First Saltwater Tank

[mk47]

Hi Everyone!

I am currently just in the process of setting up a new tank after a few years away. Previously I always kept malawis/freshwater so have 0 experience in setting up a marine tank so have a few questions.

1) Do I require any special sort of filter or will an internal filter be OK? I am only setting up a very small tank which is 70ltrs, and only hope to keep a couple of clown fish or something else small (i'll look into when the tank is fully set up as to what I can keep)

2) I already have a heater which is rated for upto 150 ltrs & is a submersible one.

3) What other equipment do I need to buy? Is a protein skimmer necessary? As looking at some guides online, it says its an option?

4) Once I have cycled the tank with the saltwater, and checked everything, will it be ready for the livestock - or is there anything else I need to do first?

5) Can I use crushed coral or regular play sand as substrate - or is there anything special for saltwater fish?

6) I have an air pump with a few stones to provide oxygen, is this suitable for the set up I am going for?

Many thanks guys Also if there is anything I have missed please let me know!



Oh also, the tank hood has a built in light unit, so am I right that I can just switch the bulb from the clear tube it is at the moment, to one suitable for marine is enough?

 

[crazyforcordoras]

1. A HOB filter may be best, as you want as much room in the tank as possible.

2. Your heater should be fine.

3. Protein simmers are optional, itdepends on how big the tank is. You may want a refugium, for a large tank a sump would be good.

4. What i have done for both my nano reefs, is used this stuff from Instant Ocean called Bio Spira. Instantly cycles the tank, and i added my first fish within a week. Before adding livestock, i like to add my live rock. A pound per gallon is ideal.

5. Crushed coral or Live Sand is neccessary, it helps boost the alkalinility.

6. 1 airstone is all you need.

For your fish, a 70ltr could probablyhold 5 well chosen fish. Some recommendations

Clown fish
Six line wrasse
Clown goby
Yellow watchman goby with pistol shrimp
Orange Spotted goby with tiger pistol shrimp
Cherub angelfish


Dontkeep them all in the same tank though. Do your research.

 

[Donya]

1) Do I require any special sort of filter or will an internal filter be OK? I am only setting up a very small tank which is 70ltrs, and only hope to keep a couple of clown fish or something else small (i'll look into when the tank is fully set up as to what I can keep)

Do you have live rock already? A common fw/sw confusion is that, unlike in fw, it's not great to rely entirely on standard types of freshwater filters and their media for filtration. Live rock is the primary filtration medium for a marine tank, with pumps providing water movement. Items like HOTBs and internal filters are often repurposed as just places to put chemical media like carbon and phosphate remover.

3) What other equipment do I need to buy? Is a protein skimmer necessary? As looking at some guides online, it says its an option?

Short answer: no. Long answer: they are often ignored in favor of more dilligent water changes on small tanks, being most useful on larger tanks. It can actually be hard to find sufficiently small skimmers (that are still worthwhile anyway) that will fit in/on some small tanks unless there is a sump. If you aren't planning on a sump, then you can skip on a skimmer as long as you don't overstock.

Oh also, the tank hood has a built in light unit, so am I right that I can just switch the bulb from the clear tube it is at the moment, to one suitable for marine is enough?

Are you doing fish-only? If so then you'll be fine with whatever bulb really. If you want corals, you need to look at what kind of fixture it is first (fluorescent? T5/T8/etc.?).

4. What i have done for both my nano reefs, is used this stuff from Instant Ocean called Bio Spira. Instantly cycles the tank, and i added my first fish within a week. Before adding livestock, i like to add my live rock. A pound per gallon is ideal.

You should ALWAYS add the live rock before livestock. It should never be the other way around unless forced by some sort of emergency conditions like a cracked tank or sudden need for quarantine of an animal. Stuff like the bio spira shouldn't be necessary if decent live rock is used. If it's mostly dead/dry/base rock then I still doubt supplements would help as much as seeding with high quality rock.

5. Crushed coral or Live Sand is neccessary

You don't need "live" sand, which is expensive aragonite sand. You just need aragonite sand. If added dry, it will become live over time. Just depends on how deep one's pockets are and how quickly one want's established fauna in the sand bed. For a halfway point, you it's worth seeing if a store has any recently "expired" live sand that they'd like to unload at a discount. Either way, if the "live" sand doesn't have a date on it then pass on it, since it could have been sitting on the shelf for a billion years and be therefore no more use than a dry bag.

 

[mk47]

Do you have live rock already? A common fw/sw confusion is that, unlike in fw, it's not great to rely entirely on standard types of freshwater filters and their media for filtration. Live rock is the primary filtration medium for a marine tank, with pumps providing water movement. Items like HOTBs and internal filters are often repurposed as just places to put chemical media like carbon and phosphate remover.

