Saltwater Aquarium Advice

ust to make things confusing, in my last blog post I mentioned that New Tank Syndrome can happen to older tanks as well (when their beneficial bacterial populations get physically or chemically damaged), well with established tanks you can also get Old Tank Syndrome! This is a phoenominon usually noticed by reef aquarium owners where sometimes the novelty has worn off and aquarium keeping looses its lustre (how can this be true!), which means than instead of staying right on top of all the water parameters, people can become a bit lazy and things start gradually slipping.

This Old Tank Syndrome manifests itself as corals just not growing as well as they used to or new marine life getting very stressed or dying when dealing with your display tanks water; your existing fish will be just surviving in the water as they have got used to the gradual negative changes over time.

So the cause of Old Tank Sydrome is a gradual drop in water quality over time due to neglect. The primary things that are usually neglected are regular partial water changes and general maintanence and cleaning leading to an accumulation of  undesirable chemicals in your closed system. Mainly this would be nitrate and phosphates increasing and pH slowly slipping down at the same time as the buffer ions are used up in the water. Some aquariums have heavily buffered water and this situation is more dangerous as all the buffering ions gradually get used up by the hydrogen ions produced in the nitrogen cycle after all the buffer ions are used up the pH can crash fast which is dangerous for your marine life.

So basically you cannot underestimate the good that regular partial water changes and vacuming up debris can do for your aquarium.

Stocking your saltwater aquarium is one of the most exciting times for a marine hobbyist. Introducing new additions to your colourful marine aquarium to watch and wonder over is awesome fun. For everything to go to plan and your new pets to thrive means that you will need to take things very seriously here in regards to compatibility, stocking levels and choosing healthy specimens.

Incorrect stocking of marine aquariums is a very common mistake; this usually arises from people moving too fast, picking unhealthy specimens and not doing enough research on their desired pets leading to compatibility issues. This can lead to stress in your aquarium (mostly the new inhabitants) and even death. Stocking a marine aquarium is the biggest variable to success in the set up process, if you do it wrong it can make the whole exercise a disaster, but if you do this right and take your time marine aquarium ownership will be smooth sailing for you. Any thoughtless purchases at this point can bring compatibility issues later which can be very hard to solve.

The best place to start with stocking is to make a saltwater aquarium plan, really know what it is you want in terms of marine life. Start with one or two “must have” species that will be the focal point of your aquarium. This is especially a good idea for small to medium aquariums, with larger aquariums you would go for a type of fish you want such as Tangs, Butterflyfish or Angels. Once you decide on your favourite fish, find out their exact requirements and set up the aquarium and choose other marine life centred around your tank “stars”. This keeps stocking very simple and as long as no one fish will compete closely with your favourites for a specific food type that is not readily available you are onto a winning strategy.

Adding invertebrates to the mixture can make things slightly trickier; if you have a fish only with live rock (FOWLR) set up try to use hardier invertebrate species (such as those commonly associated with live rock) that can tolerate a bit more nitrate in the water. This will make your life easier trying to cater to Invertebrate water quality needs.

As I have mentioned before the key to answering the compatibility question is diligent research on your chosen species in regard to behaviour/temperament, diet, size, preferred water conditions (light and water circulation) and growth rates, but ultimately fish have very individual personalities like us people, so it can be common for individuals of the same species to behave slightly differently.  Another factor that affects compatibility is the size of your tank and how much rockwork there is, generally the bigger the tank is and the more likely that fish can get out of the line of each others site for a while the better they will get on. A good way to ensure new additions settle in well is to rearrange the aquarium (and the residents established territories) when someone new is added, also keeping a light on at night seems to take the focus off the newcomer and can greatly help with any bullying.

Keeping fish well fed will keep them happy too; a hungry fish is a grumpy fish. When adding new fish to an established aquarium a great strategy is to put about 500mL of display aquarium water into the quarantine tank and visa versa so the newbies and the established fish can become familiar with the scent of each other before they meet. Another good idea is to put the quarantine tank next to the display tank so the fish can see each other.

