First fish tank - and it is saltwater

So growing up I had a beta or two and gold fish or two but never any fish that required anything more than a bowl. Well, my 3 year old has already been through 2 betas in the last year, I killed one by accident (didn't add the water conditioner) and the second one just died mysteriously. Anyway, my 3 year old has been wanting another fish and the wife wanted to get a bigger tank with multiple fish, we decided on a saltwater because of the "Nemo fish" factor. I also was sold on saltwater when I saw the maroon clownfish .

So we bought the Aqueon deluxe 20gallon kit and set it up, or my wife did, she worked at Petsmart for about 7 years and knows a lot about this stuff. But since setting it up the water pump filter has stopped working twice. It seems like the motor is getting clogged up with the crushed coral substrate that is bubbling up every so often from the air trapped in the bottom.

Is there a better water filter pump for this or would this just be a problem with them all?

oh and no fish yet, still waiting for the tank to "cycle", so says the wife.

any tips, or advice with works and does not?

First of all let me quantify what I am about to say,by saying that I have successfully kept 3 salt water reef tanks and several fish only salt tanks. STOP what your doing and go find some books or websites that deal with salt water tanks. Most saltwater fish need more than 20 gallons so you can forget the maroon clown unless you get a bigger tank. A pair of percula clowns would work, but your not going to get much more as far as fish in that size tank. You should get some chunks of " live rock' , with that and water changes you will need no outside filter, just some power heads for water movement. You did not say what is cycling your tank now, but live rock will cycle it. Salt water is way more involved than fresh. Find a web site with a board like this. ( im me for recommendation) and ask questions. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to help.

Everything said above is good, I have a 90g reef, and 40g FOWLR for salt setups. Petco has the $1 a gallon sale running untill the 21st I think, I'd suggest getting one the 40g tanks.

First: Use purified water to mix with your salt - RO/DI.

Second: Water changes are your friend. The easiest way to correct any imbalance in the tank is to do water changes with a good salt mix. Do them often.

Third: Live rock is your friend. It is your best filtration, and as such, you can't have too much For a 20 gallon tank, get a minimum of 20 pounds, and 30-40 isn't necessarily out of the question. Ditch the bottom-filter and buy lots of live rock.

Fourth: Because of the higher pH, ammonia is much more deadly in saltwater than freshwater.

Fifth: Saltwater has a lower oxygen saturation. You want a good amount of water movement, especially at the surface, to keep it oxygenated.

Sixth: Read, read, read, and have PATIENCE.

Seventh: Say goodbye to your money.

This mostly.

Are you kidding me?

I'd say I'm an advanced aquarium hobbyist and I still have yet to jump into the saltwater game.

HUGE no-no for a first timer. Plus you only bought a 20 gallon tank???? You do understand that one of the only ways to make saltwater tanks manageable is by having a very large tank 100+ gallons to prevent massive swings in water quality, etc.

Nano tanks are for those even more advanced. I'd say what your doing is cruel and any one who says else doesn't know what they are talking about.

My advice:
Get a bigger tank. I would suggest at least a 40 gallon.
Visit some reef or salt water forums. There are site out there just like this one, but for fish tanks. You can read for days and still not be through half of it.
All in one set ups typically fall short on performance.
Maroon clowns get big, and they get mean. If you are stuck with a 20 look at , gobies, and other small fish.Think that the biggest fish you would want in there is 2 inches.
Live rock will get you going faster, but even if you add it you will still need to cycle it.
All equipment is over rated for the size of the aquarium.
Don't go cheap on equipment- buy once cry once.

I have kept a reef for the last 10 years, and it is hard on the pocket book. I figure the tanks runs me about $100 in electricity alone. It is 230 gallon.

+1

stick to damsels and clowns as they are pretty bullet proof in my experience. The prettier it is the harder it seems to be to keep alive

Then get rid of the damsels before you buy anything more experience. They're aggressive, mean, territorial little buggers. And don't buy just two... one will be harassed constantly. You need enough that they spread out all of their bickering among themselves.

I would love to see pics of your setup!

Ex husband had a bunch of buddies, all chemists, biologists and such who each had saltwater tanks in their homes. One by one, they'd get transferred to other cities permanently for work. One guy attempted to move his tank and it cracked. He literally called the others and told them to get their asses to his house ASAP with all the buckets they had to capture the fish and rock. Eventually so many people were transferred that the few guys left in town had MASSIVE saltwater tanks made up of a collection of fish from other people's homes.

Here is a pic pf my last reef. It was 56 gallon. I really miss it.

thanks for all of the replies guys.

we have live rock to cycle and the wife got some damsels (five of them, since they apparently are a community or school fish), she said that they are pretty hardy and will help cycle the tank better/faster... or I think she said that...

the plan is to add one maybe two clown fish later and then when we can, get a larger tank and go from there.

but I have looked and see that the maroon clown fish do get larger and need a larger tank so that is out for now.

