# Considering saltwater



## jamesandmanda (Sep 17, 2008)

considering setting up a saltwater tank. have a few basic questions.

1. whats the smallest tank i would need for say, 1 clownfish. ?

2. how many wpg are needed for corals ?

3. whats the purpose of r/o ad do you need it ?

Thanks, James


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

If you start from R/O, the water has nothing in it, then you add saft (usually from evaporated sea water) and you exactly what is in the water. It seems to me that is your tap water doesn't have anything toxic in it (copper is one common thing), you shouldn't need r/o, but then you would have to adjust what you add to the water based on what is already in the water. Instead of an all-in-one blend, you might add specific salts in specific amounts. Considering the expense of R/O, it might be worth it for a large tank. If you were to do a "micro" tank, it prob. makes more sense to buy pre-mixed saltwater in 5 gallon containersf from the LFS. But for replacing evaporation, you'd still want water that doesn't add anything else. So R/O would be nice here too.


----------



## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

ja:

can just give you my thoughts here.

SW is very, very beautiful.

It is also very sensitive.

I would give up my enjoyment of experimenting as the ecosystem of a SW reef is fixed, breeding is virtually impossible, chillers, heaters, fluidized sand beds, etc.

TR


----------



## karazy (Nov 2, 2007)

i hope your joking when you say breeding is virtually impossible

yeah, its hard, but deffinatly not impossible


----------



## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

karazy said:


> yeah, its hard, but deffinatly not impossible


kz:

Did not know that.

Please exemplify.

TR


----------



## karazy (Nov 2, 2007)

ok.

Banagai cardinals. probably the easiest fish in saltwater to breed.

all you have to do is wait until the males mouth is full of eggs,
and then once they hatch you strip all he babies from him.

then you put them in their own seperate 5.5 gallon and try feeding them spirulina enriched baby brine shrimp.
if they dont accept them, you have to go to rotifiers, but usualy you don't have to.

then as they get older you try to ween them to prepared foods like mysis, cyclopeez, ect.

it does take a while for them to grow to a sellable size, and you will eventualy have to put them in a 33 gallon, but it is very possible.

you can also breed clownfish, cuttlefish, jawfish, and much more.

sorry if there was any incorrect spelling


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

There is a nifty hobbyist-level book out right now by Chris Wittenrich which gives the details on breeding and farming over *90* popular marine fish species. It's chock-full of the very info that I have never been able to divulge due to contractual restrictions, so I know this book made a lot of people very angry. However, it also made many more very happy. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

As for the original questions, a single clownfish needs at least 10 gallons when still small, and 20 when grown. They're very much like little cichlids, you know.

RO water is used to make sure the common tapwater contaminants which retard coral growth are not present.

WPG for coral is dependent upon the species and what color you expect them to maintain, but 4-6 works well enough for most. This is one area that absolutely requires you to know the needs of a species before buying it. 
The catch is that in a small tank, this much light can make the water pretty hot.
In a very small tank you can use less much light and still get good results, but a smaller tank has it's own problems.
Everything affects everything else. That's the main thing to always keep in mind.


----------



## jamesandmanda (Sep 17, 2008)

ok so for what its costs i cant see any reason not to use r/o. I will keep my eye out for something around the 20-30 mark. Thanks all for awnsering these basic questions, im sure i will have many more questions.


----------



## fattties (Dec 5, 2008)

what does r/o mean?


----------



## smark (Dec 2, 2008)

Reverse Osmosis
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw...-saltwater-the-desalination-process-video.htm


----------



## fattties (Dec 5, 2008)

Nice video, thanks SMARK. i'll be sure to do my reading/research/read read read before asking anymore questions.


----------

