How to Start a Marine Tank:

Before you start a marine tank, you must first decide what sort of fish you wish to
keep, whether you want the tank to have corals or be a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live
Rock), and how big your tank must be. A good starting point for newbies who have
premium budget is to get a minimum 3 long tank with the idea of keeping fish and
corals. Newbies who have limited budget can get smaller tanks which are between
1 to 2 long, although I do recommend that you only keep nano tanks (tanks below
10G) if you have done enough reading and research, and are confident in your
abilities to keep your livestock healthy and happy.
So heres a list of equipment you need to get to start your saltwater tank:
1. Aquarium
-Make sure the aquarium glass is thicker than the standard 0.5cm or 5mm glass
aquariums offered in your LFS (local fish store). This is because saltwater is denser
than normal water and therefore heavier per square meter. The force exerted by
saltwater is more and this can cause thinner glass to crack and break easily. The
ideal glass thickness would be 1.2cm or 12mm. You can use either clear white glass
(expensive and custom-made) or ordinary green glass (cheaper and ready-made).
-It is highly recommended that you use a sump tank or bottom filter tank for larger
marine aquariums of over 3 feet long. This is to give extra water volume that acts
as buffer for the display tank water volume should anything go wrong, and helps
stabilize the main Display Tank (DT). Sump tanks can also be used to hide
equipment or even act as refugiums for your marine tank.
2. Sand
-Use crushed aragonite sand or fine beach sand from brands like CaribSea etc. Try
to avoid using crushed coral stones because they trap dirt and toxic waste such as
hydrogen sulfide, which can kill your livestock if you make the mistake of disturbing
the stones too much during cleaning.
3. Live Rock/Dead Rock
-Live Rock contains living marine bacteria on its surface and in its walls that helps
your tank cycle. I will explain the concept of cycling later. Live rock is necessary for
all marine tanks. If you do not use any live rock, your livestock will die. The good
bacteria found in the live rock is needed to digest the fish and coral waste (poo) and
turn it into harmless compounds that will not harm your tanks livestock. Without
the good bacteria, the waste will accumulate and become highly toxic, which will kill
everything in your tank.
-Dead rock is like live rock except it does not contain any bacteria. Dead rock needs
to be seeded with good bacteria by introducing a source of ammonia to start the

cycling process, such as throwing in some fish food or putting in a piece of raw
shrimp. The decomposing pieces of food/shrimp will cause good bacteria to grow
and populate the dead rock, making it become live rock.
4. Marine Salt
-You need marine salt (not table salt or kitchen salt!) to make saltwater. There are
many brands of marine salt available on the market such as RedSea,
RedSeaCoralPro, Instant Ocean, H2O, Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and many more.
You can choose any type of sea salt you want although I recommend that you buy
a bucket (tong) rather than small packets since the bucket is cheaper.
5. Hydrometer/Refractometer
-If you have enough money, buy a refractometer. If you dont, just get a cheap
plastic hydrometer until you can afford a refractometer. The purpose of these two
items is to measure the salinity of the saltwater you mixed. Hydrometers are cheap
but highly inaccurate. Refractometers are expensive but very accurate. The ideal
salinity level for a coral-based tank is 1.025. The ideal salinity level for a FOWLR
tank is between 1.023 until 1.025. Try not to stray far from these values or your
livestock will suffer and die.
6. Lighting
-There are three types of lighting for marine tanks: Metal Halides (Expensive,
powerful, gives off a lot of heat, good for keeping premium corals/livestock such as
clams), LEDs (Price depends on brand, Wide spectrum range, good for keeping all
types of coral), and T5HO (Cheapest, Needs servicing 1 year once to replace bulbs,
Power depends on bulbs, suitable for certain coral types). Your budget is what
determines your light choice. Lighting is the most expensive and important piece of
equipment when your keep a marine reef (coral) tank, so buy the best light you can
afford rather than upgrading continuously over the years.
7. Chiller/Fan
-Chillers or fans are needed if you live in the tropics. Corals rarely survive in
temperatures above 28C, or if they do, they look like shit. Some of them might
even melt like butter. So if youre keeping a small tank below 2, you can get away
with a fan, but above 3, Id consider a chiller. The ideal temperature for corals
would be 25C to 26C. For FOWLR tanks, make sure the temperature doesnt
exceed 30C. Fish can tolerate warmer waters, but higher temperatures will damage
their eyes and gills, and eventually kill them as they burn from the inside out.
8. Skimmer*
-If you ask me, a marine tank can run without a skimmer. I went skimmerless since
April 2014 and have never used a skimmer since. But if youre trying out marine for