This brings me to stocking levels; as a general rule of thumb a fish only aquarium should aim for less than 8 inches (20cm) of total fish length (nose to base of tail, not counting tail fin rays) per 22 gallons (100L) of water. A FOWLR set up with a few invertebrates should have a bit less fish at 6 inches (15cm) per 22 gallons (100L). Finally a reef set up should have no more than 4 inches (10cm) per 22 gallons (100L) this is because of the very low tolerances of corals and other invertebrates for slow nitrate build up in the water. The above estimates allows for room for error, but I warn you if these limits are exceeded by much the bioload will put too much strain on your biological filtration system and all it will take is one lost, dead fish or a bunch of uneaten food over a few days to cause the system to completely crash. When in doubt under-stock; this allows room for error and also takes into consideration your growing marine life.

When stocking your aquarium start with the more hardy, less aggressive fish first. This will give your aquarium water valuable time to stabilise after cycling before more sensitive species are introduced and will also help keep more aggressive, territorial species under control if they are not the first additions. Take the addition of fish very slowly waiting a month or so before adding one or two more, this gives the biological filtration system time to adjust to increasing waste levels.

The final aspect of stocking to get right is choosing healthy specimens, this can be very easy to do with careful visual inspections of the fish you intend to buy, checking every part of the fish for parasites, disease or other damage. Make sure the aquarium it is housed in is healthy and clean also. Pay attention to the fish’s behaviour to make sure it is acting normally. The golden rule here is to watch it eat (more than once if you can) make sure it has a good appetite, is alert and competitive with the other fish for food. The final thing you want to avoid is a brand new fish into the store; give it a week or so to see how it adjusts to captive life and copes with the stress of being removed from the reef environment. It is worth a mention again that where possible buy captive reared marine life, as they are much hardier and happier than their wild-caught relatives. Captive bred species also reduces pressure on species harvested from reef ecosystems, which should be very important to any marine life lover.

So the keys to successful marine life stocking are research, planning and lots of patience. Carefully planned out and executed saltwater aquarium stocking will provide years of happiness for marine life and marine aquarists alike.

For top saltwater aquarium advice and information as well as the hottest aquarium products in the world go to: www.SaltwaterAquariumAdvice.com

The process of lighting a saltwater aquarium serves two purposes; the first is to allow us to view the marine life and also to showcase and highlight the amazing colours that lie within. The second function is to mimic natural sunlight as closely as possible; to give our marine life some sort of day/night rhythm and provide food for the photosynthesising organisms such as corals, plants, coralline algae, phytoplankton and other invertebrates which use light as their energy source through photosynthesis. Ultimately this means they turn light and carbon dioxide into food (carbon), oxygen and water. The light requirement for this process is between 350- 750nm and is partly UVA.

To adequately light your marine aquarium the only 3 parameters you must consider are quality, quantity and duration of light.

Regular 12-16 hour lighting periods are optimal for good marine life health, a great idea is to use timers and have the actinic bulbs only on for 1-2 hours each end to simulate dawn and dusk.

The best lighting system will be a combination of actinic (blue) and daylight bulbs.

As a general rule of thumb the bulbs needed to sustain photosynthetic light should have a colour temperature of around 6500°K - 12000°K for general reef applications (colour temperature increases with depth so much deeper water species require higher colour temperatures, these are very specialist). You should also aim for 3 (soft corals) to 5 (hard corals) watts of light per gallon of saltwater as another general rule, this will help you decide how many bulbs at what wattage you will need.

Optimal lighting is a delicate arrangement that is dictated by the type of saltwater aquarium you plan to keep and what creatures you plan to keep in it. Photosynthesising marine life falls into 3 different catergories: low light species such as large polyped stony corals (LPS), moderate light species such as many soft corals and high light loving including many small polyped stony corals (SPS) and Tridacnid clams.

