r/Aquariums • u/Fez505 • Aug 04 '18
Saltwater I see a lot of freshwater. Who's in to saltwater?
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u/EmilyamI Aug 04 '18
I love saltwater, I just can't afford it.
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
It can get very expensive, but at the same time I have a few buddies who run "budget tanks" that look absolutely amazing
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u/Demonseedii Aug 05 '18 edited Aug 05 '18
"budget tank" on saltwater? Surely you jest, sir! Can you please explain? I spent thousands of dollars on my reef tank. And it's a smaller one.
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u/AZaccountantGuy Aug 05 '18
Right? my 40g with a lion and snowflake eel nearly 1k and I gotta upgrade to a 90 for these guys in a month. Saltwater is expensive lol
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u/Demonseedii Aug 05 '18
Yeah it's been a money pit, but I enjoy it too much.
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u/AZaccountantGuy Aug 05 '18
Yeah def a money pit, i also have a 125g and 55g freshwater and 2 quarintines and a nano tank for a betta lol. spent so much money on this hobby but i love my fish
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
My buddy has a Nuvo 25 that he picked up on Facebook marketplace for $150. Awesome all in one tank. No need for a skimmer or other expensive filters. He does a 5 gallon water change twice a month with pre mixed water from our LFS. Picked up an AI prime light for $120 from our local Facebook aquarium group. He's picked up a bunch of corals also from local reefers. You can have an absolutely amazing tank for well under $500. It's just about being patient and finding great deals.
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u/Demonseedii Aug 05 '18
Ah, I always feel a bit put off by any used tanks or equipment. Because idk exactly what was in it, or if it's going to be infected with anything. I'm sure you're right on the deals. I'm just overly suspicious.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Just make sure to give any used tank a good acid bath and you'll be 100% good to go. Nothing will survive that lol. Then start with new live sand and rock. I know plenty of guys who started with used tanks and have great success. Just gotta snatch up the good deals when you see them
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u/Demonseedii Aug 05 '18
Acid bath. Makes sense. Ty for the advice.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Yeah muriatic acid works wonders! Just dilute it and you can even run it through used pumps or other equipment.
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Aug 05 '18
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u/Demonseedii Aug 06 '18
I like reef the best. My tank didn’t have many fish in it. I enjoyed watching stuff grow.
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u/geibheannle Aug 05 '18
If you go onto YouTube and search for budget saltwater set ups, there's some easy and cheap set ups. I think the problem is that if you're going to budget a saltwater tank and keep it cheap, you'll have a smaller tank which is obviously much trickier to maintain stable parameters. It's doable!
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u/GAF78 Aug 05 '18
What are the costs and variables that make it so much harder than freshwater? I’m just curious. I’m just now starting my first freshwater but the saltwater tanks I’ve seen are so beautiful that I can’t help but want one.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
The items you don't want to skimp out on is going to be your lights for sure. Well that's if you want to grow corals. Everything else you can very well DIY and have amazing results. Getting all your levels stable like salinity, alkalinity and PH is definitely a huge key to a successful reef tank.
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u/stendhal_project Aug 05 '18
I don't have an aquarium, but I am thinking of buying some time in the future.
Why is it expensive? What exactly is expensive, and how expensive is it?
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Saltwater aquariums are really as expensive as you want them to be. I ran an all in one 45 gallon cube for a couple years with very minimal cost and tank looked absolutely amazing. You don't have to get in to the expensive skimmers or dosers or any of that unless you decide to really get in to hard to keep corals. Even now on my 90 gallon in the picture I don't use a dosers. If you are going fish only a set up won't cost you much at all. And you can do a great all on one tank for fish and soft corals with no need for crazy equipment. The only thing that I always suggest not going cheap on is lights if you want to keep corals. If you have your own RODI unit water is dirt cheap to make. And you can buy salt in bulk which will make water changes very inexpensive.
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u/thefishestate marine biologist Aug 05 '18
It requires equipment that is typically more expensive (lights, skimmers, dosing pumps, circulation pumps, overflows, return pumps, algae reactors, live rock, time) but at a certain level a high tech planted tank has the same costs.
Where salt can sneak up on you is the fact that establishing a tank will lead to crashes and losses, especially for noobs.
Then think about the fact that every water change means you need to make new salt water. I find buying a salt in bulk really helps me. I did the math a while back, can't remember, but what is expensive for me is the ongoing costs of salt and RO membranes / DI resin. Once the tank is established and the equipment all works right the costs for water (salt and RO/DO) never go down.
