As a beginner, which one would you buy? A 20 gallon. Rimless all in one tank,
a 40 gallon breeder with hob filter or a 65
gallon internal overflow with some and composite stand.
If you're curious, stick around, we'll talk about it.
Welcome to week three in the beginner,
how to guide to saltwater aquariums and reef tanks.
My name is Matthew from my first fish tank in collaboration with Marine Depot.
If you Ms. Weeks, one and two,
I'll put a link up here and in the description below,
and don't forget to check out the all-new week three blog that max wrote,
just go to my first fish tank.com forward slash start dash year start dash year
to check it out. Today's video week three,
we're talking about tanks and stands that we're hoping to answer the question.
What tank should I buy? Check out Marine depots, huge selection.
I'll put a link directly to their tanks and standards
Or beginner. And you're wondering what aquarium should I buy?
You start doing your research and you start to feel a little bit overwhelmed.
Well,
we're going to talk about eight things to consider before buying your first
tank.
First thing to consider is where are you going to put it? Where do you live?
Do you live in a house, a condo, a dorm room, an apartment.
Can you put a tank of any size or are there apartment or condo rules that are
going to limit the size of tank you can get?
Is your floor strong enough to support the massive weight?
If you're going to get a small tank 20 gallons or under it probably doesn't
really matter, but if you're going to end up with a tank a hundred, 200 gallons,
just think about this one gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
That means that if you put in 120 gallon tank,
you're going to have a half a ton, no joke, a half a ton of water,
weight alone. And if you're in an old house, maybe an old craftsmen,
if you're on the top level of an apartment,
you need to consider whether or not the floor can hold that weight noise.
Even the most silent of aquariums make some noise.
I was actually in bed with my wife about a week ago, and she was like,
do you hear that buzzing? And honestly,
I couldn't hear it because I'm surrounded by buzzing tanks all day
long. So to me, it's just white noise. But if you are sensitive to noise,
you want to think about where are you going to put it and putting it in your
bedroom might not be the best option.
I also wouldn't place a tank right next to your air conditioning or heating
vents, mini split system,
a fireplace or some sort of floorboard heater because of the constant
change in temperature could have a really detrimental effect on your livestock.
Do you have outlets nearby? And not only that,
do you have enough amperage to run your tank?
I don't know anything about electricity,
but I do know this when the Oven's running,
when the microwave is running and I start to run the vacuum cleaner,
the breaker pops every single time.
So you just want to make sure that there is enough electricity that can be
delivered to the outlets that you're going to be plugging in your equipment to.
If you're getting a small tank 20 to 40 gallons is probably not going to be a
big deal, but if you're going for a larger tank,
it's definitely something to consider and consult with an electrician.
If you need to.
And the last thing to consider about where to place your aquarium is access.
You're going to be doing maintenance on this every week and probably the biggest
pain is water changes.
So if you can placing this next to a sink or next to a utility room is
going to give you easier access to perform.
The weekly maintenance that you're going to have to do
consideration. Number two.
When deciding on the question, what tanks should you buy glass or acrylic?
Let's talk about glass. First.
Most commercially available tanks are made of glass.
Check out these tanks at Marine Depot.
I think all of these are glass tanks with the exception of
these few acrylic tanks,
but these aren't specifically designed for saltwater tanks.
Every saltwater option at Marine Depot is a glass tank.
I would also venture to say that the vast majority 95% or more of
saltwater aquarium hobbyists use a glass tank.
There are some out there that use acrylic tanks,
but those people usually have those tanks custom made for them.
Glass tank thickness is actually pretty thin and you usually find them from a
quarter inch to one inch being a really, really thick glass tank.
If you do go with an acrylic tank,
they can often be quite a bit thicker when researching tanks,
you're going to run across two terms, Starfire and low iron glass.
Starfire glass is low iron glass,
but it's a brand name and probably the most widely recognizable brand of low
iron glass. Check out this picture. Standard glass has a high iron content,
which gives it this green issue.
What low iron glass does is it takes out a lot of that iron,
which takes away that green hue and just makes the glass a lot more clear.
Let's talk pros and cons of a glass aquarium.
The pros of a glass aquarium is it's relatively inexpensive.
It's readily available and it's pretty scratch resistant.
What are the cons glass is really heavy. Glass is a poor insulator.
And if you do get a scratch in glass, you can't remove it.
The pros and cons of acrylic acrylic is very lightweight. It's ultra clear,
more clear than glass,
and it can be custom made in a whole bunch of different shapes.
