How to setup a sw aquarium

[{OF}Blong]

Ok I copied this from nachos so please forgive me/delete whatever if you feel it does not belong.

{OF}blong 01-08-2005 06:56 AM

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how to set-up a sw tank

I thought id make this a sticky and as I remember things I will add them to this thread. feel free to add anything that you feel is impertinent to starting a sw aquarium.

The big thing you have to decide is if you want a
fo (fish only)
fowlr (fish only with live rock)
or a reef tank. each system requires slightly differnt setups as each one needs more or less nutrient export. fo requires the most filtration as there is nothing to eat the excess nutrients from over feeding and fish waste whereas a reef tank needs less filtration because you have corals to help with removal of fish waste and other types of waste in the tank. I will try to explain what is needed for a fowlr and a reef. I do not know exactly what is required for a fo tank as I have never tried to run one.

{OF}blong 01-08-2005 07:17 AM

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First I will explain about a fowlr tank. As with freshwater the bigger a tank is the better (well up to a certain point that is). A 55g is more forgiving than a 10g. Meaning a mistake in a 55g is not going to be as harmful as a mistake in a 10g. This is true of all fish tanks. To decide tank size you need to decide on fish you want. Once that is decided you need to decide your filtration.

Do you want a sump/fuge or are you just going to use the live rock and a skimmer for filtration? I would recommend a sump and/or fuge for any tank as they are great sources of nutrient exportation. You also need a good skimmer. Good skimmers would be things like aquac remora and euroreef. However on my 18g I have a cpr bak pak 2 as that skimmer is rated for a 70g tank. keeps my 18g crystal clear =]. so you want to get a skimmer based on size of tank.

For a fowlr you dont need to upgrade your normal output lighting (that would be your flourescent lighting) as nothing will be in your tank that will require higher lighting. However higher lighting will bring out the colors in the fish better but it isnt necessary.

Also get a heater like a titanium heater. The lfs can help you decide what heater is right for your tank size. sometimes 2 small heaters are better than 1 big heater.

You also have to plumb the things you bought (skimmer, sump, fuge) to the tank and back either through an overflow or with hob equipment. you are better of going with overflows before even filling the water because once its full you cant do overflow anymore unless you completly tear it all down or you go with hob (hang on back) equipment.
Now you have to buy salt. I use instant Ocean others use Reef crystals others use other types of salt. Once you decide on a Salt do not use another type of salt. I have seen other people who changed salts and crashed their whole tank (meaning everything in the tank died). You will want a hydrometer at the least to test sg of the water. for fowlr you can get away with a sg (specific gravity) of 1.015 but I would recommend more like 1.020-1.021.

Fill yer tank =]. What kind of sand bed do you want? Dead sand bed, Live sand bed, no sand bed? There are many issues for sand beds. If you can afford live I would say go with it but if you do make sure to put the live rock in at same time because it will all need to cycle. A dead sand bed is what most people have. I used aragonite in my 72g bowfront but that stuff is $1/lb for dead stuff. Or you could buy southdown sand at your local Home Depot for $7 for 50lb bag =].

You also need to get Live rock. Depending on density of the live rock you will want 1-2lbs/gal of water. so if you use fiji you could get away with 1lb/gal but if you use tonga you will want 2lbs/gal becaues tonga is denser rock than fiji. Now assuming everthing is up and running you will want to "cycle" the tank. Do not add any fish during the cycle period nor do you want to do any water changes.

You will want to test the tank after 2 weeks for ammonia. Then test every couple days till ammonia doesnt exist. Then test for nitrite every 2 days till that doesnt exist. The test for nitrate every couple days till that gets to less than 10ppm. At this time you can add a cleanup crew of snails, crabs, etc etc but no fish. wait another 2 weeks after the nitrate becomes less than 10ppm. Test all 3 params again if they are still good then you are all set for fish. Do a water change first though.
Then start doing weekly water changes of 5% of your tank. Some people (like seamonkey) do one every 6 months but they clean there skimmers out every week as they do quit working properly after a while. I consider that to be my weekly water change when I clean out the skimmer. then About every 6 months I do a true water change.

