Marine Aquarium - beginner's advice?

[Gavin Smith]

As if diving isn't expensive enough I am very seriously thinking about setting up a marine aquarium.

Does anyone here have experience of doing it? I've done the background reading and am 99% certain of doing it.

Gavin

[turbanator]

Have you had freshwater tropical before?

I only ask because marine is supposed to be harder, with tighter temperature tolerances among others.

I have freshwater and have always fancied marine, but it seemd a big jump with skimmers, chillers etc.

r
Paul

[Woz]

My dad had a brilliant aquarium- it was UK inshore fish rather than tropical. He had the following setup:

Big glass tank. Really big. About 2x1x1 metres.
UV filter unit.
Lager cooler on a timer to keep the water cool.

He used to go to Anglesey on an ebbing tide and catch all the fish swept under the bridge with a big net. Then pop them all in a plastic brewers barrel with a battery operated air pump. He has a petrol powered water pump and 2 of those huge blue barrels which he filled with fresh seawater. Then back to Nottingham to pump it into the fish tank and away.

Much more interesting than tropical fish, you catch your own stock and as you use sea water there is no problem with having to 'settle' the tank first. Plus he grew his own sea bass then when it got big enough, whipped it out the tank and had it for tea.

And to feed them the best thing is a bag of frozen prawns- defrost 1 a day then break it up into tiny pieces.

[Gavin Smith]

Originally Posted by turbanator

Have you had freshwater tropical before?

No - planning on going straight in at the deep end.

As a bit of a gadget freak the technology involved in managing a miniature marine environment is one of the attractive things.

[Gavin Smith]

Originally Posted by Woz

My dad had a brilliant aquarium- it was UK inshore fish rather than tropical. He had the following setup:

I considered this but SWMBO wants Nemo's.

[abucksdiver]

Gavin,
I have a marine tank, and it hs been running pretty successfully for about 5 years now.

If I was to sum up the "bits of wisdom" that were offered to me:

1. Have a tank of at least 50 Gals... less is too unstable (Temp and chemically)
2. Take it slow
3. Don't overstock
4. Independantly verify everything that your fishshop tell you (abit like LDS!) especially if they say an expensive fish is "easy"
5. Take it slow
6. errr, did I say to take it slowly?
7. Have some method of cooling the tank... fans etc to increase evaporation.

Also, in a conservation-concious stylee... check out the captive-bred species. (CB Nemos are now widely available.)

PS> I would also suggest considering the less technology-based approaches, Live Rock, Deep Sand Beds etc...

Andrew

[pingu]

We have nemos at home - we did have 2 but one mysteriously disappeared....so we got another one and that one's gone too. The snails have also vanished as did one of the spider crabs although I think I saw 2 recently.

This is only a small tank. I've had a large one before and it was more work than I thought - so many bits to buy - lights, filters, stuff to add to the water, decoration... Oh, buying snails and hoping they'll keep the tank clean by eating all the green gunk doesn't work. Somehow the snails get eaten instead!

[Gavin Smith]

Originally Posted by abucksdiver

1. Have a tank of at least 50 Gals... less is too unstable (Temp and chemically)

I've been looking at a 250 litre (65 gallon) Effectline tank with Eheim wet/dry filter and protein skimmer (and a few other bits and pieces as well) but this will be to supplement a "reef" based on liverock and sand.

One of the first pieces of research I did was the availability of captive bred stock as I'm not comfortable with the idea of having fish ripped from reefs.

Gavin

[Scuby]

We used to have one at home years ago. Worked well, but marine tanks are definitely a long-term thing. Takes a long time to set up and generally once its up and running if you wanted to move the tank it'd be a major undertaking. They are really nice though, ours was great, can't remember why we got rid of it but I do remember that when we had it it was always really nice.
I think that marine tanks are less common now than they used to be - they used to sell marine fish in most pet shops alongside the tropical fish when we had our tank, but don't seem to do that much anymore. Not a problem, just means you might have to travel further to find all the bits you need (tanks need to be deeper than normal, different lights, equipment, etc)

David

[Richie]

I tried a temperate marine tank when I lived up in Oban - lots of specimens around. I was not short of good advice since I was working with marine zoologists and microbiologists at the time.

It took time to "mature" and for the right bugs to become established. It worked well but for the small problem of the fish eating each other.

I lost patience after a while.......