New to marines

You might call me a newbie,is that the name?

I have been trawling the forums for some time, including this one with the intention of making a success of a saltwater aquarium from the information I would find under different names so people might not lie to me
It seems very hard to make sense of this hobby yet I would love to find success in it
On the net I see so many types of equipment to use with marine aquariums
I worked out what the aandtsociety people do with the fish catching photographs, it is to promote that club, that does make more sense the more I read, I have had to promote my business before, it is a sensible thing to do
I still did not like the thought of fish being touched, that is until I was at an aquarium store during the week, one fish fell on the floor, I think it jumped out; it was put back in the display tank and is still fine and eating in there 2 days later
It was a blue fish and quiet pretty
From you forum people, could you just tell me in some simple ways, how I can have a small marine fish tank in the house and I will try not to run down the way the fish are handled
Oh one more thing, I could never go in the ocean the way the aandtsociety people do

I don’t know a lot and no one else is helping,soooo, firstly you need to decide on what you want to put in your aquarium.
Do you have an aquarium or equip of any kind yet?
If you want to go with just a fish only aquaria, that’s one way to go.
Maybe it’s corals and other invertebrates you may want to keep or all in one aquarium?
You should know what size tank would suit you, where it will go, will it fit?
What can you afford; a $500 a $1000 or maybe a $5000 first dollars set up, it’s very important to have an aquarium hobby to suit your budget.
When you get into corals it will than cost you dearly and be on going.
Have you looked around at the prices of equip and fish at the lfs?
Got a headache yet
I hope this is going to start you getting on track to a hobby I think is awesome.

greetings newbie?
My first tank was an all in one aqua one, don’t go that way.

The all in ones need to be changed to make it work,if you have seen them and thinking of going down that path.

Got holes drilled and had some help with a sump build,never looked back after that.

How small a tank are you thinking of taking on?

The small tank mind set may appeal to you now, they have some severe mood swings the smaller they are.

That means,temp fluctuations can be extreme and the PH can go haywire in no time at all.

Do you live in a hot house,thats important, if you do that means a chiller is needed, but don’t get the Chinese brands, the first one I had lasted one season.

Give some more on what you want to do and not just a small tank is wanted.

Its good to see you on here Kate, I think, you came from unhappy beginnings on here, if you get my drift.
We get a few condemners of our own collection like you did previously on the forum and to see you asking any one connected with that seems a little strange.

You need to be more clear on this

Kate wrote: how I can have a small marine fish tank in the house \

To the questions at hand, you haven’t really elaborated as to which way you want to go as the others are asking,yeh you have said small, but your original comment could mean many things.

Find a size tank in the shops or on or forum or anywhere really that you think is a size you would like and if you have looked around at the aquarium shops, you must be getting an idea of the sought of fish or inverts you would like to have at home.
Convey these things as responses to the questions being put to you and I am sure one or two people will dish out advice to you in the nicest ways.

We don’t allow any form of posturing, ego based or just plain rude comments directed at any one on this forum, so let loose with what you want to do!

It’s the only way to get sound advice on the hobby.

I understand the logistics with what has been on my thread
Because I work mon to fri early shift, this weekend will be best to make a decision on what I like, than I will ask quite a bit
If anyone has some bright ideas for a small tank in the mean time, I will check online each afternoon when I get home from work
This is maybe a silly question, what does a protein skimmer do?

Hey guys I would still like an explanation of how a protein skimmer is beneficial for an aquarium
My first reef aquarium is a reality now, just picked up a second hand complete unit
Its got in a lovely cabinet and comes with all kinds of things, the guy is going to get it going for me after work tomorrow, he is filling it with water to and I am ready to go, I hope

Just wrote down the equipment that comes with my aquarium,so excited
The guy said it's less than a year old
The cabinet has two lights in it over the aquarium they are Hagen twin t5 fittings, so that’s four tube lights
The aquarium is 36-18-18 and a weir at the right hand end and two hydor nano 900 water movers
It has a 28inch fish tank under it called a sump with a water pump in it and a hose up to the aquarium
A protein skimmer comes with it called a deltec 500
That’s about it and water will be in the aquarium tomorrow

Some nice equip there Kate,T5 tubes are realy good,what type are they?
Oh and hey,protein skimmers remove the small bits of waste, faeces and urine; I think that’s about it?
Sounds like you might do well with all that.

