saltwater tank thought

[evan938]

so seeing in seans thread that we have quite a few aquarium people here, i want to get some ideas

i have this 30 gallon tank, maybe 10-11 fish in it (mollies, guppies, couple other fish), and its going smooth

but every time i see something about tanks online, i see these AWESOME looking saltwater setups, and i keep thinking i want to do one

only thing is, i guess im on the fringe about trying to set one up...

for those who have saltwater set ups, and can push me in a direction, i want to find out what i would be looking to spend to get it set up

i know the basics, stand/tank, i think im gonna go with a 55 or 75 gallon (i hear you dont want to do it with anything less than a 30...keeps it easier to keep chemical levels in check), whatever i can find the best deal on...but what about chemicals, live rock, filtration, pumps, fish (are there some cheap ones i can get to set up the tank and make sure its running good before putting good fish into it), etc etc

im thinking of clearing out most of our 2nd bedroom, which right now consist of a bunch of junk we dont use, such as my g/fs bed from her parents house, her tv cabinet that just sits there, and making it into an actual office for just my desk and a bad *** fish tank

[yamaha]

We used to have saltwater tanks. Be prepared to spend atleast 800-1,200 dollars to set it up properly. The prices of equipment is crazy, and the upkeep is almost as bad. Be far warned, if your not good with daily upkeep, go with a freshwater setup.

[evan938]

i have the freshwater, im just bored with it. i cant find any cool fish (have looked at multiple pet stores and strictly fish stores in town), and the FW fish just dont look cool

id love to have a tank with 4-5 of some REALLY colorful, big fish, and a bad *** live rock setup

[SWortham]

We have aquarium people here?
http://www.vfxtalk.com/feature/images/feature_0504_tippett/hellboy.vfxtalk.as5.3.final.jpg

[hyunelan2]

I'll say this once about saltwater - get a second job. There are 3 of us here at work who are big on fish tanks. We all have planted tanks. One guy used to have saltwater, but said it cost too much and took too much time to keep it perfect. My boss is starting up a small reef tank (it's a 15g with a 10g sump/refugium). +$300 alone, just for the proper lighting, +$100 for 2 corals, $75 for live rock.... he doesn't even have fish yet and is over $500.

It's cheaper if you do a FOWLR tank (fish only with live rock), but still not cheap at all. The cheapest SW fish you'll find are going to be at least $6, but of course whatever you decide you want will cost more. Fish need more room too, vs. a freshwater tank, so you can have fewer in that 30g. Everything is more picky... perfect water flow, multiple timer controlled powerheads, constant salinity checking, making sure the tank is topped-off (if you have X salt divided by Y water = salinity. If you remove Y water through evaporation, salinity increases and things can die), uber-lots of actinic/10,000K lighting. It's just not worth it until you're an old man with lots of time/money/loneliness to spend on the tank.



Stay with freshwater. There are colorful fish out there, you probably just need to get beyond petsmart. Mbuna Cichlids are awesome for color, and you could put a few into that 30g. Rainbowfish are another (and less picky) choice. Killifish also show brilliant colors. Here's some decent pictures of rainbowfish for sale at an online store, so you can see what kinds of colors are out there: http://www.thatfishshop.com/rainbowroom.html

If the fish aren't enough to hold your interest, a good 1/2 way step between freshwater and saltwater is a planted freshwater tank. They require more maintenance and care, but give you that extra dimension in your tank.

Here is actually a picture I just took about an hour ago of the tank I replanted last night (I wanted to change some of the kinds of plants I had). About 1/2 of the plants in this picture are new, 1/2 were from before that I kept. Also in the picture are Rainbowfish and Clown Loaches.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/fish/Ftank080907_002Medium.jpg

Here's a blurry full-on shot of the tank. It is a 46g bowfront (3' wide).
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/fish/Ftank080907_001Medium.jpg



EDIT:

Also wanted to add: Rainbowfish, and a lot of other fish, look like crap in the pet/fish store. They are stressed, cramped, in a display tank (rather than a tank they would be comfortable in), and have been moved around a lot. They will be pale and not showing their true colors. I have bought Red Irian rainbows before and they were completely yellow (I actually thought I had purchased yellow rainbows). The next morning, after they had acclimated to their new home, they were bright red and the colors only intensified. Chichlids are similar, in that they can change their colors according to happiness. Look up some internet pictures of the fish you want, then set out for those - instead of shopping by appearance at the pet/fish store.

