New to marine aquariums

Hello,

I am (of course) new to this group as I am in the process of setting
up my first sal****er aquarium. I am a 6th and 8th grade science
teacher and an experienced "exotic" pet owner has I have kept
reptiles and amphibians for years at home and in the classroom.

Recently I setup a 60 gallon river ecosystem in our schools foyer
stocked with fire bellied toads, green anoles, land and water plants,
and tetras for the fish. The ecosystem has generated a huge amount
of interest and comments from everyone who sees it. I have always
wanted a sal****er aquarium and decided to take the plunge.

I wanted something simple and easy to maintain as this is my first
sal****er system and decided on a fish only aquarium with hardy fish
and a few invertebrates. I will probably start with a few damsels, a
clown and a couple of yellow tangs.

I purchased a 55 gallon tank with hoods and canopy. I purchased a
Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter 330, a SeaClear Protein Skimmer rated
for a 100 gallon aquarium, 50 pounds of crushed coral gravel, Instant
Ocean salt, a hydrometer, 200 Watt heater and thermometer. I still
need to get a powerhead for water circulation , testing equipment and
chemicals.

What other equipment should I purchase? Am I missing anything
major? I was seriously considering a UV sterilizer but have received
mixed responses from people. I was going to forgo live rock because
of the added complexity of setup, the added expense and was told I
didnt need it for a fish only system, someone tonight told me it was
absolutley necessary. Its a bit frustrating, I did my research but
am still worried, is the equipment I purchased adequate for a
sal****er system? I guess I am just suffering from a case of
nerves!!

David Culp

New to marine aquariums

Group: rec.aquaria.marine.misc Date: Thu, Sep 18, 2003, 2:53am (PDT+7)
From:
Hello,
I am (of course) new to this group as I am in the process of setting up
my first sal****er aquarium. I am a 6th and 8th grade science teacher
and an experienced "exotic" pet owner has I have kept reptiles and
amphibians for years at home and in the classroom.
Recently I setup a 60 gallon river ecosystem in our schools foyer
stocked with fire bellied toads, green anoles, land and water plants,
and tetras for the fish. The ecosystem has generated a huge amount of
interest and comments from everyone who sees it. I have always wanted a
sal****er aquarium and decided to take the plunge.
I wanted something simple and easy to maintain as this is my first
sal****er system and decided on a fish only aquarium with hardy fish and
a few invertebrates. I will probably start with a few damsels, a clown
and a couple of yellow tangs.
I purchased a 55 gallon tank with hoods and canopy. I purchased a
Penguin Bio-Wheel Power Filter 330, a SeaClear Protein Skimmer rated for
a 100 gallon aquarium, 50 pounds of crushed coral gravel, Instant Ocean
salt, a hydrometer, 200 Watt heater and thermometer. I still need to get
a powerhead for water circulation , testing equipment and chemicals.
What other equipment should I purchase? Am I missing anything major? I
was seriously considering a UV sterilizer but have received mixed
responses from people. I was going to forgo live rock because of the
added complexity of setup, the added expense and was told I didnt need
it for a fish only system, someone tonight told me it was absolutley
necessary. Its a bit frustrating, I did my research but am still
worried, is the equipment I purchased adequate for a sal****er system?
=A0 I guess I am just suffering from a case of nerves!!
David Culp
************************************************** ****
Its Fish Only or Invertebrates. Keeping the two together means you must
have a Reef. Why? Because Invertebrates have little if any tolerance
for Nitrate, the end product of aerobically based biological filtration.
If your not prepared to establish a Reef, then, for the most part forget
Invertebrates, unless your ready and able to do very frequent water
changes. Until you master salt-water management techniques, stick with
fish.
You'll need to 'cycle' your system, which is the establishment of
biological filtration to handle the waste products of your animals. See
my web-site for a further exposition on Marine keeping.
HTH


http://community.webtv.net/deflizard/doc
regards, John =

Join reef central.com.Alot of good info.

I've always thought live rock was an absolute necessity as it is
handling the notirgen cycle but I'm thinking reef tanks. Bio ballls and
the like (your bio wheel) are a different (earlier) way to try to do the
same thing. The caveat is that you can never get extremely low nitrates
(zero on our tests) this way and that is what you need for most inverts
(corals, starfish, etc). But I have no experience with FO tanks,
everyone I know has live rock in theirs but I can't swear it is
required:-) I also think all the little critters that come with live
rock are a big part of what makes it interesting!

UV sterilizers are generally not used in reef tanks as they kill the
good stuff that filter feeders want, but in a FO system I think lots of
folks like them. Only other equipment comment is that everyone online
knocks SeaClone skimmers as next to useless. I've never used one.
Whoops, you said SeaClear, never heard of those.

I wrote mainly to let you know there are some groups out there trying to
promote the use of reef aquariums in K-12 education. I know this in part
because of a presentation at MACNA last month that encouraged pet stores
and hobbyists to get involved. The presentation is at
http://www.preusspets.com/education.jsp where you can choos "browse as
web page" or download it (I had to switch from Mozilla, my browser of
choice, to Internet Explorer to get the browse as web page to work). The
presentation talks about the National Marine Educators Association:
http://www.vims.edud/nmea

I paid some attention as we have a club member here in Chicago who is a
6th grade teacher and trying to use aquaria for education. He attended a
summer program at http://bio.fsu.edu/osta/met/index.htm and is
interested in http://marine.rutgers.edu/pt/education/mare.htm in case
these are of interest to you.

Good Luck!

jim bash
•*Email: *
•*Rick at PreussPets.com** *
•*Lorenzo at WetWebMedia.com*
•
•*National Marine Educators Association *
•*http:/ww
*

Sorry about the "junk" in the last post. I tried to copy/paste from the
presentation and it did some crazy thinks--I thought I got it all out
before I posted. Everything up to my name looks OK on my reader, so I
hope it is OK for others.

jim b