The trick here is to try and get compatible species that thrive under similar light conditions or get very creative at placing high light species higher up towards the lights and moderate light species lower in the aquarium this way you wont saturate some species with too much light (damaging) or cause some species to not receive enough lighting for good growth. Species that are not getting as much light as they should be can to some degree be compensated with supplementary feeding such as plankton.

The most simplistic lighting requirements can be used for fish only aquariums where all you want to do is be able to view your fish and give them a day/night cycle. Fluorescent lights of normal/standard output (NO) are all that is required here; full spectrum bulbs produce a more natural looking light and actinic blue lights bring out colourful pigments nicely.

Fish Only with Live Rock (FOWLR) aquariums typically include the photosynthesising coralline algae encrusting the live rock and a handful of select invertebrates, depending on how many and which type of corals and/or photosynthetic anemones you have you may want to go up to high output fluorescents (greater luminosity than normal output fluoros) such as a T5 set up. T5 lights have become extremely popular in the past few years. If combined with electronic ballast they run cooler, longer and more energy efficiently than other lighting set ups, they also penetrate the water better than many other types of thicker bulbs.

If you have little more than Live rock in your FOWLR simple actinic blue fluorescents will suffice to keep the photosynthetic creatures and algae happy and thus increase water quality too.

As you may have guessed by now a reef aquarium requires the most intensive lighting set up and to a reef lighting is as important for good health as filtration. Often times lighting will be one of the most expensive components in a reef aquarium.  I recommend HO fluorescents (such as T5’s) to VHO (very high output) fluorescents for deeper, larger aquariums or more sensitive species, with a combination of actinic blue and daylight bulbs. Many aquarists use metal halide lights but because of their expense, excessive heat output, high UV radiation (use shields here), high electricity usage and limited lighting penetration over fluorescents I don’t really see the real advantage of the additional costs involved.

Retrofit systems and other fluorescent lamp housings should have the light bulbs no more than 3 inches above the water surface. Reflectors should be used to direct light to the water, many bulbs no have reflectors built in, these are very efficient.

When choosing a lighting set up other than knowing what marine life you plan to keep you should always take into consideration the initial cost of the system, the operating costs (electricity), bulb replacement costs (and frequency of replacement), whether or not you would need a chiller for the aquarium and the ease and eventual need for any upgrading. Some systems maybe cheaper initially but may require more frequent bulb changes or chilling systems because of heat generated making them more expensive in the long run.

Saltwater aquariums are almost always stocked with tropical marine life (you can also have cold water marine set ups, but these are relatively uncommon), which by definition is marine fish and invertebrates that come from tropical regions of the world where water temperatures are a constant, balmy 77-80°F (25-27°C).  This marine life can only tolerate small and gradual changes in water temperature.

This universal characteristic of our favourite marine pets makes temperature (heating and cooling) a vitally important aspect in any marine aquarium. The importance of heating is often under-estimated by new marine aquarists, which can lead to heating disasters, the easiest way to wipe out your entire tank results from heater malfunctions, such as a heater being “stuck on” or not heating at all. A heater being stuck on and causing all the inhabitants to perish is the source of many a sad email to me.

The best thing you can do to prevent heating disasters is to buy a quality heater. Cheap, poorly made heaters can and do often get stuck on or fail to heat; they can also be a fire risk in your home. You need to look at vital saltwater aquarium equipment heater as a life support system for your marine life; choosing the cheap and cheerful option can often cost so much more in the long run.

A good heater is fully submersible as opposed to hang on. This is because if the water level drops the hang on model can overheat and burn out. Another important feature of a quality heater is being made of shatterproof material and is also corrosion resistant. New titanium heaters are an excellent investment in my opinion, these heaters are accurate, conduct heat brilliantly and mostly have a built in temperature sensor which shuts off the unit if it comes into contact with the air which would otherwise cause the heater to overheat and break.

