Anyone has a marine aquarium?

Hello ATS

I have a marine aquarium since some time and would love to meet some other aquarists on our classy forum.

I have a 30 gallon nano with one little Yellow tang, 2 baby blue tangs and 2 little clown fish with some zoas. It has been 1 year and its looking good so far. I decided to switch to marine aquarium after having freshwater aquariums for 6 years.

a reply to: belkide

Salt water environment is a lot harder to maintain. You have to watch salinity, temperature, etc.

But so cool to watch. An uncle of mine had one, he even made it behave like a tidal zone. I can't remember how he aqccomplished that, but it was neat.

a reply to: belkide

30gal isn't "nano".




a reply to: intrptr

I once set up 55 gallon cichlid tank. And a 70 gallon marine tank. Side by side. Hadn't done either before that year.

Even though I was a noob, and didn't have an RO filter (crucial step in salt), and was using well water (retardville stuff with salt unless you love nasty algaes taking everything over)... the cichlid tank was messier, nastier, more work. With salt there's just more to bear in mind. Don't dive in head first; er dive in with your head well in advance to setting one up. Then it can be the most rewarding thing ever. Like replace your TV with a reef in your living room worth it.


Rule #1 with salt is PATIENCE. No matter how fancy the gear you drop fat stacks on, getting a fresh tank running right bio wise enough takes time. Not 'forever', but to impatient people it may seem like it.

a reply to: belkide

Watch out, those zoa's contain like the 2nd most deadly toxin know to man.

I know a guy he had his basement all decked all out coral farm; his life passion. He eventually went to the hospital somehow some got some something from a zoa into a cut or something like that. Long story short his basement doesn't have any saltwater running ever again.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Rule #1 with salt is PATIENCE. No matter how fancy the gear you drop fat stacks on, getting a fresh tank running right bio wise enough takes time. Not 'forever', but to impatient people it may seem like it.

My experience is gold fish bowls when I was a kid. I agree, tanks are lots of work, not for the short attention span.

a reply to: belkide

Yeah mate salt water tanks are rad. My cat tried to eat my pet shark a few weeks ago, really bad situation.

a reply to: belkide

I had a 50 gal Live rock and fish with a few different soft corals. a peppermint shrimp with 2 clowns. About a dozen red hermits, and just under a dozen blue hermits. Originally 1 serpent star fish that later divided itself into 3 of the prickly buggers.
Everything was a close to perfect purple coralline algae....ah I miss my aquarium so much now lol
Edit: forgot about my 20 gal sump that was full of aamph and Copepods

RULE #2: Don't dive in head first; er dive in with your head well in advance to setting one up.
Then it can be the most rewarding thing ever. Like replace your TV with a reef in your living room worth it. But there's stuff you need to understand first.


RULE #3: Location, Location, Location.
If you have some plan on some cramped corner being a good spot for one, and if that's the only place you've got to put one... just STOP now. You want easy access for it not be painstaking to work on it, AND enjoy it. Out of sight out of mind will become an inevitability if it's hard to get at the thing and things start going wrong. It's really best for it to be front and center. If it isn't going to be then why bother? Nano's etc small tanks are cool because you can plant them right on your desk and easy to work at as needed. The bigger the tank the more these issues become apparent. I prefer the 3 viewing side layout, room placement with a bigger tank. There's so much stuff going on inside a reef its well worth having a whole nother side to scope out. Remember, in a reef there are thousands of lives teeny tiny and large at stake.


With those 3 rules well accounted for, reef's are as good as it gets. And the more you figure out in advance the less you'll find yourself spending on equipment to get it going (i.e. its possible to run one for years with 'almost nothing' gear wise, little more than live rock [which are the #1 'filter' BTW], for the adept).

Sparing the endless tank tech debates that could be had, some other pointers are make a permanent mount siphon drain for the tank (CPVC with ball valve I prefer), and order the live rock that's direct from Caribbean aquaculture farms. It's most mind blowing the critters attached and that creepeth on these rocks. The Fiji rock, which they scrub with pressure washers and then dry in the sun for something like weeks, before reculturing just to get the purple everywhere, that stuff is garbage in comparison.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I found keeping a nano a lot harder than my 50 gal.
After a year my 50 gal ran itself. I would check salinity once a month and top up if needed.
All my chems were put in a box and never were needed again.

