New tank advice

[Desie Kushniryk]

A friend of mine wants to start a salt water aquarium, this will be her first. I have tried to persuade her to start with a fresh water tank, but she wants the cast of neon swimming in her bedroom. She’s a pretty sharp cookie and a real quick learner. I myself have had a few marine tanks twenty years ago with good success. I recently started a new African cichlid aquarium - 180 gallons - which is what spurred her on.

She has given me licence to make it happen. I won’t say no matter what the cost but I have some liberal freedom here. The problem I see is this - we live in a remote area of northern Canada. No other person in the community has a marine aquarium, nor is likely to. There is no place to run if something goes wrong.

When I set up my most recent tank I used 2 Rena XP3’s both running, if one goes down I can repair or replace in forty eight hours -same with the heaters - redundancy built into everything. I am seeking advice from the pro’s. Because she wants this in the bedroom quiet is of importance - the husband has so decreed it. That is one of the advantages of the XP3 - very quiet. Some of the reading I’ve done recommends protein skimmers. Having never used such a device I don’t know how noisy they can be. Live rock seems to be another popular item of benefit – something she is very open to.

This is what she said she wants - I’m looking for advice to put it together. One five foot long aquarium- twenty four inches deep and twenty inches high, with canopy to conceal lighting and closed-in stand for filtration equipment. As a back up tank in the family room - a three foot long twenty inches deep twenty inches high - Complete with canopy and stand like the other. With the limited experience I have to offer and your advice I’m sure we can keep the damage to a minimum.

For those who think this is not a good idea – she is not willing to accept no as answer. I need to find a way to make this work!

Des

[leebca]

Des,

Going slowly and being patient is the best advice. Don't let your friend's enthusiasm get you to cut corners. There is much for you (and your friend) to read. I suggest doing that first. Much of what you need to know is found in this group of Forums.

Because of your geography, you'll need to be more self sufficient, so some redundancy in equipment may be a good idea. Keeping medications on hand will be important and then keeping them current will be important, too. Using a quarantine process will be necessary. One mistake of letting a disease or wrong organism into a marine tank and all your fishes may die!

Also, I don't know your area, but if you suffer from black outs, loss of power, you may need to reconsider. A day or more without power and you can lose all marine life. There are back up, battery operated equipment available that can stretch the loss of power to a couple of days which you may need. But if you lose power frequently or for more than a couple of days at a time, this isn't the right hobby.

Here's the first things to read and understand. From what you read, you'll make a list of things you need to acquire:

Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium
A Fish Quarantine Process
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition
Is The Fish Healthy?
What is Live Rock, Anyway?
What is Water Quality

Other topics can be found in this Table of Contents which lists links to other topics:
Table/Contents - Link List

Good luck!