My Hybrid Tank - Perspective from a fresh water hobbyist

[Scottmac]

Hello,

I joined this site a short time ago as I had set up my first marine aquarium, and I wanted a place to discuss teething issues and to share my interest.

I have for the past 20 years or so, kept only freshwater aquariums - both cold water and tropical. My tank set up is therefore a bit different to the usual marine tank.

Rather than a protein skimmer and a sump (I can't afford/have space for), I have two internal cartridge filters (one UV) on the left, one with a airline bubble outlet, and an external filter on the right with a spray bar:

At this point your probably thinking it’s a crazy set up, but my water is very clear, highlight filtered and oxygenated. So far I haven't lost any fish, just some inverts that, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have purchased at this point in my tanks maturity (one feather duster, and one tux urchin.)

Usually the first thing I would always do when setting up a freshwater aquarium is to purchase a good under gravel filtration system, as in my experience that is the number 1 key for a successful fresh water aquarium. For the following reasons this cannot be done in the saltwater hobby;

1. Marine tanks look best (IMO) with sand substrate, and that would play hell with a UG filter.
2. Beneficial benthic organisms would get sucked into the filter/damaged.
3. Sand dwelling/digging organgisms like starfish and Conches would block/disrupt the UG filter.

The next thing I would do is plant the tank, then a few weeks after that I would start stocking the tank. The first fish I would always get would be catfish for cleaning the substrate and the glass (a shoal of Corys for the substrate, a Plec or two for the glass and bobs your uncle, easy-peasy tank maintenance.)

Unfortunately, the marine equivalents don't exist, or at least I haven't come across them within my price range. And the snails I have bought adamantly refuse to clean the glass, the cheeky so and sos!

So here are my positives and minuses so far:

Positives:

1. Many more invert choices, which I find very interesting (more interesting than the fish if i'm honest).

2. Colourful corals, although I wish the shops selling them wouldn't lie so much with highly coloured filter lenses and intense blue lighting as they are never as colourful as shown!

3. Marine fish tend to have a more interesting behaviour than Tropical, with the exception of catfish which are awesome characters.

4. Hitch hikers. God I love em! If anyone was to open a hitch hiker shop for pot luck additions i'd be the first customer, even if I got the odd bobbit worm and mantis shrimp decimating my tank it would be worth it. Gimme gimme gimme hitch hikers!

Negatives.

1. Diatoms. AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!! They Make the sand look awful and required daily work to try and get rid of them. If It wasn't censored i'd add lots of swear words. Unsightly, clumping annoying indestructable demons from the pits of hell!!!:mad:

2. Price of fish/inverts. It may just be the UK where we sheepishly accept any price we are told to pay, because to complain is you know, un-British... as if we are still peasants toiling in the filth for our knights and kings, but c'mon, its hard to find a place that does no rip you off, esp considering all of the fish I have purchased are tank bred so its not like divers have captured and transported them from Malasia.

3. Length of time it takes for the tank to establish. It's been going a few months now, in a tropical tank that would be fully settled, plants would now need cutting back if anything.

If I were a total beginner to keeping aquariums, id find the testing, the need for very regular water changes, and the need to have knowledge of cycles a challenge, but its something im very used to.

Anyone else went from freshwater to saltwater feel the same?#
Scott

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

The marine version of corydoras, may be those valencieannea and koumansetta gobies, though they need very established tanks as they are hard to train to eat prepared foods. Though rainford and similair gobies i believe have been captive bred, so may be easier to feed

 

[saltyhog]

Hang in there with the diatoms. If that's what they are and you don't have a silicate source from your RO/DI water they will eventually consume all the silicates and go away. Just a problem almost every new tank goes through.

Interesting set up, do you have a build thread....would love to follow your progress!

 

[Scottmac]

Thanks, I will give it time with the diatoms, but if it hasn't gone in a few more months I will take out the sand and replace with beech pebbles because it looks disgusting how it clumps the sand together.

Yesterday I went to a beech and collected some root systems of kelp, cut them down and used coral glue to add types of marine macro algae from the beech to give the tank some more colour. Looks quite good, I will see if they will survive and grow in a tropical temperature. If so I will get more to create a planted rear similar to how I have in my freshwater tanks.

 

[Scottmac]

I think one solution to diatoms is just to get rid of the sand and go for a different look.

I have purchased 2 silica treatments to give sand in a marine aquarium one last chance:

Sera Silicate Clear
&
JBL SilicatEX

I will put one in my external filter, and one in my internal uv cartridge. I've also purchased more phosphate remover foam as I haven't changed them in a while, so I shall see if all this works.

If not, i'm getting rid of the sand and going rock shelf/pebbles, ensuring they are dark so even if diatoms and algae are present it wouldn't be anywhere near as noticeable as on white sand.

Has anyone else tried a sand-free tank with rock floor sides & rear for a rockpool effect?

 

[OrionN]

After 40+ years of reefkeeping, we don't use canister filter or UG filter for reeftank for a reason. They convert ammonia to nitrate. This resulting in a very high nitrates level. It is OK for a FO tank but not reeftank.
Deep sand bed, live rock w/wo skimmer is the prefer method to filter a reeftank becasue this convert ammonial all the way to nitrogen and vented to the air.