Thinking about first salt tank

Fishysweet

Dovii
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Jan 13, 2014
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It's not hard to set up a saltwater tank. As for stock it's really a matter of what you want pick out your dream fish and pick others you like. You also need to decide if you want a reef tank or fowlr. make a list and post it here
 

festaedan

Piranha
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Jul 25, 2013
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Not too hard if you want to do a FOWLR (fish only with live rock). You need some live rock (rule of thumb is a pound-per-gallon but you could get away with a little less) and sand (live sand is best but if you only have fish it's not necesary). Salinity should be around 1.025-1.027. A tank that size would make a great predaor tank. A koran angelfish, blue jaw trigger, dogface puffer, mineatus grouper, voltian lionfish,ect. would look pretty awesome. If you like smaller fish it would still look pretty sweet with little fish like damsels, clownfish, and dwarf angels. If this is your first saltwater I wouldnt recomend a reef. Reefs are really expensive and hard to take care of. Reefs can be doing amazing one day and then disastrous the next.
 

Fishysweet

Dovii
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Reef specific gravity is 1.024-1.026 fowlr is 1.021-1.023. Reef tanks depending on what you pick can be easy esp if you do a tank of softies like zoas leathers tree corals ect even alot of Lps corals (large polyp stony) are pretty easy. When you get into sps corals small polyp stony they can be a little harder depending on what you pick.
 

Rafini

Piranha
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Jun 28, 2012
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OP I know how you feel, I am thinking about Setting up my 225g as a marine after I move. I have a great 5' x 3' footprint but I don`t really want to delve into reefs and corals.
I want to have a mix of medium and larger fish but Nothing that is TOO predatory. If you have a big alpha predator like some species of grouper you may find that its hard to get other fish to cohab with them. or not the ones you would like lol.

I have kept both reef and FOWLR in the past and I can tell you that Reefs can be easy providing you follow all the correct measures and know what is in and out of your league. but FOWLR is much much easier. and with a tank over 150g I would recommend going FOWLR unless of course you already have a reef and youre going to just transplant it.
 

tlindsey

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Aug 6, 2011
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+1
Not too hard if you want to do a FOWLR (fish only with live rock). You need some live rock (rule of thumb is a pound-per-gallon but you could get away with a little less) and sand (live sand is best but if you only have fish it's not necesary). Salinity should be around 1.025-1.027. A tank that size would make a great predaor tank. A koran angelfish, blue jaw trigger, dogface puffer, mineatus grouper, voltian lionfish,ect. would look pretty awesome. If you like smaller fish it would still look pretty sweet with little fish like damsels, clownfish, and dwarf angels. If this is your first saltwater I wouldnt recomend a reef. Reefs are really expensive and hard to take care of. Reefs can be doing amazing one day and then disastrous the next.
 

BIG-G

Goliath Tigerfish
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Dec 12, 2005
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PH is pretty much the same for all saltwater it does vary from open water to reef, and from day to night, but not by much.
One thing you will definitely want to do is set up a quarantine tank. I cant stress this enough.
It will save you hours of agony trying to catch and treat a sick fish later. Not to mention the risk of possibly losing all you livestock to an unforeseen disease.
 

Fishysweet

Dovii
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Jan 13, 2014
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There are so many ways to set up a tank. My best advice to you is to plan out what what fish you want. This is the way i set set up my tanks and recommend. I add water and mix my salt in the tank add a couple of wavemakers and plug up the heater and let it run and mix for about 24 hours. Once the tank is up to temp( I keep mine at 78°) I add my live sand or reg sand and good bacteria like cycle or bio spira.then I wait a couple of day and test the water to see where its at normally it takes about 7-10 days before your nitrates nitrites and ammonia are all at zero. its safe to add your first fish. make sure to add a fish you want and not damsels or something you dont want to keep then wait a week test the water and make sure everythings ok dont add to many fish at once and be sure to get a skimmer on the tank within 3 months to remove disolved solids and waste you dont have to have a filter but if you want one go for a hob or sump no canisters. Do a 25% water change once a every 2-3 weeks then after a few months and the tank is stable you can go 4-6 weeks. You have a few choices with rock you can do fully cured live rock which can have hitchhickers good and bad, dry base rock, reef rock a man made type or fake inserts. If you get uncured live rock it can take weeks to months to cure and smells really bad from the die off I would avoid that. Make sure to turn you wave makers up to the surface so the water looks like its gently boiling and arrange your rock so the water can flow through dont stack it like a brick wall you will get dead spots. Lighting is all gonna be how you want it to look unless you get corals. leds make a great shimmer t5s are cheaper and come in lots of colors. Im not a fan of metal halides to hot. Then theres the top topless a grate or glass tops. Really depends on what fish you have I dont have tops on my tank and I have to top the tanks off once a week or so. Theres more but So much depends on the fish you have hope this helps*
 

Fishysweet

Dovii
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2014
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Virginia
PH is pretty much the same for all saltwater it does vary from open water to reef, and from day to night, but not by much.
One thing you will definitely want to do is set up a quarantine tank. I cant stress this enough.
It will save you hours of agony trying to catch and treat a sick fish later. Not to mention the risk of possibly losing all you livestock to an unforeseen disease.
+1
 
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