Starting a saltwater aquarium is not so difficult. It only needs effort and knowledge in order to have a saltwater set-up.



Before starting to set up an aquarium with salt water, it is better to plan first. Research the different system designs you can choose from as well as the needed equipment supplies. Learn essential factors before buying anything like:

• Selecting the tank style

• Type of material

• The best size, location, way to display the aquarium

• Pieces of equipment needed to run it and

• Others

Once you consider the system, put them all together and set it up.

In setting up your saltwater aquarium, you will need the following equipments:

• Aquarium

• Aquarium Photo Background or Painted background

• Aquarium substrate like live sand or crushed coral

• Live Rock

• Saltwater mix

• Saltwater Hydrometer or refractometer

• Aquarium filter

• Replacement filter media such as filter floss and activated carbon

• 2 or 3 Multiple Powerheads

• Heater

• Protein Skimmer

• Saltwater test kits

• Saltwater fish food

• Aquarium vacuum

• Fish net

• Rubber gloves

• Aquarium Glass Scrubber or Algae Scraper

• 2 clean unused 5-gallon buckets

• Aquarium Thermometer

• Brush with plastic bristles

• Quarantine Tank

• Power Strip

• Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter

You need to work hard to become successful in setting-up a saltwater aquarium. You need to feed your saltwater fish also. You also need to monitor the water parameters and other aquarium equipment on your set-up. Aside from this, you need to do aquarium maintenance at least once a week or once a month.

Setting up a saltwater aquarium is very expensive. You will get overwhelmed with the prices of those listed equipments. You will realize that freshwater aquarium set up is even cheaper. It also takes time to set it up. It takes 4 to 8 weeks before you can safely add new marine fish to your aquarium.

Aquarium Size and Location

Before deciding to buy an aquarium, know the kind of saltwater fish you want first. Learn about the different types of marine fish through research. There are marine fishes that grow up to a few inches only. Others can grow up to 18 inches. Knowing this will help you decide about the size of the aquarium you will buy. Be aware that a smaller tank will give more challenge. It will force you to maintain and test the water more frequently.

Place your aquarium in a place where light and temperature won't affect the tank. Place it also on a stand that will hold its weight. Remember that the total weight of the full aquarium is 10 pounds per gallon of water.

Example: A 70-gallon tank will weigh about 700 pounds when filled with water alone.

Aquarium and Equipment

This time you can decide on the filtration type you want to use. You can also decide on the protein skimmer type. An under gravel filter is not recommended. It is not needed and it will cause you headaches. It is better to use live rock as biological filter. For the mechanical and chemical filtration, you only need a modest filter.

The next most important piece of equipment is a protein skimmer. Here are lists of skimmers:

• AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer

• Tunze Nano Protein Skimmer

• Red Sea Prizm Protein Skimmer

• Fission Nano Protein Skimmer

• Visi-Jet PS Protein Skimmer

You need to buy a proficient heater also for your aquarium, allowing it to fit.

Then, get 1 to 2 pounds of live rocks for each gallon of water. Place this inside the aquarium.

As a rule, ½ to about 1 pound of sand for each gallon of water is needed. Sandboxes or playground sands are inappropriate. They might possess unknown particles that can be harmful to your fish. Make use of live sand, aragonite-based sand or crushed coral.