Starting saltwater, need help!

[Aquarium guy person]

Hi all, I’ve been into freshwater for many years now and I’m looking to getting in to saltwater fish, I have a 40 breeder and I want it to be saltwater. I’m into predatory fish so I’m not gonna be having corals or anemones or things like that. Any help on how to get it started will be much appreciated.

 

[Colin_T]

If you have access to a clean beach and it isn't in a National Park, you can grab some beach sand, limestone rocks and sea water from the beach. Put 1/2 an inch of sand in the bottom of the tank. Add the limestone rock and fill with sea water.

Put a filter on the tank and cycle it the same way you cycle a freshwater tank. Add a heater and light. Have a coverglass on the tank to reduce evaporation and stop fish jumping out.
You can use normal freshwater ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits for a marine tank.

When the tank has cycled, add some fish and feed them on marine based meat foods like prawn/ shrimp, fish and squid.

Do regular water changes with sea water (either natural form the ocean or made from artificial marine salts. Use a Hydrometer to monitor the salinity (salt level) in the tank.

Top up the tank with freshwater to compensate for evaporation.

If you have predatory fishes, you can get a protein skimmer to help keep the water cleaner for longer. Protien skimmers come in 2 types (air operated and power skimmers). The power skimmers run off a power head and clean the water faster than the air operated skimmers, however they cost more than an air operated skimmer. But the power skimmer is better for a predator tank.

 

[ChefAlex]

Your options for “predators” are about nil for a 40g tank. There are lots of unique, carnivorous or oddball species that would make interesting additions though. Fuzzy dwarf lionfish, hawkfishes, anglers/frogfish/scorpions/stonefish, Valentini and Sharpnose puffers, small filefish species, burrowing jawfish and small basslets all come to mind.

You can do a fish only system on the cheap, just keep in mind your options are much more limited, it’s more difficult and you can’t likely incorporate any invertebrates (aside from maybe some hardy clean up crews) or corals. Marine fish are on average, more sensitive to water parameters than freshwater fish.

For a fish only system, the minimum I would do is an RO/DI unit, a protein skimmer (ignore any air pump driven units), a refractometer/precision scale hydrometer (don’t use a swing arm hydrometer ever), a heater with simple controller and a quality brand test kit like RedSea, Salifert or LaMotte.

 

[DwarfCichlidLvr]

You could do a dwarf angel in that.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

I wasn’t being specific when it came to the fish. I meant carnivorous fish. Are the filters the same as they are for freshwater? Cause I have a 75 gallon hang on back and a 40 gallon internal filter I can put in there. As for the water and sand, I don’t trust going to ANY beaches nearby For sand or water and they are all a fly least 2 hours away anyway. I just don’t want to take possibly polluted sand and or water from the beach and cause some innocent fish to suffer. Also I hope the fish that @ChefAlex listed are for beginners as this will be my first saltwater tank ever.

 

[ChefAlex]

I wasn’t being specific when it came to the fish. I meant carnivorous fish. Are the filters the same as they are for freshwater? Cause I have a 75 gallon hang on back and a 40 gallon internal filter I can put in there. As for the water and sand, I don’t trust going to ANY beaches nearby For sand or water and they are all a fly least 2 hours away anyway. I just don’t want to take possibly polluted sand and or water from the beach and cause some innocent fish to suffer. Also I hope the fish that @ChefAlex listed are for beginners as this will be my first saltwater tank ever.

Yes, you can use any sort of biological filtration in a saltwater tank as you could in a freshwater tank, the nitrogen cycle works the same way. Again, saltwater fish are more sensitive to water quality so keep that in mind when you are considering what method(s) you’re considering for nutrient export in the initial stages of your tank build.

Of the fish species I listed, those were viable options for your particular sized aquarium, some species are hardier than others, you would have to research which ones you are interested in before making a decision.

If it were me, I would plan out exactly how much money and time you are willing to spend before thinking about fish species. Whether you have a RO/DI unit, have an appropriately sized skimmer, are or are not willing to make frequent water changes (a lot more work and money for saltwater than fresh, more stressful on fish health too) plays a lot into which species are appropriate for you. For a lot of reef species, the water out of your tap is already too nutrient rich or heavy in contaminants before it even hits your tank. The more barebones you go, the more limited to hardy species you are.

