I"ve looked into it, never did it, was told its a major major project, always having to keep up with the salt levels etc., and if you don't the fish die. But people do it. If you live by the ocean I'm not sure if it would help to use real sea water or not. I ended up not doing it, because I just dont have time right now. But they are neat, and the fish can be neat. I wanted to do Seahorses and Octopus, but the Octopus I hear are very difficult to keep alive, and even if you do everything right, they still die within a year or 2.
Oh one interesting note about octopus, I hear they can and do crawl out of their tanks a lot if you don't have a tight secure lid on the tank. I heard one example that someone left a jar of food by the tank, the octopus crawled out, UNSCREWED THE JAR!! to get the food, that is wild whacky stuff.
Octopus are extremely intelligent and yes, they will escape if they can figure out how to do it. Also if you have octopi you can't really have anything else, they will eat whatever you put in with them and they need more space. Seahorses are very difficult, they are very very sensitive to water changes, be it temp or chemical, they are very sensitive animals to keep. As for fish dying within a year or two...our current saltwater tank has been set up for 5 years, we still have the original Purple Tang we bought at that time, she's doing fine. We also have a Clown fish we put in the tank about 6 months after we put the Tang in, the Clown is also doing fine. Our other Clown fish has been in the tank for a couple of years now, all are doing absolutely great, very healthy and happy.
We had one for a few years. I wanted a goldfish in a bowl to keep me company when I was home pregnant on disability and my husband got me a monstrosity
It wasn't too bad to take care of and all my fish survived. We had an under the gravel filter and a heater. It had to be scrubbed often so it didn't look icky. The water had to be switched out once every few weeks. if I remember right about 1/4-1/3 the tank was swapped at a time. I used a long siphon that I dropped out the window and into the plants to get rid of the old water then just added what needed adding. Once one of my fish got sick so I made up a separate sick tank to treat the little guy, he got better and returned to his friends.
For all the complaining I really didn't think it was such a big deal if someone has the patience for it. It was certainly easier and cleaner then hampsters
You had an under gravel filter and heater in a saltwater tank? I think you're talking a freshwater tank.
Actually it would be more accurate to say you can't have a small saltwater tank.
Saltwater fish are big and they need a big tank.
Not true, DBF has a nano cube at work, it's 12 gallons, it's very healthy and happy. He's got maroon clowns and lots of little corals (mostly taken from our tank at home) and all are doing great, even over the weekends where it's left alone. I wouldn't suggest going smaller tho, and I'd ONLY suggest going this small with a nano cube, the nano's have built in filtration so you don't have to worry about sumps and skimmers and all that "fun" stuff. LOL
I'm not an expert but with any livestock you have to be very careful about what other fish, corals, etc you have in the tank because they can quickly become food. We had a pair of clown fish. One swam too close to a coral we have that has tentacles and it was stung and killed.
There's a site called jelliquarium,
http://www.jelliquarium.com/default.aspx that specializes in these animals. You'll see on that site that tanks do not have to be round.
You definitely have to be careful with your livestock and pairing. It's best to do a lot of research before buying anything new, or to find a store with knowledgeable employees who will remember what you have and say "don't get that, it will hurt xxxxx". That's what we are lucky enough to have, a guy who knows a lot and remembers almost everything we have in our tank, if he can't remember he will say "don't put this with xxxx or xxx will happen".
We have a 75 gallon reef tank, we have the 3 fish mentioned previous (2 Clowns and 1 Purple Tang), we have loads of corals!! Our tank is gorgeous, full and pretty easy to take care of. Yes, you have to watch the water parameters and yes, you have to feed the fish and corals regularly, but we are able to leave town for a week and not worry too much about what we have. But our tank has been set up for years so it's important to remember that. It's easier to care for because we don't have to test it daily anymore, it can self regulate to a point. We do water changes/cleanings once a month and we test the water parameters weekly. We really love our tank, it's a source of joy and it's so beautiful!!
If you do go with saltwater make sure the tank you get is pre-drilled because it has to have plumbing underneath for the sump and skimmer....read up on it, it's not as easy as 1-2-3.
FTR, we also had a freshwater planted tank, the freshwater planted tank was 100% easier than the saltwater tank.
PS if you have more questions feel free to post them here or PM me, PMing is easier as I don't get onto the Community Board all the time.