A temperature controller unit is advisable to use with heating and cooling units, this does all the leg work for you and keeps fluctuations to a minimum, which is very good news for marine life. I also advise a thermometer with an audible alarm as an extra measure.

Another good practise is to go for 2 smaller heaters as opposed to one big one; this will make it harder for one to overheat the tank before you realise and if one stops heating the tank temperature wont drop severely.

Remember to handle all heaters with care and set-up as per manufacturers instructions, turn units off when exposing to air or performing maintenance and keep them clean, especially so you can see the indicator light is on. Always plug them into a GFI.

If you live in a hot climate, prefer your home a little warmer or have an intense lighting set-up (such as VHO fluorescent lights for a reef aquarium) chances are you will need an aquarium chiller, which will keep your marine aquarium water below a particular temperature. This is especially important when you keep corals because the lighting requirements they have cause a lot of heat generation from the bulbs, often times this can cause a water temperature increase of around 7°F! These lighting set ups can often mean you wont need your heater turned on, however it is advisable to have one as a back up. Once again as the correct temperature is so important it is my advice to purchase a quality chilling unit.

When both a chiller and a heater are hooked up to a temperature controller this is ideal to keep the temperature in your saltwater aquarium constant no matter what else maybe happening and you marine life will love you for it.

For more vital saltwater aquarium information and to see what my best selling ebook can offer you go to www.Saltwater-Aquarium-Advice.com

All marine creatures have evolved in the sea, which is a very stable environment with massive water buffering capacity (which means stable temperature, pH, specific gravity, oxygen, nitrate and other chemicals) because of its large size. This is unlike freshwater fish whose environment can often be affected dramatically by events like landslides, snowmelt, drought and flooding causing massive changes in water conditions. This lack of chemical and physical change in seawater means marine fish and invertebrates do not possess the physiological ability to adapt to different water conditions that freshwater species possess.

For us as marine aquarists this means to ensure our marine pets survive and thrive we need to provide optimal water quality at all times. This is especially true for reef aquariums where corals have a much more specific set of requirements than marine fish do.

In my experience poor water quality is the number one reason things go wrong with marine life in peoples saltwater aquariums. It is the leading cause of death resulting from stress and shock of chemical and physical fluctuations in the water.

So the key here is good quality, stable saltwater which is actually easy to achieve.

The first main consideration in top quality water is a really good purified water source. As I have mentioned before water from the tap should never be used as it contains high levels of phosphate, nitrate and heavy metals among other chemicals you do not want in your aquarium. The best way to obtain purified water is to purchase a reverse osmosis water filter for tap water; this investment will soon pay itself back to you. Alternatively you can purchase prefiltered/distilled water or preprepared saltwater.

Next up would be a high quality salt mix if you are using filtered freshwater, this should closely replicate the chemical composition of natural seawater (NSW) and will add in all the vital minerals and trace elements your marine life need for health.

Now that we have the nuts and bolts of a good quality saltwater source figured out the next major parameter required for high quality saltwater aquarium water are a high level of oxygenation and strong water movement.

Oxygenation can come from a good protein skimmer, but also airstones and water pumps and powerheads; any thing that moves water around rapidly or puts bubbles into it. All marine life breath oxygen as do we people so this is important especially as saltwater absorbs 250 times less oxygen than freshwater so we want a high water turnover at the surface of the tank where oxygen can be absorbed.

Strong, multidirectional water movement as I have mentioned before is especially important for corals and other sessile invertebrates; to bring them their plankton food and nutrients, clean them of detritus and oxygenate them. You can never really have too much water movement in a marine aquarium; it stirs up detritus and prevents anoxic zones forming where organic debris could start decaying anaerobically releasing deadly toxins into the water. A series of powerheads pointed at each other will do the job; you can even put them on timers to emulate ebb and flow. You can also get advanced programmable propeller pumps to simulate different reef water movements and waves.

