Welcome to the wonderful world of saltwater system set-up and operation where we contrive to control all things to keep our livestock alive and happy; but mostly just modulate everything. We've got more components and gew-gaws then "Carter has liver pills", with many more than a few ideas on how they can or should be put together.
You will be amazed at how much you will quickly learn... and be relating to friends and family that are astonished at "your creation".
Don't be overwhelmed by all the new ideas and information presented here and with your new products. All that dry-goods assortment at the dealer's comes with accompanying literature spelling out their use for particular applications.
This Section Heading will offer you the very basics of all marine system's set-up; the use of the common elements to every kind of salt aquarium. The following sub-Sections will delve into the particulars of the most popular specialties of the hobby, the fish-only, fishes and invertebrates, reef set-ups et cetera.
This is a very careful arrangement of presentation, and one that you should bear in mind while reading. As you progress in reading about these marine system variations, you will find a definite shift in "difficulty", or better put, a narrowing tolerance to poor or varying environmental quality. Obviously all types of systems have a fluid-filled box, the aquarium, in common. Reef systems have more stringent requirements of water quality and lighting, and the smaller the reef system the more exacting the water quality concerns.
It is a fact that about ninety percent of "fish keepers" in the U.S. are really goldfish bowl, or other plastic "death-trap" aquarists. The remaining ten percent have "real tanks" with "real" filtration. Approximately ten percent of those "aquarium aquarists" are marine types, so we're now down to one percent of the total. The various sub-specialties of marine aquarium keeping are probably like those of freshwater; most are fishes-only set-ups, some with added invertebrates, grading into "true" reef systems of one sort and another. Thus our order of presenting the set-up of all these different and increasingly more "demanding, or difficult" arrangements.
Most aquarists I've met who have "been there, done that", agree, "It is better to try your hand at freshwater first, and then a fish-only marine set-up, before embarking on a cosmopolitan algae/live-rock/invertebrate/fishes system". I likewise encourage you to take your time "earning your dues" by practicing on "more forgiving" types of systems. When we meet, years from now, I want to hear you say, "Thanks for the help in your writing; I became a life-long aquarist as a consequence of the approach in your book". Ahhh.
Let's journey together through these various components:
Tanks:
There are two general varieties, plastic (acrylic) and glass (with silicon rubber seams. Some important considerations: They are heavy when set-up and filled; about ten pounds per gallon! Therefore it is important that aquariums be placed on something substantially strong. Another factor is that this "stand" be flat and planar. For these reasons Aquarium manufacturers will generally warrant their products only if they are placed on certified Aquarium Stands.
You should be encouraged to purchase the largest system possible/practical. The bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain, the more stable an environment it will provide, and the more flexible it will be for stocking and decorating. Remember that small displacement engine motorcycle, and hard-drive on your first PC? The bigger, the better. For saltwater systems you need forty gallons minimum for ensuring stability and adequate "cruising" space.
The aquarium should be placed in an area where there is minimized environmental fluctuation; away from windows, heaters, etc. Being in the line of frequent foot traffic is no problem; the livestock will quickly adjust and respond.
Before setting up your tank it should be cleaned with appropriate tools and materials. Soaps, detergents and ammoniated cleaners are toxic to aquatic life, and should never be used in or around the system. Many "sponges", paper and cloth towels ar abrasive for acrylic aquariums. Lemon oil and other preparations are fine for use on stands and surrounding woodwork; alcohol and ammonia-based cleaners are not.
Lighting:
This is a very important part of aquarium keeping, functionally and for the appreciation of the hobbyist. Photo- quality, strength and duration need to be understood and properly controlled for optimum benefit. Aquarium systems are sold with and without lighting; an assortment of hoods, fixtures, lamps and conversion kits are available for fluorescent, halide, and other novel illumination.
Yes, you need artificial lighting; for your enjoyment and your livestock's health. Bo back to Section 3) B) for the theory of lighting types and what they'll do for you and your aquatic charges. For setting up, the important things to remember here are arranging to keep water out of your electrics, and possibly providing for venting waste heat from your light source/s so they don't overheat your system.
Please do over-plan for both these considerations. Make the hood/lighting receptacle so large and structurally secured that even a monkey swinging, jumping on top won't knock it into harm's way. How hot is hot? Stick your hand on the fixture's housing after it's been on for a while. Can you take the heat? Would it burn someone or something (like your home) if it came in contact?
