Intro - Photos - Facts - Fishes - Invertebrates - Log - Books
Last updated 10/21/2002

Intro

I realize this page is quite long and in the short term it will just grow bigger and bigger until I put in everything intended. After that I will consider its reorganization and possible splitting into several smaller and easier to read through pages. Chances are you used Yahoo! directory service or a search engine to find this page. To quickly locate the information you are looking for, please, use your browser's search functionality: "Edit - Find" in Internet Explorer (= [Ctrl][F]). I will try my best to expand all sections of this page in parallel so please, check back often for additions. Eventually, this page should contain almost all you need to know about starting up and maintaining a basic saltwater (marine) aquarium. Thanks for visiting!

Fishes and invertebrates from our aquarium:


Yellow-tailed Damsel	Clownfish	hermit crab

Cleaner shrimp	Cleaner shrimp	Turbo snail

Facts, Set up, Etc.:

Material:

Never use an aquarium that is constructed of any type of metal! (Not even stainless steel) => corrosion => toxic salts
Acrylic vs. glass aquariums:
+ lightweight, crack resistant, better viewing (curved front)
- more expensive, scratch prone (scratch removers available)

Size:

The larger the aquarium the better! Marine aquariums have to be larger than their freshwater counterparts. 10-gallon tank can cause major problems when maintaining marine fish: territorial fish require larger areas, small aquariums may foul rapidly providing little time to correct situation.
Start with at least 20 - 40 gallon aquarium. Longer and shallower types are better.
The greater the surface area the better => better exchange of carbon dioxlide for oxygen. Fish-eye tanks extremely reduce the surface area. They're also difficult to maintain.

Filtration:

Marine fish and invertebrates are far more sensitive to water quality deterioration than freshwater fish and invertebrates.
Types:
- Biological: a process by which specific types of bacteria detoxify toxic nitrogen compounds in aquarium water to less harmful compounds (nitrification, or nitrogen cycle)
  - Nitrosomous bacteria: ammonia (their energy source) -> nitrite (ammonia comes from fish waste and food decomposition)
  - Nitrobacter bacteria: nitrite -> nitrate (nitrate can be chemically converted to free nitrogen or nitrous oxide)
  - The nitrifying bacteria are primarily concentrated in the filter bed substrate. They multiply rapidly if conditions are fovorable. They are classified as aerobic (requiring dissolved oxygen; as opposed to some anaerobic bacteria who do not require oxygen but produce hydrogen sulfide and methane that are toxic).
- Mechanical: a process by which particulate matter is removed from the water. An undergravel filter, when set up and functioning properly, is a very efficient filter but should be supplemented by a filter floss or foam in an outside filter.
- Chemical: a process by which dissolved organic compounds are removed from water. Other substances as nitrogen can also be removed.
  - Chemical filter uses specialized media in an outside filter. The most common is activated carbon. Other methods are foam fractionation (protein skimmers) or ozone or ultraviolet irradiation.
  - Accumulation of organic compounds => yellowish cast => interference in fish growth & toxic to invertebrates => increased detritus => increased multiplication of certain bacteria adding waste prodduct.
  - Protein skimmers:
    + efficient in removing dissolved organics from water -> air bubbled into a chamber reacts with the organics that are transported to the surface where they form foam that can be disposed of
    - remove trace elements required by fish and invertebrates => adding trace element solutions and water changes
  - Ozone generators:
    + especially useful with large number of fish
    + can destroy disease-causing microorganisms
    - O₃ can be toxic over certain level and O₃ almost impossible to measure => O₃ must never be added directly to water => reacting chamber => treated water back to aquarium
    > ozone should be considered especially by persons new to the marine hobby
  - Ultraviolet sterilizer:
    - used by larger and public aquariums to control bacteria, viruses, and fungi
    - while selecting, important criteria is UV dosage - minimum of 35,000 µW / cm²

... to be continued very soon ...

Basic Fish Families

Angel fishes:
Basslets:
Batfishes:
Blennies:
Butterfly fishes:
Cardinal fishes:
Damsel fishes:

... to be filled in very soon ...

Invertebrates

Select carefully when combining invertebrates and fish (many fishes eat them!)
Invertebrates are far more sensitive to changes in water quality than fish. They're intolerant of chronic low dissolved ovyxen levels, high nitrate, or high organics
Invertebrates are sensitive to many chemicals used to treat fish diseases => never add medications directly to aquariums with invertebrates (remove them to another aquarium)
Selecting:
- sea anemones in poor health have shrunken tentacles, sea stars can have swollen areas on the arms, and sea urchins lose spines
- crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, lobsters) should be active with bright colors

Chidarians:
Crustacea:
Mollusk:
Echinoderms:

... to be filled in very soon ...