What are the cons of acrylic? Well, first of all,
you can't really find it anywhere. It scratches really easy.
So while you can remove a scratch, it's going to scratch a lot easier.
And thirdly, because you usually have to have something custom made for you,
it's going to be more expensive than a glass tank. Let's just be honest here.
The vast majority beginners 95% plus are just going to purchase a glass
tank because it's what's readily available and affordable.
All the build list that we're going to talk about in future videos are going to
be glass tanks.
But if you have a specific reason and you have your heart set on an acrylic
tank, then just go for it, do your research.
And you'll probably have to have something custom.
The made for you.
The first thing to consider when deciding about what aquarium to buy is where
the filtration happens.
Let me just start by saying that you don't have to have really fancy filtration
to find success. Look at these two tanks back here, right?
Both these tanks have some reactors, protein, skimmers refute.
Refugiums very, very fancy level of filtration and they do well.
But this tank right here is a 24 gallon reef tank.
It is stocked with corals and fish.
It has a filtration chamber in the back, not a sump.
And guess what I have for filtration? Okay. Guess what I have?
Yeah.
A single sponge, no joke. This is the entirety of the filtration.
All I'm saying is when you're thinking about what type of aquarium you can buy,
you don't have to go fancy,
but let's talk about the different options of where filtration is low.
Hayden, various tanks.
The first up is a hang on.
Back filter. This is what you would use.
If you just went to PetSmart or Petco and purchased a glass aquarium,
how are you going to filter your water? Will you buy a hang on the back filter,
which hangs on the side or the back,
and it sucks water up and it runs it through a chamber before returning it.
There's some obvious pros of a hanger on the back filter. Number one,
it's really inexpensive because you can just use this on an inexpensive tank.
It's also relatively idiot proof because it's small.
So you can really only run it through some sort of sponge filter and maybe a
couple of things of media. And that's it. The cons of a hang on the bag filter.
Well, number one, it's unsightly.
You have to stare at it as it hangs off the side of your aquarium. Secondly,
it pulls water from underneath the water line, which means over time,
you might have proteins buildup on the surface that you'll have to remove
manually. And lastly, a hang on the back filter is small.
So you're limited in your filter.
The second time of filtration.
As a canister filter, you almost never see these in the saltwater hobby side,
but a canister filter is just a contained canister that uses a pump to suck
water out of the tank,
run it through various stages of filtration inside the canister,
and then returns it into the tank. Honestly,
the only people I've ever seen use these in a saltwater aquarium were former
freshwater aquarium. People who had the canister filter,
lying around the pros of a canister filter.
It offers more filtration potential than hang on the back filter.
It's more affordable than going with a large sump.
It can be hidden and you can fit it into small places.
And it's less obtrusive looking than a hang on the back, filter the cons.
It's more expensive than a hanger on the back filter.
It's often not as powerful as a large hang on the back, filter.
It doesn't do a surface skim.
So over time you may have to clean proteins off the surface of the water.
And you're extremely limited as to filtration options because you can
only use equipment that fits inside the canister itself.
And since we don't use this in the saltwater hobby,
you're not going to find a lot of other pieces of equipment or even advanced.
On how to best use it.
The third type of filter.
[Inaudible] is an all in one system, which is a misnomer.
It really just means a rear filtration chamber.
Just imagine having a big glass aquarium,
putting in a baffled in the back and then hiding your filtration in the back of
that aquarium. That's all we're talking about here.
The pros of a rear filtration chamber.
First off it hides the filtration behind the display tank or rear
filtration chamber can often house other pieces of filter media,
such as protein, skimmers, and media reactors. And lastly,
you can hide all of your equipment,
your heaters and your pumps in the rear filtration chamber. So your taking.
Looks nice.
And the fourth type.
Filtration option is a sump. Assump is just a second aquarium,
basically that is housed directly underneath your display tank.
And it is where you put all of your filtration gear, the pros of Assam.
First off, it gives your tank and overall greater water volume.
It gives you a whole bunch of more filtration options and it hides all of
your ugly gear. What are the cons of assump? There's really just two, one.
It's a lot more expensive to have a sump. And two, it gives beginners,
I think too many options and it over-complicates things for them.
We're going to spend several future videos talking all about filtration,
but just understand this right now. When you're trying to answer the question,
what tank should you buy?
The tank you buy now is likely going to dictate where the filtration
happens, how much filtration you can do and what pieces of filtration.
Then you would use
the fourth consideration.
Deciding what aquarium you should buy is budget.
