Marine from scratch/beginner?

macvsog23

Pleco Profiles Team - RIP FRIEND
May 1, 2009
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Strangely bigger is better.
1st step is read and read next step is make up your mind what your going to keep and what setup your going to do.
With marines the "mixed community of fish I like" is not an option.
nature will quite quickly bite you.
mixing any marine organisms requires an understanding of the inter reactions and living conditions of the organisms.
Having now got over the doom and gloom bit, it is not a black art apply logic and commonsense to your setup follow the basic rules and hey presto it will work.
But then you should have all the knowledge from keeping Freshwater fish under your belt.
Basically if your showing due care to what your doing now by studying, researching and observing before buying, your doing what is right.

Down sides with marines are the parameters can go out of the "Safety zone" very quickly and with some rather sensitive fish and invertebrates it can be very unforgiving.
Along with the perials of buying some very cute and small shrimp that turns out to be members of the order Stomatopoda that will crack the tank as it kill,s your prize Porcelain Crab or the present the wife gets you of that lump of living rock you wanted that is full of god knows what
Up side is your going to observe something fantastic and vibrant. you may get some clowns to spawn never know.
I would go for a basic tank say 4 foot reef get lots of living rock and some good power heads and set up using the Berlin system.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Method"]Berlin Method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Once mature get the cleanup crew then a pair of peculiar clowns and see how it goes from that point.
 
J

jamous91

Guest
i am thinking about starting marine maybe a 125 liter tank with one fire fish maybe a mated pair if find it and some clowns
 

macvsog23

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I would start with a pair of Peculiar Clowns myself 125 liter in my opinion is far to small as a starter tank
I my self would read and study for as long as I can before buying fish. you could run an invert tank to get the feel?
 
J

jamous91

Guest
I would start with a pair of Peculiar Clowns myself 125 liter in my opinion is far to small as a starter tank
I my self would read and study for as long as I can before buying fish. you could run an invert tank to get the feel?
I would not be doing it for months but i am trying to learn all i can 127 liter is around 27/29 gallons and there are vids on youtube with common clowns and fire fish together plus what would you say i should starts out with
 

macvsog23

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I only say start with clowns because they are about the most forgiving of the fish your interested in.
My main concern with any one starting with a marine tank is that the balance between the organisams in the tank is far more critical.
Let me give an analogy, If you had a fresh water set up with say 4 x L134 in it and they were 3 males and 1 female once they became sexualy mature in a small tank with no hiding places they would fight to the death . You could stop this by moving them in to a bigger tank or adding a vast amount of caves the same with say Tanganyikan cichlid species. In a marine tank so many species are not going to meet in the wild and if they did they would decimate each other even to the point were some corals will kill other corals just by being in very close proximity.
Crabs that come with the living rock as lave and will eat any other invertebrate and the best one is the group of fish known as box fish , they die and the whole tank will die because on death the excrete a chemical warfare cocktail. so from my point the learning curve is sharp and long.
I have a friend who is very experienced with marines he can setup a reef tank in a bucket and have it running in under 5 weeks with hard corals and fish and it would look wounder full. But and this is the big but he knows every species he uses and every little detail but he should do after 30 years plus of keeping marines.

Regards Bob
i am not trying to rubbish your skills or put you off just giving advice and urging caution
 
J

jamous91

Guest
I only say start with clowns because they are about the most forgiving of the fish your interested in.
My main concern with any one starting with a marine tank is that the balance between the organisams in the tank is far more critical.
Let me give an analogy, If you had a fresh water set up with say 4 x L134 in it and they were 3 males and 1 female once they became sexualy mature in a small tank with no hiding places they would fight to the death . You could stop this by moving them in to a bigger tank or adding a vast amount of caves the same with say Tanganyikan cichlid species. In a marine tank so many species are not going to meet in the wild and if they did they would decimate each other even to the point were some corals will kill other corals just by being in very close proximity.
Crabs that come with the living rock as lave and will eat any other invertebrate and the best one is the group of fish known as box fish , they die and the whole tank will die because on death the excrete a chemical warfare cocktail. so from my point the learning curve is sharp and long.
I have a friend who is very experienced with marines he can setup a reef tank in a bucket and have it running in under 5 weeks with hard corals and fish and it would look wounder full. But and this is the big but he knows every species he uses and every little detail but he should do after 30 years plus of keeping marines.

Regards Bob
i am not trying to rubbish your skills or put you off just giving advice and urging caution
i am trying to learn a smuch as much as i can before i even start buying the salt i want to do it right
 

jessonthenet

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Oct 16, 2010
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Well I really fancied turning my 17 litre shrimp tank into a marine shrimp tank but obviously that may be a bit tricky. Which is stupidly exactly why I want to.

I have seen some really nice looking nano marine tanks around even an 8 litre, not sure what you could keep in there.

I have looked at threads where people keep tanks using actual seawater from rock pools as well as inhabitants there but doubt that would be a good idea with water here. Are you even allowed to take stuff from the beach?

I am aware that because of the high ph it causes everything to become more toxic and not to even think about using tap water because of TDS and phosphates causing some funny algae all over your tank.
 

macvsog23

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May 1, 2009
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First point please do not take any native species from its environment we are struggling to keep them alive as it is.
Nano tanks are fine but you would need to have some experiencing before starting out with a nano tank.
Basically you can break a marine tank in to 3 areas of knowlage each will impact on the other two.
LIGHT
hard Coral will require strong light it is doubtful your grow even soft corals with tubes so halide or LED lighting is required.


WATER
R/O is the only way to go.


INHABITANTS

Again this is the mine field were most people get blown up.
Myself I would not keep any fish that was not "Hardy" Clowns and the smaller Wrasse , Humbugs ect.
Myself I also would avoid the more exotic inverts Arrow head crabs, mantis shrimps ect

I do wish you all the best and caution is the pass word.
 

Kingtiger

Member
May 4, 2009
113
1
18
Sydney Parramatta
Here is my nano 20 litre setup.

Tank occupants, 1 sexy shrimp, 3 hermit crabs, and lots of zoas and 1 acro.

FTS 11/05/11


Equipment


DIY LED Cree
 
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