Setting up a successful marine aquarium.

[Maxx]

We get lots of people visiting the board and wanting to know how to start up a Marine aquarium. Many have either already purchased a set up at the LFS or just came back from visiting one and were mesmerized by what they saw. I thought this would be a great way to start up a thread in the beginners forum sorta detailing what is needed to start a successful reef tank.
I'm talking about all aspects here...lighting, water quality, water flow, equipment purchases, live stock, (compatability and requirements), the whole deal.
There are many ways to start up a reef tank, and many different methods of reaching whatever particular goals you might have for reefkeeping. What I'm wanting here is for everyone to contribute their input on what they've found to useful, good to know, and what to avoid like the plague.

I feel that the first step is to decide what exactly you want to keep. Love the look of stoney corals?

Photo by Greg Rothschild


Prefer the wild shapes and movement of soft corals?

Photographer unknown





Or do you want just a fish only tank to keep all those really cool "personality fish" which would eat everything inside a reef tank?

Photo by o2manyfish



The point is:
There are many ways to go about doing this. There is no one right or wrong way. What I'm hoping to accomplish here is give a sort of tutorial of how these goals can be accomplished by breaking it down into a couple of major focus points. We'll do this by focussing on what it takes to set up each one of these type of tanks successfully, so that someone new to the hobby has an idea of what they are getting into and what to look for. Please join in and help out.
Nick

[Maxx]

I'm going to start with the easiest of the three to start with, and what most of us here began with originally, the Fish Only aquarium.

What does it take to keep a FO/ FOWLR tank successfully in your opinion. What do you successful FO/FOWLR keepers do to make sure your tank is happy and healthy? What do you keep in it? Show us some pics!!! I know there have to be some better pics of FO tanks than the one I found. Why is this considered an "easier" tank to set up as opposed to other types of tanks?
Nick

[mps9506]

Allright, here is my advice, hope Melev doesn't mind me posting a link to this. I have these printed up in my store, I give them to all potential new SW customers in addition to selling them a book like Fenner's Cons. Marine Aq.
click here
Mike

[Maxx]

Wow....I had no idea he had that on his site....good thorough information there. That covers quite abit of ground with that. And you bring up a good point about books to read. Buying some good books is invaluable to helping out. You can buy several really good ones here.
Two things I noticed that were not mentioned in Melev's great primer on marine aquarium set up were acclimation and the fact that marine fish will not grow to fit their home aquarium.

How do you acclimate your new additions to your tank Mike?What sort of precautions do you take?
Nick

[mps9506]

Acclimation process for me depends on what I am acclimating
Most people are interested in fish. Well for These guys for the most part I setup a Quarantine tank before adding them to my established system, I can cover that in another post.
I have a specimen container that I got from the store, the kind the employees put the fish in when they catch them. I put the fish and the water from the bag into that. I add usually a squirt of water from my tank with a turkey baster into the specimen cup. I also like to hang the specimen cup insdie the tank so the temperature acclimates also. Every 3-5 minutes I squirt some water in there. After about 45 minutes I realease the fish. Bigger fish like tangs I prefer to do in a bucket. some fish are more sensitive than other. Do your research and acclimate accordingly.
To acclimate corals, well, honestly, I don't acclimate corals (maybe not the best advice in the world) I let them sit in the bag to let the temperature adjust. Then I pull them out of the bag, and in the case of soft corals and sps corals I just plop em in. I've honestly never had a problem doing it this way. LPS corals I am more careful about, They are quite fleshy and I do tend to use the turkey baster to acclimate while pour off water until I replace all the water in the container then I slowly put the coral into the tank while allowing it to stay submerged. This prevents any tissue tearing and possible infections. I also tend to slowly acclimate Xenia, sometimes (as hardy and fast growing as it is) does ship or acclimate to new tank conditions very well.
All snails, hermit crabs, starfish and most other mobile invertabrates get the turkey basting acclimation, but typically I do it more slowly with these guys than with the fish.
I have a lot of other little tricks I do here and there also deoending on what I'm getting. I've learned a lot through trial and error working in a store on fish acclimation. Some may or may not be considered "proper," but I do what has worked for me in the past, although I'm always willing to learn new things
Mike

[strat]

awesome thread maxx. my big issue when i finally get to start my tank up is algae. i hate it, having once had a saltwater tank (FO), that was overrun with it. so in my research i have learned alot, and ive decided not to do a tank until i have all the right equipment etc, to start off right. anyways, this is what i have come up with to avoid algae
1. Use RO/DI water to fill tank and for all topoffs and WCs.
2. Soak fresh seafood in RO/DI water before feeding to tank so as to asborb algae causing things
3. Do not overfeed.
4. Depending on tank size, include fish/snails/other that eat algae.
5. Use correct spectrum lighting and replace bulbs at their recommended intervals. (before spectrum shift)
6. Have tonnes of water movement.
7. Get a big skimmer.
8. Avoid DSB's (might get some flack for that one )


Thats all i can think of for now, but its a good start.

-kris

[Woodstock]

I started out many moons ago with a FO system. IME looking back, I think some of the best lessons learned were:

1) Do not use crushed coral as a substrate (unless you really, REALLY enjoy vacuuming it a LOT. It will trap diterus very, very quickly.

2) Do not skimp on a skimmer; get the biggest/best you can possible afford...even if it means waiting and doing extra water changes in the interim.

