Starting first Saltwater Tank

[LindsayBlum]

Hello,

My name is Lindsay and I'm thinking about starting a saltwater aquarium at my office. I have been in the aquarium hobby for over a decade, but I only have experience with freshwater.

I'm writing to get advice on a certain product. Does anyone own aMarineland Instant Ocean Saltwater Aquarium Kit? The one I'm looking at the 12 gallon acrylic system. I guess I'm just looking to see if anyone has had any good/negative experiences with this set up. It seems to come with everything you need except substrate, and people have noted that the lighting conditions and water flow do not support corals. (But that's ok for me).

By the way, thanks for the plentitude of good articles. If this seems like a good way to start a marine tank, I'm gonna go out and buy it!!

TIA,

Lindsay

 

[cmor1701d]

It's ok for QT (quarantine) tank but not much else. It is cheaply made (IMO) and somewhat flimsy. The light went out in mine twice (under warranty) and they shipped me a new hood each time. It's broken again so I don'tr even use this for QT anymore. I've heard better opinions of the Nano Cube

 

[LindsayBlum]

Wow, that's too bad. Thanks for the link. I'll check out the nano cubes!

 

[pat8you]

I've got the nano cube he linked you to and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Had the tank running for a couple month now with no problem. If you want to do coral just make sure you buy one with appropriate lighting for the corals you want since you can't really upgrade the lights down the road the way you can on a normal tank.

 

[mr86mister]

Oceanic BioCubes are also very nice. I have a 14G and things have been going great. Your initial cost will most likely be more than you bargained for but it's worth it in the end.

 

[Innovator]

Or you can piece-mail it yourself:

20g
HOB filter (I like Aquaclear 110)
Lighting (Aqualight: 2x65w or T5's)
LR
Sand

 

[Ziggy953]

I tend to agree with Innovator on this. If you piece it together yourself you will have more options for lighting and other equipment plus you could probably save a lot of money.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Normally, I'd agree with Ziggy about piecing together a unit. You usually get better quality being able to pick and choose your equipment. But if you're getting this for an office environment, those all-in-one self-contained biocubes would be pretty nice. Everything in one compact and neat package and no worry about dealing with hang-on back equipment.

 

[Ziggy953]

After I posted that I was going to go back and edit to say pretty much the same thing you just said Kurt. The all-in-ones do have a nice clean look especially for an office.

It all boils down to personal likes and dislikes. If I was putting a small tank in an office I would buy the Oceanic Biocube.