Marine aquarium starter

peterbella

Hi,
Just looking for any information about a marine aquarium. I have never had one before but would love one. Was hoping for a small tank about 55 litres or so, just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a novice.
I don't need a cabinet I think either.
Many thanks in advance.

Sleepy

As with most aquariums, a smaller is harder to maintain. They're far less forgiving of any mistakes or lack of attention, for example: in a smaller tank, evaporation can spike your salinity far quicker.

I'm running an 100l reef tank in our sitting room which I've detailed the build and running of here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057377571

Even doing it on a budget, all in it's cost me well over a grand in the 9 months I've had it up and running and requires pretty much daily attention (ranging from 5 minutes to scrape the glass of any algae, give the sand a quick shake up to release any gases built up, empty the protein skimmer, top off with RO and feed the fish to an hour or so of tests, a water change, dosing with KH buffer, calcium, trace elements etc. on top of that).

Honestly, unless you've kept freshwater fish for a few years and done enough reading that nothing in my last paragraph confuses you, I wouldn't recommend it as it's likely to be an expensive failure. On the other hand, if you've built up a few years experience with a tropical aquarium and have learnt about water chemistry and tank maintenance through that, it's an extremely rewarding experience to keep a little piece of the ocean in your home. In fact, Mrs Sleepy has just had me set up a 30l nano tank for her. It's a step more challenging again from the tank I'm already keeping as standard marine tank technology such as protein skimmers don't really work in such small tanks so water quality needs to be maintained solely with water changes.

peterbella

All that confused me😧
What would you recommend so for a first time starter??

Sleepy

Pick up a cheap tank on adverts.ie (expect to pay about €1 per litre if it's coming with gravel, filter, heater etc. or less if it's just a small tank), read the sticky about cycling a tank and get it up and running. Then pick up some colourful tropical fish at a dedicated aquatics store (rather than a general petshop, though I could recommend Gavin and James in the aquatics section in Newlands Garden Centre).

Talk to the staff wherever you go, ask about suitability of the species you're looking at for the size of the tank you have, what food they require etc. Personally, I'd recommend mollies, platys or tetras for a newbie.

peterbella

Thank you sleepy!!

Sleepy wrote: »

Pick up a cheap tank on adverts.ie (expect to pay about €1 per litre if it's coming with gravel, filter, heater etc. or less if it's just a small tank), read the sticky about cycling a tank and get it up and running. Then pick up some colourful tropical fish at a dedicated aquatics store (rather than a general petshop, though I could recommend Gavin and James in the aquatics section in Newlands Garden Centre).

Talk to the staff wherever you go, ask about suitability of the species you're looking at for the size of the tank you have, what food they require etc. Personally, I'd recommend mollies, platys or tetras for a newbie.