Marine Tank Parameters

Everyone starting out in this hobby wants to know what the optimal parameters for maintaining the reef are. I am going to just be talking right now about the basics and what they should be.

Temperature: 79 deg.F - I find that this is a good temperature to maintain. It is neither too hot or too cold.

Salinity: 1.026 - This could probably be lower for a fish only tank but my yellow pollyps coral exploded once I raised this up from 1.023.

Ammonia: 0 - This has to be 0 or you have serious water quality issues.

Nitrite: 0 - This also has to be 0 or you have serious water quality issues.

PH: 8.4 is a good number to strive for. Note that PH alters over the course of a day so make sure you take your reading at the same time each day.

Nitrate: 0 - Is the number to strive for. While not necessarily as toxic as ammonia/nitrite try to keep this as close to 0 as possible.

Product Review: Red Sea Marine Salt Mix

Red Sea makes this sea salt utilizing similar elements to the natural red sea. Product hilights include:

-A single, chemically balanced formula to support the most delicate marine life
-Suitable for marine fish and invertebrates from every sea and ocean
-Reaches a stable, natural pH shortly after mixing
-No nitrates or phosphates (If any sea salt does... DO NOT BUY)
-Produced by a small batch process to ensure homogeneity of salt mixture
-Every batch is biologically and chemically tested for quality control
-Suitable for a small water change or a complete new aquarium set-up (I do not know of a marine salt that wouldn't)
-Can be mixed to any desired salinity (It had better)

This was the first salt mix I started my marine tank with. I had no problems with this salt. It mixes quickly and maintains a stable PH. It is less expensive then other brands and is a viable choice for a marine salt mix.

The Marine Substrate

There is always the choice to go bare bottom in your marine aquarium but I just do not think that would look good. Having your aquarium looking good is a pre-requisite for me and hence I will not be speaking about bare-bottom systems.

When choosing a substrate for your aquarium I recommend something that will help buffer your system. This means to keep the PH of the water stable. You want a calcium carbonate based sand if at all possible.

There are two things other things you need to decide when selecting a substrate. One is grain size the other is substrate depth. When choosing a grain size you do not want something so fine that it stays suspended in your water column all the time leading to cloudy water. I used Aragamax Select by caribsea for my substrate. For the depth you want either less than 1" or greater than 4". If you are not planning a deep sand bed for denitrification purposes go with less than 1". It will save you money (you need less sand) and also saves you from headaches as a depth of 1" to 4" just does not help with denitrification.

I would warn against using a silica based sand as it could lead to brown diatom blooms in your aquarium as diatoms feed off the silica.

Product Review: TopFin Long Handled Glass Scraper

If you have ever visited a local fish store to price glass scrapers you will be in for quite a shock. You will wonder how something so simple can cost so much money. It is not so with the long handled glass scraper by TopFin.

This simple yet elegant scraper could be all you need to remove pesky algae from your aquarium glass. It has a molded plastic handle with a stainless steel blade. It is curved in such a way as to make scraping effective and simple. It is also comfortable to hold and maneuver. With a purchase price of around $7 it is a sure bet over more expensive scrapers and gets my recommendation as an inexpensive alternative.

Water Flow

The ocean is a vast expanse of moving water. Corrals located in reef zones are for the most part subjected to very frequent random water movement. This provides the corrals with the benefit of having nutrition supplied to them and aiding in having undesirable material stripped from their surface. Algae film has a hard time building up on surfaces that are subjected to constant random water turbulence.

In the reef aquarium you should strive to have water movement upwards of 10x of the water volume in your tank. This can be a combination of outputs from powerheads, protein skimmers etc.

A standard setup can be multiple power heads pointed towards the aquarium glass to produce random turbulent water movement. There is another method which I have employed. I have a large pump located in the sump rated for 10x of the aquarium capacity (I am limited by my overflow which I will talk about in the future). This pump is the return line for the sump back into the aquarium. It is plumbed to a fix line at the top of the aquarium with multiple output ports which can be rotated occasional for random flow.

The moral of the story is to get as much random water flow as you can going in your aquarium. 20x is not an unreasonable number to aim for and your corrals and other inhabitants will thank you for it.

