# Marine Reef Aquarium - Advise



## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Hello

Im getting interestead in marine aquarias real fast, and i want to start from just the beginning, research etc.
Basics advises i need. *questions, please ignore the stupidity*

How do you prepare saltwater for an aquaria? normall food salt? special saltwater supply? what amount? and how simple?

Whats the smallest size tank that could be used as a reef aquaria? like the *no smaller..*, can a 5 gallon tank be a succesfull marine reef for a fair amount of live rocks, corals and fish for E.G? *just making sure if.. and no im not using a 5 gallon*.

Lighting, should i use specific lights or just any white light'll do it? 

Heating, have no quest's about it, fully tell me what, where, how and why :lol2:

Im not in no hurry at all, just excited to know, full research to go.

Edit: any links to usefull pages would also be very appreciated.


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## Adam98150 (Jan 12, 2009)

abadi said:


> How do you prepare saltwater for an aquaria? normall food salt? special saltwater supply? what amount? and how simple?


You can only use specially formulated marine salt which you can acquire by going down to your local aquatics shop. It comes in boxes, bags, and buckets. Do not use table salt, tonic salt, rock salt and so forth . . only marine. 

If you just want to keep fish, you can use tapwater to mix the salt with. Get a bucket or vat, fill it with water, and keep adding salt (with a cup) until your desired specific gravity (salinity) is reached. Salinity = water to salt ratio, how salty the water is. You can measure this with a hydrometer (salt measure thingy).

Mix, leave to settle for a day, then add it to the aquarium. The specific gravity should be between 1.023 and 1.026 (these numbers will be shown on the hydrometer). You should add some form of pump to stir the water thoroughly, or air stone.



abadi said:


> Whats the smallest size tank that could be used as a reef aquaria? like the *no smaller..*, can a 5 gallon tank be a succesfull marine reef for a fair amount of live rocks, corals and fish for E.G? *just making sure if.. and no im not using a 5 gallon*.


Hmm, the smaller the tank, the more difficult it is to create a stable environment for the live stock. You see, toxins don't dilute as much in a small body of water - thus, they can kill fairly quickly. The bigger aquarium you can get, the better. 5 gallon is tiny, you'd only be able to keep like one tiny fish. If I were you, I'd aim for around 30 gallon+.



abadi said:


> Lighting, should i use specific lights or just any white light'll do it?


Depends on the type of corals you want my friend. Hard corals require fairly decent lighting, soft corals not so much. I'd recommend going for either four T5 tubes (three marine white, one actinic) , or a metal halide unit (expensive though! / produce a lot of heat).



abadi said:


> Heating, have no quest's about it, fully tell me what, where, how and why :lol2:


Probably the simplest of all the questions. It's a simple glass tube with a controllable thermostat on the top. You can work out what wattage heater you need when you find out what size tank you're getting - it'll tell you on the back of the box if the heater is suitable for your tank size. Make sure to get a thermometer, a floating glass one. As the thermostat is not always correct . . you may fry your fish. The temp should be around 25 - 26 C.

Anymore questions? :lol2:


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Adam98150 said:


> You can only use specially formulated marine salt which you can acquire by going down to your local aquatics shop. It comes in boxes, bags, and buckets. Do not use table salt, tonic salt, rock salt and so forth . . only marine.
> 
> If you just want to keep fish, you can use tapwater to mix the salt with. Get a bucket or vat, fill it with water, and keep adding salt (with a cup) until your desired specific gravity (salinity) is reached. Salinity = water to salt ratio, how salty the water is. You can measure this with a hydrometer (salt measure thingy).
> 
> ...


Thanks mate that was very helpful,

Lighting? :blush:

Also, how are live rocks beneficial?


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## Adam98150 (Jan 12, 2009)

abadi said:


> Thanks mate that was very helpful,
> 
> Lighting? :blush:


No problem dude. 

Aye, lighting. Well, like I said, if you want to keep most types of coral (hard and soft), you'll have to either have a metal halide unit, or four T5 Tubes. If you just want to keep softies, e.g. the easier coral, a couple of T5 tubes should suffice.

T5









Metal Halide Unit









The tubes should be quite a bit cheaper, but I went with a Halide unit I bought from ebay. You can also use power compacts, or LED lighting . . LED lighting is very expensive, and the power compacts I tend to use on the smaller tanks (nano reefs). 



abadi said:


> Also, how are live rocks beneficial?


Live rock is beneficial as it contains many different types of bacteria. These bacteria break down toxins within the tank - fish waste, excess food, rotting material. Three main toxins are as follows, Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate. It converts in that order, you should have a zero reading of the first two, and a small amount of the last toxin. Look up "nitrogen cycle". Since that's only a brief over view.

You should have 1 kilogram of liverock for every 10 litres of water. Thus, if you had a 150 Litre aquarium, you'd need 15KG of liverock minimum.

