How difficult is it to set up and maintain a salt water aquarium?

If youve been keeping freshwater for a while, the saltwater switch is intimidating. I kept freshwater for about 7 years, and I finally switched. Let me tell you. lmao. Im disappointed I didnt switch over ealier.

As long as you research everything, and do it right the first time, everything will go smoothly. The problems come when you do something wrong, and have to try to fix it, only to make it worse. You just need to keep up on water changes though. Saltwater creatures are generally very sensitive to bad water. You are probably better off buying test kits as someone mentioned above for just about everything. That way if something starts looking bad, you can test and find out whats going on.

The big difference is cost. Youll need a protein skimmer, which is between 50-200 bucks depending on your size of tank. Youll need a powerhead or two, which each one would be 40-150 bucks. Youll need between 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon, and that costs between 4.99-6.99 a pound.

March 13th, 2010 at 5:36 am | Comments & Trackbacks (4) | Permalink

Episode 81 pt1,The Jackson Hole WY Reef Tank, LA Fishguys

Lets go to Wyoming in the eighty first episode of LA Fishguys as Jim Stime of Aquarium Design in Thousand Oaks CALIF., starts operation of a 280 gallon coral reef tank and then adds 500 pounds of live rock to it.

Duration : 0:12:24

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Technorati Tags: aquarium, coral, fish, Guy, LA, reef, Wyoming

March 12th, 2010 at 4:36 am | Comments & Trackbacks (25) | Permalink

Quick Saltwater Tank Setup

A quick way to set up ur salt water tank

Duration : 0:7:37

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Technorati Tags: arielburgos84, quick setup, salt water fish, Salt Water Tank

March 12th, 2010 at 4:36 am | Comments & Trackbacks (5) | Permalink

Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite Version 1 saltwater aquarium controller

Unboxing and connecting the Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite Version 1 controller for the saltwater tank. The package contains a controller head, RKM-PC4 power controller, and iTemp temperature probe. Video brought to you by HighTechReef.net

Please go easy on me. This is the very first attempt at any kind of video production.

Keep your marine fish healthy and happy.

Duration : 0:6:23

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Technorati Tags: aquarium, Aquatics, digital, hightechreef, hightechreef.net, iTemp, Lite, marine, ReefKeeper, RKM-PC4, saltware, Version

March 12th, 2010 at 4:36 am | Comments & Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Should i get a T5 lighting or a metal halide for my saltwater reef tank?

I have a 75 gallon bow front saltwater aquarium. I’m planning to start a reef tank. Should I get a T5 or a metal halide? I heard that T5 is fine for the height of my tank plus a metal halide tank is pretty expensive. Any suggestions?
If I get T5 lighting will I be able to keep many varieties of corals/clams or only a few since it is not as strong as metal Halide?

A 75g bow front is pretty deep and although T5 will work, the PAR available at the bottom of the tank is not going to equal that of the metal halide.

If you have room to put the halides about 8 inches off of the surface of your tank then the heat will not really be an issue and may remove the need for you to run a heater as long as you have adequate flow (20x the total volume including the sump).

The halide bulbs are expensive vs. the T5 but 8 T5 bulbs vs. 1 halide bulb? The costs are not that far apart after doing the math.

They both require ballasts to run so you really are better off in my opinion to run the metal halides. You can get a 250w pendant style halide unit with ballast and a bulb used in the hobbyist selling forum of http://www.reefcentral.com for about 150.00 so they are not that expensive plus with 250w halide over your tank, you can keep any type of coral/clam that you want.

I would look into an LED fixture before making my decision. They are low heat, low power consumption, no bulbs to replace for about 10 years or more, etc, etc, etc.

March 11th, 2010 at 8:36 am | Comments & Trackbacks (5) | Permalink

Clownfish and Anemone dominated tank reef aquarium

27 clownfishes in a 210 gallon reef tank with rose and green anemones and ritteri aka h. magnifica anemene. Two have paired up and are laying eggs next to the magnifica anemone.