Marine Tank Selection                                                                                     

First things first - you need a tank! - There are dozens of different types of configurations available ranging from off the shelf tanks in glass and acrylic to custom made designs. Obviously a custom made tank will be better suited to a marine ecosystem as you can configure it for the exact type of species you wish to keep.  The off the shelf tanks / systems are generally constructed to suit both marine and freshwater needs. An exception to this is the Reef Octopus Bio Life Aquarium this set up appears to be a good basis for a marine aquarium. I will perform a detailed review on the Bio Life aquarium at a later date. For the remainder of this document I will deal with glass aquariums, as these are the most common, usually cheaper and can be modified easily.

Aquarium Size

The size of your aquarium is one of the first decisions you need to make, get it wrong here and you may not be able to keep the fish that you want. The major factors that affect the selection of aquarium size may be summed up as.

1. Aquarium placement
2. Stocking Requirement
3. Budget

Aquarium Placement

It may seem logical that you should select an aquarium based on the location in your house that you want to keep it, but you also need to take into consideration accessibility, weight, location of power and noise.

Access for Maintenance

For the life of the aquarium you will need access to the top, rear and both sides of the tank. you will access the top of the tank on an almost daily basis, while the rear and sides of the tank may only require access at maintenance intervals. Once the tank is full of water it will be near to impossible to move, so consider your chosen location carefully

Aquarium Weight

Aquariums, even small ones, are heavy. Consider a 4 x 2 x 2 aquarium that empty weighs around 100KG now add approximately 450 litres of salt water, at a weight of approx 465kg, throw in live rock, fish, a stand and all your equipment, you will be coming in at around 750kg in total. Place that on a bouncy second story floor board and you are asking for trouble!  Fellow reefers with very large tanks often prop up floor boards with caravan jacks or add piers to the foundations of the house to support the additional weight. If you live in a house with a concrete slab, you have little to worry about.

Location of Power

Aquariums are power hungry, even small aquariums require a lot of power power points for lights, pumps, heaters, chillers, filtration etc. So place your aquarium in close proximity to your power points. You may even consider putting in a new power point on a separate circuit to the rest of the house, all though not essential

Noise

With pumps, protein skimmers, water flow etc all making noise, consider where you are going to place your aquarium. Sounds may also resonate to a wall behind the aquarium if you have thin walls, the most logical place is far away from the sleeping areas against a solid brick wall. If you don't have such a location and are concerned about noise, do not fear! There have been some great advances of late in the reef keeping hobby that reduces noise, in particular water gurgle from Durso and Stockman pipes. I will cover this off in later articles

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