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Monday, August 12, 2013

How to Get Started in Reef Keeping

In the interest of giving those of you new to the marine aquarium hobby a place to start, I've written this FAQ of sorts. I've tired to answer some of the basic questions that most people encounter when setting up their first SW aquarium. This is by no means a comprehensive list and there are many ways to set up a tank. This is intended to serve only as a starting point - to help you begin to ask the right questions and get your feet wet. Well maybe your hands....ok, ok...clear up to your armpits. Let's get started!

Question: What basic equipment and other items do I need to start a saltwater aquarium?

Answer:

1.The tank: Contrary to what you might think, starting with a small tank is not the best option. In fact, the bigger, the better. You see, a larger volume of water is less apt to be affected by the sudden water changes that are common in a beginner's tank. Think of it this way: If you take a cup of water and a gallon of water and add a drop of blue food coloring to each, which one is going to have the greatest color change? Correct, the cup. Now imagine you have a fish die in your tank while you are at work. As the fish decays, it produces toxic ammonia. The smaller the volume of water, the more detrimental the ammonia will be to the other tank inhabitants. Simply put, a larger tank is more forgiving. A good size to start with is 55 gal or larger.

2. Water: If you've ever had foul tasting tap water, you know that not all water is created equal. Tap water can contain a variety of chemicals, minerals, and other impurities that are not conducive to reef keeping. Tap water will likely contain chlorine and possibly chloramines and even nitrates and phosphate. So, what kind of water do you want to use. There are lots of options, the most common of which, is water purified by Reverse Osmosis (RO water). In the interest of keeping this simple, and not getting over my own head, let's just say that reverse osmosis gives you the purist water. You'll find RO water at most any supermarket - just check the label. If you go to Wal-Mart, it is the one with the green cap and runs less than sixty cents per gallon at the time of this writing. There are also home RO units widely available to reef keepers if you want to purify your own water.

3. Filtration: This can be a real can of worms. There are many different options and many, many different theories regarding the best type of filtration for a reef tank. The most common, and accepted method is the use of live rock (LR) and a deep sand bed along with a protein skimmer. Live rock, is a simple way of saying porous carbonate-based rock that is host to both macro and microorganisms. Because of the highly porous nature of LR, it is able to support vast amounts of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Make sure you use rock that won't leech minerals into the water.

Live Rock is host to both aerobic nitrifying bacteria, which live on the rock surface, and anaerobic denitrifying bacteria, which live in the denser pores deeper within the LR. Like LR, sand also provides a good home to both types of bacteria. (See the section below on the Nitrogen Cycle for more information on this topic).

In order to provide enough LR to be an effective biological filter, you want to have between 1.5 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon of water. So, in a 55 gal tank, you would want between about 82.5 - 110 lbs of live rock.

A Deep Sand Bed (DSB) typically, is two to four inches deep and provides lots of surface area for beneficial bacteria. The surface portion is host to the nitrosomonas and the deeper, less oxygenated layer, is home to the nitrobacters.

Now you may be saying to yourself, surely there's a way to remove the fish waste before it begins to breakdown and becomes a problem on the microscopic level. Guess what, you're right!

The protein skimmer is the means by which the fish waste, excess food, and other proteins are removed from the water. These combinations of waste products are often referred to as Dissolved Organic Compounds or DOC's. There are several types of protein skimmers and each has their pros and cons, but they all have one thing in common - using foaming bubbles to remove waste from the water. The skimmers vary in the way the bubbles are produced but the basic operation is this: bubbles are produced in the skimmer, the smaller the better, and the DOC's stick to the bubbles and are carried into a collection cup which can be periodically emptied. The waste in the collection cup is called skimate. A protein skimmer's efficiency is judged by its ability to produce skimate. But no matter how effective a skimmer is you will still need biological filtration.

This covers just the basics of filtration. Please read as much information as you can find on this topic. The better you understand how this process works, the more success you will have.

4. Lights: The type of lighting you provide will depend directly on what you choose to keep in your tank. If you want to keep a Fish Only (FO) tank, then you can get by with just standard fluorescent lighting. If you want to keep corals or anemones, you will need stronger lighting. The rule of thumb is 3-5 watts per gallon - as technologies progress this rule of thumb is becoming less accurate. Many factors such as the type of lighting, the depth of the tank, and placement of corals will be important as well.

You have lots of options to choose from but most are a combination of three technologies: Power Compact Fluorescents (PC), Very High Output (VHO), or Metal Halide (MH.).

Power compacts will allow you to keep a variety of corals, including all soft corals, and a limited selection of hard corals - mostly large polyp stonies (LPS).

VHO, while not as intense as PC lights, are offered in higher wattages and by themselves allow a similar selection of corals to be kept. However, VHO are often used in conjunction with Metal Halides.

