Salt Aquarium

In setting up your saltwater aquarium, you will be needing the following materials:

1. Tank
2. Saltwater
3. Substrate such as sand or crushed coral that can be placed at the bottom of your Aquarium tank
4. Saltwater – the condition and salt content will depend on the kind of fish that you will be maintaining
5. Saltwater Test Kit – this is needed for you to be able to monitor the nitrogen cycle in the saltwater ecosystem
6. Filter and Filter Replacements – this is to clean and filter the saltwater from chemical and physical wastes
7. Hydrometer and Thermometer – needed to check on the temperature and salt content of your aquarium
8. Powerhead – for the movement or small waves of the water
9. Water Heater – to maintain and monitor water temperature
10. Fish Food
11. Scrubber – to clean off the algae in the rocks, corals and tank
12. Protein Skimmer – to control and prevent the growth of algae
13. Vacuum – needed to clean waste particles from the substrate and water
14. Quarantine Tank – used to segregate fish that are sick or has diseases
15. Fish Net
16. Salt Sea Mix
17. Rubber Gloves
18. A five gallon bucket solely for cleaning your aquarium

 

If you have the complete materials mentioned above, you can now proceed to the following procedures:

Step One: Cleaning Everything
First thing first, you have to clean all the materials mentioned before you start using it.  On this, you may use a teaspoon of pure bleach per five gallons of water.  You may consume as much as ten gallons of water for the entire cleaning procedure.  It is important that you only use non abrasive cleaner in scrubbing the sides of the tank to ensure that you will not scratch the glass.  In cleaning the substrate, just use several clean water and this goes also to the accessories that you wish to place in your saltwater aquarium.

Step Two: Filter Installation
It is important that you install the filter properly to your saltwater aquarium to keep your aquarium from biological, mechanical and chemical wastes that may affect the entire water ecosystem.  Installing the filter properly will ensure you that your saltwater aquarium will last longer.

Step Three: Packing of substrate and aquatic plants
After you have cleaned the substrate, you can put it now at the bottom of your aquarium using enough water, around one pound of substrate per gallon of water.  After this, you may not put your aquatic plants, by using the substrate as an anchor.

Step Four: Filling the Tank With Water
Using a large bucket with non chlorinated water, just add some salt and check the salt level using the hydrometer.  You have to make sure that the salt’s gravity level are between 1.020 to 1.023.  You may now start filling up your aquarium with this saltwater and do not forget to turn on the filtration system.

Step Six: Add the Fish
Step Seven: Maintain the Aquarium – by using the protein skimmer.