# Alternative to a marine tank



## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

If you thought marine fish are the most colourful fish out there, then you'd be wrong. And if you have been wishing to get a marine tank for Christmas then hold your horses for a while and take a browse through this page, as you don't really need a money burning, back breaking, time consuming saltwater tank, when all you need to do is select the right fish and decor before jumping ahead and going to the store buying the cheapest fish you come across, do a bit of window shopping first.

If you like the idea of having a marine tank because of the nicely colored decor, the coral reefs, the flashy invertabrates, the wriggling anemones, then you can buy all of these things for the freshwater tank, as your fish won't mind as long as they have plenty of places to hide.

You can buy dead coral for your tanks, however only use them if you are intending on keeping hardwater fish because it can alter the water chemistry.










You can also buy all sorts of rock for the marine tank that would also feel at home in the freshwater tank.

So you thought you couldn't have an anemone in a freshwater tank
This is a lifelike plastic one. They even move in the water flow like a real anemone:










I have saltwater tanks because I can afford them, but if you haven't got much spare cash, then how about this!
Instead of having these colorful marine fish, you can have freshwater substitutes.

Instead of having a clown fish AKA nemo....










You could have a clown loach.










Or a cheaper option could be a school of tiger barbs.










If you would like a humbug damsel, but would prefer to do without the salt mixes, the protein skimmers, and the UV sterilizers.....










Then this zebra cichlid is for you!










Wouldn't it be nice to get a cardinal fish that could be kept in soft water and not hide all day......










Well you can! This is a ram.










So you want a batfish do you?










No you dont! Why would you when you can have an angelfish that can live with your tetras.










So you want to spend your weeks wages on a school of these lyretail anthias?










Then you're an idiot. Just chuck a few of these in your tank.










You thought nothing could imitate the pantherfish?










Then what's this jaguar cichlid doing?










The end result is a beautiful freshwater tank, and your visiters won't even be able tell that it's not a setup of saltwater fish, corals, and rocks from the tropical seas.



Here's my tank:
















Just goes to show that you don't necesserily need to epmty your wallet on marine equipment when you can make do with a freshwater tank.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

interesting! Never thought about it like that. Good comparison in pics bro.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

hah! I prefer spending my money til its all gone and all I have left is enough for a package of easy mac and a glass of water!


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## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

Wow! THANKS chiclid man. This sure is useful info. I've wanted to get a SW tank for a while but was worried about money and maintenance of it. This helps a lot.

BTW... you mentioned some marine items will turn the water hard so make sure that the fish like hardwater. Are the fish that yuo mentioned above? Do they like hardwater?

thanks again


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Hahah nice job CM


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Pretty good.

So far I think my cichlid tank is harder to mantain than my sw lol. Constant worries about aggression, water quality decreses quickly because of how the y eat ( bunch of fast pigs), and all that.

I really do recommend cichlids for anyone who wants to have a sw tank but needs to put it off because of costs or whatever reason. My paragraph up there isn't trying to scare anyone off lol thats just my case and personally I prefer sw tanks WAY over fw ones.

oh btw... th eother good thing about an alternative to the panther grouper is you wont have to worry about a 20 inch + plus fish lol. I've seen some cichlids that looks pretty similar to them.


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## Chumpp_308 (Feb 19, 2005)

flamingonhot
"So far I think my cichlid tank is harder to mantain than my sw lol. Constant worries about aggression, water quality decreses quickly because of how the y eat ( bunch of fast pigs), and all that."

have you tried pellet or granular food? clean as a whistle.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

They only eat flake and nothing else.

They just hit it so fast and it shoots all over the tank. It has a sand bottom and it's full of rocks and driftwood so cleaning is a pain in the butt.

In a while the cichlids are getting sold and the tank is either going to be for some clownfish or seahorses or something. After a while II might try cichlids again.


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## micstarz (Oct 22, 2005)

lol but imagine if a beginner went and chucked all those fish in a FW with coral for decor! If not incompatialbility, then the PH will get them first!


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

micstarz said:


> lol but imagine if a beginner went and chucked all those fish in a FW with coral for decor! If not incompatialbility, then the PH will get them first!


Hopefully this topic is not too dead...(although stickys never really die)

...But don't most cichlids (particularily Africans) prefer a pH between 7.8 and 8.6? I am actually in the process of switching to coral sand in my cichlid tank. I've read from several sources including www.cichlid-forum.com that coral pieces can be benificial in cichlid tanks to provide proper pH buffering and increase water hardness. Please correct me if what I am saying is horribly wrong...


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

No your right pyrofish except for "most cichlids". African ciclids from the rift lakes like extremely hard and alkaline water. Which your right coral, crushed coral, marine sand, shell will be good for a tank with them as it will buffer & help mantain a high ph & hardnesss. But all of the fish listed above don't like that. Central American cichlids like hard & alkaline water but not quite as hard & alkaline as the Africans do especially those from Tanganyika. But then on the other hand South American cichlids and some African ones that aren't from the rift lakes like soft and acidic water.


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

As you ca see the pic of that tank is full of African cichlids and its got sand, dead corals, & shells


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

Oops! I didn't realize that the cichlids in the pictures weren't African. I looked 'em up though and you are right. I'll do my homework next time.

Fortunately for my fish I read some species profiles before buying the coral sand (they are all from Lake Malawi).


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## micstarz (Oct 22, 2005)

lol

im confused 
doesnt coral like dissolve into the water? if someone had coral sand wouldnt it quickly dissolve and vanish?