3) Do not overfeed!!!!

4) Use quality food... I highly recommend making a homemade mush. There are many great recipes for making it.

5) Do not overstock the aquarium and keep in mind the ADULT size of the fish... they will grow!!

6) Add the aggressive fish last... RESEARCH the type of fish BEFORE buying them to make sure they'll get along.

That's all I can think of right now.....

[mps9506]

Originally posted by strat
5. Use correct spectrum lighting and replace bulbs at their recommended intervals. (before spectrum shift)

Kris,
I'm gonna give you flak for this one
I am not a scientist, but I do believe that light spectrum has almost nothing to do with excess algae growth.
As long as you have clean water with minimal buildup of nutrients you will not have an algae problem, not matter what spectrum your lights are peaking at or how old they are.
Granted corals may not be growing as well with old bulbs, but I don't think it has anything to do with excess algae.


But you are on the right track. I just wanted to take the oppurtunity to point out one of the great old LFS myths.
Mike

[mojoreef]

SAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont forget the sand!!!!!!!!!


Mike

[Witfull]

Patience

[mps9506]

Originally posted by mojoreef
SAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont forget the sand!!!!!!!!!


Mike

That goes perfect with your avatar

[strat]

item 8, avoid DSB.... i almost went as far as saying that it will melt and add phospates but..i knew you guys would chime in

and thanks mike for that info. but, i thought that if one were to have a FOWLR say, with just regular spectrum NO bulbs that might cause algae growth?? i really dont know but if you do lemme know.

thanks again guys

im going to bed

kris

[strat]

oh yeah, just remembered kalkwasser should help as well. one of the reasons is promoting coralline growth which may compete with the HA. but im real tired and just thinking out loud. i dunno

gnight

[Maxx]

Wow, I'm gone for a few hours and the thread explodes with info...AWESOME!!!
Okay, I'm going to back track here and try and steer this back to FO set ups for the moment. I'm definately planning on moving towards the reef tanks here in just a bit, but I want to bounce a couple of things off the more experianced members here.

FO set ups are popular for a number of reasons:
Fish are hardier than most invertebrates.
FO systems are generally less expensive than reef set ups.
And FO set ups are generally less complicated than reef systems.

When I say fish are hardier than most invertebrates, thats a pretty generalized statement, but not an unfair one. Most fish are more tolerant of fluctuations in water parameters than inverts, especially corals. They can handle nitrates much higher than inverts, and phosphate levels dont really bother them too much.
Phosphates and nitrates are basically algae fertilizer. If you dont believe me, go to your local HD or Lowes and check out the fertilizers they sell....if you look at the active ingredients the majority of them will be phosphates and nitrates. So when mps9506 says that the lights dont matter, its the nutrients in the water, he's correct. It wont matter what bulbs you have over the tank, if there is no food for the algae, it wont grow. That simple.
So how do we limit the phosphates and nitrates?
Volumes of material have been written, argued over and discussed on this subject....so I'm not going there. I'm just going to state simply, that the easiest way to reduce your phosphates is by using Reverse Osmosis/ DeIonized , (RO/DI) water. For smaller systems you can just buy the water. For larger systems, buy an RO/DI unit. You would be amazed at the difference it will make. I bought mine from www.airwaterice.com , but there are many manufacturers. Find one thats right for you and buy it.
Another common theme mentioned by everyone is buy the biggest and best skimmer you can. I cannot emphasize how important I feel this particular piece of equipment is for the success of your tank. There are many out there....they will all work to some degree, (with the exception of the skilter, I dont care what the LFS says, its crap. Dont buy it, nuff said.) Skimmers are like everything else in the world, you will get what you pay for. I dont feel that its possible to overskim a tank. I do feel that manufacturers have a tendancy ( and I have no freakin idea why they do this), to over rate their skimmers. IE if a skimmer says its rated for a 100 gallon...I'm only gonna use it for a 50 gallon tank. What you are really looking for in a skimmer is turnover. How many times an hour will your skimmer process, (turnover) your entire systems volume? Ideally you want 3-4 times an hour. This removes the most of the crap from your tank possible. Obviously, you can go higher on that number as well.
Heres something many people dont think about...skimmers dont wear out. They dont have any moving parts. They might need cleaning, and pumps might give out, but the skimmer will never go bad. So if you see a good deal on a skimmer and your a little leary of buying a second hand skimmer...keep that in mind.
The main theme here: BUY THE BIGGEST AND BEST SKIMMER YOU CAN. IT WILL ONLY BENEFIT YOUR TANK!

FO systems are less expensive than reef systems because your not concerned with lighting, (the fish arent photosysnthetic and dont need expensive lighting that is required for corals etc) and fish dont require the same degree of pristine water conditions that reef tanks require.
These same things make an FO system less complicated.
Nick

[mps9506]

Strat,
Maxx basically answered it.
As far as the coralline and kalk. There is no real reason to drip the stuff in a fish only or even fowler system. Coralline grows in condtitions with low nitrates, low phosphates etc. Conditions that typically don't favor hair algae anyways.
So basically you won't be seeing any coralline growth until you get rid of the conditions that get rid of the hair algae, perhaps onee of the reasons it is thought that coralline outcompetes hair algae. It really doesn't, it just grows better in an environment that doesn't favor hair algae growth, an enivronemtn that is better for your stonet coral growth anyways.
HTH
Mike