9 replies to this topic

[shane78]

Hey guys thinking bout venturing into to a saltwater tank, I have a 6ft tank I am going to use in the garage,

I dont plan on keeping corals i plan on having it a cold water marine, my question  is can I just use water

from the ocean will I run into any dramas as I plan to stock with fish from that location also how legal is

this approach, its just a thought at the moment Im sure my heads about to be biting off haha.

[malawiman85]

Lots of species in the aquarium trade are wild caught, particularly marines. Even though you plan on keeping the tank temperate you still need to be able to keep the temperature stable. Wild caughts are usually more easily stressed and a little less tolerant of poor water quality.
If I was going to do another marine tank I would probably look at using local sea water. Give it a crack... You can be my guinea pig.

[shane78]

haha sweet will do.

[MrLeifBeaver]

From what I have read one reason Marine is so hard is that oceans do not change, well not much at all, because the Ocean is so vast, it is quite stable so you need to take into account that.

And I agree Wilds are more susepitcle due to being used to stable conditions.

 

I been doing research into Chillers (water coolers), they are expensive but are a must if you want to do Marine.

 

At the moment I have a Nano tank and I have it cycling with live rock but I am not adding anything extra in until it is cooler. Currently the tank is at 30 degrees which is way too high for marine.

Marine temps appear to be from 22 - 28 degrees and it is not viable to get a chiller when the volume of water is only 34L.

 

I think taking from the wild is not brilliant, definetly do not take from a national water park.

[Jules]

You'll find with marines 95% of livestock is WC.

there a few clown sp. dotty backs and grammas, as well as cardinals which can be tank bred, but I have never heard of any other marine species being captive bred in the aquaria trade.

 

Chillers are recommended - I have had many reef tanks in the past, and the last system I had ran a 250wt halide over a 2' cube, hence I needed a chiller to maintain a constant temperature. if it gets to hot, coral zooxanthella will die and the corals will bleach out and die generally.

id most definitely suggest a chillier for local temperate water species.

For the effort of temperate fish (and whats available), id honestly just heat the tank and get a lot of tropical species in a fish only system if your focus is solely on fish.

 

marines are all trial and error different thtings work for different ppl.

good luck with it and enjoy the game of marines, its the next level of fish keeping and can be amazingly rewarding.

[malawiman85]

It can also be amazingly expensive and overrated! I dont necessarily agree that marine is the next level, just different. There are some marine options that I would say are definitely next level but really, most marine set ups are just different not really technically more difficult than a well planted tank with flash FW fish.

Kinda depends on what you want to achieve in my view.

Example: Clowns and other cheapies, live rock, lights, sump with skimmer, cheap corals and some inverts... BAM cheap (beginner) reef tank. Not really next level until you move on to cooler corals, fish and inverts... 

[shane78]

to be honest guys I just wanna tank in the man shed with some herring and other species that I can go fishing for when the weathers shitty haha and to see how they live.

[MrLeifBeaver]

to be honest guys I just wanna tank in the man shed with some herring and other species that I can go fishing for when the weathers shitty haha and to see how they live.

 

Nice. Get some Herring, Whiting and Tailor. All set

[shane78]

And one of these

 rod.JPG   60.3KB   3 downloads

 

[malawiman85]

Thats the way... Would be a cool little exercise just gotta keep that temp stable.