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set up in your livingroom! It's as easy keeping a salt aquarium as fresh water fish, this guide shows you how! The clown fish is one of the most known salt water fishes. A clown fish can be hard to keep by themselves in a salt water fish tank , ofcourse. If possible the clown fish should be keept in a pair. Clown fishes have a fantastic relation to the anemon where the clown hide, lovely ocean animals.

Buy a used fish tank instead -Earn hundreds of dollars!

But before you dive into nearest pile of brick-o-brack at one of your neighbours garage-sales there are a few things to take into consideration before buying your fish tank.

Which neighbour to trust -Where to buy?

How much work are you willing to put down?

What type of equipment are you looking for? Just a new filter or a complete tank? (the selection might be kind of limited at a garage-sale)

How much money can you put in?

Once you've made these decisions for yourself let's have a look at these neighbours of yours, who can you trust?
Depending on your experience a good idea might be buying an already up-and-running fish tank. That would eliminate some non wanted aspects including the one having a minor pond in your living room or by other words: leaks. Downsides with buying an already set up aquarium, besides the fact you won't get to decorate it yourself, is the general condition of the tank and it's fishes, it can be very hard to decide even for an experienced aquarist and you might end up paying for equipment and fishes thats of no use. But it can be done, and again, it's only a question of your own knowledge and how much work you're willing to put down. An up and running aquarium might, with healthy salt water fishes, can also be hard to find in a garage-sale, so another question would be where to buy and then you first have to decide what type of equipment you're looking for.

Where to look for used fish tank equipment:

• Flea markets
• Garage-sales
• Classifieds in the paper
• E-bay
• Phone your friends and relatives
• Advertise for one yourself
• Some Aquarium stores

The bigger the competition, the lower the price applies here as anywhere and from that point of view the internet and especially e-bay is unbeatable. Last time I checked the "fish turtles & frog" section had over eight thousand ads and out of them over seven thousand where from NA alone. I've ordered from their many times and so far never been dissapointed. Making payments via their pay-pal system and just check the sellers feedback from earlier buyers makes buying pretty safe I belive but still there are some things you always should look out for when buying used equipment.

If you buy an empty tank, insist on trying it for leaks. It can easily be done by simply placing it outside(or on large pile of styrofoam if you're inside), fill it up with water and wait for a couple of hours. Be very observant, the aquarium won't necessarily explode, any leak has to be repaired. So what if you didn't get the chance to try it out before obtaining it and it's leaking? No worries, that's actually a simple problem to solve! Just provide yourself with some aquarium silicone, can be found in about any home-depot shop or alike, and after removing some of that crappy old silicone with preferably a razor blade, apply it where it was supposed to be! (A more detailed description can be found under my build your own tank section here)

Unless the filter comes from a well known source you should always remove the filter media to make sure not getting hurt by someone elses diseased tank. The heater should be tested before planting the fishes, just plug it in and make sure the temperature is right and consistant, if not buy a new one, it's not worth the effort trying to repair. The pump on the other hand might be, check with you local detailist for repairment kits.

Now, when there's no more harm that can be done to your fishes the only thing that's left is some cleaning!

The filter is best cleaned out with some pure lemon juice and and when it comes to the fish tank itself plain ol hot water will do just fine, actually, don't use anything else. The gravel, if from a reliable source, should be kept as it is cause it helps your tank mature smoothly and once again, if not, just use plain ol hot water!

Good luck!

ARTICLES:

• Breeding clown fish
• Considerations for buying a large tank
• Marine aquarium do's and dont's for beginners

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