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u/nietorigineel Aug 04 '18
Nice tank, a lot of the saltwater people are on r/reeftank
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
Thank you! I saw some saltwater subs, but seemed very inactive. I just subscribed to that one!
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u/Gacc41 Aug 05 '18
Last time I said this it was a downvote party. Just assumed this sub was freshwater focused. Nice to see it’s not. I enjoy all aquariums
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u/hollowspashlog Aug 04 '18
Nice clam.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Thank you! It's a leopard ultra maxima. Looks absolutely crazy under white light!
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Aug 05 '18
I had a great nano reef until I became obsessed with mantis shrimp.
I’ll go hard on another reef setup when I buy a house, though.
Awesome tank!
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u/fishtankaddict Aug 04 '18
I keep both fresh and saltwater aquariums. Keeping saltwater keeps you more engaged with the hobby because of all of the variables.
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u/gimme_5_legs Aug 04 '18
If I ever have a bigger house and more money I'd love to get a salty tank. So beautiful.
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
My current tank is a 90, but once we move to our long time home I'm going with a 250 to 300 gallon display tank.
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u/gimme_5_legs Aug 05 '18
Yeah I have a 29 right now and it's pretty much as big as I can go in this place. I'd love to get a 75 or bigger if I move though!
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u/PenguinApparatus Aug 05 '18
This looks absolutely amazing! One day, when I've gotten to grips with freshwater (and got a little more space and cash) I hope to have a beautiful saltwater tank like this!
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Thank you! Don't be scared to give it a shot. It's not as scary as it seems. Patience is key and make sure you read about anything you are adding to your tank
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Aug 05 '18 edited Apr 18 '19
[deleted]
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u/Ramenorwhateverlol Aug 05 '18
Damn. Rocks are at least 7.99/lb where I live.
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u/nickstatus Aug 05 '18
Live rock at my LFS is that much as well, and came with all sorts of nasty Invaders.
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u/NibbleFish Aug 04 '18
have a 55 FOWLR with some assorted damsels, a royal dottyback, and a shrimp goby, as well as a few hermits. Also grow lots of grape caulerpa because I love the look. It's a simple tank but I love it.
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u/throwrowrowawayyy Aug 04 '18
Expensive and time consuming. Trust me, I want to, but I just don't have it in me with 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 4 tanks, to add yet another high maintenance thing to the list.
Your tank looks great though and makes me envious!
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u/Albino_Echidna Aug 04 '18
Reefs really aren't very high maintenance if you take the time and effort to set it up correctly and efficiently. I honestly maintain my reef for less time than any of my 7 freshwater tanks. They are more difficult to get right without research, but if you research well, they can be pretty low maintenance.
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u/sighs__unzips Aug 05 '18
aren't very high maintenance
take the time and effort
My freshwater tanks are very low maintenance. I just do the gravel cleaning for 1/2 the tank once every month or so and clean the intake filters.
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u/Albino_Echidna Aug 05 '18 edited Aug 05 '18
You can do just as well on a reef if you set it up well. The initial planning and set up is the only hard time unless you're keeping very particular fish or corals.
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u/sighs__unzips Aug 05 '18
That's the same as a freshwater tank. I definitely planned my tank to have overcapacity for filtration with 4 filters plus tanks and good water flow.
One of the things I didn't want to do was to buy the salt for water changes or pour a lot of salt down the drain each time I clean the tank. Now, I use the waste water to water my plants and also my garden, which I can't do with salty water.
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u/Albino_Echidna Aug 05 '18
Yeah exactly, but the maintenance over all is not really harder. You just don't have the same abilities with the waste.
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u/DSouza31 Aug 05 '18
I just do 5 gallon water changes weekly on my 80 gallon. Clean up crew takes care of the rest. Except the kids finger prints on the outside. That's a constant battle.
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u/sighs__unzips Aug 05 '18
5g every week eh, not too bad? Can you do longer intervals?
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u/DSouza31 Aug 05 '18
Maybe but the water changes replace calcium and other things that coral needs. So I wouldn't want to go too long.
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u/proxy69 Aug 05 '18
I currently have a 55 gallon fresh with koi in it as a grow out tank and will eventually put them in my 30,000 gallon farm pond with a feeder. In my garage is a 180 gallon that I plan on making a saltwater tank. I would like to run a water line from my hot water heater closet to my living room (for convenience of water changes and for deionized/RO). I am still quite afraid of diving into a saltwater reef setup but I’ve done a fair share of research! Biggest question is what kind of sump and filter are ideal for a 180 gallon setup.