The tubes are called aqua star and coral star
There are two of each
I had a major mishap, the tank over flowed and flooded the kitchen floor
I have called Craig the guy I bought the tank from and he showed me how I put the pipe too deep in the aquarium
When I turned the power off to move the dead coral around it started flooding the kitchen
It seems fine now; I just have to mature it he said
He told me what to do and it doesn’t make a lot of sense at all
What do you do to mature your aquarium

When i started my tank, a mate gave me his fry grow out bag to put some prawn heads in it to get the tank biologically started.
It worked awesome, just had the bag in there for a week than tested till it was all good.
I had most of my live rock in before that, the sump was finished and a fluidised bed filter was up and running.
I left the skimmer off for the first stages of maturing, after that, it was all good.
If you can one day,go with led lighting.

The ways Craig is telling me to start the aquarium maturing is very similar to your way
Don't know what a fry bag is
It still makes no sense to me
He just said to put one or two prawns in the aquarium to begin the process of maturing
So far so good
He said the dead coral I have in there from him is the same as live rock
Just no creatures in or on it yet if thats right
I am going to buy some live rock with the pink colours on it tomorrow to fill in where I have no dead coral
He has given me a box of 5 in 1 aquarium test strips as well they sound easy to use
The box of equipment has testing stuff for ammonia nitrite nitrate with the brand name coral reef on it
I will read the pamphlets in the boxes to see what those ones do

More on my aquarium soon

It seems like you got some good equip there Kate.
The hose thing is something most of us prob have done.
Don't forget to test for amonia now and in a few days take out the prawns and start testing for nitrite.
Once the test shows the nitrites have gone up as far as it will go and starts going down, your tank is nearly matured.
There is more to it, so get back on here regularly with updates as to the testing progress.
Its cool to finish all your live rock quickly.
Oh hey,check to see how old the tube lights are,if they were used any longer than 4 months,change them,okay.

That’s pretty important about the lights hey, if you are getting the live rock built up now.
You need lights of good quality to get growth on the rock.
Don’t forget to test the tank water regularly to follow the nitrite cycle.
It goes waste-ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, nitrogen than it’s all good.

Try this link kate,it may be of some help.
https://southeastqueenslandm.aforumfree.com/t387-marine-aquarium-biological-sump-filter

Hey is the aquarium going kate?
Nothing has gone wrong I hope?

The aquariums ammonia tests have not come down
I don’t understand why it hasn’t
The guy I bought the aquarium off said it would take just a week or so
Am I doing anything wrong?

Hey Kate I have herd that when starting a marine aquarium there can be what’s called an ammonia lock?
This is from mixing your own salt water and not separating and neutralising the chloramine properly and the ammonia part of it remains and the bacteria trying to start can’t make it into nitrite.
If the water was man made this might be your problem, if so I have herd if you do a big natural water change and start again, it fixes the nitrite cycle.
Wasn’t this tank running when you bought it and you have bought some live rock haven’t you, which should have helped?

You were right he made the water for it in the aquarium with his left over marine aquarium salt
The salt was put in than the neutralizer and that was hopefully the problem
There are nitrites and ammonia in the two different tests so he called a water delivery guy to fix the problem
Why do annoying things always happen to me

Kate make sure you put a couple of prawns in again to start the natural ammonia to build.
Sorry your aquarium is giving you grief,you will get there.