One thing I will swear by is Purple Up. At the time it was the best calcium additive you could get.
All my LO was covered in purple and bluish Coraline

a reply to: Macenroe82

Yeah, there's always the stability dynamic that increases with the total water volume.


Oh, another tip for newbies, scout craigslist for your first setup. You can get STEALS on there. People moving. People that bombed their tank and just want it out. Etc. The savings on live rock alone can be the best thing that ever happened to you (note the "live" part of live rocks is merely the microbes living inside it, in filtration terms; they can also have cool macro critters too but the microbes is the core definition of "live" rock). Go this route, see if you've got what it takes, before going and buying all new parts. Check it out everyday for a bout a month before buying and you'll get a good feel of the steals and the kind of stuff people are really doing.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I found keeping a nano a lot harder than my 50 gal.
After a year my 50 gal ran itself. I would check salinity once a month and top up if needed.
All my chems were put in a box and never were needed again.

One thing I will swear by is Purple Up. At the time it was the best calcium additive you could get.
All my LO was covered in purple and bluish Coraline

One thing with aquariums, both fresh and salt, the smaller they are, the harder it is to maintain your water quality.

The smaller volume has less stability.

I used to have a 135g, 55g, and 29g all set up and running at the same time. The 29g was the least forgiving of the three in terms of water quality and maintenance.

I have never done reef -- too expensive. I've always done fresh, usually cichlid.

My tanks have all been dry since we had our kid, so 6 years now. I'd like to get one or two of them back up and running, but finding the funding is tough. Looking to get my 40g container pond going on the patio this summer, and I always put some platys in it for mosquito and algae control ... and fish.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

'Nother pro tip ... you can often buy rocks, sand, RO systems light fixtures and lots of stuff you need to get a tank going at your hardware store or lawn and garden. It's often much cheaper. You just need to clean it a little more thoroughly.

My oldest (11) is dying to get a salt water tank. He is now, successfully maintaining a 30 gallon fresh water tank with 4 tiger barbs an Angle fish and a plecostomus. A little crowded yet they all get along just fine.

He has this old marine aquarium book he reads constantly. Its has a lot of great info but I thinks it's out dated. Any good books out there for a super eager, encyclopedia reading kid?

He still needs to earn some more money before he gets started, so it will be a while. He has drawn his dream tank about a hundred times. He's funny, when he draws he adds little comment bubbles with facts about the fish like an encyclopedia.

Post some pics of your aquariums, he and I would love to see them.

Thank you

a reply to: Observationalist

reefcentral.com

And it sounds like some proper marine biology textbooks would be in order.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Wow, what a great resource. Thank you Blisss.

This tank is brilliant:



There's a university marine aquaculture lab a mile from me. I've been all in there personal tour of all their projects. It'd be a major ordeal for me to get the photos out of that old camera (last time I ever used it), but some day maybe I'll get around to it...

I've had fresh water tanks of varying sizes through the years. Right now I just have a small tank for a beta and a bigger tank for my turtle. The small beta tank is a piece of cake to maintain. I admire large tanks with the variety of colorful fish and other little creatures like shrimp and frogs.

I would love to see pics of people's tanks and their inhabitants.

My Husband always wanted a salt water tank and lion fish. Too much work though.

I am a reefer... your yellow tang is probably not suitable for the small tank.You should go to your local marine reef store to get help or join your local reef forum/clb ( eg. canreef.com is my local source) . If you go nano, read up at nano-reef.com. Lots of stuff out there and can be a expensive hobby if you start buying all the gear. Buy your stuff off craigslist for those who quite the hobby or your local forums within your area. Most of the people I know seem to get out of the hobby as it is quite a committment in terms of time . A larger tank of 30 gallons or more is best for stablity (eg. evaporation, dead fish/corals ) and live rock and cleaning crew ( hermit crabs, snails, star fish, etc).