Metal Halides offer the greatest range of options allowing reef keepers to meet the lighting requirements of even the most demanding corals, including small polyp stonies (SPS). The drawback to MH lighting is the relatively high cost, and the intense heat that they put off. Special cooling precautions have to be taken to maintain water temperature when using MH lighting. At a minimum, you will need to have one or more fans cooling the lights and surface of the water. Another, more costly cooling option is the use of a chiller.

Another less common option that is gaining popularity is the use of T-5 lighting. T-5's are a type of High Output fluorescent lighting (HO) but which have a smaller diameter and greater intensity than other types of fluorescents. Proponents say T-5's will one day replace MH's, but others maintain that they do not have the ability to penetrate as deep and should only be used for shallow tanks no deeper than 18".

As stated, these are generalizations. Many reef keepers have had success keeping all manner of marine life using each of these types of lighting.

5. Circulation: The goal of every reef keeper should be to replicate the natural ocean conditions as much as possible. By doing so, you have the greatest chance of creating a hospitable environment for your fish, corals, and invertebrates. Circulation is typically provided by power heads, which are small pumps placed in the water, which draw water in and then pump it out at higher pressure. The rule of thumb here is ten times the water volume per hour. If we use our hypothetical 55 gal tank, this would mean we would want at least 550 gph of water flow. The power heads should be placed in a manner as to simulate ocean currents while creating flow in all portions of the tank and avoiding "dead spots." Dead spots, areas of the tank with low circulation, can allow waste to settle out of the water column where it can decompose and raise the levels of harmful ammonia.

Question: What are Nitrates (the Nitrogen Cycle)?

Answer: As mentioned earlier, decaying fish produce ammonia. In fact living fish produce ammonia as a product of respiration. It is also produced as fish waste and uneaten food decompose (DOC's.) If allowed to exist in any significant amount, ammonia will wreak havoc on your tanks inhabitants and can cause death. This is where the bacteria enter the picture. The bacteria, which use ammonia in their own metabolic process, are called nitrosomonas. Nitrosomonas thrive in a highly oxygenated environment and consume ammonia in a process called aerobic nitrification. As these bacteria multiply, they use up the ammonia and produce nitrites as a by-product. Unfortunately Nitrites are also toxic to the marine environment. Luckily this isn't the end of the cycle and there are bacteria which also consume nitrites. These bacteria thrive in low oxygen environments and are called nitrobacteria. They consume nitrites in a process called anaerobic (or anoxic) denitrification. The nitrobacteria convert the nitrite into nitrates. Nitrates are the end of the line in this process. The nitrates are LESS harmful to aquatic life than ammonia or nitrites, but still should not be allowed in any significant quantity. Nitrates are removed via frequent, small water changes - usually 10-20% per week. Some people choose to make larger, less frequent water changes. There are some other options for reducing nitrates, but that is a topic for another day.

Question: How do I set my tank up?

Answer: Even after having the basic information about equipment and biological processes, you may still run into little questions along the way - stuff like, how do I mix the water, and how do I cycle my tank. We are going to try to address a few of these more common questions.

Important: Before adding water to your tank, make sure that the tank and stand are level. Having a tank that is not level can lead to your tank bursting!

The next decision you need to make is if you want to use sand or crushed coral as your substrate (base layer). Some people choose to have a bare bottom tank for aesthetic reasons, but most use one of the two aforementioned substrates.

For biological filtration, a deep sand bed is the most recommended substrate. The sand should be clean argonite sand. Silica based sand can be harmful to some sand sifting creatures that you may decide to keep. Another option still chosen by many people is crushed coral. Crushed coral will not be as effective at hosting anoxic bacteria as will a DSB, but it is readily available and many prefer its appearance to sand. After laying your substrate, you are ready for water.

As discussed earlier, you'll want to begin with water purified through reverse osmosis. When filling the tank for the first time, it is OK to mix the water and salt in the tank. Once you have livestock in your tank, you'll want to mix the saltwater in a bucket or barrel and then add it to the tank. There are several salt mixes out there, all of which have their fans, and detractors. Regardless of which one you choose you will want to mix it to salinity between 1.022-1.025. For most salt mixes, you will get close to the desired salinity by adding salt mix at the rate of ½ cup per gallon of water. For your initial setup, don't fill the tank all the way. Remember you are going to displace water with a large amount of rock. Also, you want to leave enough room in the tank to adjust your salinity. If your salinity is too high, you will add more RO water, if it is too low, you will add more slightly concentrated saltwater. Most reef keepers use a simple swing arm hydrometer to measure salinity, but you may eventually want to consider a more accurate device such as a refractometer. Once you have water in your tank, you will want to place and plug in your power heads.