At night is when you see the most criters so get a flashlight with a red lense on it or some sort of red led for night viewing. this is less stressful on the creatures and wont make them dart away. I will do the next post on reefs but ill do that tomarrow. If you have ?'s please post them.

seamonkey 01-08-2005 10:13 PM

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Ya know blong I could blow all there minds and start rapping off the specs for my tanks. I run my sg at 1.025 to 1.027 with the average temp staying stable at 82 degrees. SW tanks are not as hard to do as people think. Blong your basic speach you gave on it pretty much covers the whole thing but ya should have let them know there is an easy way to figure about how much it will cost to set a tank up. By rule of thumb in the saltwater world a normal tank setup will cost 5-10 dollars a gallon. Some people like me who get good deals on stuff get away with 2 to 4 dollars a gallon. My LR cost me 3.25 a pound and I bought 300pounds at on shot.

LR is on average 5 to 12 bucks a pound depending on type and where ya get it. If you paying 7 bucks per 50 pound bag of southdown please god go find it some where else. I paid 3.49 a bag at the local home depot and thats pretty much the normal price every time I go there.

Another little tool you will need is a ph tester. Depending on tank style and some what preference you wanna keep your ph in between 8 and 8.4. I run mine at 8.2 but since I my tank is 7 years old I do not need to check it as much as a new person will.

When choosing your tank you must remember that if you go with fowlr or reef you must not use a fresh water tank that was treated with copper. Copper will kill inverts and it will always remain in the tank that was treated with it.

Something I do with my 55 is use a hang on filter unit even though I have 90lbs of lr in the tank. I have the filter for one purpose and thats for carbon. Always a good thing to have in your tank.

{OF}blong 01-10-2005 07:37 AM

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A reef tank is almost exactly the same as a fowlr aquarium. However you will want more like 1.025-1.029 for your salinity and a temp of around 80F. You wont need quite as big a skimmer on this type of tank because the corals you add will eat or use some of the nutrients like nitrates that are in the water.

You will want to upgrade your lighting as normal flourescent lighting just isnt enough for your avg coral to live in. PC lighting and vho lighting will get your lower light corals to your medium light corals like frogspawn, zoanthids (which can be highly toxic), and mushrooms. If you want to keep things like clams, sps (acropora, montipora, etc) you will want mh lighting. You will also want to base your lighting based on depth of tank. like 175w of mh would be great for less than 16" depth 250w is good for less than 30" depth and anything greater you need 400w mh. Now this does not mean that if you have a 16" deep tank you have to go with 175w you can use 250w.

You will also need to add additives in this tank outside your normal water changes. You will have to monitor your calcium, alkalinium, ph, phosphate. Those are what I test in my aquarium. Once your tank is established testing for nitrate, ite, and ammonia isnt necessary unless something major happens like a major dieoff of something.

{OF}blong 01-10-2005 07:41 AM

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One thing to remember is no matter how long you have had your sw aquarium you will always find something you have never seen before. I had my 72 for 2 and half years and just before I donated it I found a new worm I had never seen before (to which I found out was a peanut worm).


{OF}blong 01-11-2005 03:05 AM

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mega_Figment
This sound complicated! My head is spinning!! :t2:




hehe its really not. just remember one thing is to take your time. Dont rush things with a sw aquarium or it may cost more than you want to or are willing to spend. It may also make you want to give up if you dont take your time and things just dont go right. Someone I work with set one up and I told him what needed to be done. Well he listened to the lfs(local fish store) instead of me and now he is out of keeping sw because of his failure in it due to bad advice from a lfs and by not listening to me

[Doom]

When I first read the subject, I thought, a "Star Wars aquarium? Someone has Lucas on the brain!"

Turns out that someone was me. :P

Take care,

Rick

[{OF}Blong]

haha that made me laugh good one

[ARX|Frag4U]

Hey Blong why do you need heaters?

[{OF}Blong]

frag4u it depends on what your keeping. I had seahorses and you dont need a heater for them and sometimes you need a chiller. However if your furnace ever quits in the middle of winter having a heater to keep the temp above freezing and more like 70 for say a sh tank is a very good thing. basically as a back up. so you dont necessarily need one. However you cant let your tank get over 85 degrees unless you want everythign to die.