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## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

Cichlid Man said:


> If you thought marine fish are the most colourful fish out there, then you'd be wrong. And if you have been wishing to get a marine tank for Christmas then hold your horses for a while and take a browse through this page, as you don't really need a money burning, back breaking, time consuming saltwater tank, when all you need to do is select the right fish and decor before jumping ahead and going to the store buying the cheapest fish you come across, do a bit of window shopping first.
> 
> If you like the idea of having a marine tank because of the nicely colored decor, the coral reefs, the flashy invertabrates, the wriggling anemones, then you can buy all of these things for the freshwater tank, as your fish won't mind as long as they have plenty of places to hide.
> 
> ...



One more thing... can all of the above fish that you mentioned all live in the same tank at one time? Will there be any territorial issues or anything?


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

NO, but then again neither can their saltwater equivalents.
For example, those jaguar cichlids and panther groupers will predate on anything that can fit into their mouths. And the zebra cichlid will grow too big for other fish to cope with.
Also, things like rams can't be kept with corals as they are soft water fish, and corals will raise the pH to around 7.5-8.5.
The clownloach, ram and angel fish can be kept together as they are all softwater fish. Quite a natural looking marine tank made from river sand and synthetic corals, anemones. As long as there is enough cover in terms of caves etc, the fish will be quite at home.
If using real dead corals, then ideal fish would me a mixture of malawis and tanganikans, but remember when mixing africans together and least one hiding space per fish should be added, and if you are housing larger cichlids with smaller ones, it's always a good idea to have many hiding places where the small ones can fit into but not the larger ones, this means that they can have their own breeding territory without being evicted by their larger cousins.


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

Cichlid Man said:


> If using real dead corals, then ideal fish would me a mixture of malawis and tanganikans, but remember when mixing africans together and least one hiding space per fish should be added, and if you are housing larger cichlids with smaller ones, it's always a good idea to have many hiding places where the small ones can fit into but not the larger ones, this means that they can have their own breeding territory without being evicted by their larger cousins.


Does this mean I could house yellow labs with shell dwellers if the tank were properly arranged?


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

pyrofish said:


> Does this mean I could house yellow labs with shell dwellers if the tank were properly arranged?


You can't, becaue you're going to collage remember?


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## pyrofish (May 18, 2005)

I was thinking theoretically.

That is a very good point though...I don't wan't to get myself into more fish related trouble than necessary!


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

Ha, ha, ha. CM........


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## teddy (Nov 10, 2005)

now i dont feel that my tank set up is so cheesy!
i have always admired and appreciated the beauty of a saltwater aquarium,
but i do not have the time, knowledge nor the extra money to invest in one
So, i decided to ..fake it. i have a 20gal with all of the pretty little plastic coral and anemones i could put in and sand for the substrate.
living in my faux saltwater aquarium are:
3 dwarf gouramis
2 sword tails
5 neon tetras
2 angle fish
1 columbian leopard pleco
1 snail 
3 ghost shrimp(for now)
unfortunatly one of my angel fish is not going to live long, his dorsel fin is gone and he stays in one corner and barely eats!! :sad:


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

teddy said:


> now i dont feel that my tank set up is so cheesy!
> i have always admired and appreciated the beauty of a saltwater aquarium,
> but i do not have the time, knowledge nor the extra money to invest in one
> So, i decided to ..fake it. i have a 20gal with all of the pretty little plastic coral and anemones i could put in and sand for the substrate.
> ...


Sounds good. I bet that looks really "Marine like"

Talking of marine like, don't you think the mouth of this freshwater neet looks similar to a triggers mouth? just noticed that:

Neetroplus nematopus 








niger trigger


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

And just to prove that it can be done, here's my tank:


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## Thomas (Nov 8, 2005)

Just saw this thread. It is really a very interesting comparison  Good thinking. In a way, this set up can certainly mimic a SW tank... but there are still a lot of other sea creatures such as seahorse, craps and colourful shrimps out there


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## Crayola105 (Mar 3, 2007)

LOL colorful craps.....


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## Guest (Mar 20, 2007)

could you put one angel in a 16? I was thinking two rams, an angel and some colorful tetras cause i can't really find anything else that looks "saltwaterish".

I forgot, what would a good goby/eel substatute for the same size tank? i was thinking something like a kuli loach cause the eels at my lfs are really cool and all but they are brackish and will out grow my tank. I can always ditch the tetras if need be.


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2007)

this is a sticky for what reason???


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## davedudeman (Jun 25, 2007)

LMAO I love how you tried to sell us over and over. lol

"So you want to spend your weeks wages on a school of these lyretail anthias?
Then you're an idiot. Just chuck a few of these in your tank."


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

swordtailbreedr said:


> this is a sticky for what reason???


Because we love annoying you LOL


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

swordtailbreedr said:


> this is a sticky for what reason???


1) Because we can.............
2) Helpful to new fishkeepers
3) Can help save the lives of many misunderstood saltwater inhabitants.
4) Informative
5) Because we can............ )


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## Buggy (Oct 17, 2006)

swordtailbreedr said:


> this is a sticky for what reason???


....and you make pointless rude posts like this for what reason???


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## Dr_House (Aug 15, 2006)

I think some of the previous posts in this thread suggest a fairly good reason.


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## barry stamper (Oct 21, 2007)

Brilliant Post!!!!


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## buckeyefinance (Feb 1, 2008)

The tank looks nice. I have had both a 75gl Reef and a 75gl FW aggresive tank. All in all the FW is by far less expensive and less hassle than the Reef. When you are making your FW appear to be Reef the cost of the fake corals and decor becomes quite costly as well. Although your tank looks great and would cost less, it probably was not inexpensive by any means. I've seem some of the fake corals and rocks going for far more than live.


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## spencer25 (Aug 29, 2008)

ok, i know this post is dead but im thinking about doing something like this with a 55 gallon i just got for free, and was wondering where would be the best place to buy dead coral, how do you prepare it for the tank and i'm assuming it will make the water harder, but will it lower or raise the pH?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

raise........


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