the first time and using a large tank over 2 long, I recommend you get a skimmer
just in case. Skimmers are used to reduce the amount of phosphate (PO4) and
nitrate (NO3) in a marine tank. A buildup of PO4 and NO3 can cause an algae bloom
to occur in your tank and cause some of your corals to turn an ugly shade of brown.
However, if you have a very large refugium full of macroalgae such as Chaeto and
live rock rubble, you can go skimmerless since the macroalgae functions as a
nutrient export and the live rock rubble helps to stabilize the tank. But this takes a
lot of careful manipulation and timing. You need a LOT of macroalgae and live rock
rubble to pull this off.
-If your tank is smaller than 1, skip out on the skimmer and practice doing some
weekly water changes (WC). The WCs will automatically export your nutrients and
replenish the trace elements in your water. If your tank is bigger than 3 and youre
a newbie, get a skimmer. Make sure the skimmer is able to handle THREE times the
volume of the tank you have. Eg. If you have a 2x1x1 tank which is around 15G,
get a skimmer with a MINIMUM capacity for 45G. The skimmer turnover rate must
be higher, or else its just a useless piece of junk taking up space in your tank.
9. Reactors*
-Calcium and PO4 reactors are usually only recommended for people who intend to
keep SPS corals. For newbies, I dont recommend you touch SPS corals just yet until
youre more familiar on how to run a reef tank. Start out with simple corals first.
10. Filtration Media
-There are many types of filter media that you can use such as ceramic rings (eg.
Biohome), crushed coral stones, ceramic blocks etc. The media is supposed to help
breed a colony of good bacteria in your tank and is supposed to be placed in your
sump tank.
11. Activated Carbon
-Activated Carbon is a MUST in all tanks, just in case something goes wrong.
Activated carbon can quickly neutralize toxic substances by absorbing heavy metals
and chemical molecules. However, activated carbon must be changed bi-weekly or
monthly to be effective.
12. PO4 Remover
-PO4 reducing media such as PhosBan, PhosGuard and RowaPhos are extremely
useful. Make sure you dont overdose this in your tank since stripping the water off
too much PO4 will affect some of your LPS coral that needs slightly dirty water
such as Goniopora and Elegances. Clams also like a bit of PO4 in the water. But
make sure you keep PO4 levels down by at least 0.03ppm or else you will get an
algae breakout.

13. Algae scrubber/Mag Float

-Magnetic floats or algae scrubbers are good tools in scrubbing down your glass and
getting rid of the unsightly algae spots. Occasionally you might see a diatom bloom
in your tank, but thats part of the tank maturing process. Its normal, so dont
worry.
14. Test Kits.
-You will need these test kits: Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate (for cycling), PO4, Calcium,
Magnesium (for keeping corals), dKH (for checking alkanity), pH (for checking pH of
water). A reef tank should generally have 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, <10ppm
Nitrate, <0.03ppm PO4, 450ppm++ to 520ppm Calcium, 1380ppm++ to 1500ppm
Magnesium, 8 to 11 dKH, and 8.1 to 8.4 pH. If the values goes above or lower these
numbers, your tank is screwed. No, Im serious. In a marine tank, if one value
changes, everything shifts and goes out of balance. WCs might help bringing it back
in balance, but its usually a waiting game. Also, in marine systems, if the tank fails,
EVERYTHING DIES AT ONCE. So yes, you will lose a few thousand ringgit (or
less/more depending on how much you spent) in just a minute. All experienced
reefers Ive known have experienced losses (major or minor) one way or another,
myself included. Marine systems are super sensitive. And tank crashes are pretty
bad. I knew a guy who lost 40 fish in his 6 tank due to a power failure. So yes, it
can happen to you or anyone. Dont say I didnt warn you.
15. Wavemaker
-Another important thing a marine tank needs is flow lots of it. To get that flow or
imitate the current we see at the sea, you need a wavemaker. Brands such as
Vortech are good but pricey. Jebao is cheaper but just as good if you ask me they
have different sizes of wavemakers for different tank sizes. Pick one most suited to
your tanks length you might need two or more wavemakers if your tank is long so
that you can get a steady flow of water from both ends of the tank.
So how do you setup your tank?
-Get the cabinet/stand and get your aquarium. Fix the motor pump and piping which
is connected to the sump below. Then put in at least 1 or 2 of sand and place your
LR. Make sure your LR positioning is stable and not going to be knocked over easily
by sea urchins, snails or crabs. You can also epoxy your LR to form a nice scape
which has many caves and arches for the fish to hide and swim in. Once youre
happy with your rockscape, pour in your freshly mixed saltwater and switch on your
pump and wavemaker. You can cycle the tank with the lights on or off. Having the
lights on will promote the growth of purple coralline algae (good algae) or icky green
algae (bad algae). Having the lights off means you wont get any algae growth, and
your rock will still be the same color as before. So then we began to cycle the tank.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: As author of this guide, this is merely my way/perception on

how to start a saltwater tank. Other people might have other viewpoints on how to
run a marine tank, so there will be differences in opinion regardless. Please respect
each other always. Thanks!