Filters
Where are we at so far? You've got your clean tank and stand situated, making sure the floor will take the weight and leave the whole system level and planar. You're lighting's ready to go with a fool-proof restraint and ventilation. Next is the most confusing, least understood area of setting-up; filtration.
Filters are a big category with two major ways of looking at them, by type and how they work. Let's do both. First of all some filter basics review. Filters of any sort are designed to selectively remove and leave something's in a system. We want to take out livestock wastes, but add oxygen. We want to eliminate particulate matter by serving it out, but not our fishes! There are lots of ways to do these things; basically it comes down to how much time, money, general resource a person wants to put in versus the degree of cleanliness desired and required. The best available, most appropriate filtration system will get you the most trouble-free, low input of time and money in the long run.
Biological filtration is a must. Unless you have an "open" system with continuous flow through of "new" clean seawater, you will be re-circulating your "closed" system's aquatic medium along with livestock wastes and uneaten food. These materials are toxic to your fishes and invertebrates unless expediently converted to less noxious materials and/or filtered out. This is the realm of biological filtration for most of us; circulating system water through a matrix/substrate housing beneficial nutrient-cycling bacteria.
The simplest of these bio-filters are air-driven box or foam filters; these are appropriate technology for treatment/quarantine tanks with small, temporary loads and a need for flexibility in filter media use.
Undergravel filters go... under the gravel! These time-tested war-horses are powered by air and/or powerheads that draw or push the water through the substrate, trapping particles and "speeding-up" biological filtration. Undergravel filters are not a necessity for successful marine aquarium keeping; there are whole countries of aquarists that rarely use them. Should you be a U/G proponent make sure yours covers as much of the systems' base as you can, utilize large air-lifts, stones, power-heads to maximize flow, and be diligent in vacuuming your substrate.
Biological filtering action is not confined to the above modes. Any suitable medium with the system's water passing over it will sponsor bacteria populations and conversion to some extent. I do not like to rely on just undergravel or any one type of filtration for this vital function, so I urge you to utilize a power filter of some kind in conjunction with undergravel, or two types of power filtration if you elect to skip undergravel.
CONT)
You will be amazed at how much you will quickly learn... and be relating to friends and family that are astonished at "your creation".
Don't be overwhelmed by all the new ideas and information presented here and with your new products. All that dry-goods assortment at the dealer's comes with accompanying literature spelling out their use for particular applications.
This Section Heading will offer you the very basics of all marine system's set-up; the use of the common elements to every kind of salt aquarium. The following sub-Sections will delve into the particulars of the most popular specialties of the hobby, the fish-only, fishes and invertebrates, reef set-ups et cetera.
This is a very careful arrangement of presentation, and one that you should bear in mind while reading. As you progress in reading about these marine system variations, you will find a definite shift in "difficulty", or better put, a narrowing tolerance to poor or varying environmental quality. Obviously all types of systems have a fluid-filled box, the aquarium, in common. Reef systems have more stringent requirements of water quality and lighting, and the smaller the reef system the more exacting the water quality concerns.
It is a fact that about ninety percent of "fish keepers" in the U.S. are really goldfish bowl, or other plastic "death-trap" aquarists. The remaining ten percent have "real tanks" with "real" filtration. Approximately ten percent of those "aquarium aquarists" are marine types, so we're now down to one percent of the total. The various sub-specialties of marine aquarium keeping are probably like those of freshwater; most are fishes-only set-ups, some with added invertebrates, grading into "true" reef systems of one sort and another. Thus our order of presenting the set-up of all these different and increasingly more "demanding, or difficult" arrangements.
Most aquarists I've met who have "been there, done that", agree, "It is better to try your hand at freshwater first, and then a fish-only marine set-up, before embarking on a cosmopolitan algae/live-rock/invertebrate/fishes system". I likewise encourage you to take your time "earning your dues" by practicing on "more forgiving" types of systems. When we meet, years from now, I want to hear you say, "Thanks for the help in your writing; I became a life-long aquarist as a consequence of the approach in your book". Ahhh.
