Im starting a salt water tank. 125 Gallons. I would like to know what things I need to purchase and how to keep the tank running smoothly. Please give me as much information on salt water tanks as possible.
Answers:
"As much as possible" may be more than your bargained for. I see you've already decided on a good sized tank, so I won't go into those, but here's a listing of other items you should get, and some optional items that may make the tank maintenance a little easier:
FILTER: You'll need to get one that's properly sized (filters 5x-10x the tank volume per hour). There are lots of choices, and what you'll need will really depend on budget, what you're trying to keep, and personal preference. I'd consider the best to be a refugium or wet/dry trickle filter. Next best would be a canister, followed by a biowheel, then a standard hang-on-tank. Unless you're using a fine sand or oolite substrate, you can also use an undergravel filter to supplement filtration, but I'd suggest powering it with a reversible powerhead to blow the water up through the substrate (prevents stuff from building up under the filter and clogging it). If the tank is predrilled for an overflow, the refugium or wet/dry are what it's set up for, but you can also do an over-the-rim for this. Because of the length of this sized tank, if it's not predrilled, you might want to use two hang-on filters to make the distance from the filter to any point in the tank at less.
POWERHEAD(S): To provide more water circulation in hard to get to places. This also helps circulate dissolved oxygen to the bottom of the tank.
HEATERS: For a saltwater tank, I'd suggest getting 2 and putting one on each end. This will provide more even heating, and your tank has a back-up if one gives out. Figure the correct size as 5 watts per gallon divided by 2 heaters. If you need to heat the water more than 10 degrees above the room temperature, go one size higher. Also plan on 1-2 thermometers to position in the tank to check the temperature.
LIGHTING: If you never want anything but fish, you can use the standard lighting and hood made for your tank. You might want to upgrade the lamps to a 10,000K tube or a 50/50 actinic. If you're going to try corals, anemones, etc., go with a compact fluorescent, metal halide, or combo system - these will provide more intense light that they'll need for photosynthesis.
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. 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). Figure at least a pound of substrate per gallon of volume.
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.
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 (for coraline algae and diatoms that like to attach to the glass).
WATER CONDITIONER: for removing chlorine or chloramine from your tap water (unless you plan to use a reverse osmosis filter or buy RO water).
The following are optional, but strongly suggested:
PROTEIN SKIMMER: This removes dissloved and small organic materials that would normally contribute to the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in your tank. Not 100% necessay for fish-only tanks, but will be handy if you have inverts to keep up good water quality by removing organic materials that become nutrients for algae.
GLASS COVER: This reduces evaporation and keeps the fish inside the tank, although with a metal halide lighting system, it can overheat your tank.
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. You should purchase 1 pound of Pacific-origin or 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of Atlantic or Carribean origin rock per gallon of tank volume. The difference is that the Pacific origin rock is more porous, so it provides more surface area for the nitrifying bacteria to colonize, so you can use less, but still get the same amount of biological filtration.
CHILLER: If you use metal halide lighting, or 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.
I'd also recommend a good reference book for saltwater tanks. 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
Some web sites you can check out for more info on keeping saltwater are the following:
http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cl... - very basics
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ - more than you could want to know
you are going to need a lot of money, patentice, tester's,and money!...good luck.
salt water mix
hydrometer
filter
protien skimmer
heater
marine substrate like live sand
corals
and other FW stuff , like conditioners, testing strips, lights etc.
You should let the tank run for 2 weeks with some inverts. Cycling the tank.
Then stock, but remember stock slow.
well you will need for start salt to prepare the water for your tank, live rock 1k per gallon I believe is the amount they recomend once you fill your aqurium with the salt and have the live rock you will need to let it do the cycle it will take about 4 weeks before you can put the forst fish, if you do it before your fish will die for sure get a test kit to check the nitrate, amonia, ph, kh, etc you will also need to have a sump, this is like a smaller fish tank (usually below your main tank) where you will put all your filter, resine, heater and the most important of all the skimmer, this can be one of the msot expensive things for your saltwater fishtank but is worth it, you will reduce possible problems with amonia or nitrate or other, so make sure to buy a good one from the begining there are many blogs that can help you with this, good luck
There's a site call Doctors Foster %26%26 Smith. They give really good advice on any question about anything dealing with animals. We bought a lot of our stuff from them. Everything from pumps, filters, brine shrimp, live rock, food, actual fish, shrimp, lights, salt mix. You name it they more than likely have it. Be sure not to get sea urchins. They may look cool or pretty but once they die they will poisen your whole tank and then there is nothin you can do. Keeping up with a saltwater tank is a lot of hard work but if done properly its very rewarding. I hope this helped and if you want to know anything else just ask.
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