Salt water aquarium?

Giving serious thought about getting into saltwater aquariums. I grew up with fresh and my green thumb goes a little insane and I end up with breeding fish and plants shoving the top off the tank.
I have a 38 gallon tank that sprung a leak and I need to get around to resealing it. But not sure what kind of tank.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I had a salt water For years and really enjoyed it-
If I were to start tanking again I would do salt water again-

I would get a moray eel and an octopus.

Seems most breeding clowns but a real expensive hobby.

I've had both salt and fresh, I'm also thinking about a new tank, leaning towards fresh this time, post pics of your tank when setup Kat

Has an octopus in one of my tanks. It got mad and inked. Ruined the tank. Had a cool shark once too but sharks need a huge tank. They are big swimmers. It’s been probably 15-20 years so I wouldn’t even know where to start these days.

Go big or go home

I had a 55 gallon fresh water aquarium when I was younger, enjoyed it allot.

I saw a salt water aquarium at a business I went too weekly. It was beautiful with a large selection of fish, probably close to 100 gallons.

Wanted it badly until they told me they had over $4,000.00 in the setup & the fish.

Most saltwater tanks are big because a rule of thumb for novices is about 1" of live fish per 5 gallons of water. So you will be limited on the number and size of fish for a 38-gallon aquarium. You'll also have to think which species mix well, their habitat preferences, and how big they'll get. Definitely more labor-intensive than a freshwater tank.

I tend to under crowd tanks. It’s mainly that my fish breed and I end up giving away tons of babies. Population is low at the moment but the plants are going insane.

I’m looking at a reef tank but I don’t want big fish. I want things that you need to pay attention to see. Snails, hermit crab, maybe a sea urchin or small star. I want to enjoy it growing into where it lives.

Fill it with squid and make calamari anytime you want.

Things to avoid in a reef tank:
Large stars (predators) .
Mexican "turbo" snails ( grow large and can topple rocks).
Most urchins .
Large hermits ( will kill snails and some chew on corals) . I highly recommend the scarlet hermits but keep a supply of empty shells in the tank .

Careful with any encrusting coral (star polyps) advertised as "fast-growing" . They can grow over other corals .

Go here :

The Reef Tank

Tell 'em I said Hi .

Some of the most beautiful tanks I've seen didn't have any fish in them, just the corals and sea grasses. Wished I had learned from a friend in Florida that had a small business keeping them up for commercial clients that had them in their offices.

These freshwater tanks below look just as impressive.

https://fpsbutest.wordpress.com/2012/12/...blow-your-mind/

I wish I still had pictures of my 120 gallon river tank. Fully planted tank, with tree stumps, rock hollows, pvc tubing hidden under the sand for my loaches to go hang out.

My brother emptied his 100 gal aquarium and put 2 rattlesnakes in it. Much less maintenance

Years ago one of my son's tried an river like ecosystem, he called it aquatica, had a portion of dry land with plants, tree limbs and rocks which sloped down to the water which was only about 5" deep, he had geckos, turtles, and small feeder fish, it went well for a short time, but eventually only the turtles were left, he grew tired of the maintenance and released the turtles, I'm not sure what he did with the tank, it was 100 gallon tank

My wife and I would love to have one but fear it will require lots of knowledge and maintenance....true or not?

true

my favorite low maintenance fresh water tank is an Amazon theme. Peacock bass, arowanas, red tailed cats etc.

Sounds very cool!

the peacocks are fun to feed. I find them 1-2 inches long for $20.

I have North American native tanks, but have some experience with Salt.

Here are some recommendations for a reef safe tank;
Firefish Goby
Watchman Goby
Mandarin Goby
Flame Angel
Coral beauty
Cardinalfish
Antias (lots of kinds of them)
6 Line Wrasse
Carpenters Wrasse
Tangs (lots to different species)

Corals are pretty expensive and require good lighting. But a real showpiece when someone in charge knows what they are doing. Good luck on your tank, look forward to pics.

If you passed high school Chemistry , you can do a reef tank .

Sorry dude . Gotta disagree about Mandarins . They need a huge population of micro-crustaceans ( amphipods /copopods) in order to thrive . Kinda like seahorses .

YES!!! But worth it when you do.

Question. Y'all know I'm gone lots of weekends for teaching gigs and whatnot. So will stuff die if I don't give it care every single solitary day?

For instance... I have a few tetras in a tank I stuck some pothos in. They're fine if I don't feed them for a day or two. They can and do pick at the plants. If I'm gone for a day or two will my tank suffer and die? I know the lights need to be on an automatic timer. That isn't an issue.

Thats a fair point Siberman, but I don't think they should be crossed off the list. Katt mentioned it being a low stock tank, thats good for Mandarins. Less stress and less competition. Plus, the Pods will use the live rock as a place to reproduce, and if needed, they can be bought and added. I have been lucky with Mandarins, had success with them eating live Brine Shrimp and frozen foods which helps with the Pod problem. These are cool little fish.
Couple articles on Mandarins,

https://www.algaebarn.com/mandarin-goby-fish-care/

https://www.petcha.com/tips-on-keeping-the-mandarin-dragonet/

Not a problem.

