Saltwater aquariums

[Skelas]

I'm a proud owner of a 55 Gal fish only with live rock saltwater aquarium stocked with 2 Perc clowns, royal gramma, flame angelfish, a lawnmower blennie, and a cleaner shrimp. Anyone else partake in this stupidly expensive hobby? I'm relatively new to it so if anyone has any history/experience with saltwater tanks, let me know! They can be a bit of a struggle, believe me.

[grizzle]

I had a 20gal freshwater tank when I was a kid. I really liked having the tank, watching the fish, etc., but absolutely hated cleaning it. So I bought a bottom feeder type fish (sucker fish maybe?) to help keep the bottom and sides clean. The funny thing was that every morning I woke up, I was missing a fish. They weren't flaoting at the top of the tank. They hadn't jumped out. Nothing. They pulled a Houdini and simply disappeared. So eventually I stayed up all night to investigate. *dun dun dunn*

Turns out, the fish slept on the bottom at night. It also turned out that the bottom feeder loved to go to town cleaning up the bottom of the tank during the night. And, yes, each night he gobbled up one of the sleeping fish.


Don't have any experience with saltwater tanks, but from experiences above, I'd suggest making sure all the fishies can co-exist safely.

Oh, and with a saltwater tank, don't buy snails.

[Vanraw]

I have really thought about picking it up. Have a friend at work that is addicted to his salt water aquarium. I stopped my self when he would tell me about the horrors of balancing he water and fighting the algae.

[Moristans]

I used to work in a pet shop, working in the fish section. I had a couple of marine tanks going at any given time.

Here's my Marine tank speech from my pet shop days...

How much experience do you have? Even though the set-ups are way more sophisticated these days, there are some basic things you need to do/watch out for.

You have your live rock and a few fish, but, is your tank cycled yet?

You should have the basic pH, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kits. Keep a check on your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels. Even trace amounts of ammonia and nitrites can be bad for sensitive fishies.

If you see low, stable nitrate levels, you're good to go. If your tank isn't cycled properly, you'll see ammonia levels rise pretty quickly. Not much you can do at that point except hope your babies survive the rest of the cycling, which takes a couple of weeks.

What kind of filtration do you have, if any? Back in the day, I used undergravel filtration with a canister. Live rock bio/bio systems have generally replaced undergravels, and you probably have a skimmer instead of a canister. Keep an eye on it and your tank for algae build-up. If your tank is improperly cycled, you'll get a huge brown algae build up.

Once your tank is established, keep an eye on your temperature/pH.
Don't let the temp drop too low or pH levels get too far out of the neutral range. Small partial water changes every couple of weeks are your friend. Big water changes will kill your tank.

Don't overfeed your fish, or overcrowd your tank. Small feedings a couple of times a day is preferable to one big feeding a day. An overcrowding will kill your tank. Overfeeding will kill your tank.

For the love of all that is good and kind, don't let unexposed metal come in contact with your tank water. The first thing you'll do is kill your inverts. They are especially sensitive to copper, which is the active ingredient in most fish medications. If your fish become sick, or pick up parasites, set-up a sick tank. Don't medicate your tank, ever, unless you are sure about what you are doing.

Check your lighting and put your tank on a day/night cycle....

Good luck!

[grizzle]

Balance shmalance.

Just dump a bucket of rock salt into the tank and everything'll be fine.

[Gnarnok]

Balance shmalance.

Just dump a bucket of rock salt into the tank and everything'll be fine.

^^^^

Very costly mistake!

I'm more of a reptile guy but I know a little bit about salt water tanks. Pretty awesome once you get em going. Personally I like reptiles. Got 2 boas, a chameleon and a leopard gecko.

[Skelas]

My tank is pretty well established, but even a year in I still feel like a noob. I'm rocking 75 lbs of live rock, a protein skimmer, and wet/dry filter. my next step is getting my lighting up to par so I can get some soft corals going.

I love my gang of hooligans, every one of my fish has a different personality.

