How clean is "normal"?

K

Kliman01

Reefing newb
Hi, everybody

Firstly, great forum! It's really nice to see everybody being so friendly and helpful. I tend to join forums for anything that interests me, and I have to say the aquarium community (both you guys and the freshwater forums) are some of the nicest people I've seen on the interwebs.

Anyway...I'm new to the saltwater "scene". I have a couple of freshwater tanks running at my house (biggest being a 125G cichlid), and I'm very interested in adding a marine tank to the mix. I've been reading like crazy for the last couple of weeks, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm in for as far as what's involved and being on top of water quality, etc....but I do have a question that remains unanswered despite my reading...

How clean are marine tanks normally? In freshwater, it's perfectly normal to have an almost spotless tank with crystal clear water and still have happy healthy fish. Nearly every marine tank I see has stuff floating around in the water all the time (which I could deal with), and all kinds of dirt in the substrate and all over the glass. Is that normal? Is there anything that can be done to keep the tank looking a little cleaner? It's really the only thing left that's putting me "off" the marine fishkeeping...

Thanks!
 
The reason why you see alot of debris floating around is because a lot of people tend to use natural filtration methods. IE live rock and skimmers. You can decrease this by using a filter sock on an overflow. Also, in saltwater especially reefs, you use stonger lights than on a fresh water tank. So the algea tends to grow a bit better. Also, there isnt a salt water pleco you can throw in to eat all the algea:mrgreen: But there are inverts that do help.

BTW welcome to saltwater and the forums
 
I've never had freshwater fish. But what I can tell you is some people keep them very clean, some people don't..I guess it's just like everything else in life..If properly cared for, they can look spotless.

The substrate that you saw on the glass may have been coraline algae. Reefers like it alot. Some will choose to keep it on 3 sides of the tank, 2 side of the tank (back), and others like me, scrape it off.

Bottom line, if you want your tank to look spotless, with a little work and care you can keep it looking that way.
 
As tanks mature, they tend to become more cleaner. Usually older tanks have much less algae and are cleaner-looking than new tanks, because new tanks usually go through a cycle of several different types of algae.
 
My tank goes through phases -- sometimes it's crystal clear, sometimes it is "foggy".

I had a 10g freshwater tank for years. If I kept up with maintenance, it was nice and clear. If I slack off and ignore it for a while except for top-offs, yeah, it got pretty ugly in there.

I'm pretty much the same in my 125g. I go through bursts of just doing EVERYTHING to my tank, then bursts when I ignore it except to feed the fish and stare are the fish (like right now hehehe).
 
Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you. Your tank will be as clean as you want it, just like fw tanks. You have to just put in the work. :)
 
Welcome to the site! +1 To what everyone else said. It's really not that hard to have a "clean" tank with a little weekly maintenance.
 
Welcome to the site.
Another reason you see some suspended particles in reef tanks is because of the filter feeders.Thats what they eat and they are a part of having a reef tank.
 
Thanks for all the feedback everybody! Wow.

As I'm still just wrapping my head around all of this...if I do a FOWLR tank is it more "acceptable" to scrub the water clean with a HOB or canister filter? It makes sense that a tank with live coral would need things to eat...

Anyway, this tank is going to be more on display than any of my others, so I really do want it crystal clear most of the time. If that means it makes more sense for me to stick with fresh water, so be it...but if I can make it happen with marine (with more work, obviously), that would be ideal!

coolhandgoose...nice to know I'm not alone around here. I've heard Gold Aquarium on 17th ave is really the best place to shop. Do you know if there's something of an insider marketplace for used gear around?
 
its not unacceptable to run a HOB or a canister even with a tank that has corals in it. you just really have to keep up on the maintenance and rinse them compulsively or they will become nitrate factories.
 
Yeah, the absolute best place is on www.canreef.com Check out the buy/sell/trade section you'll find tons of people getting out of the hobby trying to sell stuff, sometimes there's even free stuff if you're quick on the computer.

I've never been to Gold's but I've heard it's good. The best store in Calgary is probably Red Coral Aquariums. I like Elite Aquatics also since I really like the owner, and he's pretty good about not selling you fish that aren't compatible. He's working on getting some frag tanks up and running right now as well, which will put him up there with Red Coral which has amazing frag tanks.
 
My main DT is amazingly clean, it has little bits of algae in places where my scraper cant go but i clean them once every couple of weeks with a razor blade. The next thing is, it is good to have things floating in the tank, a lot of it is living and food for your tank, so dont be discouraged by that.
 
May I be so bold as to ask: Why the obsession with having perfectly clear water? That is really the one thing that is holding you back from starting a tank? Shit floats around in the ocean. Shit floats around in our tanks. :lol:
 
hahaha biff does have a point, but honestly even with the shit floating around, a reef tank generally does get more attention than fresh due to the huge amounts of life that accommodate it. So it is a good idea to get one of these if you can keep on top of water changes and do a general cleaning of the glass every 2 days with a mag float.
 
Biff, you've just made me more comfortable with my tank.

With the position of my tank, you can't really tell most of the time what's going on with the back wall of my tank. For that reason I don't worry too much.
 
It's not really so much about the stuff floating around in the tank (although, crystal clear is nice there too)...it's the growth I see all over the glass at the LFS. I asked the somewhat knowledgeable kid that worked there if that was normal, and he's the one that told me it was unavoidable...figured I better double check.
This thread has pretty much made my mind for me...90Gal marine setup, here I come!
 
If your meaning the coralline algae.Yeah,the kid is right.But it is a sign of a healthy system,so there are 2 ways of looking at it.
While I do hate that pink/purple plague,it lets me know that my tanks doing what it should be doing.
 
Keeping the glass clean is pretty easy with a MagFloat magnet cleaner with an Easy Blade (razor) attachment. It just takes a little work.

Here's a tip though: When you get your tank, before you set it up, take it outside and spray paint the back of it. Most people use black or dark blue. This will make all the colors in your tank POP, and it will hide any wires/equipment/cables that hang down from your tank.
 
Yup...black was the plan. It will also make my black acylic overflow boxes "disappear" a little bit better.

Another question if I may...I come from the IT world (work-wise), and we always go pretty heavy on redundancy. Is it advisable to go for 2 seperate overflow boxes feeding the sump, with 2 seperate return pumps (2 small instead of 1 big), just to keep everything flowing better in case of equipment failure? Seems logical enough, but there might be reasons not to do that that I'm not aware of.

Thank again, everybody.
 

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