Ever since I was young I always found myself enthralled with the oceans. I would sit and watch the National Geographic shows and Discovery Channel specials that dealt with the oceans and reefs. It wasn't until about 6 years ago that I decided to embark on adventure of creating and maintaining my own reef aquarium in my home.
I'm sure I started the same way as most other amateurs, I tried to educate myself with books and the internet. There is so much information out there and this hobby is still fairly young compared to many other hobbies. Hobbyist are still finding new ways to provide a healthy and lifelike marine system in little glass boxes. Who knows, maybe you will discover the next great thing to help take this hobby to a new level.
Regardless of what has drawn you into this hobby, I hope I can share with you some basic information to get you started and also share with you some of my past experiences and maybe steer you away from making any bad decisions.
You probably think the first thing you need is an aquarium and some saltwater. That's not true, you need knowledge and patience. Without those, you will find yourself starting over many times and wondering why everything in your aquarium is dying. You will often read in blogs, forums and books that you need to wait. When we say be patient... we really mean it. Nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby. But there are a few tricks to keeping you sane while your system becomes ready for stocking.
So you need to decide what kind of tank you would like to have. I will keep it simple, there is a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and a reef tank. If you want to have live corals in your aquarium, then a reef tank is what you are looking for. Regardless, they both require some basic elements. That being an aquarium, properly mixed saltwater, live rock, heaters, adequate lighting, sufficient filtration and equipment to keep water moving (most often are powerheads). I didn't mention a substrate because it's not essential to have and maintain a saltwater tank. Some reef hobbyist prefer to have a bare bottom tank, but there are many advantages to having a sandy substrate.
Let's start with salt. You will not go and buy some sea salt from your grocery store. There are many different brands of marine salt mixes out there, and you will probably find one that suits your needs. Not only do these mixes give you the salt you need to keep your aquarium going, but there are many other trace elements that are present in actual saltwater that these mixes provide. You can mix the water with a spoon or a powerhead, but you need to make sure that you are getting the correct salinity for your aquarium. Salinity is often referred to in a measurement called, SG or specific gravity. This is because salt has a different density than fresh water. I have seen tanks ran between 1.020 and 1.030 SG. To measure the water you will need a refractometer or at the very least, a hydrometer. I would recommend just spending a few extra dollars and going with a refractometer. They are much more reliable and accurate.
But wait, don't mix that salt with your tap water! That's how I started because I didn't know any better. I just conditioned and de-chlorinated my water before adding the salt mix. There are so many particulates, elements and other nasty things in tap water that you do not want in your tank. These may be ok for freshwater aquariums, but not in this hobby. You will wonder why your tank is suffering algae blooms, uncontrolled bacterial outbreaks and more. Just do yourself a favor right now and spend the money and purchase an RO/DI unit. RO stands for reverse osmosis. DI is the acronym for de-ionization. There are many filter systems out there and your ultimate purpose is to get your tap water as close to pure water as possible. This is often measured by a TDS meter. TDS is total dissolved solids... all that junk your tap water (most of which makes it okay for us to drink). I get a measurement of about 280ppm with my tap water, and after it goes through my 7 stage RO/DI unit, I usually come out about 0 or less than 1ppm. There, now we have good clean water and fresh salt. Now what?
Now we need to make sure the water stays clean! As soon as you start putting live inhabitants in your tank, they do what all living things do... basically, they poo. Well not exactly, but they do have waste. As soon as your tank inhabitants start producing waste, your water is now not as clean as it was. So we need to filter that water. There are a few ways to do this, and it should be done as a collaborative effort using biological filtration, mechanical filtration and sometimes chemical filtration. Biological filtration often refers to natural live rock with beneficial nitrifying bacteria and critters as well as a natural sandy substrate that will help clean up impurities. Mechanical filtration consists of skimmers and canister filters. Many of the standard hang on filters that are used for freshwater aquariums do not work as well in marine tanks because they often have media that breeds nitrates. You will learn more about nitrates and the nitrogen cycle later on, but it is the very cycle that will be present in your aquarium. Lastly there is chemical filtration which may consist of carbon or granular ferric oxide, which also help to further remove impurities and polish the water.
If you are still reading this, good for you. This is not a quick, simple or easy hobby. It is also not a cheap hobby, so be prepared to spend some of your hard earned money. The setup of the system is the most expensive part, maintaining it is less impactful on your pocket book. But it's still worth every penny.