Aquarium Log:

12/22/2001	This is the date when all the fun started. That was when my wife gave me a 10-gallon aquarium for my birthday. She knew I had liked the aquarium we used to have in my parents' house but she was not completely sure if I really wanted to take care of one now. That is why her choice was the small one. Right then we had a dilemma what type of aquarium to get. We both had experience with fresh water aquariums but we also both liked the colorful slatwater fishes. After not too long the decision has been made and we left for a small saltwater store nearby.
12/23/2001	The aquarium has been established with no prior experience with saltwater aquariums. The only knowledge we had at that point was what the guy at the store told us. Based on his advice we did not buy an undergravel filter but put the crushed coral right at the aquarium bottom. Of course, we rinsed it with tap water several times before pouring it into the aquarium. After that we filled the aquarium with distilled water and added the right amount of synthetic salt. It was supposedly fine to do it this way the first time rather than dissolve the salt in distilled water ahead of time. Despite the careful rinsing of the coral the water was very turbid. The hopes were high that the filter would take care of that. We attached the hanging power filter that came with the aquarium, added external thermometer, and submerged the heater in. We also added some fish hiding places - Roman Ruins and a tree-like stone. Then we turned on the filter.
12/25/2001	After two days of filtration the water looked really great and we thought we were almost ready for some first inhabitants. The heater was turned on to heat up the aquarium to aroun 78 degrees Fahrenheit. It did not work.
12/26/2001	New heater finally worked and the aquarium water was soon at 78 degrees. The specific gravity was at 1.023. To help the aquarium cycle better and faster we added 5 pounds of live sand from the established tank at the store. At this point the gravel was about 2.5" thick. We also added a live plant and after the water settled down after adding the sand we put it 2 yellow-tailed damsels and 20 tiny hermit crabs.
NOTES	At this point we had already done several mistakes because of our complete lack of any experience with saltwater aquariums. The gravel (crushed coral) layer was way too thick for not having the undergravel filter. With the filter the thickness would be about right but it is supposed to be 0.5" - 1" without a filter. Even going a step back, the size of the aquarium was less then optimal. Reading through books afterwards, no one even mentions a 10-gallon tank for saltwater fish. It is recommended to start on at least 20 gallons and the larger the better. In larger tanks, the nitrogen cycle is more stable and reliable and changes in water quality can be fixed before any accident happens. The live plant was not a smart decision either but it was so tempting. And finally, 20 hermit crabs was far from a great idea. Much later I found out that there should not be more than 1 crab per 2 - 3 gallons of water. Well, we should have had 2 to 3 crabs and not 20!
12/27/2001	Our first death - one of the 20 crabs just did not make it. This was a harsh reality after just 1 day :-(
12/29/2001	Salinity - 1.0265 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 1.0 - Nitrite - 0 - Nitrate - 0
12/30/2001	Salinity at 1.026 => exchanged 1L of salt water for distilled water to bring the salinity lower.
12/31/2001	Salinity still at 1.026. The crabs diggind through the coral must have caused additional salt to dissolve. Exchanged another 1L of salt water for distilled water to bring the salinity lower.
01/01/2002	Salinity still at 1.026 => 2L of salt water exchanged for distilled water.
01/03/2002	Salinity - 1.026 - pH - x - Ammonia - 0.25 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 10 Exchanged 1L of salt water for 1L of distilled water. Any time when the vaporized water needed to be replaced distilled water was used to try to bring the salinity down to 1.023 again.
01/05/2002	Exchanged 1L of salt water for 1L of distilled water.
01/08/2002	Salinity - 1.025 - pH - x - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 0 Exchanged 1L of salt water for 1L of distilled water. Bad news - in an official count of the hermit crabs only 14 were found alive.
01/09/2002	Exchanged 1.5L of salt water for 1L of distilled water.
01/12/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 5
01/14/2002	Exchanged 1L of salt water for 1L of distilled water.
01/16/2002	Salinity at 1.023 => Exchanged 1L of aquarium for 1L of freshly mixed salt water.
NOTE	From the very beginning the lighting of the aquarium was provided by the 15W regular bulbs that came along with the aquarium cover. The plant was not doing too good and I blamed it partially on bad lighting.