I had one ich outbreak, god that hurt.

[Venganza]

Love this stuff.. though i retired from saltwater a long time ago.. went into african cichlids and more of a brackish water set-up. Back when i was saltwater i loved my mandarin gobys.

[Skelas]

Ok Plutonium, you piqued my interest, because that is a beautiful fish. Did you feed your goby copepods? How did you introduce the Copepods to your tank? Or did they just naturally occur among your live rock? I'm interested in adding this fish as my final tankmate, but they seem to be finicky eaters that will only eat live copepods.

[Moristans]

A year in, and you've had to deal with saltwater ich, and your tank is still alive, and you're considering soft coral?

Rock on!

[Vanraw]

There must be a way to turn this into a political thread. /ponders.

[Gnarnok]

Love this stuff.. though i retired from saltwater a long time ago.. went into african cichlids and more of a brackish water set-up. Back when i was saltwater i loved my mandarin gobys.

Cichlids are such a cool fish. My dad had a breeding pair for a while. Sold each baby that was over an inch for 10$s each to some local aquarium.

[Dustie]

Ever since watching "Finding Nemo" I can't condone keeping fish in a tank. Free the fish!

[Vanraw]

Ever since watching "Finding Nemo" I can't condone keeping fish in a tank. Free the fish!

That's what I was looking for. Thanks Dustie!

To add on, this is just another example of oppression allowed by with no compassion for peoples err fishes rights. It could be compared to Guantanamo. Seriously, are these fish enemy combatants? Should they get a trial?

I thank Dustie again for stepping past his conservative views and and pointing out this injustice. Welcome to the liberal ** party Dusty!

** notations -
-- Libreal not to be affiliated with Democratic party in anyway.
-- Quoting this text assumes you agree with said text and such agreement can not be refuted in the court of public opinion
-- Free the Fish is not affiliated is not affiliated to "long john silvers" restaurant chain despite rumors of the fish farm monetary backing.
-- Free the Fish logo and usage is restricted without the specific approval of" Long John Silvers"

[Zephyrs]

I have a 75 Gallon Salt water tank with a 20 gallon Sump / refugium, with 192W CF and 250W MH lights and a pretty good Protein Skimmer.

There is a lot to do, and I generally hate the maintenance. As big as I made my stand (made it from scratch myself) I wish I made it bigger so I could have a large Fresh water reserve. My tank has at least 10 Litres (4 Gallons) of water evaporate each day.

I dont have a lot of fish ATM but love even watching the crabs, and the brittle star in there. I have a few Corals and plan to get more eventually/.

I really love the tank but sometimes wish I would put more effort into it, I would say it looks ok ATM but with a little more regular maintenance I know it could go to WOW amazing pretty fast.

[Venganza]

Yep Skelas they are picky ass eaters as a rule.. but in a 55 gallon tank with established live rock you should have plenty of food population for one mandarin. I did find the little buggers are not quite as picky as everyone says though.. they will graze some off of regular food for the other fish

[Hoofhurr]

Threads like these is why I love you guys in a bro way.

I'm having fish sticks tonight in your honor.

[OrsunVZ]

I've always wanted a salt water tank, but the expense and maintenance have kept me away. I have access to so many fish and corals down here, and with the proper license, I can actually go and find the fish myself.

On a side note, I yanked a guys mask and regulator off his head at 60ft during lobster season when I saw him with a hammer and screwdiver smashing off some live rock.

[Zouji]

If you have a cat they will get MUCH more entertainment out of this than you will. Also if you have a cat you want to make sure they can't reach into the tank and go fishing.

[Venganza]

ON a side note i had an arowana for a long long time and i lost a kitten to it... so the warning goes both ways!






Arowanas


It got up to 2 feet long and i had to donate em to an aquarium in texas, he's still there and like 4 foot long now.

[Skelas]

Nice setup Plut.

[Venganza]

not mine.. just some pics i snagged off the internet to show what an arowana looks like I wish though that first one is a prize winning setup.