The ideal water temperature for a saltwater aquarium is 77-80°F (25-27°C) this will be achieved using 2 heaters depending on your aquarium size. If you live in a warm house/climate or have metal halide lights you may need to purchase a water chiller too especially if you have a reef aquarium. A chiller is particularly useful if your temperatures are fluctuating more than 4 degrees (F) at a time that will stress out your marine life.

To accurately keep the temperature in the range 77-80°F (25-27°C) you will need an accurate thermometer. Even better is a temperature controller unit hooked up to your heater that will keep temperature fluctuations to a minimum and lead to less stressed marine life.

Good quality marine aquarium water will have an ideal pH (alkalinity) of 8.3. To keep the pH at this level you will need to test it regularly using a pH test kit. In a fish only set up the pH can range from 7.6 to 8.4 without causing harm to the fish. In a reef tank the invertebrates are more sensitive requiring a pH range of 8.0 to 8.4.

In a saltwater aquarium set up the pH is normally likely to go down overall (become more acidic) mostly from organic acids produced by biological waste. Usually the waters buffering system can retard this pH drop to a degree but it does begin to wear out after a while and the buffering chemicals such as calcium, carbonate, and bicarbonate need replenishing. This is where the term “alkalinity” comes in; it is the waters buffering ability to stay alkaline in the presence of these acids.

The best way to stabilise pH is with regular partial water changes, which replenishes the aquariums buffering capacity, and also adds back vital trace elements that get used up by marine life.

If the pH is too low you can add a pH reduction product. If its too high you can add a pH increaser product or baking soda, you just have to be careful as the basic baking soda can burn marine life before it gets diluted.

Carbonate hardness (dKH) is the measure of alkalinity or buffering capacity of saltwater, which is essentially the pH stabiliser. Ideally you will have 9-12dKH this will provide good buffering against pH fluctuations. This can best tested for with carbonate hardness test kits.

Calcium Reactors are high tech pieces of equipment that offer a fantastic solution to the problems of pH fluctuations, carbonate hardness and calcium dosing (especially important for reef aquariums) in one unit. Aquarium water, CO2 gas and calcium carbonate are combined in a reaction chamber to produce injections of calcium bicarbonate that provides the calcium vital for invertebrates’ growth, adequately buffer aquarium water and corrects pH. Calcium reactors are strongly recommended for reef aquariums.

Specific gravity is a weight ratio of one litre of a substance (saltwater in this case) compared to one litre of water and is temperature dependant. It is essentially a way to measure the salt content in your aquarium and to make sure it is as close as possible to seawater. This is an important parameter of good quality aquarium water.

Hydrometers are used to measure specific gravity that ideally will be 1.023. Conductivity however is a more accurate measure. The conductivity of your aquarium water should be 50.1 ms/cm @ 25°C this can be measured using conductivity probe.

Specific gravity will change with the event of evaporation, which leaves behind salt and increases specific gravity and salinity that will harm marine life; this is why we need to measure it regularly. If its too low add more salt mix, too high add more purified water.

Its important to note that marine life from the Red Sea which has a higher salt content than the rest of the worlds oceans need their specific gravity at 1.024-1.025 to be optimally healthy.

Ammonia/Ammonium, Nitrite and Nitrate are all Nitrogenous compounds form the breakdown of biological waste and organic matter. All should be scrubbed up by biological filtration and be kept to an absolute minimum. Test kits are readily available for each compound. Ammonia and Nitrite are particularly toxic to marine life and should only be present during biological cycling in a new aquarium, ideally you will have a zero reading for these.

Nitrate is the end product of nitrification and again we want as little of this as possible Fish only aquariums should have less than 50ppm (~20mg/litre). Reef and FOWLR (fish only with live rock) aquariums should have less than 20ppm (~3mg/litre).

