Start up of saltwater aquarium

Question
QUESTION: High Mae: I have owned and created a lovely 5.5 gal fresh water tank, now 6 months, with 1 cory cat, 2 glo-fish[yellow,orange,beautiful color under the lights]& 3 small danios-2 red, 1] They've survived and ALL look extremely happy & healthy.. I'm a retired teacher and have lots of time & loving this experience; dabling with decor,feeding frozen worms/flakes, etc. For Christmas, my children bought me a 20 gal tank with LED lighting. I want to take up the challenge of initiating and maintaing a salt-water tank, with maybe only 2/3 salt water fish. I find creating a beautiful, 3-dimentional water scene/background just as exciting as seeing ONLY one  fish swimming in the environments I've created and maintained. All my aquarium needs,fish/advice up till now have come from my local PetSmart. However, I have doubts regarding their expertise in staring/maintaing a salt water aquarium & environment even though I only want to maintain maybe 1 or 2 fish. (1)Having no knowledge of what it takes to start/maintain a saltwater environment; (2)not personally knowing anybody who could advise me in a step by step approach to the task, can I get your advice and knowlege regarding my goal. I am patient,creative, willing to accept the time/responsibilities & challenges.. What can you advise me or what encouragement can you provide me in this venture.  Ken ps hope your christmas and coming new year will be uplifting and spiritually gratifying! Again, Ken

ANSWER: Greetings Ken! Merry Belated Christmas and May all you wishes in the new year be bright!

A salt water tank is a wonderful idea and great gift! I dearly love my 30 gallon and keep very few fish myself only three, I keep a lot of delicate inverts (like shrimps and odd pretty crabs) as well lots of fun colourful corals. Patience is key with this hobby but I do promise it pays off in the long term and creativity is great to have when making this tank!

My best advice is find a book on marine aquarium fish and corals, although you contacted me I always say take everything off the internet with a grain of salt. Find what fish catch your eye off the bat and read what they require and combaiblity with other fish. I could make a lot of recommendations for your tank but it's always up to you to find what suits your wants and what colours catch you eyes.  

To start the tank I highly recommend looking into seeing if you can find Real Reef Rock, it's very beautiful rock and is man made/cultured. This rock does not bring in harmful pests or unwanted hitchhikers that could be destructive or hard to remove. This can come in shelves or rock shapes or even branching, lots of room to work with and create any setup you like. Set the rock up how you like and make sure it's very stable on its own or apox it to the glass so it's stable. That is when you add your sand, live sand helps bring down your nitrates and does not require cleaning, just open and add.

You want your salinity at 1.25, recommend getting a good refractameter to read your level and maintain it on a regular basis. Personally use a Sybon.

I would read up on what your LED light can grow and keep, not all are the same but they get better all the time. Most LED's now adays can keep soft coral and LPS, however the more expensive ones tend to be able to keep SPS well. Again it all depends on which fixture you had. Most manufacturers websites can tell you what their products can keep or at least the spectrum which you can find scales online for what they keep.

I can make a few small suggestions to at least start you off on what kind of fish would be nice for your tank. Percula clown fish very popular and very interesting to have as pairs, however very mainstream. For a twenty I would say only two clowns and then maybe one or two clown gobies. Clown gobies are very bright and come in a range of colours, personally have a twin stripe clown gobie. Normally are peaceful but can nibble on sps coral.  There are lots of other small goby types out there that could easily suit your tank and have different behaviour that could interest you. You have small cleaner gobies like neons or sharknose, or shrimp goby pairs like a yasha and candy cane pistol or even a highfin shrimp goby with a candy cane pistol. Even look into fire gobies. :)

Or you could do a a few cardinals, maybe a royal gramma or blackcap bassalet. Or you could do a small dwarf angel fish and keep soft corals with it as they may nip at lps and sps. Maybe some smaller types of blennies, like a tailspot Benny or some type of small fang blenny.

I hope these fish at least start you off and gives you things to look into and learn what they require but most I have recommended are fairly easy to care for and pretty. I always recommend a quarantine tank to treat fish from anywhere to keep your main tank clear of parasites, a smaller ten gallon just with heater and flow is enough as it's a very simple tank.

Hope I helped enough to get you started and best of luck in planning your tank. :) best of luck friend and I'm always available if you need any advice! Best to you in the new year!




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Mae:  hmmm.. sounds a bit much, almost  scary but I'm going to make the attempt/will need, get a reference book; know that I can count on you (if)  problems along the way. As I'm inexperienced in this theater, I'm sure I'm going to encounter so problems! For starters, Can you define the following for me:  LPS, SPS, SYBON.  Is the refractameter a plug-in affair? Have  great new year. again thanks   ken

Answer
Hi Ken,

It's a lot to take in but in reality it's no more then if you did a planted tank full out in fresh water.

To start is basic, have your live rock, sand, heater and a power head that is suited for your tank size. Set it all up and let the tank cycle, normally around three weeks but what your ammonia levels. Once they have spiked and come down your tank is cycled and could slowly start adding livestock. You can do what changes during this time as well, I normally recommend 10% a week to start or 15% every two weeks. :)

LPS is large stoney polyp

SPS is small  stoney polyp

Sybon is just the brand of refractameter and no it's an very easy to use, put a few drops of your water on the glass and place the plastic lid over it and look through the eye piece and it shows you your salt levels. Very simple, when you buy it just ask the clerk to make sure it's calabrated correctly and they should be able to for you. :) no plugging in or anything.

Happy New Years and hope I didn't overload you that it scares you.

Mae