i was thinking about buying a 12 gallon bio cube aquarium made by cube master. it has necessary lights and filter and heater, but is there anything else i should get for it? just the necessities so i can have some coral and a couple fish. thanks!!
Answers:
I'll also say this is small for a saltwater tank if you've never kept one before. Saltwater fish tend to grow larger than freshwater "community" fish and are far more territorial and aggressive in their personalities. They're also less tolerant of poor water quality and changes in their environment which come more quickly and intensively with the smaller volume. Once you add substrate and rock for your corals, your total volume will only be about 8 gallons or so, and the "cube" shape doesn't allow much more than one territory. Fish are more concerned with horizontal space than vertical. A 29 gallon (or 30 or 55) would give you much more flexibility with the size and number of fish you could keep.
Anyway, since these already come with filter, light, and heater, here are the other items you'd need:
SUBSTRATE - you want something made of aragonite to help keep the pH from changing, I like the smaller shell material that Carib-Sea puts out - it doesn't have to be live sand, either. Some folks like crushed coral, but the particle size is bigger than I like, and it tends to have a lot of dust that never rinses completely out and it also collects a lot of debris between the pieces due to the larger size. Another very fine grained material is oolitic aragonite (looks like small white balls) and aragonite sand. Here's an idea of the materials available: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/d... While it's possible to keep a marine tank with regular aquarium gravel or no substrate, the aragonite will keep the pH from falling below 7.8 (it should be 8.2-8.4).
SALT MIX: If you're only keeping fish, you can go with one of the less expensive brands of synthetic sea salt. If you get any invertebrates (shrimp, snails, crabs, corals, anemones, etc.), switch to a better quality mix before you add them. These cost a little more, but you won't need to be using additives for the trace elements they need either. I would wait a few weeks for the tank to cycle before trying to add any corals.
HYDROMETER: This measures the amount of salt that's dissolved inwater. There are two kinds you can get, one made of glass that floats on the surface (more accurate, but easy to break) and a plastic container that has a needle that rises and falls as the amount of salt changes (less accurate, bubbles attaching to the needle gives false readings). For fish only, you want the specific gravity to read 1.020 - 1.026. If you're keeping inverts, you want it to be 1.024 - 1.026.
WATER TESTING KIT: minimum of pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.
CLEANING SUPPLIES: elbow length gloves, gravel vacuum, 5 gallon bucket, large plastic container and powerhead for mixing the salt (to be done well ahead of water changes), algae scraper, razor blades(glass tanks) or plastic scraper (acrylic) for coraline algae and diatoms that like to attach to the tank walls.
WATER CONDITIONER: for removing chlorine or chloramine from your tap water (unless you plan to use a reverse osmosis filter or buy RO water, which is preferred for a reef tank).
The following are optional, but strongly suggested:
LIVE ROCK: This give the tank a more natural appearance, provides hiding places for the fish and inverts, and increases the biological filtration. Not to mention, you get all kinds of cool critters that hitchhike into your tank (shrimp, snails, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea stars, etc.). You can buy dry rock to support the corals, but this won't have the necessary bacteria to break down the wastes of the organisms in the tank so toxic ammonia and nitrite don't build up.
CHILLER: If the water temperature regularly gets above 85o (for corals or anemones, fish can take a little more heat), you may need to invest in a chiller to keep the tank cool. The water temperature should run 76-80oF.
There may be additional items that you could need, such as kalkwasser to raise your pH if you can't get it to 8.2, but you won't know these until you get the tank set up and running, and test your water.
Before going out and buying all this, I would suggest some reading to see what you're getting into by keeping saltwater. I did research for almost 2 years before I set up my first tank, and I had about 20 years of freshwater aquarium experience already. Rushing into a saltwater setup usually doesn't give you good results, and the equipment and fish are a little too expensive to be finding out in a few weeks you got something that's not appropriate for what you want for your tank. I'd also recommend a good reference book for some research. Either of these would be a good one to start with: The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1 or The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5
Here are some websites that can also get you started:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marsetupez.ht...
http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cl...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/
Don't forget the food and water additives (salt etc.).
Good luck with your tank. I have always wanted to go "salty".
that is way too small for any salt water fish. 20 gallons is the absolute minimum for one or two fish. remember, they live in the ocean.
If you plan to keep corals you should get an RO/DI tap water filter. Is that the one with the VHO or HQI lighting? If it only has VHO try to limit your coral selection to soft corals. Anyway moving on... you should get a master test kit for pH amonia nitrite and nitrate. A hydrometer to measure the salinity of the water wil also be needed. For substrate one 20lb bag of live sand and 12lbs-15 lbs of live rock will be needed. You cant do to many fish in that small of a tank but will be nice for some inverts and soft corals. Try to stay away from certain shrimp like coral banded shrimp and camel shrimp they are known to eat polyps. Other than that befor you add coral make sure you tank has cycled so read up on the nitrogen cycle if you arent already aware of what that is. If you have any other questions or concerns about stocking the tank feel free to email me and good luck with the new tank.
for your first tank, i wouldnt go too small. you will have a lot of problems with it at first. this is atleast what i have read EVERYWHERE and heard from EVERYONE i asked. (literally) id say go with 30gallons. thats what i have, its working great! it will be so much easier to maintain and like someone else said. 12 gallons prolly isnt enough for coral and a couple fish :) also, if you do choose to go with this tank (or any other tank) you will need pumps. dont know if those come with it, you said filter, but nothing specifically about pumps.
good luck
Apart from your instant ocean and hydrometer live rock about 12lbs and either crushed coral which i prefer or sand. you also need a pair of gloves for cleaning the tank a siphon to clean out the tank. If that's anything like the little nanos then your light should be good for coral. I have a 10 gallon with three tiny damsels a small clown a yellow head jaw fish chocolate chip starfish numerous snail and hermit crabs as well as a cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp . Also yellow polyps and open brain coral. A smaller tank does require frequent water changes like at least 2 a month if not more to keep the nitrates down
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