STEP ONE, the same tank
Most of my customers buy aquariums that are too small and at the end of an update in the near future anyway. The minimum size for a marine aquarium should be at least 55 gallons. Will not only be in a position that is most of the fish and corals in this tank, its parameters (salinity, pH, etc.) dominate in a tank but not so much bigger. Buy your aquarium and adequate support. I always recommend to your aquarium supply store, thespecifically for the aquarium. Do not forget to weight, a 55 liter tank around 550 pounds with no rocks or sand that does not do it on an old table. Now that you have your tank stand and place it on a flat surface in your home away from all windows where direct sunlight can affect the temperature. Make sure the tank is sitting at the booth. This is particularly important in large tanks, as they do not want the tanks pressure points that can be split seams.
PHASE TWO, rock, sand andLIGHTING
Buy a high quality of coral sand as sand Carib Sea Ocean Direct Live and make sure that at least 2-3 cm at the bottom of the tank support. This will help to remove the nitrates in the near future. We will then enter into nitrates, but for now just make sure you buy enough sand. Regarding lighting, there are a variety of ways. T5 high efficiency are a good option for the electric bill reasonable. You should do a little research to find out what you wantyour holiday. You need about 2-3 bags of 20 pounds per 50 gallons to achieve this goal. From now on the rocks, it is possible, what is called live rock, or you can dry coral rock, which is easily available online use. What many hobbyists do not know is that there is no need to use live rock to start. You can buy dry rocky reef for about $ 2.75 - $ 5 per pound against the payment of $ 7-15 per pound for live rock. Both will give you the same end result, and gains in dry rock weight about 10-30% higher when wetSo it's a better value. Buy at £ 1 for every gallon of water you have to buy much for a 55-gallon aquarium 50-55 pounds of rock. Place the solid rock, as desired, and proceed to the next phase in water.
STAGE THREE, Water, heads of power and heating
Have you had an extra aquarium supplies, such as sea salt (Instant Ocean, I recommend for consistency) Powerheads (or Koralia Aquarium Systems Maxi Jets are a good choice) for the purchase. The flow through youneed is a simple formula, at least 10 times larger aquarium you are, for example a tank of 55 liters at least 550 GPH (gallons per hour) of flow needs. Now you need to buy a stove to be both hunter and a good choice Visi Therm. They recommend that format is required (in watts), packaging and websites. The purchase of a large enough warming, because the consistency of temperature is important for your pets. Last but not least, buy a refractometer in line for about 50 €.Measure the salinity with a hydrometer plastic just is not right and you will be mourning. Ok, now that you have purchased your aquarium supplies, it's time to fill the tank with water. One of the most commonly overlooked item is the water itself. Take it from my experience, the use of reverse osmosis water with a TDS (total dissolved solids) as close to zero. To start, you can purchase at any time to store water in 5 gallon jugs or you can use a reverse osmosis system for the purchaseless than $ 200. If you are serious about keeping marine aquariums, should be to remove algae and various bacteria that can develop in the tank and kill all the coral. This is the reason that most fans to throw in the towel. I could be more detailed about it, but only Google or red slime algae and hair to go and read a little '. Install and start the flow heater and pump to fill the tank. Once full, add the salt. A control is usually about 1 / 4 cup per gallon, butrecommendation of the manufacturer. Getting the salt content up to about 1.024 and 1.025.
STEP FOUR, The Waiting Game
At this point the tank is cycling. I am waiting to consume the bacteria that you can not see that begin to appear as if by magic out of thin air and ammonia. This can be anywhere from 3-6 weeks and your light is not necessary. A trick I learned, is a piece of Live Rock £ 5-10 to speed up the cycle to add. This will provide some bacteria and life to the tank. In aIn short, what happens is the bacteria eats the ammonia and nitrites to produce (another form of ammonia), another bacterium turns the nitrites into nitrates, which accumulate in the tank about to leave. Skimming and water changes to keep nitrates under control. You can now skimming any time. It 'at this point is not critical, but it is a good time at your skimmer. Coralife Super Skimmer I have always used. They are easy to deploy and maintain and have a great job of removingorganic waste. It will also give the option of setting a pit (another article, another time), or hanging on the back of the tank. They are not pretty, but the rock opera, most of them hidden. All you have to do now is add water for a round the water evaporates. Do not add salt to increase the lack of water or salt content. The salt does not evaporate into the air. Therefore, top with fresh water. If your ammonia test kit shows zero, you need to do20 percent water change and check again in a day or so. If the tests can be start from scratch, a fish. Take very slowly at this point or re-cycle the tank is to kill everything. Add about a fish or coral once a week and take it easy. We did not test for nitrites and nitrates, because really do not like at this point.
STEP 5 TANK MAINTENANCE
So the tank is set and there are few fish and coral or two. At this point you should make at least 5Percent water change every week to keep the nitrates under control, and nuisance algae. It will also replenish the elements calcium, magnesium and traces that corals need to survive. Buy a good glass cleaner magnet on the front of the stain. If you end up getting some run some algae GFO (granular ferric oxide) in a bag filter material to remove phosphates from water. This is to prevent the spread and, in combination with manual removal, you can keepto control.
