types of saltwater aquariums

[davidfish]

ok so I've been reading up on how to set up my sw tank. (pumps lighting salt levels ect.) but i still haven't found anything that touches on what goes inside. I have found a little about marine sand and live rock. I have the sand and plan to get live rock this weekend. I plan to focus on fish primarily until i get my feet wet. What else goes in tanks for both asthetics and function? I have a bare 100gal tank with 5 damsels and sand... any sugestions will be appreciated.

[Carl]

There is no one correct method here (you will find many who swear by their method as the only correct way)

There are certainly many useful generalizations, such as 1-2 lbs of "Seasoned" live Rock per gallon of aquarium water (this is not a hard rule as the amount of live sand, the type of filtration, the bio load, and the tank footprint can vary this)

With live sand I generally use about 3-4 inches with a 1/2 inch layer of #3 crushed coral on top for ease of cleaning and better bio filtration.
Also as for "Live Sand", I actually do not recommend what is commonly sold as such as the nitrifying bacteria rarely is alive in this so called live sand (anaerobic de-nitrifying bacteria are often still present though). I prefer to buy oolite size sand and let the bacteria accumulate naturally and only purchase the live rock properly seasoned ("live")

This article has a section on this subject (as well as a link to a page with more information about different filter systems)
Saltwater Aquarium Basics

Carl

[davidfish]

thanks for reply... but what i mean is should i add plastic plants, dead coral, a castle, a skull thats hollow... what stuff goes inside, and please dont say its a matter of preference.

[Chris4Reef]

typically marine tanks should look as natural as possible in my opinion. You could add fake decor with no issues, but typically a saltwater tank is composed of sand, rock, and macroalgaes.

I usually add my live rock with my sand for the cycling process, but if your not going reef you might want to go with base rock. Because if you were to get a parasite break out, which tends to happen to beginners alot, the medication will usually contain materials that will kill the live sand and live rock making it a very expensive miswtake. Base rock generally runs aroiund 1-2 dollars per pound where as live rock will usually go around 5-6 dollars per pound.

However, live rock does do ok but still it does biological filtration as well as provide strucutre. So it is a toss up of what you want.

[Carl]

BC makes some excellent points.

Often I took nice base rock (that is base rock that is primarily calcium carbonate with lots of tiny cracks, pores for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria) and seasoned this myself over 2-3 months. Within 3 months it was as nice the imported live rock.

If you do choose live rock, make sure it is truly seasoned and that the retailer keeps it in a tank ONLY for this purpose (with UV Sterilization too), otherwise as BC pointed out you have some risk of importing disease.

I only used either aged base rock or well seasoned and isolated live rock and never had an imported disease problem with mine or my clients tanks.

So if you are unsure of the retailers methods, simply walk away.

Carl