Brand New to this and NEED help and suggestions!!!

[gosupaintballe]

Ok, i'm brand new to this whole salt water aquarium thing. I have been reading some stuff on this site and went and bought the book "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert M. Fenner and have been reading a lot in it. The salt water aquariums look soo cool and seem to be very intresting to me. But what i'm wanting to know is how hard and how often is the maintance on these things? And how hard is it to keep stuff alive? What i have in mind of doing is a 90 gallon with live rock and wanting to do the more aggresive predatory fish, like a Lion and a few others. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Also, is live sand something that would greatly help or would i be fine with just the crushed rock coral stuff? And and all suggestions are greatly appreciated, like i said i am brand new to this and know NOTHING. Thanks in advance

 

[kevin34]

Welcome to the message boards and the salwater fish hobby! First of all if you have the right equipment and make sure your water parameters are always normal by doing weekly water tests your aquarium will be easy to maintain. Live sand is great for any aquarium. The problem with crushed coral is that it needs to be vacuumed and this causes ammonia and nitate spikes in the water. Live sand should never be cleaned or disturbed. Get a clean up crew (hermits, snails, shrimp etc.) to clean the sand for you.

 

[gosupaintballe]

thanks, but will the agressive fish eat my clean-up crew ? I read where like Lion fish eat anything smaller then themselves? Also, another thing i'm wondering, i'm not so sure about sticking my hand down into the tank for whatever purposes with a Lionfish in there. How often are people having to put there hands down in their aquariums to do stuff?

 

[geridoc]

A well-maintained fowlr tank will require weekly 10% water changes, top off to make up for evaporation daily, and periodic testing just to be sure that the above maintenance steps are working. If you are going with aggressive, the clean up crew consists of two things - your left and right hands.

All other clean up crews in aggressive tanks are known as lunch. As for the substrate for your tank, in a fish only tank it isn't critical, except that crushed coral will require additional maintenance. Many fo tanks have just a thin layer of decorative sand, leaving the heavy duty filtering to rock and/or trickle filter. Don't worry too much about the lionfish - you just have to be careful, wear heavy neoprene gloves (that's what I do, but I am obsessive about this) and always watch where the lion fish is. By the way, for a 90 gal tank don't go the route of a volitans lion - it becomes too large. Discuss you fish choices with the great folks on this site, and they will help you to select suitable aggressive fish that you will enjoy.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by GosuPaintballe
thanks, but will the agressive fish eat my clean-up crew ? I read where like Lion fish eat anything smaller then themselves? Also, another thing i'm wondering, i'm not so sure about sticking my hand down into the tank for whatever purposes with a Lionfish in there. How often are people having to put there hands down in their aquariums to do stuff?
Lions will eat anything that can fit into their very large mouths. Lions will not go after you. Just keep an eye on where they are in the tank. If you want a large lion, you might want to think about an eel, a puffer, other aggressive fish. Take a look in the aggressive fish forum for some ideas. Stay away from crabs, shrimp, ect. They will be eaten in an aggressive tank. Welcome to the boards!!!! Ask all questions that you can think of!!!! Aggressive tanks can be very cool. Again, go to the aggressive board and look around for ideas

 

[gosupaintballe]

thanks for the advice! Any more advice on what kinds of aggressive fish for a 90 gallon would be good choices ? I really like how the lionfish look though, but if that's something that just wont work, i'll try to stay away from that. thanks guys, keep the advice coming!

 

[geridoc]

We are not saying "no lion", just "no volitans". There are smaller lions that will be ok in a 90 gallon tank.
Some of them are a little more difficult to keep than a volitans. This is a discussion you should open up in the aggressive fish forum.