Also, the liverock contains many other living organisms, not just bacteria. Microstarfish, shrimp, crabs, filter feeders, sponges . . these will no doubt come out at night and clean the aquarium for you (well, the first three anyway). :gasp:


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Adam98150 said:


> No problem dude.
> 
> Aye, lighting. Well, like I said, if you want to keep most types of coral (hard and soft), you'll have to either have a metal halide unit, or four T5 Tubes. If you just want to keep softies, e.g. the easier coral, a couple of T5 tubes should suffice.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much : victory:

Let me get this right, Live rocks from any aquarium store contain live creatues (as you described)?

Never knew that!, i just thought live rocks are the ideal rocks for coral growth and attachments.


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## Adam98150 (Jan 12, 2009)

That's right man, most live rock is pulled straight from the reefs - anything inside the rock at the time comes with it.

Some creatures are bad, most good. Here are the things I've found so far . .









































































Not my pics man, but those are the animals I've found. :flrt:


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## 8and6 (Jan 19, 2010)

find a really good forum that specialises in nano-reefs, or just marine in general, such as

Reefs UK Community Forum • Index page

unless you have a sump system to a 5 gal the water quality and everything will will be in a constant state of flux and even a seasoned marine keeper would struggle with keeping a 5 gallon stable enough to keep anything alive for more than a short period of time

just like in any aquarium, the more water the better, even my 55 gal mbuna has a 40 gal sump

by the time you have a heater, powerheads, skimmer etc in a 5 gallon you are gonna have as little as 3 gallons, then the rock will take up more water volume, the substrate etc etc

marines, especially for a newb in the subject such as yourself, can be very frustrating.
read up on specific forums such as above and learn from other peoples experiences in the matter


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Adam98150 said:


> That's right man, most live rock is pulled straight from the reefs - anything inside the rock at the time comes with it.
> 
> Some creatures are bad, most good. Here are the things I've found so far . .
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, and wow, your very lucky,,
i dont think alot find these cool creatures :2thumb:

Dont they get cleaned from any living things in there? =/ Weird thing.


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> find a really good forum that specialises in nano-reefs, or just marine in general, such as
> 
> Reefs UK Community Forum • Index page
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, that was very helpful :no1:

Im pretty working on, i believe it will be lil tricky for the 'newb' but fun >i guess< (i love cleaning and working on animal cages of any kind) :lol2:


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## deansie26 (Apr 28, 2009)

*Water to use*

Hey, you have had some good advice therw mate, the only point id disagree with is the use of tap water, dont use it. You will just be starting you on the wrong foot. It can harbour all sorts never mind promoting algae etc with the increased organic compounds it will have in it, either buy an RO unit to produce your own water or buy RO from LFS's. Ive a 28G nano and have found it great thou the evapouation is crazy, like a litre a day because of the halidie. Id go as big as you can mate as it gives you more choices in every aspect and is more forgiving if you make a mistake


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## lionfish (Jul 15, 2009)

I can't add any more than the above ( very good advise ) you have already been given , except to say if you do go down the marine route 1) you'll think "wow , I didn't know what I was missing" .....re live rock if you can get Fijian live rock - the best  It's more expensive than others , but you get what you pay for


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## jakk (Jan 22, 2008)

A great channel on youtube to watch about marines is LAfishguys iv learnt a lot from good old Jim

this guy has even managed to sustain live rock and coral reefs with ordinary dechlorinated tap water with aquarium salt added


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## johne.ev (Sep 14, 2008)

I only use ordinary dechlorinated tap water with aquarium salt added.


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## Pearson Design (Jan 21, 2010)

johne.ev said:


> I only use ordinary dechlorinated tap water with aquarium salt added.



me too, only problem i get is diatom algae blooms
not really a problem if you have sand sifters 

i have used RO water form my LFS but still found it to have some algae growth, imo it doesnt make that much difference.

im lucky i live in an area with pH levels perfect for marine fish and corals, and as far as i can tell no copper at all which is always good


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

I think i'll keep reading more on water etc, its the trickiest 
Fijan live rock, isnt Caribbean better? ive also been told that Red sea is the best, most marine keepers i know have Fijan-Caribbean, ill look it up bout that.

Thank you very much for advises - i forgot where i stopped reading.. : victory:


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## bigjon (Oct 27, 2010)

hi there jus read through ur thread ive done the pet thing the other way and have a marine fish tank and am jus starting out in the reptile world, firstly id join a good reef keeping forum as the information ull find is invaluable (not sure if i can say this but i personally like ultimate reef) wot are you looking to get into i.e fish only or full blown reef? i have a full blown reef full of sps and i do really love it and spend hours jus staring lol however they are very big time consumers (and money!) if you have plenty of the both then happy days. i think its been said before aim for the largest volume of water u possibly can, the 5 pieces of equipment i couldnt do without are 
ro/di
skimmer (3+xthe tank volume rating)
Ro/di filter
Dosing unit
phosphate reactor
and the final piece is a auto top up unit
with regards to live rock i think the only place that its legally collected from is fiji now check the rock before you buy for aiptasia and mojano anememes (cant spell it lol) u can usually pick this up 2nd hand quite a bit cheaper than the shops and its usually fully cured 
hope that has helped a little jus remember to keep the parameters of the water as stabile as you can and u too will have a beautiful reef to sit and admire 
dont keep the fish keep the water