Location, Location, Location

So you have decided on a tank. It's time to determine where we are going to place it. There are a couple of points on this. First, you want to place your tank in a location that is not going to be hit by direct sunlight. Direct sunlight is really bad and will give you an uncontrollable algae problem. Second, you want to place your tank in a location that is free from constant traffic. Your inhabitants will prefer a quieter existence and will thank you for it. Placing your tank in a high traffic area such as a hallway will give your tank friends unneeded stress. Finally, make sure that the location you choose can support the large weight of the tank. Tanks are heavy so make sure that your floor will be able to support the weight.

Choosing a tank

Before anything else can take place in this hobby you have to make a decision about a tank. The tank will be your host for an ocean ecosystem. This is probably the single most important decision to make as it will influence every other choice you have to make in the future. I will take you through each of the aspects on choosing a tank so that you can make the most informed decision

(Size)
When dealing with a marine system or even a freshwater system there is a prevailing idea that makes a lot of sense. Bigger is always better. I would say that this is true up to a point and we will get into this. The reason that bigger is better stems from the fact that it is much easier to maintain a stable system with a larger body of water. The constraints against going larger have to do with the final weight of the system and cost of filling and maintains a larger tank. It will cost a lot more to fill a larger tank with inhabitants/rock and be more expensive to run. But it will allow you to have more options on inhabitants etc. The minimum size tank that I would recommend for a beginner would have to be a 55 gallon. Anything smaller and you are asking for disaster. Marine fish/corrals also require more space due to aggressiveness of most of the species and size of final specimen. If you go too small you may find that you can not keep that one fish you have been eyeing at your local fish store (LFS).

(Shape)
There are many different shapes of tanks out there. (Hexagonal, cylindrical, cube, ...) I would strongly recommend that you stay away from all of them and stick with a standard rectangular tank. The reason for this is due to the large surface area of these tanks. A larger surface area promotes gas exchange (carbon dioxide and oxygen) allowing more oxygen to make it into the tank and more carbon dioxide to escape. Increased oxygen levels allow you to keep more fish in the tank and keep them healthier.
Another factor is the depth of the tank. The deeper the tank you have the harder it will be to clean and the stronger the lighting that will be required for it. Always try and choose a tank that is longer rather than deeper.
One final factor is bowfront vs non-bowfront. Bowfront tanks give a more interesting view of the inhabitants but can also be harder to clean. You would also need to use a stand made for a bowfront which may be harder & more costly to obtain.

(Material)
There are two choices for this. Aquariums are made of one of two materials either glass or acrylic. Glass aquariums are the old standard. Pros: Easy to find, inexpensive, resist scratching. Cons: Heavy, Block a bit of light transmission. Acrylic are a new type. Pros: Lighter than equivalent glass, great light transmission. Cons: Harder to find, prone to scratching, require a stand with an internal brace, more expensive than glass.

(Drilled/Not drilled)
Drilled aquariums come ready with a hole used for moving water to a sump (which is essentially a tank of water stored external to aquarium). They allow you to avoid having to use an external overflow for moving water to a sump which can potentially be a cause for problems. If you are using a non-drilled tank you will have to use either an external overflow for moving water to a sump or use no sump at all.

Welcome

Good Morning and welcome to Maintaining Marine:

This is my first post and will be short as I need to work on this new site. I will be posting information pertaining to an amazing hobby/adventure. Maintaining a marine aquarium can be an overwhelming experience to a newcomer. There is a lot of information to digest.

This site will seek to aid the newcomer to reef keeping in helping out with getting started progressing to maintaining a healthy community. I will take you through all of the equipment that is required or optional. I will help you out with getting your tank running. There will be equipment reviews, livestock information, personal experiences, cost analysis.. Basically everything anyone needs to know to get started in this fantastic and fascinating hobby.

This will be an ongoing and pleasurable adventure for me to take you through. I will be starting at the very beginning of getting started right through to having your tank fully stocked with a community of happy fish/corrals/inverts etc.

Look forward to our first installment soon. (What is the right tank for me)

Until next time.

Jeremy