No I don't have live rock at all, basically this tank was given to me by my friend and it was minimalistic, only had filter, heater and air pump. I'll buy live rock from the lfs which I plan to visit at some time today, its only a 70 litre tank so how much live rock should I go for, weight wise?

Are you doing fish-only? If so then you'll be fine with whatever bulb really. If you want corals, you need to look at what kind of fixture it is first (fluorescent? T5/T8/etc.?).

m only going for fish, no corals for now until I have enough experience keeping marines and by then I'll upgrade to a larger tank. At the moment the hood lamp doesnt work but I'll get around to fixing it, and its just a plain white one at the moment, I'll probably change for a blue one though as I think it looks alot nicer


I'll buy crushed coral as I used this in my old 4ft tank and it looks great (it was a fw tank)


Further more I just had one more question, for a tank of my size, I really wanted the following: 1x blue tang, 2x clown fish, and a couple of cleaner shrimps.. Do you think that is an OK combination?


If I start to add the salt to the water today, along with the live rock and let it cycle, I'll check the water levels as advised on this board, how long should I leave it before I add the fish?

 

[Donya]

Further more I just had one more question, for a tank of my size, I really wanted the following: 1x blue tang, 2x clown fish, and a couple of cleaner shrimps.. Do you think that is an OK combination?

Absolutely not in a 70-litre! Tangs require a minimum of a 4ft-long tank for swimming room, usually 350L or larger. What you have is a nano, and tangs don't belong in tanks that size. Clowns can be kept in a nano. You need to do more reading/research on fish you are interested in.

Tank size-wise, if you are going to upgrade to a larger tank later, you are really going backwards in difficulty and jumping in at the deep end with the smaller tank. The larger tank will be easier to keep and learn with. More water volume = more margin for error in all senses. If you know you are going to get a bigger tank, I strongly recommend you just wait and start with the bigger tank first.

If I start to add the salt to the water today, along with the live rock and let it cycle, I'll check the water levels as advised on this board, how long should I leave it before I add the fish?

There is no precise timeline. It's however long it takes for the params to be in check before adding the first few CUC animals, and after that it's a good idea wait until the params seem stable and the CUC is starting to get diatoms and such under control before adding the first fish

I'll buy crushed coral as I used this in my old 4ft tank and it looks great (it was a fw tank)

In marine, it breeds bristleworms like crazy and traps a debris easily. It can be used, but I wouldn't recommend it for a first tank. If you've already purchased a bunch of crushed coral, a thinner substrate will be easier to maintain than a thicker one.


EDIT: sorry if parts of this sounded blunt/harsh, but success in this hobby really hinges on going slowly and thoroughly researching animals. Many people rush into things, only research lightly or only look for one example of what they want to do (you can find cases of tangs being put in nanos, but that doesn't mean they are being kept in a healthy/thriving state), and quickly run into problems as a result.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

A blue tang? Have you seen them? They get around 30 cm long!

 

[Aquascaper]

Tangs are open water swimmers......a 70 litre tank just doesn't have the space & as crazyforcordoras said, they get big. I only just got away with one in my 4'6" as it was still a juvenile.

As Donya says, research & patience is the key

 

[Mr.Tan]

For starters, a HOB filter is good for freshwater but no good for saltwater. They have a tendency to be nitrate factories, holding in detritus and other crap. If at all possible you should drill the tank for an overflow (or buy a HOB overflow) and setup a sump tank. It will allow you to hold extra water (which is good for a small tank as parameters are harder to keep stable) and allows you to hide stuff like heaters and a skimmer). You can also set up a refugium for more liverock and macro algaes for filtration. This allows you to by-pass a HOB filter or canister filter.


A skimmer is always a good idea, I would never run another saltwater tank without one regardless of size (for a nano as long as you can have an overflow of some sort feeding a sump tank


Cycle the tank and make sure everything is 0 before you add a fish. Ammonia/nitrite and nitrate should read 0ppm. Do not add anything until then. Make sure you have your Liverock in the tank before you add fish.

Stocking is hard, since its a small tank. 70 liters is about 18 us gallons, which isn't much. You can get away with maybe a clown pair and a shrimp/goby combo. No TANGSat all in that size tank, ever! as it is not enough room. a 6 foot tank is smallest I would go for a tang they LOVE to swim back and fourth. You should have atleast a 29 gallon for a dwarf angel, nothing smaller. They also like to swim around too but don't need tang length.. If you want a blue tang, get a bigger tank.