These things are a lot of work. Don’t let the aquarium stores tell your significant other they are not.

My wife’s latest hobby.

I’ve had the pleasure of lugging a couple hundred pounds of water home, just to get to transfer it to and from 5 gallon mix buckets and then lift the large containers to fill the tank.

I have been told this will be a weekly experience - at least the drain and fill part. Each month we get to have a salt water mixing party.

Looks like I will be getting a fancy RO water filter system after all to avoid lugging both drinking water and fish tank water home.


Next up will be some clean, un-oiled water transfer pump to avoid damaging fish and corals we will have and save some lifting.

At least it will look nice and when I want to buy myself something nice I can just point to the tiny rock herbs.

If anyone has tips on how to do this more efficiently, I would certainly appreciate it.

My brother had a salt water setup years ago. VERY expensive! He was on a fish forum for most of his information and some buying and selling of corals and whatnot.

I live by the ocean, could I just use ocean water?

Check this forum out. My brother got lots of info here.

https://www.reefcentral.com/

The bigger they are the easier to take care of because a slight change in water chemistry is amplified as you go down in size. I wouldn't go less than 100 gallons for a salty. Freshwater tanks are MUCH easier to maintain.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kraquin,

She is doing all the research and planning and designing etc. I know she has been on a few of the reef sites and reddits.

Seems these things are more about growing coral than fish.


I just get to do all the heavy lifting.

"I lift things up and put them down"

Trying to find a simple transfer pump that will not contaminate the water is more difficult than I thought. Apparently a NASCAR fuel can is out of the question.

I laughed when I read this. My wife's first undergrad was in Marine Biology and she worked live exhibits at The Virginia Marine Science Museum.

We had a medium size saltwater tank and it was beautiful. But it was a lot of work. There were several guys The Aquarium who made good money on the side setting up and taking care of fish tanks for people.

She went back to earn another degree while working full time and we eventually decided that once the last fish died we would shut down our fish tank. Evidently the last fish liked it so much he hung around for a few years longer than he was supposed to. My wife said he must have set a record for the longest lived of his type.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
She is doing all the research and planning and designing etc. I know she has been on a few of the reef sites and reddits.

Seems these things are more about growing coral than fish.


I just get to do all the heavy lifting.

"I lift things up and put them down"

Trying to find a simple transfer pump that will not contaminate the water is more difficult than I thought. Apparently a NASCAR fuel can is out of the question.

I had fish tanks for decades. They're a very expensive and very time consuming pain in the ass. The larger the tank the easier they are to keep things stable. Don't over crowd it with too many fish.

A transfer pump is easy. Look at bilge pumps. RULE makes both 120 volt and 12 volt ones. The 120 volt is more expensive around $140, you can get the rule inline pump for considerably less. If you go 12 volt DC, you will need either a 12v battery or non smart battery charger to hook to it for power. Neither will contaminate the water. You can also use TAP water and put a few drops of a declorination chemical in it no problem...…...

when I was setting up my first tank years ago, a friend told me its not about keeping fish its about keeping water. He was so right. I finally gave all my stuff to a friend and have never looked back. Plus my wife's a lot happier now.

She already has a large freshwater tank with live plants. The thing about it is there’s a faucet hose device for water changes. She enjoys it though, even though it’s a fair it of maintenance too.

Salt is a new adventure. Something she has wanted to do for a while.

Let us know after you have the experience of water getting out of balance and finding a few hundred dollars of fish floating.

I had a saltwater tank for a while. As others have noted it’s a ton of work but an enjoyable hobby if you have the time. I had a tank an RO/DI water system in the basement to make 50 gallons of water and have it ready for water changes. If you can have something like that and a way to pump it directly to the fish tank you are in good shape for water changes. If using a sump under the tank make sure it is designed to not overflow If you lose power. Also if you lose power for even half a day you could lose your entire tank contents, which could be thousands of dollars in fish and corals. An uninterruptible power supply is not a bad idea. Corals will need lots of the correct type of light and super clean water. Make sure you don’t get fish that eat corals also. Lots of information on reef tank forms. I forget the name of some but you will find them and they are very useful. Do your research before putting fish in your tank.

I’ve had both and much prefer freshwater South American/Amazon CO2 Planted setups.

Besides, most saltwater fish are harvested from the wild and the kill rates during collection and transport are extremely high. Extremely high. Very few saltwater species reproduce in captivity at rates high enough for the commercial markets.

That being said, in both applications it’s damn near impossible to have too much aerobic filtration. Also, bigger is easier.

A guy I used to dive with had a large saltwater tank setup.

He would collect fish on dives trips on the East Coast. NC and Flordia mostly. Had a contraption to catch them in and then bring the fish up in. It would slowly change the pressure inside the thing as not to hurt the fish.

Lots of work. He always had someone helping him with all the gear/equipment he would get in the water with.

Get a pump used for outdoor ponds for transferring water from your aging/mixing barrel to the tank. It will make life easier for you.

Also get a 35 gallon Rubbermaid garbage can and a set of rollers for that can so you can just wheel the mixing/aging barrel to the tank.

There are many submersible pumps made for aquariums that will work great for what you are doing.

Our fresh water tank was a lot of work. I can't imagine what you will be going through. My whole family was so relieved when we gave our aquarium away.