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## aberreef (Aug 10, 2010)

Don't get bogged down with water parameters. You simply need to keep salinity constant at around 1.024, temp stable and keep nutrients low. The minerals etc needed by the corals will be replaced with regular (ish) water changes - don't even check them it'll drive you nuts:bash:

I've just sold my main tank (pictured below) and am in the process of selling everything in my frag tank (live rock £6 per kg:whistling2. I've kept reef tanks for over 12 years so some of the corals were pretty big. I've also sold hundreds of frags taken from this tank and reared loads of Banggai cardinal fry.


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## aberreef (Aug 10, 2010)

Forgot to add, have a tank with a sump to hold the skimmer, heater etc, it's so much easier to work with. Auto top up is a fantastic luxury that saves you having to constantly top up the sump.: victory:


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## Pearson Design (Jan 21, 2010)

aberreef - ive pm'd you about your frags etc for sale


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## owlbassboy (Jun 26, 2008)

hey mate check out The Nano Reef: Big Forum-Small Tank • Index page

we are a quick growing nano forum mostly composed of people from the uk but there are some from further afield on there


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

aberreef said:


> Don't get bogged down with water parameters. You simply need to keep salinity constant at around 1.024, temp stable and keep nutrients low. The minerals etc needed by the corals will be replaced with regular (ish) water changes - don't even check them it'll drive you nuts:bash:
> 
> I've just sold my main tank (pictured below) and am in the process of selling everything in my frag tank (live rock £6 per kg:whistling2. I've kept reef tanks for over 12 years so some of the corals were pretty big. I've also sold hundreds of frags taken from this tank and reared loads of Banggai cardinal fry.
> image


Thats your aquaria?? you sold it?! Uh-oh shame on ya lol, it was amazing, As for the live rocks, where are they from? id luv to pick em up, not that its too early, im not done reading, anyways where are you located? (ill check it after this post if you mentioned it, i have a short term memory loss lol).



bigjon said:


> hi there jus read through ur thread ive done the pet thing the other way and have a marine fish tank and am jus starting out in the reptile world, firstly id join a good reef keeping forum as the information ull find is invaluable (not sure if i can say this but i personally like ultimate reef) wot are you looking to get into i.e fish only or full blown reef? i have a full blown reef full of sps and i do really love it and spend hours jus staring lol however they are very big time consumers (and money!) if you have plenty of the both then happy days. i think its been said before aim for the largest volume of water u possibly can, the 5 pieces of equipment i couldnt do without are
> ro/di
> skimmer (3+xthe tank volume rating)
> Ro/di filter
> ...


Thanks for the reply mate, Ah and thanks for the list too, im confused bout the items needed, im not even sure how things about, luckily, gone thru tons of *lists* during my research, ugh i didnt even read them, set as a favourite and thats it, lol.

Wish me luck!!, bloody hell this gonna be tufff!!


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

owlbassboy said:


> hey mate check out The Nano Reef: Big Forum-Small Tank • Index page
> 
> we are a quick growing nano forum mostly composed of people from the uk but there are some from further afield on there


Thanks m8, ill be on there a while - and yeah.. UK here : victory:


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## aberreef (Aug 10, 2010)

abadi said:


> Thats your aquaria?? you sold it?! Uh-oh shame on ya lol, it was amazing, As for the live rocks, where are they from? id luv to pick em up, not that its too early, im not done reading, anyways where are you located? (ill check it after this post if you mentioned it, i have a short term memory loss lol).
> 
> 
> Wish me luck!!, bloody hell this gonna be tufff!!


It was a tough decision to get rid of everything but I've kind of lost interest in the hobby a bit (I think I need a short break and will set up something better when funds allow:2thumb. Next time around I'll definately have a system with a sump and either suspended lights or a much lighter hood.

I may get shot down for some by saying this but there really is nothing more difficult to marines than freshwater tropicals. It's just more expensive to set up and a little more mucking around with water changes.

All you need to start is the tank, heater, lights, live rock, skimmer and circulation pumps (good water flow is essential). Simples:2thumb:


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## owlbassboy (Jun 26, 2008)

well said mate, i hate all these equipment freaks, reef keeping is only as complicated as you make it


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## Pearson Design (Jan 21, 2010)

owlbassboy said:


> well said mate, i hate all these equipment freaks, reef keeping is only as complicated as you make it



exactly!
its the same with all fish, you keep the water, so if you can do that you can keep anything...within reason lol


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## owlbassboy (Jun 26, 2008)

yeah my water is so perfect i have a sailfin tang in my 24g nano..........yeah right only kidding lmfao


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Pearson Design said:


> exactly!
> its the same with all fish, you keep the water, so if you can do that you can keep anything...within reason lol


Agreed :lol2:


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