Saltwater Aquariums For Begginers Article

	1888 Articles Home \| Family Articles \| Pets Articles	Pets RSS
Saltwater Aquariums for Begginers

All about starting up a saltwater fish tank for the first time.

Author: John Corvin

Article Tools:

This is for any beginner wanting to start up a saltwater aquarium. You really don’t have to know a whole lot about saltwater tanks or their inhabitants to get one going for yourself. What I did was just focused on the basics at first and from there everything else fell into place.

First you’re going to start with tank size. You may have heard “The larger the saltwater aquarium is, the easier it is to maintain.” Well, that was my first problem. I wasn’t making a whole lot of money at the time and was able to find a 100 gallon tank for relatively cheap. When it was all said and done I wished had picked a smaller size because I didn’t have to spend as much on lighting or live rock for filtration. I started realizing all this when I helped a friend of my setup a 15 gallon nano reef tank. He didn’t spend nearly as much as me but had to do more water changes.

You will need to decide whether or not you’re going to go with a tropical fish tank or a tropical reef tank. Either way you’re going to need some type of filtration for your fish tank. There are mainly three types of saltwater aquariums. First one is a fish only tank (FO) where you will just have fish and fake corals or other decorations. Second is a Fish Only With Live Rock (FOWLR) where you will have fish only with “live rock” from the ocean with all of its built in natural biological filtration. Last is a full fledged reef tank where you focus on coral more than fish.

Once you have an aquarium, the only thing left is to fill it up with water and buy some salt. Buy your “dry” salt from your local fish store along with a measuring tool to find your specific gravity. Specific gravity means you water weight plus the salt in the water, that’s how we know what our aquariums salt content level is close to what the ocean is. Easiest thing you can do now is get your live rock or other forms of filtration and cycle your tank. Cycling your tank will take about 30 days. The easiest way to cycle your aquarium is to put some live rock in your tank and let it sit for thirty days.

After cycling your tank you’re ready to add your first fish. If you want to start a reef tank from here, you’re going to need to get some lights. Almost like the lights you would find in a greenhouse only their meant for corals.

When I first started I realized that all anyone has to do is stick to the basics. Whether it is a saltwater or freshwater aquarium it’s supposed to be a stress relieved hobby. No need to make it complicated.

About Author

I've been starting up beginner saltwater aquariums for about five years now. While I get more advanced on my own, my guests see mine and want to do the same thing I'm doing. That's where I developed a passion for starting new life in saltwater aquariums. If you want to know who got me started out, check out
http://corvn.katystrop.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=M62NVQ87

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com

Saltwater Aquariums for Begginers