Starting a Tank

[jake_89]

What size is average for a salt water aquarium?
I am thinking about starting one what should I think about before I do this???
If anybody has any suggestions the will be alot of help!

 

[wayne]

My honest suggestion is read a lot, and then some more. 50 dollars spent on books at an early stage will save you hundreds of dollars further down the road. Marine aquaria are not especially tricky, but if you start with a bad plan, and do NOT trust your lfs to be of much help as the vast majority are not very good, your chances of expensive failure are very high.
I strongly recommend Mike Palettas New MArine Aquarium and Reef Secrets by Fossa and Nilsson. A lot of people recommend the Conscientious MArine Aquarist by Robert Fenner, but while all aquarists should read this book, it's getting old on setup. There are others.
Average sizes for marine aquaria are bigger than for fresh, I would guess a 55 is the average, but plenty of people have 75's and bigger.
I recently started a new tank, and described my experiences in a sticky at the top of this forum. Good luck

 

[S.Reef]

Research before you start. Go to websites, read catalogs and books. A book I strongly recommend is The New Marine Aquarium, by Mike Paletta. It give you the basics of marine aquariums.
There is really no average size aquarium. I know people with 7 gallon Nanos and people with aquariums over 400 gallons. A common starting size would be 50 gallons. To the beginner I recommend over 20 gallons and under 125 gallons.
Start with live rock and a protein skimmer and you should be off to a good start.

Sam Reef
________________
90 Gallon FOWLR Marine Aquarium
20 Gallon Reef
10 Gallon Reef
10 Gallon Marine Aquarium
20 Gallon Freshwater Planted Aquarium

 

[Leopardess]

Jake. MY biggest piece of advice is to get your Freshwater tank up and stable before trying Saltwater. It is EXPENSIVE and is harder than a freshwater tank.

Use your new FW tank to figure out the basics of cycling,stocking, maintenance, testing the water parameters, etc.

 

[1979camaro]

while leo makes a good point, with patience and dedication one can have success with a saltwater tank first (in my opinion)...that said, if you are struggling to maintain a healthy FW system it might not be time to delve into the marine world

 

[Leopardess]

Right. That is why I said what I said. IT seems that he has just started out and doesn't understand the basics of water chemistry/fish stocking/cycling etc.

 

[Leopardess]

Right. That is why I said what I said. IT seems that he has just started out and doesn't understand the basics of water chemistry/fish stocking/cycling etc.

 

[S.Reef]

Research as much as you can before setting up a tank. A book I recommend is The New Marine Aquarium by Mike Paletta. It gives you the basics of marine aquariums.
There really isnt a normal size aquarium. I know people with 7 gallon Nanos, and others with 400 gallon fish onlys. I recommend nothing under 20 gallons and nothing over 125 gallons for the begginer.

Sam Reef
________________
90 Gallon FOWLR Marine Aquarium
20 Gallon Reef
10 Gallon Reef
10 Gallon Marine Aquarium
20 Gallon Freshwater Planted Aquarium

 

[dbacksrat]

i am starting with a 29 gallon....there are a lot of books out there that give u good info--if u cant buy em, go to your local library and check em out!

 

[lostatsea]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always heard that the bigger the tank the better (up to 100 gallon range)..something about it's easier to maintain the chemicals and etc...I just started mine (having slime algae problem) it's a 55 gallon..total cost is about $1000 with some live rock and no animals, but it seems to be going good so far (algae due to 3 year old dumping entire container of food in tank)