There are upfront aquarium costs and their ongoing aquarium costs.
And obviously a larger tank is going to cost more, but how much more?
So let's look at the innovative Marine 20 gallon pro bundle and the innovative
Marine 50 gallon pro bundle and do a cost comparison.
A couple of caveats here. One,
these are very rough estimates and I'm going to be using some nice gear.
So when you see the price tag, please don't panic.
We can do this for a lot less money. And in future videos,
we will show you how you can build tanks exactly like these for a lot less
money. So don't panic. This is just to give you a general idea of that.
The upfront cost difference between the size tanks and the ongoing costs.
Let's start with the upfront costs for the innovative Marine 20 gallon pro
bundle. This system comes with the filtration return pump screen,
top algae scraper. And for three years, a hundred bucks,
it's a really good deal,
but you're going to need to purchase a few more things to make this work.
The five watt heater led lights with mounts for wave maker,
25 pounds of live rock, 20 pounds of sand,
a couple of fish and 20 gallons of saltwater. And when you add all this up,
your total is eight, $813. Okay?
So when you see that price tag of $813, please don't panic. Like we said,
you can do this for probably half that amount.
And we'll talk about how to do that in a later video.
Now let's jump to the upfront costs for the 50 gallon,
innovative Marine pro bundle. Again, it comes with everything. You see the tank,
the filter return pumps, screen top and algae scraper, and it costs $600.
So we're already at $300 for this bill. You will definitely need a stand,
a larger heater, two lights with their mounts, a larger wave maker,
60 pounds of live rock, 50 pounds of sand,
probably a few more fish and 50 gallons of saltwater for us starting
price of $1,947.
That's $1,134 more than the 20
gallon system.
So we just want you to understand that where you may see the price of a tank and
say, Oh, it's only $300 more. That's not the case, right?
Because a larger system requires more of everything. Okay.
And now that you understand the upfront cost differences between smaller and
larger tanks, what are your annual costs?
We're just going to look at two things here.
We're going to look at the costs of doing water changes and the cost of
refilling, evaporated water with our ODI or distilled water.
And we're going to assume that you don't make these at home,
but rather you're going to your local fish store to purchase them.
Let's start with the innovative Marine 20 gallon system.
Let's say you do a 10% water change every week.
That's two gallons a week over 52 weeks, you're looking at 104 gallons,
and it typically costs about a dollar per gallon for saltwater or at your local
fish store. So you're looking at an annual cost of $104.
Now let's say your tank evaporates about three gallons a week.
So you have to replace that with distilled or RDI water,
three gallons a week times 52 weeks is 156 gallons.
And a local fish store will charge somewhere around 50 cents per gallon for RDI
bringing the total to $78,
add both the salt water and the rod for the entire year.
You're looking at $182 a year in ongoing costs for that 20 gallon
innovative Marine system for the 50 gallon innovative tank.
You're looking at five gallons of saltwater each week for a total of $260
annually. And let's say it evaporates seven gallons a week for a total cost of
$182. The grand total being $442.
That's a lot more than the $182 for the 20 gallon
tank. And again,
don't panic because you can make your own salt water and your own RDI water at
home for probably half that price, if not less,
by purchasing your own RDI filter. We're not going to talk about that today,
but trust me, we will talk about that in detail in later videos.
And the last budget consideration is electrical costs.
If you live in an area like I do in Southern California,
I have Southern California Edison. For those of you Southern California people,
you know, this, it's a very, very expensive electrical district.
If you're going with a smaller tank 20 gallons or so you're probably not going
to see a huge increase in your electrical costs.
But if you go with a larger system,
you may notice a difference things such as your pumps,
your heaters, and your lights will consume quite a bit of energy.
So just take that into consideration for your ongoing costs when purchasing your
saltwater ovarian,
I'm sorry, I can't do it. Oh my goodness. I can't do it.
Or you as bored as I am right now. I am so bored of this video.
It's such good information. And for a beginner, I think it's really,
really important and good stuff,
but I am so bored editing this video and I have like 15 more minutes to
go.
So what we're going to do is we're going to cut tanks and stands off and we're
going to put it into part one.
And part two gives me a little bit of a breather and hopefully it will give you
a little bit of a breather. So you don't pull your hair out with boredom.
I'm so sorry. It's boring, but it's just really important information. Okay.
I'm not going to say if you like this video,
but if you found this video helpful consider giving it a thumbs up subscribing
to Marine Depot and to my first fish tank and as always happy refund,
we'll see you next week. Be well, everybody.