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Most marine systems are set up to house tropical livestock, which means that attention has to be given to maintaining a moderately high seawater temperature
…..I need a very basic list of needs for the basic marine system There are a lot of individual items about setting up a marine aquarium in the blog and article areas on this website, but nevertheless flicking around locating topics for a beginner who has little idea of the basics could be confusing. So an ‘in a nutshell’ list could be of help. We’re told it will be anyway, so here goes! Remember this is basic. At the end I’ve put article locations which could be of use.
Most aquarists are dictated to by circumstance. There is a really big aquarium, at a really good price, but one rather definite problem, and that is there’s nowhere to put it. So a smaller aquarium is chosen, but not by choice. However, even in the described circumstances, a smaller aquarium could be the one of choice.
Please note that these are guideline numbers (apart from toxic items such as ammonia) - I can hear aquarists saying that theirs is different and their reef is fantastic!
I thought I’d jot down what I consider to be the five major sins of a marine aquarist, be that for a reef tank or a fish only tank. They are not in any particular order. The list is not just aimed at beginners to the hobby who are just starting a saltwater aquarium but at aquarists of any level.
Obtaining a new aquarium is exciting. The aquarist becomes immersed in it (no pun intended!) considering aquarium equipment, fish, and corals etc. There is a clear vision of a beautiful healthy reef tank which is stunning to see. With proper planning this can all become reality. The cost of setting up a marine aquarium system is not low, but in time the investment will pay dividends in enjoyment. Or will it?
This syndrome isn’t ‘new’ as the name might suggest. It has been around for many years. However, its incident rate has much reduced over recent years but the danger is still present. ‘New Tank Syndrome’ (NTS) is a catastrophic failure of a newly set up marine aquarium system. This failure is caused by the aquarist, assuming that the system set up is adequate and correct. If the system is inadequate in some way then it is possible that it will fail, but this is not NTS. It is simply poor research and implementation.
For once this is not a mistake of a beginner aquarist. This time it is the aquarist who has been ‘at it’ for a good while. A time period cannot be placed on the problem or its likely occurrence. It could appear after months or a couple of years. More likely it will be longer than that. At the other end, ‘New Tank Syndrome’ is a beginner’s mistake. The aquarium of whatever type was set up and the novice, itching with impatience, started to stock too early. Perhaps the bio-filtration was matured reasonably, but then stocking was too rapid and problems, or even disaster struck.
In Part 1 a fish only aquarium will be covered. In Part 2 the reef aquarium will be looked at. It is assumed that the aquarium is fully set up with all necessary equipment running and checked, and the filtration is initially mature.
In Part 1 stocking a fish only aquarium was considered. This time the reef aquarium will be looked at. Whatever the type of salt water aquarium, fish only or reef, water quality is important. In the reef aquarium, water quality needs to be excellent. Again, it is assumed that the aquarium is fully set up with suitable equipment, and the biological filtration (probably a ‘live’ rock reef with maybe a sump containing further filtration) is settled and adequate.
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Amino Acids are quickly becoming one of the most popular additives to any serious reef keeper’s arsenal. There are many different reasons why they are being used and many why I suggest everyone should use them.
Many aquarist’s have been bit by the red bug, or the monti nudibranches or flatworms etc etc. In this article I will explain a few ways to prevent these mishaps.
As an aquarium professional I would like to discuss the pressure our hobby as put on the worlds reefs and what we can do to minimize damage. First and foremost we must promote responsible reef keeping by learning and researching these wild animals we wish to care for out of their natural environment. Management through collector and consumer education as well as captive farming and aquaculture we can make this hobby sustainable.
The seas and oceans cover the majority of the planet surface. Within those seas the wild reefs have grown and all of their needs are met, be that calcium or whatever
Most marine systems are set up to house tropical livestock, which means that attention has to be given to maintaining a moderately high seawater temperature
…..I need a very basic list of needs for the basic marine system There are a lot of individual items about setting up a marine aquarium in the blog and article areas on this website, but nevertheless flicking around locating topics for a beginner who has little idea of the basics could be confusing. So an ‘in a nutshell’ list could be of help. We’re told it will be anyway, so here goes! Remember this is basic. At the end I’ve put article locations which could be of use.
Whatever type of marine system is kept lighting is important. With a fish only aquarium the fish need a day cycle and of course need to see where they are going.
Disease in the aquarium is one of the main fears of aquarists. Once the presence of a disease is known the aquarist’s stress level shoots up and quite understandably so – at the worst there could be a full aquarium wipe-out.
These lovely and strange life forms are very endearing and become a household pet very easily. Children in particular seem to be fascinated by them. The care of seahorses is not to be undertaken lightly. They need very similar maintenance to a fish only marine system, so the requirement to carry out maintenance regularly needs to be accepted.
There is understandably great fascination with some anemones, mainly because of their well known association with clownfish. Seeing these colourful little fish nestling in among what are normally dangerous tentacles is amazing.
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Many reef aquarists see hard corals as the height of achievement and the closest thing to a real coral reef in captivity. This isn’t quite true of course, as parts of coral reefs are dominated by soft corals. Nevertheless, a hard coral reef can be very beautiful, and if the aquarist has selected the corals for shape and colour carefully it makes a stunning picture. The very first requirement for a successful hard coral reef is seawater quality - it must be high and consistently so. This includes the necessary levels of calcium, alkalinity etc. Water movement must also be appropriate, and hard corals generally prefer considerable movement, more so, again in general, than the soft corals.
Keeping a seawater aquarium nowadays is a generally straightforward affair. Provided the design and setting up is satisfactory and the aquarist does the necessary periodic maintenance properly, the aquarium will give pleasure for a long period.
The provision of light to a reef tank is a very important aspect and is only second to that of water quality. However providing lighting is not just about purchasing a [tag-tec]metal halide[/tag-tec], fluorescent tubes etc and placing them above the aquarium. We need to think about colour.
Calcium is a building block on the reef and is essential. Many corals, invertebrates etc depend on it. Let’s discuss parameters first, then look at how calcium can be provided. It is generally accepted that in a home marine reef aquarium a calcium reading between 350ppm and 450ppm is acceptable. A calcium level in the aquarium which is higher than 550ppm will normally precipitate out of solution. This means the water becomes calcium saturated and no more can be held. Because of the water being saturated the calcium forms calcium carbonate. This is not a state of affairs that we realistically want.
A deep sand bed is probably one of the most common additions to live rock filtration utilised within the marine aquarist world at the moment. The other is called a plenum which I will cover in a future post. A lot has been discovered over the years in relation to sand beds perhaps the biggest of which is the importance of the sand particle size and the depth of the bed. Let’s concentrate on the sand particle size first of all.
Aquarists can use a small arsenal of tests to assure themselves that the seawater quality in their fish only aquariums or reef aquariums is high enough. One of these tests is carried out using a hydrometer.
Seahorses come in different types and they are all endearing, interesting and super to keep. In the wild they are, unfortunately, under intense pressure from collection. They are gathered by the millions; some are for the aquarium hobby but most are for alleged medicinal purposes or dried souvenirs.
Whatever type of marine system is kept lighting is important. With a fish only aquarium the fish need a day cycle and of course need to see where they are going.
When I constructed my aquarium cabinet out of pine great pains were taken for strength and accuracy. An aquarium full of seawater, rocks and sand is very heavy. Improper construction could leave to a very unwanted disaster.
The questions that arise about algae seem continuous, particularly those algae types that are considered a nuisance. New aquarists running a fish only aquarium or a reef aquarium can be subjected to the displeasure of nuisance algae, and the methods of dealing with the problem are all basically the same with small variations.