All the major water quality and water chemistry components have now been covered for fish only aquariums if you have a FOWLR aquarium with a few corals and other invertebrates or a reef aquarium you must also consider the following parameters:

Phosphate levels must be kept to a minimum, even though phosphate is a major nutrient for corals. Ideal phosphate levels should be less than 0.05ppm (or 0.01 mg/litre). Phosphate can be introduced to the aquarium in many forms (unfiltered water, overfeeding, non-phosphate free salt mixes or medias) and excess leads to algae blooms that are particularly undesirable in reef aquariums where it grows on the corals and can suffocate them. So you should test new aquarium products for phosphate by putting them in water for an hour then testing that water. Phosphate test kits are cheap and easy to use. Phosphate removal media is a very good way to get rid of excess phosphate from your system. Regular water changes should help you keep on top of phosphate levels.

Calcium is a very important compound in reef aquariums as hard corals, molluscs, soft corals and crustaceans use a lot of this compound to build their skeletons. Calcium is used up from the water fast in an established aquarium; as much as 15mg/litre per day! Calcium levels are ideally 420mg/litre, which is the same as NSW. Test kits can be used to give a handle on this vital element calcium can be dosed into your aquarium using a calcium reactor and not simply by adding coral sand to your aquarium as many people incorrectly think. Depletion of calcium also reduces the buffering capacity of marine aquarium water too.

Other important elements for thriving invertebrates in reef aquariums are Iodine and Iron, which are both beneficial for fish too commercial additives and test kits are easily available. The ideal levels for each are 0.5 mg/litre for iodine and 0.05 mg/litre for Iron. Both are used up from the water by marine life so will need to be tested for regularly.

Stony reef building corals also need Strontium, ideally at 8 mg/litre for building up their skeletons. Strontium is quickly depleted from the water so will need to be added regularly.

We all know keeping your marine aquarium clean can sometimes be a chore, but it is a small price to pay for having a pristine display tank that wows everyone that walks in the room. But, there is an easier way; enlisting the help of a few particular species of invertebrates ,plants and fish to do the job for you! A lot of people contact me via www.Saltwater-Aquarium-Advice.com asking about marine tank janitors, heres’ what I tell them:

Marine tank janitors are a selection of beneficial marine organisms basically feed on algae, detritus and any uneaten food left in the aquarium, additionally marine plants mop up nitrates and phosphate (biological waste products of excretion). This assortment of helpful invertebrates, fish and plant life are literally the janitors or clean up crew of a marine aquarium. If you own a reef tank having these guys around is a no brainer as long as they get along with your corals and invertebrates, if you have a fish only set up just do a bit of research first and make sure none of your fish species will feast on your clean up crew (always research fish, coral and invertebrate species compatibility before adding in new tank inhabitants).

So your clean up crew will generally be made up of  a combination of crabs, snails, shrimp, sea cucumbers, Starfish, marine plants and sand sifting Gobies and Blennies. A number of these species are more sutiable for newbies such as Cleaner shrimp, crabs, Gobies and starfish.

If you have a sandy substrate, sand sifting species such as the Gobies (for example; 2 spot Goby, Sleeper Goby, Watchman Goby) and sea cucumbers such as the black or Tiger tail will do an excellent job of plowing through the sand looking for detritus. This is very beneficial to keep your tank looking clean and the nitrate/nitrite levels down and  efficiently aerates the sand.

Species which will keep the rocks and glass free of algae and detritus are herbivorous Blennies and Tangs (including my personal favourite the blue regal Tang, as these species eat a vegetarian diet they are perfect for reef aquariums), hermit crabs such as dwarf and electric species and snails such as the hugely popular Astrea and Turbo snail. Snails and hermit crabs are quite small so will not rearrange the aquarium or require much care, however Tangs can grow quite large and need additional feeding so make sure you have enough space.

Hermit crabs such as the blue legged and red legged species are perfect for algae control because they are small so do not cause too much of a disturbance in the tank and can fit into tiny gaps for better algae predation. In terms of true crabs, the Emerald Green Crab is the best selection for a reef aquarium because they are so reef safe and so got at controlling algae.