01/17/2002	2L of water exchanged. Some modifications made after almost a month. We decided that more aeriation was needed and bought an air stone and an air pump. We also added a glass cannopy to decrease the amount of water that vaporized daily. Of course, the bulbs did not like the high humidity and frequent splashes either. One bulb was replaced with a white 15W luminiscent bulb, which provides about the same lighting as one regular 60W bulb. We also bought bigger food variety: whole waterfleas (in gel), bloodworms (freeze dried), ocean plankton (freeze dried). Fleas sink quite fast, which is good because carbs get their share too.
01/19/2002	Salinity - 1.023 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 5 Second 15W (850 lumen) fluorescent bulb added (Sylvania, a little yellowish compared to the first one). 2 crabs moved into quite large shells.
01/20/2002	We took a water sample to the store to have it checked to find out how our cycling was going. Only nitrites were checked and the guy said he thought the aquarium was almost cycled. He recommended waiting for a few more days though. Our largest crab deserved a nick name of terrorist. He was holding on to a smaller crab not letting him go. He did not release him even after a manual attempt to separate them. I was too scared I would hurt him that I let it up to the mother nature.
01/21/2002	Official crab count performed => 14! :-) A tiny polyp discovered on the artifical tree-like stone. It climbed all the way to the top (following light?). When it opens up it must have around 3mm in size. We also discovered a worm making tunnels through our aquarium bed.
01/24/2002	2L of water exchanged.
01/27/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 10 Brown algae removed from the glass, power filter cleaned up, 1/2 of the live (grassy) plant taken out as it started to go rotten.
01/30/2002	Salinity at 1.024. New additions to our aquarium: 2 common cleaner shripms (Lysmata amboinensis), 1 false Percula Clownfish. We were waiting for all these since we got the aquarium. The shrimps are quite big and active and it is fun to watch them. The clownfish is also a great attraction. We could not get the anemone though as we were afraid it would not survive for too long. This was in fact the last addition to our tank (still true as of 10/1/2002). Each damsel fish picked one back corner for their territory, clownfish found refuge behing a castle in the middle and shrimps were kind of anywhere. Clown immediately started playing with the shrimps' antenas/whiskers. They did not seem to mind that at all. It did not really seem to be a cleaning process. We were sure the clown just misses an annemone and picked the shrimps for his games.
02/02/2002	Salinity - 1.023 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 20
02/03/2002	Glass cleaned up from algae, exchanged 2L of water. Quite a big crab found himself without the protection of a shell and was very aggressively attacked by one of the shrimps. Clownfish followed and attacked the crab too. The second shrimp joined the violence and poor crab did not live for too much longer. Scenes like this really take away from the joy of caring for the aquarium even though I realize that that is how it works.
02/04/2002	For some reason, the salinity got out of control again - it was at 1.027 this day! It even seemed to be a little hazy.
02/05/2002	Salinity at 1.023. Don't ask me how. The rest of the live plant does not seem to be that live any more. Its end is probably very near.
02/06/2002	Salinity still nicely at 1.023. 12 hermit crabs spotted while feeding. Exchanged 2.5L of water.
02/09/2002	Salinity - 1.025 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 20 No changes in chemical readings of water since last time, which is a good thing wiht good numbers. I would just like to see the Nitrites go down to 0. The rest of the plant removed, a lot of algae removed, all corals and large shells cleaned up. As the plant is gone now some artifical ones will be needed for the fish to have hiding places. Exchanged 5L of water.
02/10/2002	Yesterday's changes finished up, 2 artificial plants added, one to each back corner. Started adding a little bit of ProAquatics Ammonia Detoxifier to convert toxic Ammonia to its less toxic form.
02/12/2002	Salinity at 1.025. One shrimp molted. It was the first time I have seen something like that. Not that we would see it in process but seeing the old outside of the shrimp including antenae, tail, and legs was impresive. At first I got worried until I confirmed that two shrimps were still in the aquarium and doing fine.
02/13/2002	The second shrimp molted too.
02/17/2002	Red algae removed, exchanged 4L of water.
02/23/2002	Another hermit crab cold-heartedly eaten. This time it was the end of the biggest of all - the so called "Terrorist Crab" :-) Salinity - 1.022 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 20 5L of water exchanged, added Proper pH 8.2 to get the pH to at least 8.0 again. The power filter media exchanged too - it was already overflowing and it was previously cleaned up (twice).
03/02/2002	The aquarium water at 84 degrees! The heater all overgrown with red algae => it may be mis-measuring the temperature => the whole right-hand side of the tank carefully cleaned up, 2L of water exchanged.
03/03/2002	Salinity - 1.0235 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 1.0 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 20 Left-hand side of the aquarium cleaned up, 1.5L of water exchanged. 9 crabs counted.
