[JonandJo]

I'm considering in the future starting to keep a saltwater tank. I would like to know As much as I can about it. I.e. Best size tank, what equipment, any special skills needed. So I was basically hoping there was a thread already started on this topic

 

[badxgillen]

Once You know what size of tank you want,how much money you want to invest,how much upkeep time you want to spend,and finally what kind of creatures you want to house? Fish only tends to be the easiest and full reef tanks being the hardest,generally speaking.There are many threads about tank setups and similar topics but like many things there are many ways to do things the right way. I can recomend a couple of good books such as Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook and nano reef aquariums.The later is good even if you are aiming for a larger aquarium as it is rather comprehensive.

 

[beaslbob]

Let my give you my own dirty little secret.

If you start the tank with macro algae, everything else is secondary. To the point of being moot.

Then you can start with the largest tank you can afford.

Which will be even larger because you don't have to spend lotsa money on live rocks, live sand, skimmers, filters and the like. A few inexpensive power heads would be nince tho.

To protect the macros you could just partition the tank so the back 3" is a macro area and the front is the display.

After initial setup let the tank run for a week then add a single male molly. Then don't add food for a week. After the molly has lived for 2-3 weeks you should be good to go for the more expensive marine only fish.

Best tank ever.

and just my usual .02

 

[badxgillen]

If you want to keep any sensitive corals,inverts, and fishes you may need to actually get some decent equipment instead of just algae,although this can work for some of the simple setups it is a far cry from "best tank ever".