It is my hope that you will now be armed with some background information to help you select a clean up crew for your own marine aquarium. These guys can really be a savvy marine aquarists’ best friends!

For more information on maintaining marine aquariums and keeping optimally happy, healthy marine life; check out my best selling publication “Ultimate Secrets To Saltwater Aquarium Fish and Invertebrates”

So, by now you have added Live rock to your aquarium and are letting that cycle the water from ammonium spike to nitrite spike to nitrate (which is then reduced by anaerobic bacterial denitrification or absorbtion by marine plants or partial water changes) , you can also cycle your tank in other ways such as using Live sand, but Live rock is by far the best way in my experience. Some people even use hardy fish to add the vital ammonium to kick start the reaction but this is very mean. The entire cycling process should take around 30 days, but can take up to 6 weeks.

When the tank is cycling you do not want to remove any water or mess with it all all, just let the bacteria do their thing and be patient. DO NOT attempt to put in any marine life at this time, if they dont die outright they will get very stressed out. If there is a lot of organic matter gathering at the bottom of the tank you can carefully remove this with a siphon.

A good use of your time at this point is to set up a quaratene tank as a secondary medication/new addition acclimation tank if you intend to use one. This is a very good idea and is a vital way at stopping the spread of disease in your display tank and gently acclimating your new pets in a stress free environment, if can be small and doesnt have to have much in it at all other than a few PVC pipes and a bit of live rock for the fish to hide out in.

You will now need to test your water parameters to see what stage of the cycle your aquarium is in. If it is nearing the final phase nitrite levels should have dropped to zero and increasing nitrate levels may co-inside with an increase in algal growth. Now simply conduct partial water changes or initiate anaerobic bacterial denitrification using specific filters to get rid of excess nitrate, if you have a good quality stock of live rock it should naturally provide the bacterial growing environment for this to happen. It is a good idea to do a partial water change (20%) right after the ammonium and nitrite levels drop to zero to help get the nitrate levels down.

You will also want to do a bit of a clean up, siphoning organic matter from the substrate and getting rid of excessive algae that has popped up. Any final aquascaping changes can now be done before you add marine life. If you have any mechanical filtering devices as they would have go clogged up during the cycling you should clean out or replace and media or sponges from them. Now you should restart all you equipment and give the tank a few days for the water to settle, then make any adjustments to temperature or water quality (salinity may need a tweak). Also keep an eye on the nitrate levels at this time and conduct a partial water change and siphon more debris out if neccessary. You will need to bring nitrate down to acceptible levels for your intended set up (ideally less than 20ppm for reef and fish only).

Now for the fun part add one or two species from your plan into the aquarium. You need to move very slow giving the bacteria time to adjust to the increased bio-load. One of the biggest mistakes made at this point is putting to much in too fast. Over the next week or so test water levels and when you get a zero reading for ammonia and nitrite you can add more pets one or two at a time, but remember the slower the better!

And finally your new saltwater aquarium is complete!

Time for part 2 of how to set up your saltwater aquarium the right way. So, by now you have decided exactly how you want you aquarium to look, whats going inside it and what equipment you will be needing (the more detail, the better). You have put together the stand, tank and all the equipment. What you need to do now is put a layer of the substrate you intend to use on the bottom of the tank, fill the tank with freshwater (not from the tap! Either buy distilled water, pre prepared saltwater or treat your own tap water) and put it through a “wet run” to ensure every piece of equipment is working as it should be and you have no leaks (not a good look when you have fish inside!). You should run it for around 1 day; making sure the water is getting warmer from your heater, pumps are going, bubbles are coming out, adding salt if you need to to hit your specific gravity (1.02-1.024 for a fish only set up).