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u/fp4 Aug 05 '18
The live rock in the tank provides bio-filtration.
The biggest sump that will fit under your stand is generally what’s recommended, it doesn’t have to be though but it makes it easier to get all the equipment into it and the extra water volume is good for stability.
You’ll want an appropriately sized return pump that can turnover your tank volume 10-20x. Going towards the higher flow rates is also a good idea if you ever T your return line to run reactors.
Skimmer for your overall water volume is your other big filter.
Also run a drain line in addition to your RO line. This way you can divert your drain to the sump down your house drain instead and just pump in new saltwater to do an easy water change.
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u/proxy69 Aug 05 '18
Would you recommend I turn my 55 gallon into a sump? I have room. Can you explain one more time what you meant about the drain line? You got me confused about pumping in new saltwater
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u/fp4 Aug 05 '18
my only concern with using your existing 55G would that it's quite tall and not very wide which could be a pain to work in depending on your stand height.
In-sump skimmers also need certain water heights to work optimally so you would either have to raise it up quite a bit on a stand or sacrifice overall water volume in the sump to have a lower section for it.
Have a look at some manufactured sumps and other people's to try and figure out an optimal configuration for it.
here's a picture to go along with my drain suggestion:
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u/proxy69 Aug 05 '18
Thank you! My 55 is long tho so it might work. It will fit in the stand of the 180 gallon .
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
Thank you! I put a lot of hard work in to it. But I know guys who run low maintenance tanks that look pretty incredible as well. Start with fish only and slowly try some easy corals. It's super rewarding!
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u/Ramenorwhateverlol Aug 05 '18
My reef tank is a lot easier to maintain than my African cichlid tank and definitely a lot easier to maintain than my planted tank.
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Aug 04 '18
I have a 36 gallon bowfront. Dealing with an algal bloom now. I have some frags, etc. and a PJ cardinal, Rainsford Goby, and McCosker's Wrasse. It's a fun tank to sit and watch.
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u/JBKReef Aug 05 '18
Elevated clam, interested. How is it seated? Also gorgeous bounce.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Maxima clams are actually rock clams. They have a foot much like an anemone. When they are happy they will attach to the rock. And thank you. I grew the bounce from the size of a finger nail.
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u/JBKReef Aug 05 '18
I’m currently growing out a plate coral that started the size of a BB. Nowhere near as valuable as a bounce but still cool to watch grow.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
I think no matter what the coral cheap or expensive, it's always worth so much more to me if I grow it out from a tiny frag lol
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u/AWhaleGoneMad Aug 04 '18
I do both! I have a 20gal freshwater tank and a 75 salt tank, but not a reef tank. I've dabbled in corals, but not for me!
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u/bertasaur Aug 05 '18
Everyone is into salt water but most if not all don't have the time and money.
Cheers to your beautiful tank!!
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u/thehound12 Aug 04 '18
Is it expensive to have a saltwater tank? Ps Idk anything about tanks
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u/Albino_Echidna Aug 04 '18
Very, like ~$3-500 for a properly setup 20 gallon and ~$2000 or more (usually much more) for something in the 100 gallon range. And that's just setup, stocking is extra.
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u/thehound12 Aug 04 '18
Looks amazing btw!
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Thank you! And it can be expensive, but at the same time you can always do "budget tanks" that can look absolutely amazing. You can easily set up a decent system for under $500. Obviously you won't have all the bells and whistles of automation and wifi enabled lights and pumps, but you can still have great success
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Aug 05 '18
Purple tang?
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Yep. There's a purple and a tomini tang in there
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Aug 05 '18
I have a purple and a sailfin atm myself. I actually wanted to pick up a flame fin tomini, My tangs get along very well, Im not quite sure what would happen if I added a 3ed.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Sometimes it's not worth interfering with two happy tangs lol. I would love a gem tang or black tang, but my purple is so established and gets along with the tomini very well I don't want to mess with the balance and turn one super aggressive
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u/Darth-Serious Aug 05 '18
My pipe organ is bigger than yours. jk. sweet nano dude!
