How much daily/weekly maintenance is needed for a Saltwater Reef Tank?
I am thinking about starting a 30-50 gallon Reef Tank soon. For those who have them, I want to ask.
How often do you clean it?
What kind of maintenance would I be looking at? And how often?
How much would I be looking at spending for maintenance-upkeep?
Assuming I already have coral, fish and all the equipment necessary for a Saltwater tank that is.
I have no idea what I am doing so I want to know first to see if I would like this.
Thanks
Im very happy to see that you didn’t just rush into this without asking. Reef tanks are the elite in fish tanks and they take a lot of care. First things first, you will need to cycle the tank for at least a month to build up the good bacteria. I personally use a eheim canister filter that is rated for twice my tank size. The cycling can be done with some live rock and a damsel. Next you can start slowly adding your fish. Make sure the fish are reef safe. Let the tank sit for about 3-6 months until coraline algae starts to build up. Coraline algae is a hard algae that is purplish. At this point you will need to invest in a protein skimmer, and not the cheapest one you can find. After that you can start to add you coral. Make sure you do your research on the coral. You need to know what its lighting needs, current needs, and feeding needs are. I suggest T5 HO lighting, and power heads. As far as maintenance goes, you will need to do reef treatments. You can buy sets of these from petco. You will need a saltwater test kit and a reef test kit. If you build the reef the right way, the chemicals will not be too expensive. You will need to do a 20% water change every week and test the water.
I don’t own, nor have I ever owned a marine aquarium, although I may be able to help you. Depending on the kind of fish you’re planning on keeping, that will influence the amount of filtration you’ll have. You should be performing partial water changes at least once a week, removing and replacing around 25% of the water, but again, that depends on the fish.
Provided you have adequate filtration and a protein skimmer, once it’s fully established, you’ll be able to narrow down the weekly maintance to your water changes.
Powerheads are needed to provide a stronger current, as well as a good filter, and a protein skimmer to promote optimum health. All that may cost a lot at first, but after the purchases you won’t need to spend much on weekly upkeep.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:10 pmReferences :
Im very happy to see that you didn’t just rush into this without asking. Reef tanks are the elite in fish tanks and they take a lot of care. First things first, you will need to cycle the tank for at least a month to build up the good bacteria. I personally use a eheim canister filter that is rated for twice my tank size. The cycling can be done with some live rock and a damsel. Next you can start slowly adding your fish. Make sure the fish are reef safe. Let the tank sit for about 3-6 months until coraline algae starts to build up. Coraline algae is a hard algae that is purplish. At this point you will need to invest in a protein skimmer, and not the cheapest one you can find. After that you can start to add you coral. Make sure you do your research on the coral. You need to know what its lighting needs, current needs, and feeding needs are. I suggest T5 HO lighting, and power heads. As far as maintenance goes, you will need to do reef treatments. You can buy sets of these from petco. You will need a saltwater test kit and a reef test kit. If you build the reef the right way, the chemicals will not be too expensive. You will need to do a 20% water change every week and test the water.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:59 pmReferences :