This mornings test show the nitrites going up and the ammonia going down
Finaly it is falling into place for me
When these nitrites do their thing i will get some advice on the rest of my starting the aquarium
Thanks for the support

My aquarium has finished the nitrite cycle
The nitrites nearly on 0
Alls good now i would like any advice on what to do next
Should i start getting fish
Any help would be appreciated

My advice Kate is sought out your invertebrates first, that’s what I would do.
Set out the live rock in the ways you like as a reef in the tank, than leave it alone, that’s important.
Get any corals that interest you before any fish and by the sounds of your lights, don’t get any SPs.
Make sure the protein skimmer is on most of the time now and you should be ready for fish soon enough.

Good news Kate on your tanks progress.

Some helpfull tips for you from the others there as well.

From my previous experiences, I would get a stocking bag you put in the washing machine or similar and put a small hand full of marinara mix from the supermarket and put this in it and hang it in your aquarium or sump for a couple of weeks, yes it will stink for a while.

Hang the bag so the contents are in the water and use a cloths peg to make sure the bag remains attached to the top of the tank or sump and is accessible to you for removal and only small particles will than come out and mix into the aquarium water reducing further problems with large amounts rubbish in the tank.

This will ensure that your tank continues to mature while you set up the invert side of things in your aquarium.

I always set up a plastic tube or bucket with an over flow tube coming out( drill the hole or make it with a soldering iron) of it to the sump area and a pump in the sump to return the water back to it so there is a sought of remote aquarium connected to your aquarium water for a while.

In this area you place some robust fish and crabs,etc,to live in there for a time and produce waste.

Do not put any live rock or similar in with them,just put in some pieces of pvc piping,drainage pipe you need for your quarantine tank later on.

We use some brackish fish or line caught tuff fish for this and a couple of crabs from the rock pools at low tide.

The bacterial environment that achieves the nitrite cycle mutates to handle all these forms of ammonia and a fish, or a crab or rotting fish food all result in varied forms of ammonia and this has to be allowed for when developing your bacteria community for a secure and stable on going denitrification processes of varied wastes, or you will have early days instability that most marine aquarium keepers endure for the first 1 to 6 months of maturing.

The remote tube or bucket will give you a fish tank with fish in it connected to your water with out them actually living in your aquarium and these types you would not want to have your aquarium later on and have to destabilize your live rock to get them out so they won’t kill the more delicate life forms introduced later on.

Keep an eye on your PH during this time,you may have to buff your tank regularly while maturing is going on.

These tips will give you the success others don’t have.

Sort of skimmed the thread, but my best advice is this.. when you start out a marine aquarium.. and you've got your sand, water and rocks in there.. just leave it for a few months. Don't do a water change for the first month or month and a half, don't put anything in it, just let it chill.

You need to let your tank mature before you can add things so that the bacteria is growing and thriving in your rocks and any die off in the live rock has been replaced with living bacteria.

After say 2 months or so, you could put a few hermit crabs or something in there.. let them chill for a few weeks and then put a few snails or something in.. after a few more weeks add one or two hardy fish, and go from there. When your tank is around 6 months old it'll be pretty good to go.

I didn't see where you said how big the tank is (i skimmed remember..) but my best tip is the more water volume the less dramas you have. For example, i have a 6ft x 2.5 x 2.5 tank (1015L or so, give or take).. with two 4ft (one a 75g and one a 55g) sumps. I have NOT done a water change in nearly a year, and only have lost fish because i put fish in from a club member that were diseased. After those fish died off, i didn't lose anything more. Also contrary to what you'd believe of someones tank that hasn't had water changes, my tank still looks impressive.

I also have NOT tested my water for ANYTHING in well over 6 months.

Granted, i haven't done water changes because i'm a poor bastard.. not because i don't want to

It's going great guys,very happy now
The quickest maturing for my aquarium was decided on so my big brother got me three large line caught fish and they are living in a remote drinks esky
We had a decorating with live rock day and party last week and the nitrites went up nearly the next day and are quite low today
The fish my brother caught are doing fine so they can stay in with the drinks
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