 

[iampumpkinman]

Are you going with a 90g long, or tall?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by GosuPaintballe
thanks for the advice! Any more advice on what kinds of aggressive fish for a 90 gallon would be good choices ? I really like how the lionfish look though, but if that's something that just wont work, i'll try to stay away from that. thanks guys, keep the advice coming!
You can have any kind of lion you want in a 90! Please go check out the aggressive boards. They often post pics over there and they will be more encouraging as to what you can add. P.S. I love the lions as well!!! :jumping:

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by GeriDoc
We are not saying "no lion", just "no volitans". There are smaller lions that will be ok in a 90 gallon tank.
Some of them are a little more difficult to keep than a volitans. This is a discussion you should open up in the aggressive fish forum.
What exactly is wrong with a volitan in a 90?

 

[geridoc]

I have to disagree with sepulation about having any kind of lionfish in a 90. A adult volitans will be 15 inches long, and it doesn't take very long for it to get that large. It isn't only large, it is a sloppy eater and a mess to have in a tank. A relatively small tank like a 90 won't allow the fish to turn around, and the filtration system will be under constant overstress. Look at the dwarf lions - fascinating, and considerably smaller.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by GeriDoc
I have to disagree with sepulation about having any kind of lionfish in a 90. A adult volitans will be 15 inches long, and it doesn't take very long for it to get that large. It isn't only large, it is a sloppy eater and a mess to have in a tank. A relatively small tank like a 90 won't allow the fish to turn around, and the filtration system will be under constant overstress. Look at the dwarf lions - fascinating, and considerably smaller.
I have to disagree with you GeriDoc a volitan will be perfectly fine in a 90 and I do agree that they are sloppy eaters and do require more filtration.

 

[gosupaintballe]

Are you going with a 90g long, or tall?
More then likely will be a 90 tall
Thanks for the advice so far guys, i'll ask in the aggressive fish forums about lions and a 90.
Also, is live sand a good choice with aggressive fish or crushed coral rock better ?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by GosuPaintballe
More then likely will be a 90 tall
Thanks for the advice so far guys, i'll ask in the aggressive fish forums about lions and a 90.
Also, is live sand a good choice with aggressive fish or crushed coral rock better ?
LS is much better. Go check out the aggressive forums.

 

[gosupaintballe]

Ok another question, What kind of filtration and skimmer should i get to run my tank? And this is gonna sound dumb, but i was told in the aggressive forums by someone to run a sump with a good skimmer, but what exactly is a sump filtration? ? ?

 

[kevin34]

Originally Posted by GosuPaintballe
More then likely will be a 90 tall
Thanks for the advice so far guys, i'll ask in the aggressive fish forums about lions and a 90.
Also, is live sand a good choice with aggressive fish or crushed coral rock better ?
I have read that long tanks are a lot better than tall tanks. This is because in the wild fish swim pretty much straight forward all the time, not up and down. So with a long tank they can have more room to swim. As far as a sump goes they are like a tank underneath your display tank that hold all of your filters, heaters, and skimmers. The water flows from your display tank down to your sump through overflow boxes, gets "treated" by the equipment down there, and then flows back up into the tank. It may sound complicated but it really isnt. Look up sumps in the epuipment and lighting section on these boards to get a better description.

 

[gosupaintballe]

thanks for all the info so far. I think i'm gonna have to do a 90 tall instead of a 90 long because of the area in my house i'm having to work with a 90 long will not fit.

 

[kevin34]

Since you're going with the tall tank, I would make your stocklist smaller then so the fish have more room.

 

[gosupaintballe]

Alright cool, any suggestions you or anyone else could give me for a stock list would be great! I for sure want a lionfish and would like a clown trigger if those are compatible? What else would i have room for ?

 

[geridoc]

I hate to be the wet blanket in this thread, but you are being overly optimistic about what will fit into a 90 gallon tank. If we assume that the commonly quoted bioload of 1 inch of fish for every 5 gallons of water is correct, then a 90 gallon tank should house no more than 18 inches of fish. The size quoted is always the final adult size, not the size at purchase. So... a lionfish at 15 inches and a clown trigger at around 20 inches, you are already overloaded. There is also an incompatibility issue here - triggers commony pick on lionfish fins, and may leave the fish without any rays or fins.