Reef & River Aquatics Home

I want to “Go Marine” So now what do I do?

The first question that you need to ask yourself is whether or not you want to keep corals, or whether you would be happiest with just fish and a few other invertebrates.

The keeping of corals in captivity requires an approach that varies from the keeping of Fish – Only tanks, and can be a deal more costly than keeping fish only. We will deal specifically with fish only tanks in this care sheet.

A recommended minimum tank size to do fish only marine would be a standard three foot tank. The reason we don’t suggest doing marine in smaller tanks is a question of stability, i.e. the larger volume of water in a bigger tank will give you more time to react to a problem if one occurs. This is of particular importance to beginners

FILTRATION:

A “fish only” tank will allow you to keep all of the brightly coloured marine fish, as well as starfish, sea cucumbers, snails and shrimps. This can be done using very similar equipment to what a lot of freshwater keepers may already have. Our recommended filtration style for a saltwater fish only tank is a combination of powerhead driven undergravel filter and an appropriately sized canister filter. Trickle filters are also a very good option, and there are new “canister style trickle filters available which are really worth a look.

Most freshwater keepers will already have an undergravel filter & quite a few of you will have made the move to powerheads. (2 powerheads & a canister to suit a 4 foot tank cost around $400, a trickle filter will cost a similar amount) If you are converting from freshwater, you will be able to use your existing fluorescent light, but it is likely that your test kits may not be suitable for use on saltwater and the gravel that you have used previously will not be suitable. You will need to change over to a crushed marble, coral sand, or shell grit base. Once this is done, you are ready to set up the water.

WATER:

Saltwater can be obtained in a number of different ways. Firstly you can of course collect natural seawater. There are some potential problems with this though, and these are that you may inadvertently pick up pollutants, stormwater run off etc. when you collect your water. If you choose this method of obtaining saltwater you would be best to collect your water from outside Corio & Port Phillip bays. Steer clear of any areas near sewerage outfalls and do not collect after heavy rains.

Second method of obtaining water is to purchase it pre-mixed from the store. We mix up salt water using Aquasonic’s Ocean Nature synthetic salt and purified water. You just bring in your container, & we fill it up. Easy.

The third method is to mix up your own saltwater using an artificial salt mix & dechlorinated tap water. The store sells Aquasonic’s “Ocean Nature” salt. A 2Kg bag of salt will mix up to 60 litres of water, and a 4 Kg bag makes over 120 litres. The salt is also available in 20 Kg buckets which give close to 600 litres.

A hydrometer is used to measure the salt level in the water & these are quite easy to use. Once the water is at the right salt level & temperature, then add a bit of p.H. buffer, and let the tank sit for 4 – 5 days. The first time testing can be done by us in store if you wish.

LIVE ROCK:

Live rock is introduced when everything is O.K. 10 – 15 kg of rock is more than enough to mature a Fish-Only tank and it gives a good natural looking base work to begin your decoration from. Live Rock is rock that has been collected directly from reef areas, and has all the bacteria etc that your tank will need to get through the nitrogen cycle. It is also sometimes quite surprising some of the things that you find in live rock.

Leave the tank alone for two weeks at this point, to allow the bacteria a chance to colonise the filters properly, and test for ammonia & nitrite to ensure the tank is ready. If it is all O.K. then select your first one or two fish.

New additions to your tank should be spread out so that you don’t introduce more than one fish each two weeks while the tank is still relatively new.

There you go, you are up & away with your fish only tank.

We deal with the set up options for keeping corals in a different care sheet but for more information on fish only tanks see the “10 easy steps” caresheet for a slightly more detailed run down on setting up your fish only..