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Considerations and Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Setting Up a Saltwater Reef Aquarium

on Jan 13 in coral aquariums tagged coral aquariums, hard coral reef, reef aquarium, reef keeping by coralreefing

A Guest Post by Gareth P

So you want to start a new hobby in Reef Keeping?  Before you start you need to make a few considerations and decisions.  Before you even look at an Aquarium you need to decide what you are going to keep.  These considerations in this article will save you stress, money and heartache.

Firstly, will you be keeping soft or hard Corals? If you don’t know the difference then you need to read a good Reef Keeping book, and a few threads on a good Forum like Ultimate Reef.  The main reason for this question is, your lighting, feeding, and knowledge of water chemistry will vary greatly.  In addition to this, the cost of buying, availability, and care of the corals are all major factors.

How much are you prepared to spend initially on setup? And more importantly, how much are you prepared to put aside every month.  Have you the time for daily and weekly  maintenance. Keeping a Reef Aquarium is very expensive and time consuming hobby.  Running costs can run really high, think about it. Running a four foot tank with two 250 watt Metal Halide lights illuminated for between eight and ten hours a day. Then having two or three pumps each consuming 50 to 60 watts running 24 hours a day is going to use a quite a bit of electricity.

Don’t forget about water changes. You will need to change a minimum of 25% a month, many Reefers change 10% weekly depending on water parameters and stocking levels. You may have to purchase water from your local fish shop. Many Reefers produce there own with the use of a Reverse Osmosis unit.  But still a good quality salt mix requires to be purchased.

Feeding is the least expensive part of this hobby. But still it is nice to get a good variety especially for the living corals. Remember you need to be able to feed your Fish, Invertebrates and Corals.

Water chemistry can become very expensive and is very important. If you cannot afford these as part of the initial outlay, I would not bother taking up this hobby until you can.  You will need Test Kits and Buffers, to adjust and maintain the correct levels, especially if keeping a heavily stocked Hard Coral Reef. I would at least get all the relevant test kits, that way you can at least test for it.  Then you can do something about it if the need arises. Test kits I would recommend include, Nitrate, Phosphate, Magnesium, Alkalinity, and Calcium as a minimum. Then you will need the Buffers and Filter Media to adjust and control these. I would before starting, visit a marine supplier to get an idea of these costs.  You also need to gain an understanding in these Kits and Additives. Take precautions when dosing though, because dosing too fast can cause many severe problems.

Stocking slowly is very important. Doing it in a hurry can cause all sorts of problems and even many deaths of livestock.

This article all sounds really off putting, but these things really need addressing to prevent expensive mistakes.  But the good news is with plenty of reading and research, there is no reason why a successful Reef Tank can not be created in the comfort of your living room.  New advancements in technology like LED lighting really help with the costs of reef keeping.

For more articles and information visit my Blog – http://myreefblog.blogspot.com

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