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Setting Up a Salt water fish Tank Over the past 7 years, I have set up 5 salt water fish tanks, each one with a different set-up. I’ll start with the oldest tank, since this one has been going for over 5 years and has matured nicely. For my first reef tank, I chose a 55 gallon Plexiglas tank with a wet-dry trickle filter, a canister filter, and a protein skimmer. I decided not to use any substrate, since I would be loading up this tank with live rock and did not want to have to worry about inaccessible areas where the sand would not be able to be cleaned. I had purchased the tank years ago for a saltwater set-up while I was on the West Coast, but never got it set up before moving back east. I found a used wet-dry trickle filter and a protein skimmer for sale in a local classified ad. Since the tank would be in our family room, the wife decided we needed a nice wooden cabinet for the tank, so we took a trip up to That Fish Place and purchased a new one. While there, I purchased a Fluval 303 canister filter. Being that the tank was on the 1st floor of the house, I was satisfied that the weight of the tank, rocks, and water would be no problem. We chose the family room, as this is where we spend our evenings and would be able to see the tank every night. The location was not near any heating/cooling vents, outside doors, was across the room from the bay window, and did not get any direct sunlight, except for about an hour in the morning during the winter only. For lighting, I built a canopy to house two 36 inch Corallife 50/50 tubes with reflectors. Plans were to expand the lighting at a later time, since lighting is one of the most expensive accessories for a reef tank, and I was trying to keep costs to a minimum. The canister filter, which had three separate containers for filter media, was loaded with a sponge, activated carbon, and bio-balls for biological filtration. The wet-dry trickle filter was loaded with bio-balls and a sponge filter. I hooked up the canister filter and wet-dry trickle filter to the tank and the protein skimmer to the sump of the trickle filter. Then I mixed the saltwater up and filled the tank. Now I was ready to turn the pumps on and hope there would be no leaks. Of course, there was a small leak where the tubing meets the return from the canister filter. A little tweaking on the connection and the slow leak stopped. I later found a rubber ring used on the Marineland Magnum filters worked well on these connections and could be purchased in a 6-pack at That Fish Place. This set-up was allowed to run for about a week. I purchased some live rock from a friend who already had a mature reef tank for a few years. Then I purchased two yellow-tailed damsels to cycle the tank. During the next several weeks, I tested the tank for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Surprisingly, I did not see an ammonia or nitrite spike, probably due to the matured live rock that I obtained from another tank. Slowly, I added several more fish, including a percula clown and several varieties of damsels, a few turbo snails, and a sally lightfoot crab, over the next couple of months. During this period, I started to add some brown mushroom polyps and a couple of feather duster worms. I kept the pH between 8.0 and 8.2, carbonate hardness between 8.0 and 10.0dkh, the specific gravity at 1.023, and the temperature between 75 and 78 degrees F. Later on, I found I had to add buffer to the system every week or so in order to maintain the pH and hardness within the above ranges. I fed the fish once a day, using a different food each day, including marine flake, spirulina flake, frozen brine shrimp, and as a treat, some live adult brine shrimp once a week. Maintenance on this tank included cleaning the front glass of algae once a week, cleaning the skimmer cup once a week, doing a 10% water change every two weeks, rinsing the sponge and changing the activated carbon in the canister filter once a month. All together, I spent a little over $400 for this set-up. If I had to buy the tank, it would have added about another $75. If you were to buy everything "new", you could very easily top $1000 for this same set-up. I have found it pays to check the classified ads and local bulletin boards for used tanks and accessories. If you have the patience, you can obtain everything you need at a very reasonable price. During the first year of this tank, the main disadvantage I found was the Plexiglas front was hard to clean the algae off without leaving fine scratches, despite using the so-called "safe for Plexiglas" algae pads. Because of the partially closed in top of the tank, it was difficult to get into the tank during maintenance. The one thing I liked about using a Plexiglas tank was how bright and crystal clear the tank looked when compared to all-glass tanks. Despite that one advantage, this would be the first and last saltwater Plexiglas tank set-up that I would use. Now with the minimal lighting of this set-up, I am limited to the types of corals I can keep, so the next major expenditure would be for metal halide lamps. But I was already suffering from growing pains and wanted to expand to a larger tank after one year with this set-up. Next month, I’ll write about the expansion from the 55 to a 125-gallon tank and the addition of metal halide lighting. by Marty Ziegler
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