Things You'll Need:
- Glass tank, 10 to 75 gallons
- External wet/dry filter with skimmer
- Live or washed sand
- Rocks
- Sea Salt
- Hydrometer
- Live plants
- Fish
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Step 1
Start with a salt water tank with a simple setup that has a few live plants, sand and rocks. Salt water tanks with corals, live rock and other invertebrates require high-intensity lighting and lots of maintenance.
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Step 2
Decide what size tank you want to start with. If it’s your first tank, start small, with a 10-gallon or 20-gallon tank and a few small fish. If you’re ready for a larger tank choose a 40 to 75-gallon tank which is the minimum size for some larger fish species. Buy a hood with fluorescent lights.
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Step 3
Rinse out your tank with a mixture of salt and baking soda, scrubbing with a clean soft rag. If you live near a shoreline, you can use ‘live sand’ by collecting it from near the surf zone. Select sand that’s less than about 2 mm diameter, and collect it in buckets with some seawater.
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Step 4
Find sand from another source if you don’t live near the shore. Buy sand and rocks from an aquarium supply store if you can’t find suitable natural items. Wash your sand thoroughly if it’s from a natural source, using a hose and colander or sieve to rinse out clay, silt and fine organics. Wash dirt and algae off rocks and let materials dry before using them.
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Step 5
Place at least a 2-inch depth of washed sand into the aquarium. The coarse sand matrix will become a biologically active substrate that will help keep your water crystal clear. Slope the sand substrate from back to front of the aquarium and from the sides toward the middle to make it easier to scoop out debris and create some perspective.
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Step 6
Put a plate or saucer in one end of the tank to prevent eroding the sand when you fill the tank. Add water to the tank with buckets of filtered or aged water, or with tap water and chlorine-removing solution. Fill by pouring water onto the plate until the water is about three inches from the top.
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Step 7
Add sea salt from packages following directions, or use sea salt from the supermarket and dissolve and mix, monitoring salinity with a hydrometer until you reach about 35 parts per thousand salinity. Place rocks, plants and any other tank elements by hand.
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Step 8
Assemble an external filter with a skimmer wheel and preferably two filter slots. Fill the tank to about ½-inch from the top and start the filter. Let the filter system run for at least a week or two to let the tank and filter develop a bacterial filtering substrate. The water may cloud up once or twice during this process. Wait until the water is crystal clear for a few days before introducing fish.
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Step 9
Start with a few small, hardy fish to introduce the main biological nitrogen cycle to your tank. Let the complete system with fish acclimate for about 30 days before introducing any more exotic fish.