That being said, don’t be too afraid of saltwater tanks. Just be cognizant that they are different animals and your approach should be different if you want anything but hardy species.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

I have a friend that has a huge saltwater tank(280 gallons I think, give or take 10) and I also have a friend that works at fish farms all over and and he is a professor that teaches about marine fish. They can help me too I guess. Can you recommend a reliable inexpensive RO system for the tank cause I’ve never needed one before. I could buy RO water from my LFS which is prob way cheaper. Anyway this tank won’t be salty till a few months so I have a while.

 

[ChefAlex]

Luckily there are lots of budget oriented RO systems on the market today, there used to be none.

AquaticLife RO Buddy, LiquaGen and a lot of other portable or twist in style RO/DI units come to mind. Aquarium retailers and even big box stores like WalMart carry them nowadays for well under a $100. A simple google search yields a 4 stage RO/DI unit for $69.

 

[Colin_T]

As mentioned you can use any filter on a fresh or salt water aquarium. The only thing to worry about is the filter's turn over rate. Marine tanks have a high pH (8.5) and any ammonia produced in water with this pH is going to be very toxic to the inhabitants. A filter that turns the tank volume over at least 5 (preferably 10) times per hour is recommended to help keep ammonia levels as low as possible.

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Before you invest in a reverse osmosis (R/O) unit, test your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, pH, GH and KH. If you have clean tap water with no ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or phosphate, then you don't need a R/O unit and can use the tap water (with a dechlorinator) to top up the evaporated water.

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If you don't live near a clean beach, buy some dry marine sand and limestone rocks from a pet shop and use them in the tank. Buy some artificial marine salts too and set the tank up with that.

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Your options for “predators” are about nil for a 40g tank. There are lots of unique, carnivorous or oddball species that would make interesting additions though. Fuzzy dwarf lionfish, hawkfishes, anglers/frogfish/scorpions/stonefish, Valentini and Sharpnose puffers, small filefish species, burrowing jawfish and small basslets all come to mind.

Lionfish, some hawkfish and some basslets can be easy to keep but most of the other fishes listed are not easy to feed.

After covid19 has settled, go visit some pet shops or check out books on marine fish and make a list of the fishes you like. Post the list here and we can make suggestions on what fish will work in your tank.

Most predatory fish can be aggressive to tank mates and many people end up with one fish in a tank because it has killed everything else.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

I decided to go against fish like those as I want this one to be a beauty tank since all my others have predators. What kind of beginner fish that also have nice color could go in there? I love the way most gobies and fire fish look like so would those work? And if they do could you guys recommend fish that would work with these, thanks for the help you guys stated earlier

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

Fire Gobies (Nemateleotris decora, magnifica & helfrichi) are really nice peaceful fish that do well in tanks that are 3 foot or longer. They occur in small groups and hide under rocks when threatened. N. magnifica is the most common and cheapest to buy but none of these are really cheap fish. They all eat reasonably well and will take most frozen (but defrosted) foods like prawn, fish, squid, brineshrimp, etc.

If the tank is big enough (3ft plus) you could have a pr of small anemone fish (Amphiprion ocellaris or percula).

Blennies, some small damselfish/ chromis, banana or lime wrasses and pygmy angelfish will all go with them, if there is tank space.

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Before you buy any marine fish, look at their stomachs and make sure they aren't sunken in. A lot of wild caught marine fish don't eat well and have a sunken in belly and these fish rarely recover. Ask the shop if they can feed the fish a small amount of live or frozen brineshrimp and see how they react to food. If they eat then that is good. If they ignore the food then don't get them.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

My tank is the standard 40 breeder 36”x18”x16” if I’m not mistaken. I’ve never been a big fan of clownfish except for the black ones but I heard they can be harder to keep and I don’t want to cause innocent fish to suffer. Would fire gobies go well with the watchman goby and pistol shrimp?

 

[Colin_T]

Fire gobies should be fine with watchman gobies and an individual or pr of pistol shrimp.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

Is this good a stocking list?
-1 yellow watchman goby
-1 pistol shrimp
-1 firefish
-1 royal gramma
First I wanna know if those fish could be compatible together and if they can do I have space for any other fish? If I do could you tell me what kind of fish would work with all those. Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

-1 yellow watchman goby
-1 pistol shrimp
-1 firefish
-1 royal gramma

They will be fine together in a 3 ft tank.

You could add a pygmy angelfish, a couple more fire gobies (keep them the same species), a couple of dwarf wrasses like fairy wrasses or a cleaner wrasse. A blenny and a single or pr of cleaner shrimp could be added too.

If you get pistol shrimp, have 2 inches of sand over part of the tank and put some rocks over it for them to burrow under.