So live rock, well it's probably the most expensive rock you will ever buy - but trust me, it's worth it. Make sure you have enough, make sure it's live, and make sure it's good. General rule of thumb is about 2lbs of live rock per gallon of aquarium water. You can buy cured or uncured. For your first time, I would recommend spending a little more and getting cured live rock from your LFS (local fish store) or at a reputable online retailer if the other option is not available to you. Just know that the longer the live rock is out of water, the more stuff will die on it and the longer the cycle may be before your tank is ready for live inhabitants. I love live rock. With good live rock, you will have so many creatures, bugs, bacteria and algae in your tank, hopefully enough to get you through the part where you have to be patient. While you are waiting for your tank to cycle, use a small flashlight, preferably with a red lens, and see your booming mini ocean environment after dark. Many of the creatures that take hold in your live rock will only come out at night. I can spend hours a night just watching all of the "pods" and worms doing their thing.
Now a little about substrates. There are some general rules here as well. I only use aragonite sand in my tanks. When I first started, I used crushed coral... but now I know better. Crushed coral substrate doesn't have the same properties as sand and it seems to act more like a detritus trap than a beneficial media to help with filtration. Plus, sand just looks better and more realistic. Because after all, aren't we trying to replicate a small part of the ocean in our homes? There are many different types of sand, and I will leave that choice up to you, but whatever you buy, make sure to rinse it. If you don't rinse your sand before putting it into your tank, you will have many days of, "I can't see a darn thing in my tank." and the aftermath of a creamy powdery substance all over your rocks, glass and equipment. Just rinse the sand with freshwater until it goes from milky to cloudy. So how much sand? Well you can either go with an aesthetic bed so basically under 1.5" of a sand bed or you can go with a beneficial sand bed of more than 3", also called a DSB or deep sand bed.
Now let's touch on some mechanical filtration. I would never run a system without a protein skimmer. It has been done, and successfully, but I choose not to do it. A protein skimmer is a system that pulls water from your system, blasts it into a chamber turning it into micro bubbles in which proteins and particulates attach to the bubbles and float up and into a collection cup. That is my simple way of explaining it. You can write a book on protein skimmers. If you are running a sumpless system, you will need to find a skimmer that can hang on the back of your tank, or a HOB skimmer. There are many good brands out there, and remember, you often get what you pay for.
Marine aquariums need to stay at about 78 - 81 degrees Fahrenheit. This is done with basic aquarium heaters. I often use 2 smaller heaters rather than 1 large one. This gives me the upper hand in case one decides to fail off or fail stuck on. If you have a large one fail on, you can over heat your tank. If you have 1 large one fail off, you can have no heat for your tank... get it?
Water movement. This is another section that has a lot of different opinions and options. A basic powerhead will provide you with water movement, but make sure you have sufficient water movement. Trust me that water in a real reef is anything but stagnant. Maybe go and watch some footage of a reef, it is probably going to show a back and forth motion of surging waves. This is difficult to create if you have a powerhead just blasting water in one direction in your tank. That is referred to as laminar flow. There are powerheads that can produce surge type waves using specialized equipment, motors and controllers. You will find yourself spending anywhere from $15 for a simple powerhead all the way up to several hundred dollars on a complex system. Remember, in this hobby, you get what you pay for.
Lighting, oh lighting. Without lights, what would the point be? In a reef aquarium, lighting is essential. Most corals rely on photosynthesis to provide energy for growth. Algae that lives within the coral, called zooxanthellae not only provide nutrition but also can give the coral it's bright colors. The newest form of lighting that is taking the hobby to the next level is LED lighting. Although the cost of getting LEDs may sound high, they pay for themselves in the long run. Some corals require a lot of light, and it used to be only through expensive metal halide lighting systems that this was possible. But there were some catches. Metal halide was expensive to run and expensive to change out, as the bulbs would only last about a year. Metal halide lighting also ran hot. Sometimes too hot for the aquarium and it would require the hobbyist to invest in additional equipment to cool down the water, a chiller. So LED lighting not only runs cool, but it also costs very little to power and the bulbs last for a very, very long time. There are other options for lighting as well that include power compact lighting and T5 high output fluorescent lighting, both of which are often sufficient for lower light corals and fish.
At this point, your tank should be up and running and beginning what we call, "cycling". You have the correct saltwater mixed to the proper SG, you have a sandy bed and good, live rock in your tank. Your powerheads are creating sufficient water movement and your skimmer is working at pulling particulates out of your tank. Basically cycling is the process of creating a successful and self sustaining nitrogen cycle in your aquarium. De-nitrifying bacteria will ultimately convert organic matter (waste) to ammonia (NH3) then converts into nitrites (NO2) then eventually into nitrates (NO3) which is then removed from your system either by water changes or by the use of macro algae.
I hope I was able to help summarize the basics to starting a marine aquarium. There is a lot to learn about this hobby, and even after 6 years of being very involved, I still learn something new all the time.