[evan938]

ive been beyond petsmart for fish...we have a place here called jacks aquarium, which is "ok" for fish, still nothing more than small, mainly colorless fish, and then we have this pimp place called aquarium adventures...i still cant really find anything i like...going into this place is like going into a zoo. they sell fish and aquarium supplies, but they also do those insane complicated tanks that are 1000 gallon + for sharks, custom made for a room

maybe im just bored with the color scheme, or maybe i would just be happier with a bigger tank and more fish

i know the pump i got for the UGF and the bubble wand is for a 60 gallon tank, and the filter my dad gave me is for a 70ish, so i can save some coin there

when i get home tonight (or maybe while im still at work doing nothing but wasting time until my last day) ill see if i can find any cool looking freshwater set ups i would like to duplicate

sorry - mike, im assuming you posted a picture, but i cant see it here at work. ill check it out when i get home.

seeing your other tank pictures though, im sure it looks good

[hyunelan2]

Look at some of the pictures at this site, if you can see them. Good looking rainbows & plants. (I mention rainbows a lot, just because that's what I keep, but there are others too).

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/favpics.htm

As for reusing equipment, I'm not a SW person, but I don't think you want to use a UGF setup in a SW tank. Most successful tanks have another tank "under" the cabinet or stand, with overflows drilled into the top tank and water flows between the two. The bottom tank takes care of the filtration, via live rock and macro algae. Mechanical filtering isn't done as much with SW as FW. It's a whole different ballgame.

... And here's some non-photobucket pictures of Mbuna cichlids. A friend of mine has a 110g, and 2x 55g tanks full of these. They are awesome!

http://www.african-cichlid.com/MysteryMbunaD.jpg
http://www.nswcs.org.au/AOV_Mbuna(1st).jpg
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquarium/150102mbuna.jpg

[ghrpdx]

I'd stay with fresh water and find a store that sells healthy African Cichlids. They are colorful, active, and tough.

[evan938]

are they aggressive? will they only survive in a tank with other chiclids?

better yet, what do they eat?

[ghrpdx]

African Cichlids are aggressive. That's what makes it FUN! You are best to keep the tank as a community of cichlids if that's the route you take.

I fed mine blood worms. They sell freeze dried cubes that you just press to the side of the glass and let them go to town. Every so often, I'd treat them to live blood worms. Talk about a frenzy in the tank. They are so awesome to watch. They are omnivores so they will munch on plant matter as well.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/images/SunshinePeacockWFCiaf_C1445.jpg

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/images/RedRubinPeacockWFCiaf_Ap18BM.jpg

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/images/AulonocaraFortMaguireWFCiaf_Ap18BM.jpg

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/images/NkhomoBengaPeacockWFCiaf_Ap18BM.jpg

[hyunelan2]

Those Mbuna's that I posted above are a type of African Cichlids from Lake Malawi. Not as aggressive as Tanganyikans or Victorians. Every once in a while, there will be one that wants to own the tank, and he'll take over, but generally they won't harm each other.

When small they eat flakes. As they grow, switch to pellets. There's TONS of info on the internet about Cichlids.

[SuperGLS]

Sounds expensive. You gotta concentrate your money spending, not expand it.

[Usernamekane]

Well, if this thread isn't dead and abondoned...

I've been doing this for a while, longer than I've had my XD2 anyways...checkout reefcentral.com, i got the same username there too. Yeah, you can switch back and forth between salt, brackish, and fresh water with the same setup. All i did when i swicthed from fresh to saltwater was add a Venturi brand PROTEIN SKIMMER. That's really all ya need, and tank size matters not, given you only introduce a bioload(fish crap) thats suitable for that size(1 inch of fish total fish length/2 gallons of tank water). The under-tank thing, called a sump, mentioned is (mainly) to increase that volume so you can cram more pretty fishies in a small box.
My suggestion- go out and get sea salt from any petstore. 15 bux. Get a 10 dollar hydrometer. Add the salt, let it run for a couple days to get the nitrogen cycle going, then go to a NON-FRANCHISE fish store, and get a couple of damsels(5 bux). Damsels are damn near indestructable. When the water starts to turn yellow or cloudy white, start to either: change out 10% of the water a week(with saltwater, remember!), or look for a protein skimmer. Good luck. What the hell am I still typing for, nobody will ever see this...