saltwatertank beginner

[jacqueline]

Hello everyone,
My daughter told me about this site and I must say it is jampacked full of information about fish keeping. Yesterday I bought a 86 gallon (390 liter) saltwater tank. Its standing in my garage right now awaiting my next move, which is picking up the matching stand next week. From what I've read in this site, one has to be extremely patient setting up an aquarium and it might take months before I can buy my first fish. I bought this tank used, along with all the necessary equipment to get started, hopefully it will all work. It seems very complicated to set everything up and placing the accesoires in the right places.
The tank is 130x50x50 cm. Made by Tirion. The deal came with a skimmer, filter, several pumps and other articles which I dont even know what they are!! Boy do I need help!!!!!!

 

[KahluaZzZ]

If you have a webcam or camera maybe you could post pics of items that we could identify.

You need info about starting your tank ..i have a link that can be helpful.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/

Another good website : www.wetwebmedia.com

There's questions, answers, and a lot of info about almost anything. You can evern write to Bob Fenner
( author of "the conscientious marine aquarist", wich is considered the bible about SW ).

You could try to find Baensch books too.

 

[blindcavefish]

Hey Mom, good to see you at the site!!!

Everybody, meet my mom, Jacqueline. She lives way over in Holland and I live in Canada so I can't really help her, specially since I have never done salt water.

I heard that if you live near the sea you can use salt water from there for your tank. I find this hard to believe, does anyone know?

 

[Fballvera22]

I have also heard that some of the guys in australia will go out to the beach and grab a tub full of water.

So, what do you want to do with your tank, well i guess the more appropriate question is, what will your budget allow you to do with your tank. I would recomend going with fish only with live rock. THen once you get the hang of salt water, then you can add some corals and all the extras.

I started out with a 29 gal, got about 25 lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of base rock. let that sit for a couple weeks untill my water conditions were good ( ammonia and nitrites at 0), then i added a blue damsel, and 2 tank raised clowns.

Good luck and welcome to the tank. Keep posting with updates and questions, we are here to help

 

[S.Reef]

Hmm..familys from Holland. I wouldnt use water from the ocean because it contains contaminants. In the states tap water for the most part is fine. You could use that or get a water purifier, or buy water.

Basically I would research a little more...do you want to go reef or a fish only. Narrow down what you want and we can help you there.

 

[aresgod]

depending on where one lives they can use water from the ocean, i even have seen some examples of people setting up pumps and drains to constantly send fresh ocean water through the system, however that option is very difficult and costly and at the same time you loose control of what is going into and out of your tank, but it is quite an interesting system to see in operation

 

[dbacksrat]

taking water from the ocean may also be illegal--i was remember reading an article about someone pumping sw from the gulf of mexico into their sw pond--pretty interesting
personally, i enjoy the whole technical aspect of the hobby--good luck

 

[wayne]

You won't be using North Sea water in your tank.....

I would sit back with a coipy of Michael Palettas New Marine aquarium as a starting point and take it from their. I would also have alook round as many shops as I could to see what I though interesting in terms of fish selection. Good luck!

 

[jacqueline]

Thank you everyone for being helpful at this unsure early stage. The plan was actually to get the saltwater from the coast of France since its only a three hour drive from here. Also I hear some people here get their live rock straight from the ocean, now that's interesting! Ofcourse you'd have to drive home like a maniac unless I put the rock in small saltwater aquariums in the back of my stationwagon. Will post some pictures of the accessoires on friday. So eventually I hope to have in my tank: lots of anemones, a pair of seahorses, seastars, hermit crabs, and different pairs of large doctorfish. What effect it has on my budget remains to be seen, but in the fishstores I've noticed the prices being high e.g. doctorfish $65!
Is it recommended to have sand on the bottom of the tank?
Greetings from Holland!

 

[janlo]

always read before buying stuff.
A lot of you see in the fish stores are not compatible with each other.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

anemones = super lights .

Seahorses = experts only.

 

[aresgod]

yes, and due to most seahorse requirements i believe they are supossed to be kept in normal lighting, not the intense lighting required by most anemones, sea horses should have a species only tank, just them in it, makes life much easier, they also need very little water flow while most anemones require moderate flow, last but not least anemones eat fish, some fish are slow enough, or stupid enough to get eaten, my blue carpet has eaten a few tank mates, but carpets are notourious for doing that, hope this helped, and most importantly be patient and dont rush into anything, with the amount of money invested in this hobby mistakes are VERY expensive

 

[zanoshano]

I agree, Yes, anenomies are beautiful and cool, but seeing as how this is your first tank, i would not recomend them.
1. Thye are very hard to take care of!
2. When they die, the release toxins that affect ur water parrameters alot.3. THEY'RE COSTLY

seahorses are also beautiful, but i think i would read about them before getting some. They range from about 25-100 bucks (depending on species). But as I said before, your tank is totally up to you, just be sure you know what your doing, we dont want tany dead fishies, lol.

 

[blindcavefish]

What does live rock mean anyways?

 

[zanoshano]

its called live rock, becasue it is rock (most of the time straight from the ocean ), and it has thousands of tiny LIVING organisms on it. Such as, bacteria (the good kind), plankton, and all kinds of microscopic **** that your fish benefit from. It also is a good source of biological filtration.

 

[dbacksrat]

instead of making a four hour trip and hauling (and spilling) ice cold and potentially polluted seawater, you could just buy salt mix and a trusty RO unit--definetly better than spending a heck of a lotta $$$ on gas, and it will also save you time
the only way you could use live rock that you harvested from the ocean is if you lived somewhere tropical--live rock harvested from the ocean in france (unless from the temperate meditteranean) would die from higher temps that tropical tanks are kept at

 

[wayne]

You really need to start off with the basic reading otherwise this hobby becomes expensive and heartbreaking very quickly when you kill all your livestock.

I live by the coast, and I can't imagine driving anywhere with seawater in the back of my car.

 

[blindcavefish]

Hmm interesting. Thanks for the explaination. it makes perfect sense that you would have to get the rocks from tropical water too.
Happy new year to everyone by the way!

 

[jacqueline]

live rock may contain microscopic marinelife, organisms, algae, sponges, crabs, shrimps, clams, even tiny seastars! Can't wait to buy it and arrange it in my tank. This weekend I will be entering some pictures of the supplies I've bought so far. Finding the proper spot in the livingroom isn't easy, one has to consider natural light sources being too much or too little or perhaps being too close to a radiator isn't good either.
Happy new year everyone!

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Mine is 4 foot from my radiator and he's at max power 'cause it's winter in montreal. The evaporation is insane since winter started.