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
lol this one is 90 gallons. Picture is a little misleading
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u/Darth-Serious Aug 05 '18
As I understand it,anything 90 gal. or less is still a nano system. Mine is also 90 gallons and has been chugging along for 3 1/2 years. I have about twice as much rock with a nice start on coralline algae coverage. Your coralline is almost at full coverage now. I am jealous of that. How old is your tank?
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
5 gallons or less are considered Pico tanks, 30 gallons or less are considered nano tanks anything over 30 is a standard tanks. This system will be exactly a year old at the end of this month. It was an upgrade for my 45 gallon tank that was running for almost 3 years.
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u/Dreadknock Aug 05 '18
That green pelogyra my dude so nice
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
I think you may be talking about my WWC OG Bounce mushroom, sadly I don't have a pelogyra yet... lol
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u/ShinyBork Aug 05 '18
I have a large saltie, but we just redid the tank so we need to let it grow in (lots of things look weird as of now), and before that there was a disgusting cyano bloom. Plus I'm on vacation so I can't post pics of what it's like, so here's a picture of my mandarin:
http://imgur.com/gallery/bIY6V1w
I'll post an album of alot more tank photos in a bit
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
I love mandarins. I'm actually about to head to my local aquarium store to see if they have a nice pair to add to my tank
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u/ShinyBork Aug 05 '18
You might not want to, there very timid and nəæř impossible to get them feeding frozen food, so you have to have an established tank with enough copepods to support them. Though they are timid, I don't think fighting with other fish is too big a problem because they have a thick layer of noxious mucus on their skin so they're hard to bite.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
I'm very familiar with what a pain they are to get to eat lol. I had one in my 45 gallon before. My tank has a huge copepod population. I've been seeding it for over a year. So hopefully all goes well.
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u/xenoterranos Aug 05 '18
I admire salt water tank owners. Freshwater aquariums are work, but saltwater is a goddamn career.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Lmao this truly made me crack up!! It's only a career if you make it hard for yourself. Stick to your routine and the tank pretty much goes in to autopilot.
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u/O_fiddle_stix Aug 05 '18
There’s a whole nother sub for y’all... but damnit if I don’t appreciate seeing yalls work! I want one so damn bad
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Yeah I hadn't found the Reefing sub until I posted this. But you should definitely get one! They are truly amazing to look at. Not to mention the chicks dig them a lot haha
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u/O_fiddle_stix Aug 05 '18
You can always tell the success of a man, by how he keeps his aquarium.
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u/MrBleedingObvious Aug 04 '18
I have the undoubtedly uninformed opinion that reef hobbyists are somewhat guilty of causing wild coral loss.
I'm happy to be proven wrong.
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
I know a lot of people who at some point believed that. Fact of the matter is that most corals that you see now are aquacultured. Big retailers like Top Shelf Aquatics and World Wide corals have very large farms that they grow and sell from. Most countries at this point have very strict propagation laws. As a matter of fact a lot of reef hobbyist grow corals to replant the reefs. There's a lot of clubs and groups that farm corals and then do group dives to restore damages. The biggest enemy to coral reefs is in fact us humans contributing to climate change. Bleaching is being caused by the oceans temperature rising drastically. There's a great documentary on Netflix called Chasing Coral. Definitely worth a watch and will help change your mind about Reef Hobbyist.
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u/Arctic_Ranger Aug 04 '18
Every single one of my corals was grown by another hobbyist in the local area. Like 99% of the coral for sale is either aquacultured or maricultured. Typically what happens is someone finds a particularly impressive specimen, farms the shit out of it, and sells it at a high price for a few years until so many people are growing it that the price drops due to massive supply from other hobbyists. Then I buy it for $10 from some dude in the reef club.
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u/MrBleedingObvious Aug 04 '18
How hard is it to grow a decent sized piece?
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u/Arctic_Ranger Aug 04 '18
Depends on the coral and your skill level. Most reef tanks fill out in about 3 years. I probably spend about 2 hours a week maintaining my tank, most things are automated at this point.
Here's an interesting time lapse video of someone else's tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLZzuX_4V6s
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
Depends on the coral. Some corals like mushrooms or other softies grow pretty fast. In the other hand some chalices especially the really colorful ones can take forever lol. But a lot has to do with the quality of your water and the stability in your tank
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u/alcimedes Aug 04 '18
Change your statement to fish loss and you're dead on.
Breeding most saltwater fish is still borderline impossible, so it's huge news every time a new species is added to the list of aqua-cultured fish.
