Saltwater Fish Tanks

[purp_le28]

I was honestly bored sitting on the computer and ran across a few pictures of badass saltwater aquariums and thought to myself that I want to have a saltwater aquarium.

I have never owned a saltwater fish tank, just freshwater, so I am clueless as to where to begin. I was hoping someone in this forum knows some important information and can guide me to where I need to start, info on equipment, etc.

Didn't want a tank too small, so I figured a 50 gallon tank would efficient and decently affordable?

Thanks

[Nate4641]

There is a lot more maintenance than you think involved in owning a salt water tank. I would check out some aquarium hobbyist forums and see if you can find some good beginners guides. Also see if there are any aquarium stores near by and pick up some magazines, those usually have a ton of information that will give you an idea of what all is involved in owning a tank.

[ShopVac]

First, I'd like to list my qualifications to answer your questions.

Front

Older shot when it was my living room


Behind the scene






So...where to begin with your questions. I did the same thing you're thinking back in 2001. I had a 29 gallon tank, and told my wife it would take $200.00 to convert it over to saltwater. I'm a tad over budget as you can tell (but only by 2-zeros).

Let's start from the beginning. What do you want? A salt water fish tank...or a reef tank? A fish only tank is a great way to start...but if you want to start keeping coral (or plan to get to coral) you want to progress in a path that can get you where you want to be.

2nd, what size tank do you currently have, or plan to have. Is it drilled? Can it be drilled. This will tell you what you can have...and what it will cost for setup.

3rd, are you willing to put in time? I'm not saying constant maintenance, but there are husbandry items you cannot skimp out on like water changes, cleaning equipment, etc. They have software programs out there to help keep up with the reminders. They also have equipment out there to handle some of the tedious tasks...as an example, my system automatically tops off fresh water as it evaporates, a UPS will run some pumps in a power outage, and email me if any issues occur.

Once you get through some basics...you can take it as far as you want to go. It all depends on you. For me, I'm glad I made the switch. My tank has had it's ups and downs like anyone...staying with it is the hard part.

Ask any question...I'll answer what I can

[ShopVac]

BTW, just to start with the 50 gallon tank you stated.

You would need:
- 50lbs of live sand (3 bags, $30.00 a bag)
- 75-100bls of live rock (at @ $3.50 to $7.00 a lb, depending on what you get).
- A clean up crew for the tank (crabs, snails, etc - ~$100 to $250)
- A box of salt for ~ 100 to 200 gallons ($60.00)
- Lighting - depending on what you want to go with, this is probably where much of your money is going to go.

Now, the question is, do you want a sump...or are you planning to do everything as a hang on back style? You'll need to look into heaters, water pumps, skimmers, etc).

This list is endless and long.

A good site to look at is http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/ They have people posting their builds that you can tag along with and a 'new to saltwater' section where you can ask simple questions. They even have your 'getting started' threads to help you along.

[jaco]

I would figure about $20 per gallon for a tank to get started on a basic setup.

My 125G doesn't have all of the nice stuff ShopVac's does (calcium reactor, Apex, UV), but I have about $2500 in it and it works fine.

You can save money in various ways.

I would recommend a 40G breeder or find a used setup on CL or a local forum. I have done this twice and saved quite a bit of money. It is a fun hobby, but does require your time almost everyday of the week for cleaning or system status.

[f30nynj]

Originally Posted by Team Plutonium

Holy sh!t!

Indeed!! Fucking awesome. Great info & setup.

[DSB335d]

Beautiful setup shopvac!!

Myself I just got into the hobby a few months ago. I have a standard 90gal tank w/ cherry oak stand & canopy, 30gal sump, 4-5" deep sand bed, 150-200lbs live rock (some of which is in the sump) not sure what brand or size the protein skimmer is.
It's a mixed reef system; fish & corals.
I got a great deal on it from a guy who owns his own aquarium maintenance business.
My lighting is pretty lame right now T5/CFL's...
I'm saving up for a pair of Kessil A360W's
next on the list is a pair of Vortech MP40's
Then I'm thinking about switching to a refugium sump setup.

It's a lot of fun, maintenance isn't difficult at all. Maybe spending approx $50-$60 month between water changes, fish food, electricity.

[ShopVac]

Thanks for the compliments guys...trust me, it wasn't built in a day. I've been working on this setup since 2005.

