Salt Water Fish tank

1. 66

   Nickny79posted 15 years ago

   I am setting up a salt water fishtank.  Any suggestions as to what my first fish should be?

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   1. 59

      Mark Knowlesposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Cold, warm, or tropical?
      How big is the tank?
      What plants and crustaceans are you planning?
      What light source do you have?
      Are you mixing your own water or shipping it?

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   2. 52

      winsletposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi, Nichny79 you are planning to set up a salt water fish tank you have to know about how to care fishes. Its very important for you because so many fishes died because people dont have the knowledge how to carrying fishes.
      Thanks for this nice sharing.

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2. 66

   Nickny79posted 15 years ago

   1.  tropical
   2.  6X3X3  180 gallons
   3.  there is a window opposite the tank that gets morning sunlight; plus I will have natural light and blue bulb lamps
   4.  mixing my own water! never heard of people shipping water.  I doubt the water in my area is worth shipping unless I happen to want to marinate my fish in mercury and human fecal matter.
   
   I also have a reef of live rock.  I am told that I need to let the water sit for a few weeks beofre adding fish.  Is that necessary?

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3. 59

   Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

   Absolutely. You need to create a bacterial filter before adding any fish, or they will die in very short order. The best way of starting this is to pee in the tank
   
   Once the ammonia level starts to go down you have a basic bacteria started. But if you have live rock reef, this has already started. Where did you get a reef of live rock? As far as I am aware, it is still illegal to harvest this in the USA?
   
   Really you need to decide what you want to end up with. Some fish grow to very large sizes very quickly.
   
   Clown fish are probably the hardiest and easiest fish to keep, but the larger ones such as a tomato clown can get very aggresive if you try to add more fish later.
   
   But you can buy many varieties tank grown, so they tend to also be cheaper than other species.
   
   Damsels are pretty good as a beginner fish also, because they are quite hardy as well.

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4. 59

   GA-PEACHESposted 15 years ago

   As far as what kind of fish you should get the first question should be do you want to have corals in the tank also. If not then the field is wide open to you. But if you do want carals then you need to make sure they are safe to keep with them and that the fish will not eat the corals. Next question will be do you want a peaceful tank or not. If you like the peaceful tanks then the tangs are a good way to go. You can keep a couple in that size tank and you could get maybe some thing like an Dwarf Angel fish but only one angel per tank or you take the risk of them fighting and killing each other. Alot of reefers like to get at least one wrass usually the 6 line to help keep the worm population down. If you would like a few more suggestions just let me know. I love my saltwater tanks.

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5. 66

   Nickny79posted 15 years ago

   GA-Peach, I saw you hub on protein skimmers--really very informative.  I look forward to more  hubs on saltwater fishtanks.

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6. 60

   caninecrtiticsposted 13 years ago

   Yes depending on your corals some fish eat the corals.  So that will determine what fish you can have.  Then some fish like tangs can only be kept one species to a tank.  Yes a protein skimmer is important and your lighting for the corals because most need very good lighting.

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7. 95

   wildernessposted 13 years ago

   If you are just starting a tank then it has not cycled yet.  Use cheap fish as they are likely to die during the process of stabilizing the natural "filtration" of the tank - I used damsels and they actually survived the process.
   
   I wrote a hub on my own experience of setting up such a tank and understand it's OK to post a link when really appropriate so:
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/A-salt-water-aq … experience
   
   (If I'm wrong about the link, someone please let me know ASAP!).  It is not a really in-depth report, but might be of value, anyway.
   
   Good luck - saltwater tanks are a lot of fun and very interesting!

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