Help Setting Up Wall Mounted Salt-water Aquarium

[okorkie]

Hello,

I have a question relating to the setup of a salt-water aquarium. I have never owned fish or an aquarium in the past, but I do know that I want a salt-water aquarium because of the colorful fish and the type of tank that I have.

I recently purchased a wall-mount aquarium (http/www.aussieaquariums.com/panoramic.html 10.5 gallons). I have already mounted the tank to the wall and have located an AC power outlet to behind the unit. My question is this: what additional equipment do I need (I realize this is a wide open question from the reading I have done)? It came with a fluorescent light and a filter which is probably designed for freshwater.

Do I need a different filter? Do I need a pump to oxygenate the water? Do I need a heater? Is it possible to set up a salt-water aquarium without all of this? This tank is on my living room wall, but the other side of the wall is a bedroom closet which could be used to connect additional equipment if necessary.

I am confused by the amount of information available out there.

Thanks for any help in advance, Owen

 

[AK77]

Hi,

Before you do anything I'd suggest you read, read and read some more on marine fishkeeping. Freshwater fish can be tricky enough for the beginner and those tend to be more forgiving on the whole to mistreatment.

As far as equipment goes, you can dispense with the little filter they give you as its not needed. In marine aquariums, "Live Rock" forms the basis for the filtration. The rock itself isn't alive but, it does contain a whole plethera of organisms, including various "friendly" bacteria. These bacteria live inside the pourous rock and are the hub of the nitrogen cycle.

Fish waste contains ammonia which is lethal to fish and other wildlife. The bacteria breaks this down into nitrites. This is still a toxic compound but less so than ammonia. The nitrites are further broken down into nitrates. Nitrates can be absorbed by both micro algaes (green/brown slime) and macro algaes (seaweeds). It can also be broken down further by other bacteria, although live in "live sand" and carry on the cycle even further than the aerobic bacteria that live in the rocks.

What you will require is good water flow. This is achieved by the use of powerheads. These are nothing more than powerful pumps that are placed inside the aquarium to circulate the water, which in turn maintains the bacteria in the live rock. Most marine aquariums make use of protein skimmers. This is a machine that mixes the water with micro bubbles of air. This causes dissolved waste in the water, to bond to the airbubbles which then get fed up a tube by a foaming action and is skimmed off, thereby keeping water crystal clear and reduces nitrates too.

Bearing in mind that your aquarium is wall mounted, you are pretty much stuffed for positioning one anyway, unless you decided to have a sump tank underneath in a cabinet and hid all the tubes leading to the display tank. Since yours is only 10 gallons, a protein skimmer is pretty much not needed anyway, but frequent water changes will be.

Personally though, I'd suggest that you not make this aquarium into a marine tank until you are familar with keeping marine fish in somethign that is easier to maintain. I'd also suggest that a FOWLR (Fish only with live rock) is a better option, rather than attempting a reef setup, purely because of the lack of depth (front to back).

You are also going to be limited to what fish you can keep too. Clownfish and Damsels come to mind.

The key is planning and deciding what you want and how to achieve it. Nothing good ever happens fast in marine fishkeeping, and patience is a prerequisite. Otherwise you'll spend hundreds and end up nowhere fast. Below is a checklist of things you will need.

Powerheads
T5 lighting or possibly Metal Halide
Refractometer (measures the level of salt in the water)
Water testing kit (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, phosphate, calcium etc, etc)
Heater

Just a question. The wall you are intending to hang this on is solid brickwork isnt it? I only ask because I know some numpty that actually tried putting on up on a plasterboard wall . Luckily someone pointed out the stupidity in this venture before he filled it with water!

Anyway, hope that helps a bit and isn't too discouraging.

AK

 

[promithius]

you'll be hard pressed to get ones of those wall mounted ones as a saltwater aquarium.

You need a fair bit of kit for saltwater. A heater you will need for any fish you could get into that. goldfish wont live in it at all. you'd be looking at some small tetra's for it perhaps. nothing big.

Now, for saltwater. heres your main problem, the protien skimer. you NEED one of these if you intend to go salt water, but i just dont see how you will get one to fit in there. they are pretty bulky things.

Saltwater aquariums are very complex. id hate for you to go out and spend hundreds of pounds on live rock, fish, invertebrates, and have them all die on you. if you have never had fish before, i really really really reccommend that you start with freshwater. They are just as rewarding, and are alot less likely to crash and burn. Get some experiance with keeping fish, buy a new, proper tank (not a wall mounted one, a real tank ) and then have a go at saltwater. you'll be much happier with a proper tank as you can do so much more landcaping, and the species available to you are so much greater than in one of those wall mounted things.

 

[Danno]

Now, for saltwater. heres your main problem, the protien skimer. you NEED one of these if you intend to go salt water, but i just dont see how you will get one to fit in there. they are pretty bulky things.

Is this completely incorrect. You do NOT need a protein skimmer for a tank that small. A 10.6 gallon tank is considered a nano and thus, this piece of equipment is not required. Some people decide to use them but you don't need to.

okorkie, what are the tank dimensions.?

 

[okorkie]

Hello,

The dimensions of my tank are: 69.0" x 15.7" x 4.5"

After these responses, I'm even further confused

Cheers

 

[AK77]

In fishkeeping, the most important factor is the water, the chemistry in particular. In freshwater fish (cold or tropical) there aren't as many parameters that have to be met in order to maintain a healthy aquarium. These are ammonia, nitrites and nitrate and are caused by fish waste. However, tapwater that people use to fill their coldwater aquariums with, contains nitrates already and many other chemicals like chlorine and sometimes fluoride, depending where you live. Chlorine is bad for fish and tap water conditioner/dechlorinator has to be added.