I kept a saltwater tank many years ago. I would get as large of tank as I could. The larger the tank the easier it is to maintain levels. My favorite fish was the clown fish. He was like a puppy dog. I could feed him by hand. I mostly had live coral and enjoyed watching the coral as much as the fish.

I have this absolute love of the little stuff. Mandarins are beyond comprehension cool. I've had this love of corals forever.. because they're *NOT* plants, but looking at them you might think they were. And I love how they spread out over time, slowly growing into spaces.
I love how the cleaner shrimp have personality. They're interesting. You never know what you're going to see.

Most people want a bunch of fish in a tank. I have plants that happen to have interesting fish and other critters in there with them.

Had a reef tank many years back...very expensive hobby I love to look at them but would not have another one.

I had at one time a 240 mixed reef, a 100 soft coral, a 50gl seahorse and a thirty gallon pygm seahorse all running at the same time. The most expensive part is the rock and lights. Just decide what you want and take it slow. to keep hard corals you will need to invest in more equipment to keep the water cleaner but soft corals don't need it to be that clean. look at different groups like MAAST.ORG, AND DFAS.COM AND REEFCENTRAL.COM for good information. Look for the old timers that were keeping things alive before all the fancy equipment but the fancy stuff makes it a lot easier to do just more expensive.

I stand corrected . Last time I tried a Mandarin or Scooter (cousin) was before I had internet . The nearest shop with marine fish was in Longview and they had a 200 gallon full of live rock with the largest Mandarin I've ever seen . It's certainly doable in a smaller tank now with all the resources available .

The tech has advanced phenomenally in the last 50+ years . Lord, help me . I'm getting the "reef itch" again .

I have, and have had, tanks since childhood. For a long time, a Jack Dempsey was all I needed, in a 50 gal. and he was a beaut. I went salt after college, as a boss had one in one of my jobs, and the beauty of salt fish over fresh can not be compared, it's color on steroids, as you'll see at pet stores.

Salt, once set up, is as easy as fresh, the only main difference is you have to mix packaged salt from the store with fresh, changing about 20% per month. I buy extra large outside filters, as I forget to change water for a few months, and since I keep the population small does not hurt too much. Right now, down to a 35 gal. two fish (clown and damsel, and a couple of hermits). I've had just about every fish avail. but many require certain foods, like tangs like lettuce, but dirty the tank quickly because of it, etc.. I've had sea anemones, live rock etc., but many reef 'creatures' need special lighting, since they live off light, and those lights cost hundreds, as well as special filtration systems. A tank like that going south on you could cost hundreds, if not thousands, in loss. I just get my fix of reef tanks by visiting the fish stores once and a while, or a restaurant next to my gallery that has a 1,000 gal. one, with a 1' tang and another 50 fish of all sorts (eels, starfish, you name it).

Best advice, take it slow, start with damsels (like $3 fish, with many different ones too), ask lots of questions at the stores, those folks will help w/ budget thoughts/wishes, and which fish can live with which fish, that's important, and they KNOW!. Good luck, you'll really love it. Oh, can leave fish for a day, maybe two if I overfeed feed them before I leave, but remember this, fish don't plan on starving, something will die, as in the weakest tank mate (fins first, etc.). ;/)

Oh, I wish I could keep the Mandarin Goby's alive,
but many fish can be more delicate than others.
Here's why you'd want to add them, pure beauty
(God never got tired of making so many beautiful creatures for us to drool over, did He?).

When I think of salt water aquariums, I think back to a morning I went fishing after a storm that ripped up the ocean floor and deposited it on the beach.


All kinds of coral I'd never seen before other than in pictures


Stuff that would have looked great in an aquarium.


Thought this one would have sold for a fortune if it could be made to live.

I had a hundred gallon reef tank at my business. I paid a guy to maintain the tank so no issues but started losing a few fish. Found that I had a mantis shrimp in some of the coral and it was killing things. I do remember the cost was very high for the fish.

Hey buddy, I'm not going to make it any easier for you!!!
;/)

Great Picture!

(This advice does not apply to Kat, or anyone reading it on this forum.)

In most cases I recommend that novices start with a manatee. They are endangered. When the new, misguided excitement and natural-state laziness of the novice saltwater aquarium enthusiast settle back at equilibrium, many of these folks simply dump the remnants in a local (salt) waterway.

This happened when some folks didn’t even think twice before dumping lion fish around Florida...and it’s caused quite a problem. Because manatees are endangered, although my advice may still create a problem...at least the problem would be borne from problem-solving efforts and not just thoughtlessness.

When I want a saltwater tank, I go to the Gulf and stick my head under water. It's a lot cheaper.

Saltwater is a PIA if you don’t have the time to throw at it. I’m stuck with freshwater because I’m not home enough.

Family friend lives on a canal in Cape Coral Florida and created a bio-diverse salt water aquarium that includes a series of remotely controlled pumps and tanks to facilitate water exchange, species acclimation, etc. I believe it rivals those we’ve seen at Sea World...