Starting a Saltwater Fish Only Tank

Hello Dear Readers,

Today we are going to out line some guidelines of setting up a saltwater fish only tank. This type of aquarium setup consists of a fish tank, some kind of aquarium substrate suitable for saltwater fish, artificial or natural rock (live rock),filteration and lighting. We will look at each of these factors in detail now.

Well this is the first step towards a beautiful fish realm within your realm ! how big ? what shape ? glass or plastic ( accrylic) ? Dimensions ? You have to be able to answer all these questions before you order one for yourself. So look very carefully where you plan to keep this fish tank of yours, because once set it is almost a permanent place for it. Because it takes good number of hours to relocate and resetup your fish tank all over again to another location.

What will your fish tank be made of, is another questions that requires some thinking, it depends on the dimensions and shape of your tank, so say you want a 4'x4'x4 (square cube) fish tank to sit in the middle of a hall, for this tank you will require 19mm glass or its equivalent in plexi-glass ( accrylic), because if you go any lower than that thickness, you risk all your investment and the safety of those who will be around the tank as well as lives of organisms you will be keeping in that tank, because anylower than 19mm in that dimension will get extremely weak holding in the water pressure. So decide on the location of the fish tank first, then think of what shape and dimensions will best fit in that location.

An aquarium stands comes in to the view just as soon as your tank is ready, stands have to be very strong, because the body of water held in side your tank will have immense weight + substrate ( gravel or sand ) weight + decoration weight. That is the reason we insist that before you spend your hard earned money on a stand make sure it is strong and sturdy, or you will loose a lot of money for sure ! So even if you have to pay a bit higher than the shop around the corner for a trust worthy fish tank and stand, We suggest you pay it higher and pay it once, instead of paying lower and paying numerous times for repairs !

Now that you have your tank setup on a stand in your favourite location, it is time for you to get something into it, first , Substrate. Best substrate for saltwater fish only tanks is medium sized grain , which will remain coarse and stay on bottom instead of very fine grain that will make the water cloudy and clog the filters and other outlets. There are artificially made substrates of various grain sizes as well as natural substrate like sea sand, but be aware not all sea sand can be used for your beautiful fish tank, because there are numerous chemichal contaminants that are polluting our seas near the shores of karachi, so beaware and pick your sand very carefully, clean it and then put it in your fish tank. So fill your aquarium with the substrate of your choice , and we suggest you make the substrate atleast 4 inches thick, with a plenum. This will allow nurturing of an-arobic bacteria, which will directly improve your tanks water quality.

Your fish tank , stand and substrate are done, you are halfway thru already, now it is time for formulating saltwater and start some flow inside the tank, so buy a good quality aquarium salt, do not try to save money for low quality salts, they will pollute your tank with chemical contaminants that are not visible to naked eye but will degrade the water quality and you will sooner or latter realize when substrate and walls of your fish tank start to turn brown or yellow, but that will already be too late. So be careful and buy good which may require more money but less headaches, sort your priorities !

Now that you have everything ready, it is time to pour in some refined pure water into the fish tank very carefully, avoiding spills around it. Fill it up leave around 1/3 from the top. Now pour in the salt mix and stirr with your hand, a good quality saltwater mix will take around 1kg salt per 30 litres of water, so calculate and mix, also keep checking the salinity level of the tank water when salinity reaches around 1.021 - 1.030, stop adding salt your water is now almost like sea water. Next step is to plug a power head and leave it running inside the tank so that it keeps the water moving all around the tank, if you have smaller power heads you may want to buy one or two more, to avoid dead spots within the tank.

Alternatively dear reader, you can just give us a call and we will set it all up for you !

I guess this is all for today, keep the water running, I will be adding more for setting up ,i.e. filteration, filteration types, equipment and methods. Happy fish keeping doston !