You’re probably tired of my rant about trackpoints… :lol:…
But for those of you who are interested, this is how to start/run a marine tank.
There are 2 paths: 1, an all-in-one, an aquapod or its ilk: will handle gobies and blennies, hermits; or—2 percula or skunk clowns (NOT the red clowns!) and a small anemone. If gobies and blennies and no anemone, no clowns, you can do leather corals, button corals, or mushrooms, even stony bubble coral.
Advantages: portability: draw the water down to 1/3 (saving water) and you can schlep it to another place in your arms. 29 gallons. About 50 sloshy pounds when 1/3 watered. Some take their tanks to my fish store to be tended while they’re on vacation. If you have a smart friend, you can get a fish-sitter, and save yourself the schlep.
Path 2: get a 50 plus gallons tank and 30 gallon sump (belowdecks tank): for just fish: get a) skimmer (2x the gallonage rating of your system-size: system-size=tank plus sump volume); b)a main (return) pump, and c) a ro/di filter to produce pure water; D) Lighting: just any light is ok. There is no filter changing on a marine tank: just dump the skimmer cup every few days. You need an autotopoff (a small float switch, extra bucket of fresh water, ca 5 gallons or more) to keep your salinity from increasing. Having sand or not is your choice. You need 1 lb live rock for every gallon of water. And if you want to raise your own food, put some cheatomorpha moss in the sump and light it 24/7. Tiny things will live there, go through the return pump, into your tank, and the fish will eat them.
If you want corals: get: a tank as per above, with live rock (or enliven your own, with 1 small rock and some patience); What’s different for corals: A) get proper lighting for the kind of coral you want (softies v. stony) and B) have (for softies: a test kit for alkalinity: for stony, test for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium). To supplement/feed your corals, use hand-dosing of these 3 chemicals to set the balance where you want it (takes a few days): then drop a measure of Mrs. Wages’ Pickling Lime in the topoff bucket, lid it tightly, and keep adding fresh water to that bucket whenever it runs low. This can mean no messing with chemistry for a month or so, once the Lime system is running. Lights must be on a timer; temp must be steady at 80 degrees; chemistry must be constant (LimeWater); and beyond that, just sit back and enjoy, dumping your skimmer cup when it fills. Beyond that, no maintenance except weekly draw off 10% of water and add new-mixed saltwater (based on ro/di).
Ie, it’s not as hard as it’s made out to be: I find it a lot less work than freshwater, though you do have to be ‘on’ with your chemistry, and a logbook and weekly check is a good idea. Beyond that, you feed your fish, fish poo, the proper spectrum of light, and the addition of limewater feeds the corals, the live rock digests what waste you filter out in your freshwater system, and renders it into nitrogen gas, which goes up in bubbles and disappears.
My tank runs biologically hot, between a 4″ live sandbed in the sump, the green weed down there, 80 lbs of live rock, various worms and hermit crabs and snails: if a 4″ fish died this hour (they don’t) it would be bones by morning and gone, unfindable, in 2 days. The ultimate in recycling, because dead stuff becomes chemicals, which feed the corals, or froths into foam in the skimmer. Period. No filter, no filter changes. No lid: I need cooling rather than heating. I have a 9″ fake rim above that supports my lights and prevents fish jumping out.
That’s it. I check the chemistry every 2 weeks, and I drilled a hole through to the basement, where I have the noisy pump, the sump, the skimmer, etc, and do my tests. It’s a mad scientist’s workshop down there, including the 32 gallon trashcan (Rubbermaid) that supplies freshwater and lime to my tank—meaning I only have to intervene in that system every 2 months for a little wash-out and more lime powder. Beyond that, I do water changes, feed the fish, add more fresh water every 15 days, and that’s that.
For the curious—it’s pretty easy if you keep that logbook and write down what you measured and what you did. OSG is very good about coming in and testing and adding during the times I’m gone. It is noisy: you have to like the sound of gurgling water and (unless you have a basement sump) the pump noise. I happen to find it restful.
Thank you, CJ! My wife and I want to get a salt water tank eventually, and we’ll be sure refer back to this blog when we do
that sounds quite as technically complicated as running my ceramics practice – getting the right clay, mixing glazes, firing stoneware reduction with a gas kiln (no auto controls – I keep a log book) plus you can’t stop doing it and have a month in Spain ……..
Lol! The main thing I would advise, just me, is: get at least a 75 gallon tank, and I’d prefer a corner wedge (cheaper on the lights, which are a major expense). You’re not as restricted in livestock, and it won’t break the bank stocking it, but it’s not so small you have to stick strictly to the tiny guys.
You make it sound elegantly simple. But I’m the fool that washed out the first freshwater tank with soap, which of course did in the first batch of goldfish. The children have never let me forget this.
You have to treat it as a bio lab, not even allowing a net that has been in contact with sink water to touch the water that goes into your marine tank.
If you run an open-top tank, how do you keep furry paws out of it? My little Rana-cat was quite fond of watching the fish tank, and she’s quite the hunter, so I’m worried that if I try an open tank, I will find a cat in it.
curiously enough, our cats couldn’t care less about the tank—but some cats are problems with fish. A 9″ false rim would help, but I also know one marine hobbyist who had to fish cat fur out of his skimmer! Not to mention having to give the cat a hosedown to get rid of the salt. The cat was outraged. The fish were annoyed but uneaten. It probably didn’t help the rockwork to have a cats skinny dipping.
totally off topic from tanks & kitties & fishies (oh my)……. are you updating the word count on the current manuscript somewhere for those who need to know HOW long one must further defer gratification (of the reading variety)? thanks in advance…..
Honestly, I’ve only been making about 300 words a day if that for the last week or so, but tomorrow I bear down and get going. I’ll let you know tomorrow where I am.
I tried to post to this thread when at Worldcon but my post was eaten as surely as the proverbial dead 4″ fish cited above.
Anyway, keeping a logbook is essential. When fish-sitting, I haven’t a clue, really, about what I’m doing. But, I am good about running the chemistries and checking other parameters. I then simply phone Carolyn daily with the latest test results, and she tells me what to do next (throw in a cup of buffer or whatever chemical she instructs). As she is sometimes out of cell phone range we’ve agreed if I can’t contact her that I can simply post on a salt water aquarium forum for guidance. Having someone you can turn to is crucial for success, IMHO, as things seem to happen that aren’t in the books. At least, they seem to happen to *me*.
I feel compelled to relate one anecdote, from MidSouthCon 2009: during my daily phone call reporting the latest chemistries our cell phone connection seemed TERRIBLE. I had a HORRIBLE time understanding ANYTHING Carolyn said, so would simply repeat my questions, shouting into the phone louder & louder each time. Carolyn would reply but I STILL couldn’t understand a word she said, so would then re-shout the chemistry results and tank status update (“Nothing is floating upside down!”)
Despairingly, I finally hung up. Later, I learned what the “connection problem” was: Carolyn was on a panel — and every word of our call was being broadcast on the overhead speakers to the entire room. Auuuggghhh!
Lol!
“Nothing is floating upside down!” is guaranteed to get a laugh.