I will try for a picture tomorrow during the day when lighting is a bit better, crappy cell phone pics are even crappier in low light.

5 damsels in a 20 is quite a bit, damsels also tend to be territorial and aggressive, they do get sold as good fish for doing a cycle with fish which they are but then after having the tank to themselves they tend to think of it all as their territory and are aggressive towards any new fish added later.

these fish are pretty small, the largest of them is maybe an inch long... maybe.

I will have to keep an eye on them when it comes time for the new fish to be added.

I would bet that you'll lose half of them. Way too many fish.

You didn't say which type of damsel but Chrysiptera Cyanea is the most commonly sold type usually max's out at 2" its not a schooling fish though young ones may hang out together but they become territorial with their own kind when they mature, most other damsel types get to 3"-4" with a couple species upto 6"

Heres some fish that will work in a 20g I still wouldn't go more then 3 of them and then some invert's in a 20g

Chrysiptera Cyanea <–––– yes those.

fish are doing fine so far.

I gotta say that the stands for the tanks are the most expensive part I see, and that is just ridiculous IMHO.

Petco's metal manhattan stand is pretty decent for a metal stand usually $50 or less for tanks upto 29g. Other then a couple manafactuered stands I got with tank purchases on craigslist I build my own. Spent around $60-70 on my last build for 40g, and I splurged on cabinet grade plywood. Also kept a 29g on a tv stand for awhile that use to hold my old heavy sony trinitron crt tv, might be able to score a stand like that from the free section on craigslist.

I love love LOVE saltwater tanks. So much more colorful and cool than freshwater. If it weren't so cost prohibitive, I'd love to have one. Alas, I'm stuck with freshwater instead.

Sounds like most of what needs to be said, has been said.
I'm currently out of the hobby for now.
I'm not going to say 20 gallons is too small. There's plenty of reefers in the nano world doing very well with their setups.

I can't say I would have started with Damsels. I don't care what kind they are, they aren't good starter/cycle fish. You could have thrown a dead shrimp in the tank and it will cycle just fine.
External filtrations work very well. I'm talking sump setups.

Like others have mentioned, start reading.

Reef Central is a great online community.

My passion was SPS "stonies" and I had over 40 different kinds in my tank. I started with a 50 gallon. Moved to a 90g. Jumped to a custom 300g. Don't even ask me how much the power bill was.

so bad news, one of my kids unplugged the heater to the tank and we lost 4 of the 5 fish due to the temp change, it was in the mid 60's when we found them dead. But one survived, tough little bugger.

I greatly appreciate the information you guys have provided. I am learning more about this every day, lots of neat stuff that I would not have cared to learn before my interest in this saltwater tank experience.

I was thinking of doing like one of you mentioned with building a stand for a larger tank. I was thinking that we will be upgrading to a 55 gallon before too long.

Petco is the only place that sells saltwater fish locally anymore, we went by all of the other places that carried saltwater fish and all but Petco quit carrying saltwater fish because they were not selling. But I was able to make a good contact with the woman that is in charge of the Petco fish dept. She set aside the new fish coming in and did not add them to the tanks until after I had my pick, so it was one less tank for them to adapt to. She said it would be less stress on them and they would do better that way.

So we added some domino damsels, a blue damsel and a convict damsel.... oh and three snails and three hermit crabs. larger tank is on the way.

crappy cell phone pics to follow.







I noticed that one of the hermit crabs has a barnacle on his shell... should I get that one out to prevent the spread of barnacles in my tank? or is it harmless? I will be researching this question next but thought I would ask the hive mind here.

I wouldn't worry about the barnacle, they're not harmful, it'll likely die on its own they're filter feeders and unlikely to last in a new tank.

does anyone know what this is, I was moving some live rock around in my tank and found probably a dozen or so of these under the rocks. my wife says they sting, so are they poisionous? is there a natural predator for them?


the longest one I found was about 3 inches long but was not any fatter than the shorter ones.

They are a vital part of your tank, as they will help clean up waste material.

The only time they are bad is when you reach under a rock and pick it up, and manage to get one between your fingers and the rock. It's like a hundred fiberglass slivers at once.

After you've had a year or so to really let them breed, turn a dim light on at night, and put some food in the tank... and watch the tank come alive with them. It will creep your wife out majorly.

Yep bristleworms. Some can get pretty big. As long as you dont have any fire bristleworms leave them be.

There is a chance the hermit crabs might Kill your snails. Watch them carefully.... I would hate for you to get a spike from pieces of dead snail floating around.... With the small tank and all.

Dwarf hermits as long as they're fed and have extra shells to move into will usually leave things alone. Some of the non dwarf species can be a different story.

My local fish store had a cool giant hermit last time i was there he had like 10-12" shell.

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