In saltwater, you cannot use tapwater because of all the dissolved salts and other crap that's in it as its harmful to marine life. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis water is used instead (99% pure) and is mixed with sea salt. You also have to contend with ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as well as phosphates, calcium, PH, alkalinity and other chemicals too.

What people are suggesting to you is that if you have never even kept freshwater fish before, deciding to keep marine fish is like diving in at the deep end as there is a lot more involved and things you have to monitor until the tank achieves an equilibrium. I'm very new to marine keeping myself, but the fact that I kept freshwater fish for a couple of years meant that there were things, like the chemistry of the water, that I was aware of - and so has stood me in good stead.

There are some very good sticky threads on the forum regarding starting a tank from scratch. They are well worth the read and digesting the information contained therein. Marine fishkeeping is an expensive hobby, far moreso than freshwater. Rushing into attempting to creating a marine tank will result in the death of the fish and since these range from £5-£250+ a throw... its better to take your time and understand fully what's involved.

AK

 

[Danno]

Personally I can't think of any fish that can live in those dementions. I would suggest rethinking your plan for saltwater.

 

[AK77]

I agree that the tank would be much better suited to freshwater fish like neons, cardinal tetras, zebra dannios and small barbs etc. You might get away with clowns and the smaller damsels, but by the time the live rock is in, there isn't going to be all that room for fish.

Why not sell the wall aquarium and get a sweeeeeeeet normal one?

 

[andywg]

In fishkeeping, the most important factor is the water, the chemistry in particular. In freshwater fish (cold or tropical) there aren't as many parameters that have to be met in order to maintain a healthy aquarium. These are ammonia, nitrites and nitrate and are caused by fish waste. However, tapwater that people use to fill their coldwater aquariums with, contains nitrates already and many other chemicals like chlorine and sometimes fluoride, depending where you live. Chlorine is bad for fish and tap water conditioner/dechlorinator has to be added.

In saltwater, you cannot use tapwater because of all the dissolved salts and other crap that's in it as its harmful to marine life. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis water is used instead (99% pure) and is mixed with sea salt. You also have to contend with ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as well as phosphates, calcium, PH, alkalinity and other chemicals too.

You are almost correct except for one glaring ommission. The extra things you mention checking for are only for the growth of sessile invertebrates. Remember that not all SW aquariums are reef tanks

In order to keep SW fish you need to moniter salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. In other words, keeping SW fish is not really any more demanding than keeping FW fish. It becomes more demanding when you start adding corals and photodependant inverts that require very low levels of nitrates phosphates etc, as well as higher alkalinity and calcium. None of this is important at all to SW fish.

Many lfs have their nitrates up to 80ppm and the fish are fine, even those there for some time. The only scientific paper on nitrates I am aware of states that marine fish are not noticed to have any long or short term detriment in water up to 100 ppm.

The only thing you really whave to remember is that SW fish cannot be stocked as heavily as Fw fish.

What people are suggesting to you is that if you have never even kept freshwater fish before, deciding to keep marine fish is like diving in at the deep end as there is a lot more involved and things you have to monitor until the tank achieves an equilibrium. I'm very new to marine keeping myself, but the fact that I kept freshwater fish for a couple of years meant that there were things, like the chemistry of the water, that I was aware of - and so has stood me in good stead.

There are some very good sticky threads on the forum regarding starting a tank from scratch. They are well worth the read and digesting the information contained therein. Marine fishkeeping is an expensive hobby, far moreso than freshwater. Rushing into attempting to creating a marine tank will result in the death of the fish and since these range from £5-£250+ a throw... its better to take your time and understand fully what's involved.

As I mentioned above, it doen's have to be too complicated. The SW section on TFF (and most certainly the pins and FAQs) is all geared towards having reefs. With the exception of myself (and possibly Lynden) I can't think of anyone else who really looks at SW for the fish before the reef setting. As a result there is a heavy bias to the Berlin method and low biolod aiming for 0 nitrates etc. If you search around you will find specialist SW pred sites with completely different styles of filtration and set up.

As to rushing killing the fish? I saw a SW fish I liked on a Friday, and by Saturday afternoon he was in his brand new set up tank. I already had the tank, but had nothing else. SW is not as difficult, nor as much a dark art as everyone makes out.


-->okorkie

With the thin front to back depth of the tank, you will be somewhat limited in fish, and the ability to get LR in the tank. However, the tank still has 20 US gallons (going by your calculations). I would say you could get a good 3-3 fish in there that get to about 5-7cm. Add to that a couple of shrimp and some clean up crew and you would be away.

Since the tank is very tall, you might want to consider filling it 5-7" with sand and getting a jawfish or two. Could make a great looking tank then.

There are more options than you might have thought (especially reading the overly negative replies).

Try hitting a few sites or books with lists of fish and their size and see what you like, and then come back.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Another idea could be a few shrimp/goby partnerships- with a decent depth of sand you can watch their fascinating behaviour. As for LR, you'd probably either need to attack normal stuff with a hammer and chisel to get it to fit in, or you could possibly use tonga branch, which if often quite flat and is very attractive. Add to that some 'rubble' and it will be a very attractive tank.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, that tank would be pretty much impossible to use as a reef tank, but might make an interesting fish-only.