03/06/2002	Salinity 1.0225, 4L of water exchanged.
03/10/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 15 This time, both shrimps molted at the same time. 4L of water exchanged. Both luminiscent bulbs replaced for the regular ones to decrease the lighting in our fight against the red algae that had been spreading rapidly lately.
03/13/2002	Salinity 1.0235, 3L of water exchanged. Water again overheating at 84 degrees!
03/17/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 20 4L of water exchanged. Proper pH 8.2 added again. Seriously thinking about additional filtration and increased water circulation. PetSmart has a good canister filter only for 160 gallon aquariums and higher, the same with protein skimmers.
03/21/2002	Salinity 1.023, 4L of water exchanged.
03/27/2002	Salinity 1.023, 3L of water exchanged.
03/30/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 8.2 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 20 2L of water exchanged.
04/02/2002	We had a very bad start to the new month. After about a week of decreased activity, one of our cleaner shrimps died :-( The worst is that the other one does not seem to be in too good shape either. Quite apparently, clownfish was very sad to lose a friend. Power filter media replaced, 4L of water exchanged and Ammonia Detoxifier added. Fish fed with frozen spinach (minced). The shrimp seems to be weak and not able to swim too much. But whatever spinach made it to her she ate.
04/06/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 5.0 - Nitrate - 40 4L of water exchanged. Added a horseshoe crab and 4 turbosnails. We made our first trip to a new fish place - bigger and with different species. Their stock of different filters is also better. In the evening, the second shrimp died too :-( The new inhabitant - the Horseshoe Crab - keeps swimming vigorously but so far is not doing his job of digging through the gravel.
NOTE	This definitely was not the best time to introduce new inhabitants to the aquarium. Always, I mean always add new species to the aquarium only when it is in its best shape. Moving fish from one tank to another is stressful enough for them, let alone a bad-quality water!
04/08/2002	Salinity 1.024, 2L of water exchanged, water level lowered to help the power filter create stronger stream that would generate stronger water circulation and aerate it better.
04/10/2002	Salinity - 1.0245 - pH - 8.2 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 30 2L of water exchanged.
04/14/2002	Salinity - 1.026 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 20 3L of water exchanged.
04/15/2002	Salinity back to 1.023. Very important step - installed Hagen's Fluval MSF 304 canister filter (foam, pre-filter media, carbon, BioMax). This effectively added 2 gallons of water to the aquarium system. Added Proper pH 8.2. This filter almost created a whirlpool in the tank => turned down to 50% for the small aquarium.
04/20/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 20 2L of water exchanged.
04/22/2002	Salinity at 1.023. The Horseshoe crab died :-( => It survived only 16 days! There was no reason I could find for this but that is exactly what books say about this creature - Horseshoe Crabs can enjoy good health for quite a while but still die for no visible reason. It's not very recommended, especially to beginning aquarists.
04/25/2002	3L of water exchanged. One turbo snail suspected dead.
04/27/2002	Salinity at 1.024. The suspect from above was burried. Another snail placed on the castle roof for observation.
04/28/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 8.0 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.25 - Nitrate - 50 The snail got down from the castle so he's hopefully ok. 5L of water exchanged.
05/01/2002	Salinity at 1.0235. 2L of water exchanged (little bit of Proper pH 8.2 added). The water was not completely clear after this. It looks like it can be blamed on the Proper pH powder.
05/02/2002	Salinity at 1.023. 2L of water exchanged (little bit Proper pH 8.2 added again - it really must be making the water unclear :-( ). Two crabs found dead :-(
05/05/2002	Salinity - 1.024 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 40 4L of water exchanged => nitrates proportionately down to around 35, which is still too high for hermit crabs.
05/07/2002	Salinity at 1.0235. 4L of water exchanged. Clownfish very skittish and not wanting to eat - in the end took a little bit.
05/11/2002	Salinity at 1.023. 4.5L of water exchanged.
05/12/2002	Salinity - 1.023 - pH - 7.8 - Ammonia - 0.5 - Nitrite - 0.0 - Nitrate - 60 Half of the BioMax media in the 3rd chamber of the canister filter swapped for Kent Marine Nitrate Sponge (supposed to be changed every 3 - 6 months). If this helps to reduce nitrates but not enough the second half will have to be changed too as nitrates are currently the biggest problem.
05/15/2002	Salinity at 1.024. 5L of water exchanged.
-	To be continued soon ...

Some books I found very informative and useful:

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