Originally Posted by DSB335d

next on the list is a pair of Vortech MP40's

Amazing that one can dump a grand into some pumps just to make the waves go back and forth, huh? I looked at them, but my controller runs with the Tunze streams. Costs are similar...both those MP40's are pretty dang impressive.

Few of the corals in my tank...

[KingOfJericho]

I had a reef for about 3 years. I loved it and hated it at the same time.

The cost to start are pretty high but during the winter months in New England when everything around you is dreary and gray, it's a real treat to come home to. The problems would always start when we wanted to go on vacation. Finding someone to maintain it while we were away was never easy and I usually came back to a few casualties.

I would post some pics but they were saved to a webshots account that appears to have disappeared (wtf...). I had them posted on here but Off-Topic is no longer searchable. It was a 54 corner and when all was said and done, I would estimate that I spent $8-10k over the years I had it.

[MCS]

For a starter Saltwater tank, check out the Oceanic Biocube.

It's self contained and has a pump. filter mechanism built into the back portion of the tank.

Start up with the salt water and live rock/sand. Cycle for about 2 weeks before adding fish/snails, crabs, etc.

We have the larger tank and its been running well for 3 years with fish that my kids like - clownfish, red shrimp, etc

[Spoolin335]

Saltwater fish tanks are a lot of work to get started and even maintain. They are expensive to startup and usually the bigger you go, the easier to maintain. This is because any change you make has a much bigger system volume to buffer and screwups. You will also find down the road that your tank is not big enough to house the fish you want.

I have had my tank for almost a year now, and probably spent about $3500 easily.

Things you will need just if you want fish but no coral:

Tank
Stand
1lb live rock/gallon
1lb sand/gallon
Lights – MH, LED, T5’s
Pump
Powerheads
Heaters
Protein Skimmer
Drilled overflow or HOB filter with misc plumbing
Test kits
Salt
Refractometer
RODI filter system for makeup water
Food

With coral aswell:

GFO/Carbon Reactor
Minerals
More test kits


Make sure you read everything you can on reefcentral as its an expensive lesson to learn the hard way. If you had everything today, you still wouldnt be able to put fish in for atleast 2 months because it takes time to cycle the tank and get some beneficial bacteria in the water.

Reef is not too hard, you just have extra parameters to test for and maintain, Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity.. You will also need some good lights for coral as most corals require lots of light to grow.

Heres a few pics of my coral and tank!

[ShopVac]

Originally Posted by Spoolin335

Heres a few pics of my coral and tank!

'

Post em. I love seeing others tanks.

[Spoolin335]

Sorry they didnt link. Ill post them shortly when i get a chance to sort out why they didnt upload and link properly.

[r0wr]

Old tank


New tank

[import36]

would love to get into this as a hobby....those saltwater tanks look phenomenal!

shopvac...

[DSB335d]

Beautiful tank rowr! What size is that? Lighting?

[Xios135]

I think OP is sticking with goldfish....

I too had a freshwater tank and thought about salt but then saw the amount of $ and time went into my brother-in-law's tank figured I didn't need yet another hobby. Kudos to those who pull it off though.

[ShopVac]

Here, this will re-peak everyone's interest in salt water.

If I had to put a $$$ on this guys tank, I'd say north of 300K (yes as in thousand). Any time you need to rent a crane to put the tank in...

This is the maintenance of some of this tank. Group of guys, twice a week

[KingOfJericho]

I started looking for a new tank for round 2 of my reef life last week and decided on an Elos. Literally the next day I went back to the website and it said "Elos USA is closing." My timing is impeccable. Now I'm thinking of an IM Nuvo or alike.

[ShopVac]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

I started looking for a new tank for round 2 of my reef life last week and decided on an Elos. Literally the next day I went back to the website and it said "Elos USA is closing." My timing is impeccable. Now I'm thinking of an IM Nuvo or alike.

Are you looking to go glass or acrylic? For glass tanks, I've heard good things about http://www.miraclesaquariums.com/ and http://www.glasscages.com/

[KingOfJericho]

Glass. Thanks, I'll check them out.

[DSB335d]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

Glass. Thanks, I'll check them out.

There are some hybrid tank manufactures too, the bottom's are PVC, the viewing panels are star fire glass, and the rest regular glass.