Let's journey together through these various components:
Tanks:
There are two general varieties, plastic (acrylic) and glass (with silicon rubber seams. Some important considerations: They are heavy when set-up and filled; about ten pounds per gallon! Therefore it is important that aquariums be placed on something substantially strong. Another factor is that this "stand" be flat and planar. For these reasons Aquarium manufacturers will generally warrant their products only if they are placed on certified Aquarium Stands.
You should be encouraged to purchase the largest system possible/practical. The bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain, the more stable an environment it will provide, and the more flexible it will be for stocking and decorating. Remember that small displacement engine motorcycle, and hard-drive on your first PC? The bigger, the better. For saltwater systems you need forty gallons minimum for ensuring stability and adequate "cruising" space.
The aquarium should be placed in an area where there is minimized environmental fluctuation; away from windows, heaters, etc. Being in the line of frequent foot traffic is no problem; the livestock will quickly adjust and respond.
Before setting up your tank it should be cleaned with appropriate tools and materials. Soaps, detergents and ammoniated cleaners are toxic to aquatic life, and should never be used in or around the system. Many "sponges", paper and cloth towels ar abrasive for acrylic aquariums. Lemon oil and other preparations are fine for use on stands and surrounding woodwork; alcohol and ammonia-based cleaners are not.
Lighting:
This is a very important part of aquarium keeping, functionally and for the appreciation of the hobbyist. Photo- quality, strength and duration need to be understood and properly controlled for optimum benefit. Aquarium systems are sold with and without lighting; an assortment of hoods, fixtures, lamps and conversion kits are available for fluorescent, halide, and other novel illumination.
Yes, you need artificial lighting; for your enjoyment and your livestock's health. Bo back to Section 3) B) for the theory of lighting types and what they'll do for you and your aquatic charges. For setting up, the important things to remember here are arranging to keep water out of your electrics, and possibly providing for venting waste heat from your light source/s so they don't overheat your system.
Please do over-plan for both these considerations. Make the hood/lighting receptacle so large and structurally secured that even a monkey swinging, jumping on top won't knock it into harm's way. How hot is hot? Stick your hand on the fixture's housing after it's been on for a while. Can you take the heat? Would it burn someone or something (like your home) if it came in contact?
Filters
Where are we at so far? You've got your clean tank and stand situated, making sure the floor will take the weight and leave the whole system level and planar. You're lighting's ready to go with a fool-proof restraint and ventilation. Next is the most confusing, least understood area of setting-up; filtration.
Filters are a big category with two major ways of looking at them, by type and how they work. Let's do both. First of all some filter basics review. Filters of any sort are designed to selectively remove and leave something's in a system. We want to take out livestock wastes, but add oxygen. We want to eliminate particulate matter by serving it out, but not our fishes! There are lots of ways to do these things; basically it comes down to how much time, money, general resource a person wants to put in versus the degree of cleanliness desired and required. The best available, most appropriate filtration system will get you the most trouble-free, low input of time and money in the long run.
Biological filtration is a must. Unless you have an "open" system with continuous flow through of "new" clean seawater, you will be re-circulating your "closed" system's aquatic medium along with livestock wastes and uneaten food. These materials are toxic to your fishes and invertebrates unless expediently converted to less noxious materials and/or filtered out. This is the realm of biological filtration for most of us; circulating system water through a matrix/substrate housing beneficial nutrient-cycling bacteria.
The simplest of these bio-filters are air-driven box or foam filters; these are appropriate technology for treatment/quarantine tanks with small, temporary loads and a need for flexibility in filter media use.
Undergravel filters go... under the gravel! These time-tested war-horses are powered by air and/or powerheads that draw or push the water through the substrate, trapping particles and "speeding-up" biological filtration. Undergravel filters are not a necessity for successful marine aquarium keeping; there are whole countries of aquarists that rarely use them. Should you be a U/G proponent make sure yours covers as much of the systems' base as you can, utilize large air-lifts, stones, power-heads to maximize flow, and be diligent in vacuuming your substrate.
Biological filtering action is not confined to the above modes. Any suitable medium with the system's water passing over it will sponsor bacteria populations and conversion to some extent. I do not like to rely on just undergravel or any one type of filtration for this vital function, so I urge you to utilize a power filter of some kind in conjunction with undergravel, or two types of power filtration if you elect to skip undergravel.
CONT)