff for this. You need to establish a good enviroment and maintain it. A fresh water setup is not up to that task.

My pump and airator are on the other side of the box. But, you get the idea.

You mentioned a wall setup. Are you talking a divider like I have or an in the wall deal where the tank looks like a picture? My buddy did the picture thing with a 40 gallon tank but had a 125 gallon tank below it behind the wall its all about volume of water. The more water the easier life is for you. I have my water changed once a month. After the hurricanes of 2004 I ran only the airator for 20 days straight when I had no power and lost nothing in the tank.

[RickM]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro


BTW - I have a Dog faced puffer fish that if hysterical. It is like having a pet dog in the tank. It gets excited when I come to the tank and it eats so much it will make you laugh.

Wow, I saw one of these at the store....what an interesting fish.

[Dave L]

Originally posted by RickM
NIce tank Jim. It sure looks like its heavey as heck.

The other day I was in a large salt water aquarium/fish store and they had lots of very large tanks. I couldn't help but notice that some of their display tanks (not for sale) looked like they were simply made of large pieces of plate (tempered?) glass. Could one DIY a large tank?

I dont know about DIY but I did have mine made by an aquarium shop. It was about half the cost of a hagen or other manufactured brand tank. I did however build my stand and hood.

I would echo most of the info here, go big, 60L to 70L minimum. I would also look into african cichlids as Tobra suggested. I have had africans for the last 7 or 8 years and find them very enjoyable but still reasonable for the maintenance.

[Nathans_Dad]

I had SW tanks for about 5 years until I gave it up. Agree with above, bigger is definitely better when it comes to these tanks. Small tanks tend to have their chemistry fluctuate too widely and fish die. Also agree with going with the hardy fish first, it doesn't hurt too bad when you have a $.50 guppie die, but try having your $200 Lionfish bite the dust after a month. That sucks. Overall, at least 50 gallons (closer to 100 or more is ideal), don't overpopulate, get lots of filtration and good lighting (especially for corals).

My $.02 is that SW tanks are great big holes where you throw money. But then again, so are Porsches.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by RickM
Wow, I saw one of these at the store....what an interesting fish.

The fish is a riot and the main character of the tank. The way the Mono's eat is interesting as well. They swim at full speed and strike the water surface.

I used to have 3 Tangs as well. Unfortunatly one got sick and the other 2 killed it. You cannot have 2 tangs so guess what? Yup one killed the other. So I have one Tang. They do better in odd numbers. 2 and 4 are bad. 1 and 3 and 5 are good. They tend to fight otherwise. Really weird.

Here is Baby Huey. The onyl fish in the tank with enough personality to get a name. I reccomend him highly. Also get some hermit crabs they are really fun to watch as well and help a lot keeping the place clean and the amonia levels down.

[CarreraDan]

Good info, keep it up.

The more research I do the more I realize that it think my tank is too small for saltwater. The consensus seems to be 55gal is the min unless you are doing a nano tank. I think this is going to have to be one of those things put on the back burner for now. Once I have my own house I think I will do something similar to Jim's where the tank is out in the open and that way I will be forced to clean it all the time. Another idea I had would be to use a large saltwater tank as a headboard (framed into the wall maybe 6' wide 4' tall 12 inches deep).

As a side note, I recently did a floor job where about 20 gal of water had absorbed into the subfloor and ruined the drywall 1/2 up the wall. You guys with 75-100 gal tanks make sure your stand is up to the task I wouldn't want to imagine how much damage 100+ gallons of water could do, especially upstairs. Thank you again, and it just proves that you can ask anything in OT and get great answers.

[VINMAN]

Dan I had a nice little reef setup in a 29 gal tall in my old office. My 75 gal will be set up soon I moved into my new house recently . Just put the new carpet down, so I can set it up now. My best advice is to start out with cheap fish! Saltwater is definately a learning experience. I've lost alot of expensive fish to simple mistakes.

[cstreit]

I would definitely go to a specialty shop. SOme nice saltwater fish cost upwards of $40/per around here so you don't want to lose them. The people at Petco are generally morons.

"Just add salt..."

No way man..

Just add salt, a protein skimmer, a bio-ball drip sump, an ultraviolet sterilizer, a standard carbon/media filter, and about 4 $30 lights to the thing plus weekly water changes, different food for different dish (frozen brine, vegetarians, etc..)... Just to name a few things.

I was really into salt for a while, had a 75 gal fish, and a 55 reef and 35 reef.. very spendy stuff....

[livi]

Funny finding out there are members sharing the same hobbies without knowing.

I have been pretty much hard core since 30 + years. Only fresh water though, so can´t help you much on the salt water part.

I usually have two or three tanks going and I am big on volume. Tanks are between 750 and 1300 liters. My favorite since last ten years is breeding Discus. Also a bit tricky, although not as delicate as salt water.

Good luck!

[id10t]

I've got a few fresh tanks, and a friend just setup 3 salt tanks - a 6 gal nano, a 10, and a 30. More equipment like others have mentioned, but very nice.

As to doing a DIY tank, it is very doable. I'm planning on making a 8x4x4 (lxwxh) tank out of plywood, seal it with fiberglass and then potable water safe epoxy on top of that, with a plate of glass for viewing thru. Gonna keep bluegills and such in it (I love NA natives). Check out www.garf.org for info on buildign your own.