Lots of questions lol!

[crousseaux]

I am a complete noob with saltwater aquariums. and I have a lot of questions. Btw I don't plan on having a reef tank, but a fish only with live rock so I can easily move up to corals whenever.

1. What is the minimum tank size for a saltwater aquarium?
2. What type of filteration do I need? (canister, hang on the back, protein skimmer)
3. What kind of substrate?
4. Do i need pumps/power heads? If so, how powerful?
5. Any special lighting?
6. What should the ph value, gh, kh, temperature etc. be at?
7. Say if I get a 90 gallon tank, how many fish can I put in? (Vague question i know, but like is there a 1 inch per gallon rule or something?)
8. What are some good beginner fish species, and what to feed them?
9. How do you cure live rock?

I know its a lot of questions, but I appreciate it if you could answer them thoroughly.

 

[old 5k0ol]

1. There is no minimum. The smaller the system the harder to be successful. Bigger systems are more stable.
2.Your rock will primarily be doing your filtration. Powerheads move your water so that it may be filtered. Sumps under your tank with skimmers,refugiums, or scrubbers are more important with corals not so much with fish only.
3. Aragonite sand with maybe a little live sand.
4. Lowest turnover rate is probably 20x per hour. Depending on what size tank you have determines how much flow.
5. No special lighting for fish. Knowing how this hobby works you may save money preparing for corals ahead of time.
6. PH - 7.8 -8.3
kh - 8 - 12
temp - 78
7.Not sure off the top of my head, with more rock and more flow you can keep more fish though.
8. Clownfish, damsel. Frozen mysis shrimp.
9.I just bought pre-cured live rock. A lot of people will buy a few pounds of premium live rock and the rest dry and let it seed the dry rock in your tank.

 

[wontonflip]

+1 old 5k0ol....however, I'd avoid damsels like the plague if you plan on having other types of fish. Damsels are extremely hardy....but extremely mean. You will find them bully even aggressive fish to death. Clowns are good.

Also, the powerheads depend on your tank size, and larger tanks will need more than 1 (my 125g has 2, but I wouldn't mind one more). You don't need a pump unless you plan on having a sump or refugium.

 

[old 5k0ol]

Yea damsels suck in the long run. But, I have a Azure in my reef with lots of other fish and they're all fine. But it's not worth the risk. Catching fish in your aquascaped tank sucks.

 

[little_fish]

If you are going to do a FOWLR tank, i would go with as big a tank as you can get. Most of the cool fish you would want to keep in a FOWLR tank need 200+ gallons.

I would still get a good protein skimmer, your fish will be healthier if they are living in clean water.

You want 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon, but having more rock or more flow doesnt effect how many fish you can keep, because they doesnt change the amount of space they have to live in. I go by 1 small fish for every 10 gallons, so tangs, triggers, angels, ells etc will count for multiple fish.

Feeding a variety of different frozen foods is the spice of life and the key to good nutrition. If you have lots of herbivorous fish i would also feed a variety of different greens.

To cure rock is the same thing as cycling a tank. Drop in a piece of table shrimp, let it rock and the bacteria will establish themselves. Once the tank is cycled you can begin to add fish, but only one every 3 weeks so the bacteria can grow to handle the new bioload.

 

[crousseaux]

Thanks for the info guys. I would assume small fish would be at or less than 3 inches. Anyways this really helped me. I can't wait to get started with saltwater aquariums:bounce: