1Step OneCheck the tank for leaks.
2Step TwoClean the tank with a solution of 1 tsp. pure bleach for every 5 gallons of water. Scrub the tank, plastic plants, decorations and rocks. Rinse everything thoroughly several times with clean water.
3Step ThreeInstall the filtration system. Follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully since models vary in their installation.
4Step FourWash the substrate thoroughly before you put it in the tank. Figure on 1 lb. of gravel per gallon the tank holds.
5Step FivePut the plants in, anchoring the bottoms in the substrate.
6Step SixFill a large bucket with clean, dechlorinated water.
7Step SevenUsing a hydrometer (a device used to read how much salt is dissolved in the water), add salt. Your goal is a specific gravity between 1.020 and 1.023.
8Step EightFill your tank with the saltwater, leaving about an inch at the top.
9Step NineStart the filter system.
10Step TenAdd the heater and thermometer. Most marine fish do best between 75 and 80 degrees.
11Step Eleven Let everything run for at least 72 hours and get the temperature settings right and the water moving.
12Step Twelve Cycle the aquarium. A just-set-up fish tank lacks the bacteria that it needs to form a steady biological cycle.
13Step Thirteen Add your fish when the chemical levels are all okay and the tank temperature is within suggested limits.
14Step Fourteen Buy a powerhead. In saltwater aquariums, water movement is an absolute must. Be careful not to get one so big that it causes a whirlpool effect.
15Step Fifteen Get a protein skimmer, which is a necessity for marine tanks. This removes organic debris from the water before it has time to convert to nitrates.
16Step Sixteen Keep in mind that you'll also need an external water pump and possibly an air pump for your skimmer.
Tips & Warnings
Remember that the tank will need to be positioned near an electrical outlet and away from direct sunlight or drafts.
Never use soap or detergent to clean anything that will go into your tank.
Avoid using any equipment made of metal. Saltwater will cause it to rust.
Put a 1/4-inch sheet of Styrofoam under the tank to help distribute the weight more evenly. If a tank isn't level, stress will be put on the seams and could cause an eventual leak.
1Step OneDetermine the number of fish you can house by the size of your tank. A general rule of thumb is to allow 2 inches of fish per gallon of water.
2Step TwoBuy your fish from a reputable dealer who will back up her product. You want clean fish that won't get each other sick. A good sign that the seller knows what she's talking about is her show tank. Do the fish seem happy? Is it the way you imagine your tank looking when it's complete? If you see dead things floating in the tanks, look elsewhere.
3Step ThreeRead about the fish you want. Some have particular needs, whether temperature, chemical, dietary, or compatibility-related.
4Step FourBegin with just a few inexpensive fish.
5Step FiveLook for damselfish, which are excellent beginner fish. They're tougher than most other marine fishes, tolerating poor water conditions and temperature fluctuations. Be aware that they are fairly aggressive and you should limit your tank to two of them.
6Step SixConsider the cousin to the damselfish, the clown fish, another attractive starter fish. While they are territorial, they're only aggressive to their own species.
7Step SevenMollies, although also listed as a freshwater fish, can be an ideal stepping stone between freshwater and saltwater tanks. They are very hardy fish.
8Step EightTry gobies and blennies, fun little fish with a lot of character. Some eat algae, an added benefit. They do well with most other fish.
9Step NineLook at crabs and shrimp. They're easy to maintain and reasonably inexpensive. Some might try to eat your smaller fish, so check out the species closely for compatibility before you bring them together. Shrimp need to have iodine added to the water, which is one more thing for you to monitor.
10Step TenLook into starfish and sea urchins, too. They vary widely in color, size and shape. They help keep the tank clean and are generally easy to keep.
11Step Eleven Think hard about anemones, which are particular about water conditions and lighting. They're also expensive.
12Step Twelve Avoid angelfish, pipefish, eels, stonefish, clams, seahorses, octopi and jellyfish, as well as the expensive species. These have fairly rigid needs that are likely more than challenging for a new tank owner.
An Aquaripure Nitrate Filter will greatly reduce the need for water changes in your fish tanks, saving you time, money, and reducing the stress on your aquarium fish.
What makes Aquaripure the best?
Don't be fooled by cheaply made "coil" type nitrate filters. Aquaripure's nitrate filters, also known as denitrators, use proprietary and patent pending technology to maximize it's efficiency and effectiveness. Aquaripure's filters all have a tremendous internal surface area for denitrifying bacteria to grow and thrive, much more than the competition. It would take more than ten typical "coil" denitrators to equal the nitrate removing power of Aquaripure's X-Large denitrator. Even the smallest Aquaripure is the functional equivalent of two standard "coil" type filters. Moreover, many other nitrate filters are vastly overrated in terms of their capacity.
In a "sulfur" nitrate filter the effluent is highly acidic and must be buffered. The resulting effluent is very hard and high in sulfates. Also, they generally are more expensive and the costly filter media must be replaced. None of this is an issue with Aquaripure's filters. And with Aquaripure, nothing will ever need to be replaced. If you want a more in depth product comparison click here.
Aquaripure's denitrators utilize the only highest quality tubing, valves, and connections. You will not find any cheap parts on an Aquaripure filter. Aquaripure's denitrators are also "pre-populated" with more beneficial bacteria than ever to start working fast. Unlike other nitrate removal products, Aquaripure's denitrators are designed to be safe, extremely easy to use, require little maintenance, and completely remove nitrates for many, many years.
Why is removing Nitrates so important?
All animals including fish produce ammonia and other organic waste products which are turned into nitrites and then nitrates by bacteria. The fact is that in any mature aquarium high nitrates are the only reason to do frequent water changes. Nitrates are less toxic than ammonia or nitrites, but they are still toxic to humans, animals and fish and are a primary cause of water pollution. For example, the US Environmental Protection Agency's maximum allowable nitrates in tap water is only 10 parts per million. Nitrates are also the primary cause of unwanted algae growth in an aquarium. For a more advanced discussion on the topic of nitrates click here.
How does it work?
A denitrator, also known as a "denitrifier" or "biodenitrator", is a biological filter that removes nitrate (NO3) from the aquarium. A denitrator filter uses anaerobic bacteria to break down nitrate into nitrogen gas (N2), which escapes into the atmosphere, the result is nitrate free effluent. A denitrator achieves this in an extremely safe and controlled environment and after the effluent is aerated there is nothing left but pure, clean, crystal clear water. This same basic process is even used by water treatment plants to make wastewater safe for human consumption and to clean polluted water.
Can I use it with fresh and saltwater fish tanks?
YES! The Aquaripure denitrator can be used with all freshwater tropical fish aquariums and saltwater aquariums including coral reef tanks. It is completely harmless to all freshwater and marine aquarium fish.
How big are Aquaripure's denitrators?
The Small denitrator is 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" x 13 1/2". The Medium is 8 1/8" x 8 1/8" x 15 1/2". The Large is 10 1/8" x 10 1/8" x 15 3/4". The X-Large is 11 1/2" x 11 1/2" x 17 1/4". Allow an extra three inches of headroom for the tubing. They can be easily be hidden underneath almost any tank setup.
Will I ever have to do water changes again?
Aquaripure's denitrators are designed to completely eliminate nitrates even in well stocked tanks that accumulate nitrates at a rate of up to 25-30 ppm (parts per million) a week. It will not affect the levels of trace elements and absolutely no harmful substances will accumulate as a result of the Aquaripure. However, we recommend doing a partial water change occasionally just to ensure a proper balance of all trace elements in the aquarium.
Do I have to change anything or add anything to the Aquaripure?
Unlike other filters in which you have to replace the internal media, you will never have to change anything on the Aquaripure. There are no filters to change and no mess to deal with. There is a "feeding" tube on all of Aquaripure's denitrators that is very easy to use. You simply inject sugar water or alcohol into the denitrator once a week. Feeding and adjusting the Aquaripure only costs pennies and will only take seconds of your time. Aquaripure's denitrators are designed to be easy to setup and maintain, and will give you many years of service.
How do I get one?
So what are you waiting for? Get yours now!
Get your Aquaripure denitrator for as little as $169 (plus S&H)
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/startinganaquarium/ss/aqsetup.htm
Step 1: Prepare the Aquarium
Step 2: Test the System
Step 3: Start Up the System
Step 4: If Using Live Rock, Prepare It
Step 5: Aquascape the Tank
Step 6: Let the Tank Cycle
Step 7: Get the Tank Ready for New Livestock
Step 8: Make Any Needed Adjustments
Step 9: Add Some New Livestock
Step 10: Take Care of Your Aquarium
How to Set up a Basic Salt Water Aquarium
By Flave Hart
1. Get sand from Lowes, Home Depot, or any large home improvement franchise...there are different kinds of sand and you want what they call "play sand," like what they put in kid's sandboxes. It's pre-cleaned, and you can clean it again by putting it in a paint bag and running water through it, although I didn't do that and it's fine.
2. Clean the tank and make sure you don't use any kind of cleaner on it, just water. Also, during the whole process, make sure you use buckets and stuff that don't have any kind of cleaner or dish detergent residue on them.
3. Make a flat bed of sand that's a good inch and a half to two inches thick.
4. Get some sea salt from any aquarium store... I don't think there's much difference in the sea salt, so don't let them talk you into buying the expensive stuff. I bought the cheapest there was and it's fine. It's called "instant ocean," and it cost $6.00 for 5 cups (ratio is typically 1/2 cup to each gallon of water).
5. Mix the water (reverse osmosis water, which you can pick up at the grocery store) and salt one gallon at a time in a clean bucket. (The ratio will be on the back of the salt package.) I did that because I didn't know how much water the tank would actually hold since it had the sand in it. I think it came to about 7 gallons for the 10 gallon tank.
6. Put the saltwater in 1 gallon at a time, and here's a trick for you: put a clean coffee mug in the middle of the tank, on the sand, and pour the water into that, and let it overflow from the mug... this keeps you from disturbing your sand bed too much when you're putting the water in. You can leave the mug in there the whole time.
7. Only fill the tank up about 2/3 of the way at this point, because you need room for the rock.
8. Go ahead and put your heater in. I just have a cheap 75 watt heater in mine. I set the temp to 78 degrees. I gather from the reading I've done that this is right around the ideal temperature.
9. You want to have a powerhead or a hang-on-the-back filter to move the water, but take all the media out of it. What you'll be taking out is the actual filter cartridge or floss. The filter is basically just to move and aerate the water.
10. I would let it sit for a day to let the sand settle and the water mix itself better and then get your live rock. Generally, it's $6-8.00 a pound, and you're going to need a minimum of 1 pound per gallon of water. This will be your biggest expense, if you're only going FOWLR (fish only with live rock). I went ahead and got 10 pounds for my 10 gallon tank. Pick out whatever rocks look best to you and have the guy/gal weigh it for you. I looked for the most porous rock, b/c it is more likely to have cool stuff living in the recesses, and also bright colors are good.
11. Put the rock in the tank. You may need to remove some of the water as you do this, or add more water when you're done. My water level is kept about a half inch under the top of the glass.
12. Sit back and enjoy. From my experience, it's not worth buying test kits and chemical additives and all that stuff (though you'll need at least a swing arm hydrometer to test the water's salinity). I haven't even checked my water quality, and mine's doing great. It will take several days, probably more than a week, before you see anything substantial start growing, and then you'll start to see the beginnings of some great invert and algae life (mine has a lot of little fans and fern-looking stuff). You'll almost need a magnifying glass to look at the stuff at first. After about three weeks it really starts taking off, and you'll see a lot of other stuff coming out, like little shrimp and crabs and spiders and worms, and you may get lucky and get a starfish like mine.
13. Make sure to keep a constant water level. When you're adding water, add only fresh RO water, with NO SALT. I underline that b/c it was a point of confusion for me at first. You don't want to add any more salt, b/c it's just the water that evaporates--the salt level in the tank will stay the same. I have to add water every day; it evaporates so fast I add about a gallon a week.
14. Oh yeah, lights. You can get higher-powered lighting if you want, and it will definitely encourage a lot more hitchhiker growth, especially corals. There's plenty of good info about lighting on the Internet. I opted to just use the standard 16W hood and bulb instead of spending the money for better lighting. There's still plenty of interesting life. I have mine on a timer: 14 hours on and 10 off. I figured maybe the extra hours would make up a little for the lower wattage.
Editor's comments: These 14 steps are 14 karat gold. Flave should start selling them. Finding helpful and easy to understand info from the Internet on salt water aquarium set up is like pulling teeth. There's a lot of new vocab and a significant learning curve. Getting the basics, even from many printed books, in an easy to understand fashion is a lot more difficult than you'd think.
http://www.joshday.com/saltwateraquarium.htm
Links for beginners
http://www.shopzilla.com/8N_-_cat_id--31000400__nwylf--__oid--537214166
http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=saltwateraquariu
http://www.salt-water-aquarium.com/index.html
http://www.funzone.ws/info/pets/fish/saltwater_aquariums_beginners.htm
http://shopping.yahoo.com/search;_ylc=X3oDMTI0MzNpcmRtBF9TAzc4NDcxNjg2MgRrA2JlZ2lubmVyIHNhbHR3YXRlciBhcXVhcml1bXMEc2VjA2tiBHNlbQN5c20Ec2xrA3RpdGxl?sem=ysm&p=beginner+saltwater+aquariums&no_truncation=1&sp=pall