Salt water aquariums are awesome. Cost aside, the biggest investment is the time and energy spent into maintenance. I worked in an aquarium store briefly during college and at one time had three different "micro" reefs from 20 gallons to 5 gallons. As some one else mentioned the time commitment is what makes the hobby not as appealing for me now. It's not like a freshwater or brackish set up that you can neglect for a month and everything be fine. Depending on your setup it's going to require biweekly attention at minimum. All of that to say, if you are going to take the plunge don't skimp on the initial set up. Don't short change the sand bed depth, live rock per gallon, or equipment (especially filtration, and if you go the reef route lighting is just as important). If you want to do a fish only set up you can save some cash but you'll miss out on all the cool corals and invertebrates that come with a reef. If you do want to do a reef, as a beginner I highly recommend the "all in one" tank reefs like the one in the link below. Will also help save you some money https://www.marineandreef.com/JBJ_2...MIntb0o-Ot4gIVF4zICh1oXg6DEAkYESABEgK0cfD_BwE
The highest reviewed/rated place in town has ready to go tanks, or at least had one that was there for sale. It has been running for about a month, would come with two fish, a star fish, and an eel(Lady wants no part of the eel). I want to say it was running for 300-400. I feel like that'd be the best way for me to start with it, where the whole "system" is set up, and I can learn as we go without the risk of fucking up everything off the jump. Like I said, we are only going to get a 20-30gallon, with my guess being closer to 20. This would allow us to get some cool live rock/reef and decorations, while having 4-5 fish so we're not overwhelmed taking care of them. I had a freshwater tank when I was younger, so I'm trying to find out as much as I can about it. And really, long run, seems like time is the biggest different between salt water/fresh
Another thing I found to be real neat about the shop, they will buy fish back if they out grow the tank. So if we got a tang and after a few years, we could sell/trade it an get a new smaller one. They had a 750 gallon and 1,000 gallon that they had to empty/redo. Made it sound like the 750 would be full of clown fish, and the 1,000 is going to be a predator tank.
You've got the right idea. There are tons of good forums out there for nano reefs that provide a lot of good info and guidance
Also, this all stemmed from us visiting the SeaLife Aquarium while we were in Orlando last month. Was an awesome experience.
School my lady works at had an extra tank so she snagged it. Going to run a freshwater tank for now, got it set up tonight
Went with a couple of the little moss ball things. Were told that’s easier to manage at the start. It’s been a while since I had a tank so we’re trying to ease into it
Man theres better looking stuff than moss balls that you could grow on a bowling ball in an airless room. Go get some anubias or java fern
Moving from our current 75g salt water tank to a 180g set up. Only picture i found right now but I'll take more when we get home next week.
A Tang would outgrow any small tank in months. Ours outgrew a 75 so fast that he got unhealthy. We couldn't feed him enough or it would crash the tank. If any store tells you a tang is fine in a 75 or smaller long term, find a new store. We quickly learned that the store we were going to didn't care about us or the fish and only wanted to make the sale. It cost us a lot of money and heartache to learn that lesson.
If you really wanna get knowledgeable on salt water tanks check out reef2reef.com Lots of great information and a very active goods forum to buy and sale stuff.
We will use an old 10G tank as a top off tank. We have an automatic top off pump that will turn on when water level drops below a certain point. No idea how much it will take each week on one this big but we buy RO/DI water from Publix for $1.35/5 gallons so it shouldn't be too much of a cost. When we buy a house this year we will get an RO/DI system installed and barely have to touch it.
Some people do bare bottom tanks. For me, so much of the good bacteria in a salt water tank live in the sand and i don't want to be doing constant water changes.
Our tank is dirty as we haven't really been cleaning it the last two months, spent all my energy prepping the big tank. But here's a few of our little fellows.
Also, I've been helping set this one up. 800 gallons. These are bookcases on the other side of the wall that pop out to give access to the aquarium for maintenance and stuff.
There will be a 3rd light in the center, it's on the small tank right now. But this is a decent picture of the full scene.
FYI, the things lights can do now are insane. And these aren't even the best of the best. Want a storm? Want to have a party for your fish? Full demo of all the lighting
Hooked up our ATO to a 5 gallon jug of water today so we will see how long it takes to go through that.
Added a marine betta to the tank this week. I really need to figure out how to not have so much blue light come through these pictures.
Just bought a Waterbox 130.4. Trying to figure out everything that I need and try to be most cost-effective. It’s going to be fish only, no live reef. What do y’all think would be best in regards to lighting, aquascaping, etc.?
Great choice, I’ve been debating on the 220.6 pro. I sold my 300, and been researching the shit out of the water boxes....think that’s the direction I’m going to go.... I will also be doing a fish only.
Even if no reef I’d still go with live sand and live rock. Add a cleaner crew if the fish you’re adding won’t eat them. As far as lighting I’m way behind in the game as far as specs but I’d go with LED
Ecotech makes probably the best LEDs in the game right now IMO. I did learn quickly that even with fish only, you need good lighting. Bad lighting can lead to other problems like algae blooms and shit. Definitely live sand and I really like the Marco rock base rock. It's not "live" but you can order it in some amazing shapes to really customize your aquascape. And with the enhancers you can buy to accelerate the process, all rock will end up "live".
Place I’m buying from sells live rock and everything, didn’t know if there were any good alternatives or websites with good reputation. The lighting is definitely a huge deal to me, too. But didn’t want to really overdo it and spend like $900 on the recommended lighting when I’m not growing any coral.
Since you aren’t doing a reef I’d just stick with local live rock and not deal with having it shipped in I think. I’m also fighting the urge to talk you into at least doing some soft corals. Kinda miss my aquarium days Also pro tip, if you are buying everything from same place you should be able to talk them into a discount