So why does planning help with this? its simply that you will be prepared for the work a head and the costs, at this stage I will go though what to budget for and locating a tank.
There is going to be one person who is going to be your best friend over the time you have any sort of aquarium and that's your Local fish shop (LFS) staff. The reason I bring this up there is only so much you can learn but the staff in you LFS will be a great source of support, advise and even getting you started in many cases. So before you start find your local one I’m fortunate to have one within 5 miles of my town its a Maidenhead Aquatic’s store but there are a couple in my area but this one is my personal choice.
Once you have found your store one that is able to supply the fish and equipment you need ,some will only supply tropical free water or cold water. You then need to work our how much space you have
this will be determined by the location of the tank (see below for advice on locating) and decide what type of aquarium you want. With tropical marine you have three options fish only, Fish with live rock and reef. On the hardware side I’m going to focus on reef tanks but will out line the pro and cons of the three options in another post. The three hard packages I’m going to cover are Nano reef no fish, Nano reef with fish and High-tech reef aquarium for stony corals each of these have their own hardware requirements.
Nano reef no fish.
This is possible the simpler option of the three as with out fish you are able to use an aquarium of smaller volume as you are only going to stock invertebrates likes shrimp, crab’s, snails and coral polyps. The up side of this will be these are ideal for desktops small rooms or strong shelf's, without fish to feed with out having protein skimmer (I’ll go into specifics on hardware in there own little blog). Below is a list of required hardware but this is based on the tanks bio logical filtration being felt with by live rock and live sand (I’ll explain more about this in its own post)
Tank (your LFS should be able to recommend a tank that fits what you want to do)
Powerhead (for flow, offering ten times volume turnover per hour)
heater (a must in the UK but some countries you may get away with out one ask your LFS if in doubt)
Compact light (in marine spectrum and offering 1w per litre of water)
Test kits (your LFS will help you get the right ones to keep your tank in best health and advise how to read them)
Hydrometer (for measuring salt content)
Live rock (1kg per 10 litres 2kg is best)
reef sand or live sand (LFS can advise how much you will need for your tank)
Thermometer, cheap stick on one that looks like a strip is ok but the can look un sightly but I suggest getting a digital one where the reading can be seen from the outside like this one digital thermometer
Nano reef with fish (the option I’m working to)
So this is where things get a little more interesting and you need to take more more into account. The first thing is that when you add fish into the equation you need to think of their welfare, fish require enough space to exercise and a volume of ware that is stable enough to cope with their waste. This is the same with any animal, if you have a dog regular walks and clearing up their mess is important for their health and applies to fish also. Its recommended that a tank for 45 litres or more is used for a reef with fish but remember some fish require more space as they will grow larger so consulting with your LFS on stocking levels is key. In addition to a large volume tank you will need some nutrient removal system like a protein skimmer so this is the main difference. this can be scaled up to any size tank containing soft corals ad is the basis of the Berlin system which I’ll explain in my post on filtration.
There are a couple of things you could add these are purely options although these may be things I add or you decide to add your self
UV (optional, but useful for controlling marine white spot in surgeonfish)
External Filter (optional for packing with chemical media suck as phosphate removal media or carbon media) Remove all biological media as this filtration will be done by the live rock.
High-Tec Reef for stony coral’s
Im not going to go into this option to in to much detail as at the moment my depth of knowledge isn’t great but as a basic over view this where things get very technical and the list of required equipment get a lot longer and more expensive.
Many of the corals in this type of tank require special intense lighting, strong flow of water, are the least tolerant of high levels of nutrients and and temperatures.
so here is the list that you will want a small truck for.
Tank
large flow pump
wave maker
High-powered metal Halide lighting
test kits
refractomter (more accurate than Hydrometer)
Protein skimmer
uv
sump
refuguim
calcium reactor
co2 system
chiller
phosphate reactor
automatic top-up system
reverse osmosis unit (RO unit) for topping up or making salt water for changes
Although would be nice for all three set ups your LFS can supply this normally in 25 litre jerry cans and this is the option, I will be going to use as they should be able to get the salt levels right making my life a bit easier.
Selecting location of the aquarium there are a few things you should keep in mince. It should be away from heat sources like radiators, where temperatures can fluctuate like kitchens or in direct sunlight. I would also recommend making sure that there are enough plug sockets where you want the tank and that its not to far from somewhere you can dispose of the waste water. Remember with setting up and water changes that a 10 litres of water will weigh around 10kg a flight of stairs or a long walk to the bathroom/drain in the garden may be more of a work out than you really want.
So what does my budget look like so far? Well you'll have to have a read of my next post
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