The next part is the creative stage; aquascaping your aquarium! To do this turn off all running equipment and remove and save say about half the water (to give you room for adding stuff without overflowing the tank). Now simply place and arrange all your items how you have planned them previously. Now to combine aquascaping and initiating the cycling of your aquarium with live rock. Live rock is porous rock taken from the rubble zones of ocean reefs it contains many tiny invertebrates and microorganisms essential to biological cycling (converts animal waste ammonium into much less toxic nitrate which is either absorbed by plants or removed by partial water changes). Live rock is awesome because it looks so natural in your aquarium, keeps the water healthy, provides places for marine life to hide and helps the fish feel at home. You can arrange it into cool shapes and even dill holes in it and stick bits together to make a cool playground for your marine life.

Before you add you live rock to the tank it is my recommendation to inspect it for undesirable hitchhikers (bristle worms, mantis shrimps etc) and clean it in saltwater. Then you can cure it (preferably in a separate tank) for a few days, where most of the decaying organic matter goes through the decomposition process which would other wise overload your system and making your new aquarium water disgusting! When you add the live rock to your water there will be a brief period of die-off of the encrusting organisms, which will cause ammonia to be released into the system, in a while populations of bacteria inhabiting the rock will multiply feeding on the ammonia and converting it into nitrite. Next, a new population of different bacteria will multiply converting the nitrite into the less harmful nitrate. This is biological cycling in a nutshell and is natures way of recycling biological waste which otherwise would build up to toxic levels and kill all marine life.

Phew, that was intense but a very necessary part of preparing your aquarium for your precious marine life.

So stay tuned for the next installment and for more detailed info about biological cycling and setting up a saltwater aquarium check out my best selling ebook “Ultimate Secrets To Saltwater Aquarium Fish and Invertebrates”.

Its back to basics for this blog post guys, and il tell you why. How many of you have made mistakes while setting up their first marine aquarium? If you are being honest I would say about 60% of you have.

When people are new to the hobby the most scary thing is making mistakes and having it come back to bite you, it can be enough to put you off the hobby for life. And thats whats happened to a couple of people who have contacted me through www.Saltwater-Aquarium-Advice.com recently.

So here is how to do things the right way, first time. This is pretty relevant for anyone regardless of experience, because at one time or another you are all going to have to set up a tank again.

The first step is to decide EXACTLY what you want: Fish only, FOWLR (fish only with live rock), Reef, Jellyfish whatever. Fish only is a good first timers option because you can later convert it to reef or add stuff. A reef aquarium (mostly corals, invertebrates and one or 2 fish can be pretty easy to set up but requires complex lighting for your corals and some organisation. So planning and research are the keys here, do as much detail as possible will help down the track.

Second step is to get some good quality guide books, and of course im going to recommend my top selling ebook “Ultimate Secrets To Saltwater Aquarium Fish and Invertebrates” which concentrates on the marine life (the most vital part of the equation!) and how to make it thrive.

Next up make a checklist of everything you need and go buy it! You dont have to have everything at once, it can be a slow but steady evolution, a masterpiece in the making if you will.

Now to get to the nitty gritty of setting up now that you are all researched, planned and purchased. The first steps of the actual set up are deciding upon: Location of the aquarium (out of sunlight and well ventilated!), decide on aquarium size (always buy the biggest one you can afford) and whether you want a stand, what substrate will you use ?, Temperature, lighting and filtration systems you want to use, what look you want (aquascaping and decor). Once you have done this its time to rock and roll.

First you need to get you aquarium ready; put the stand down, ensuring its level. Now clean the hell out of the aquarium with fresh clean water then apply a vinyl background or alternatively paint it. Next; if you are using a sump put it in now, it is the easiest time to do it. Now is the time to put the aquarium on its stand and ensure it is all level. Next up get all your equipment and install it to where it should be in the set up.

After all this its time to give the system a trial run and check all the components are working.

For the next steps in setting your marine aquarium up the right way…… Stay tuned for the next installment!