The next step is to add your live rock. Live rock comes two ways, cured or uncured. When live rock is removed from the ocean it is full of marine life. During the subsequent transportation, some of this marine life will begin to die-off. The process of curing live rock means allowing the decaying process to complete before adding it to your tank. Adding uncured lr to your tank may cause an ammonia spike. Normally such a spike is undesirable, but when starting a new tank, it can aid in cycling the tank - More on "cycling" in a moment.

You can either use all live rock or, if you want to save money, you can use 20% live rock and 80% base rock. Base rock is porous carbonate based rock that has either not been in an ocean or reef tank or was but has since been removed. If you go this route, just remember that it will take time for your base rock to become home to the macro and microorganisms typically found in live rock. After a period of time, the base rock and live rock will be indistinguishable.

As you add the rock, be mindful of how it is placed. You want to make sure that it is stable and will not topple over once you add livestock. You'd hate to see your favorite fish crushed to death in a rockslide - not to mention that many of the larger pieces of rock are quite heavy and could easily break your glass. Can you say, Noah's Ark? Let's hope you never have a flood! If you are especially concerned about falling rock, or want to try some interesting aquascaping, consider options such as using PVC as a brace for your rockwork. After adding the sand and rock, your tank will likely be very cloudy. At this time, start any filtration devices that you will be using and within a couple of days, the water should be clear.

Once your live rock is in place, your tank will begin to cycle. Cycling is the process by which the bacteria are established in your tank. If you add a sufficient amount of live rock, your tank is essentially already cycled, but if you don't add live rock or only add a small amount, you will need to help the process. Either way, you need to provide a food source for the bacteria - namely ammonia. If you are using lr rock to cycle your tank, you can add a couple of hardy fish to provide an ammonia source. People often use damsels for this task, but please bear in mind that damsels can be very aggressive to other fish and are also extremely difficult to remove from a tank with lots of rockwork.

If you are not using LR to cycle, you will want to provide an alternate source of ammonia - there's no good reason to risk killing a fish in a tank that is not yet ready to support life. Instead, you can either add a pinch of fish food to your tank each day, or drop in a raw shrimp. As the food or shrimp begin to decompose, ammonia levels will begin to rise. After a few days, start checking ammonia levels. After about a week, you will see a peek in ammonia and then levels will begin to decrease. The decrease in ammonia means that the levels of nitrosomonas are increasing. Once you see the decrease in ammonia, start checking nitrite levels. Like ammonia, the nitrite levels will rise for about a week until they peek and begin to decline. At this point the nitrobacter population is increasing. Once you see this decrease, you should start checking nitrate levels. Nitrate levels will increase and peak at about the same time nitrite levels reach zero. Once this has occurred, you should be at about the three-week point. In order to lower the high level of nitrates, you will need to do a massive water change - draining 50% of you water and replacing it with new saltwater. At this point you should begin to slowly add livestock while daily checking your nitrate levels. Nitrate should not exceed 40 ppm in a fish only tank, or 10 ppm in a reef tank. If you have proper filtration, stocking, and maintenance your nitrate levels should remain very close to zero. In order to keep a bacterial balance, it is wise to wait a week or more between livestock additions to your tank.

Question: What do I do now (Am I ready to add fish)?

Answer: Before you add ANY fish, coral, or invertebrate to your tank, be sure to thoroughly research your potential purchase BEFORE bringing it home. You will find that many creatures are not compatible with one another or you may find a beautiful fish only to discover that it is a voracious coral eater. Many reef keepers find it useful to compile a list of compatible fish and corals - ones that will live in harmony with one another, are well suited to your tank size, and lighting. Make sure to take the list with you whenever you go to the local fish store (lfs) so you won't be tempted to make an inappropriate spur of the moment purchase. Also be mindful of the order that you add the fish with the more territorial going in last so the less aggressive fish can establish territories.

When seeking advice at the various lfs's be mindful that just because someone works in a pet or fish store, does not mean they know what they are talking about. This seems to be especially true of the large chain stores. Unfortunately there are also those out there who will allow you to make an unwise purchase just so they can make a sale.

Although the topic is not covered here, I strongly encourage you to do some research on setting up a quarantine tank. A quarantine tank is used to monitor your new livestock for several weeks to make sure they are free of disease before adding to your main tank. It is much easier to treat for disease in a quarantine tank than it is one full of corals and other sensitive livestock. One final tip that is especially true in this hobby, "Patience IS a virtue." Take your time and make sure you make informed decisions from the very start; this will help avoid unnecessary loss of livestock as well as cost savings.

Hopefully you have found this information useful and have a better grasp on just what is involved in this wonderful hobby.

Sean Berry is a freelance writer reef keeping enthusiast.

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