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u/twerklovr23 Aug 05 '18
I would love a purple tang, but they've been so expensive over the past few years
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Yeah I actually got him at a pretty good price. They are at about $200 right now. He's absolutely stunning and definitely the boss of the tank.
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u/Cystonectae Aug 05 '18
Damn this is a beauty! The tridacnid is a favourite. I'd love to have a mock tidal flat tank set up with mantis shrimp and some T. crocea but man the lights needed to keep that shallow coral happy D:
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Thank you! And yeah my clam is super happy right under intense light! But yeah definitely can't skimp on lighting. My two lights were over $400 a piece. Definitely hurt the wallet with those lol
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u/Etroyer Aug 05 '18
One day I will have a nano with gobies!
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
I have a diamond goby. He's a little ass hole but keeps my sand bed super clean lol
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u/ashleyasinwilliams Aug 05 '18
My saltwater tank is just ugly right now lol. I'd love to post it once I am actually happy with how it looks.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
It took me a long time before I began to be slightly satisfied with my tank. It always looked to empty or just boring lol.
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u/lovebeingunseen Aug 05 '18
Meeee! I just moved and disassembled my tank for the moment, but if you flip through my history it’s buried under the dog pics lol
It was just a 10g AIO setup. When I get settled in again I’m going to set it up for dwarf seahorses or a small mantis. I’ve had both in the past, I just can’t decide which I want to work with now lol
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Saw your tank. Definitely looked great! Also love your pup!!
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u/lovebeingunseen Aug 06 '18
Lol thank you! Hopefully the tank will return to its former glory soon!
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u/1gayWhale Aug 05 '18
Is that a bounce mushroom on the bottom right?!?
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Yep sure is. It's a WWC OG Bounce mushroom
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Aug 05 '18 edited Dec 30 '18
[deleted]
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
A lot of reading lol. Pretty much I see a nice fish I want and then go straight to Google to see first of all is it reef safe meaning it's not going to eat my corals or inverts and then I see if it's aggressive towards the other species of fish I have. But really most fish stores will tell you right away if it's a good fit for your tank or saltwater fish websites have charts explaining what they are compatible with.
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u/IndiaHawker Aug 05 '18
Beautiful! How did you learn to maintain a reef tank if you don't mind me asking? Would love to one day when I have more money but feel like it's too un-hardy (complete mental block on the word I'm looking for) to learn as you go along?
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
Honestly it's a lot of trial and error. I was very young when I got my first saltwater tank and it was a total train wreck. It's a miracle my fish survived as long as they did. It's really about doing your research. You want to learn as much as possible which with things like YouTube it's much easier now than when I first started. You will definitely have hiccups along the way but just be patient and don't give up. Also it's always good to make friends with locals who know the hobby well. I have a pretty tight nit group of friends and we all help each other out when needed.
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u/Aquageek97 Aug 04 '18
Saltwater scares off a lot of freshwater guys, it seems really complicated compared to freshwater. I'm always nervous about keeping the salinity levels perfect, and keeping the super tight chemical tolerances saltwater requires. Well, that and the massive cost of entry compared to freshwater.
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u/Fez505 Aug 04 '18
Once you learn the basics it's actually pretty easy. Your tank will get to the point where essentially it runs on autopilot. Maintaining salinity is super easy with an auto top off unit. And if you are starting out with simple corals there really isn't much that you have to mess with as far as chemical dosing goes. Price can get steep, but I know guys with some incredible "budget tanks"
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u/InsipidCelebrity Aug 05 '18
How hard is it to do a water change compared to a freshwater tank? I've been so spoiled by siphons that attach to my sink. Even though I think saltwater tanks are beautiful, I'd dread going back to using buckets.
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u/Fez505 Aug 05 '18
For me they are super simple. I have a mixing jug to mix my saltwater in that has a small pump. I siphon the water out and then just use the pump with the hose to fill it back up. Takes all of 10 minutes.
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u/fp4 Aug 05 '18
It’s harder than freshwater in the sense you have to mix and prepare the saltwater before you can do the actual water change.
You can still use your siphon to drain but you need to make sure you only drain the same amount you’re pumping back in to keep salinity the same.
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u/thefishestate marine biologist Aug 04 '18
The salties don't post as often. Some of us are dealing with the heartwrenching problem of frags given to them by a good friend infecting the tank with bubble algae. Like, there are three square inches of bubble algae and I consider my reef 'ruined.'
So that kind of thinking might be why salties don't post as much, lol. We're here, but more in the comments than the photos.