Cons
The decision to start a reef tank is not for everybody. Here are some of the main reasons that people find reef tanks too much to take on:
- The challenge above and beyond keeping saltwater tank
- Tank considerations
- Must keep the water circulating
- Costs more
- More filtering required
- Fish selection limited
Keeping invertebrates happy in a tank sounds hard, doesn't it? Corals and anemones are extremely sensitive to their environment. Many people won't even consider just jumping into keeping a reef tank once they learn of all the intricacies. They prefer instead to start with a freshwater tank, then maybe a saltwater tank, and then begin tinkering with keeping a reef tank.
Tank size is another serious consideration. Keeping a reef tank means you can't go small with the aquarium size. The tank shouldn't be too narrow and it needs to be big. Most experts suggest that you should never start with anything smaller than 40 gallons (we're leaving pico and nano tanks out of the picture for the purposes of this article). While the 55 gallon size tank works well for a saltwater tank, you'll want to consider the 70 gallon tank over it for a reef tank since the 70 gallon tank is 18 inches deep whereas the 55 gallon tank is only 13 inches deep (a little shallow from front to back to house a reef). Keep in mind also that with corals, the more brilliant colors comes from strong lighting. The taller your aquarium is, the stronger your lighting will have to be to adequately light the coral.
Let's look at the impact that overcrowding can have on corals. Corals can't be too close to each other or they'll fight for space and food (corals release chemicals and use nematocysts to duke it out with each other). Once corals are stressed out, they'll become susceptible to various diseases. Just like the black plague of the 14th century, disease can wipe out your entire coral population in just days.
One big difference between reef tanks and saltwater tanks without invertebrates is that you must keep the water circulating in an invertebrate tank. Reef tanks require sump pumps to simulate that ocean motion. Otherwise, your corals, anemones and other inverts will all starve to death in a pool of stale water. The water in a reef tank has to be in constant motion to help simulate a real reef out in the wild. While inverts do move, they don't move enough to go out and stalk their prey. Most of them require a lot of help with the currents in the water out in the ocean. You'll need to mimic that action for them at home.
Compare freshwater fish to saltwater fish to keeping a reef tank. Which do you think is the most expensive? By now you've probably guessed it correctly. Keeping a reef tank can be much more expensive. Just about everything costs more. Your tank will cost more, your supplies will cost more (now you've got to worry about salinity plus different foods for your inverts), and you've also got to include your sump equipment. Besides that, corals and other invertebrates are usually more expensive than fish. Even if you can get them at reasonable prices, because they are so much more difficult raising than just freshwater fish or saltwater fish, you'll find that in some cases, until you get your system just right, you'll be keeping a pretty transient population in your reef tank! Some experts estimate that the increase in electrical power requirements can raise your power bill from $10 to $70 more a month!
With reef tanks, you'll find that Protein Skimming needs to be added to your filtering system. Protein skimmers work by collecting organic pollutants before they break down. They catch the organic pollutants by skimming the foam air bubbles that come out of air pumps after they break to the water surface. Protein skimmers usually range between $100 and $500 but really, you'll need to consider how big your tank is before you pick one. The other thing about protein skimmers is that you constantly have to fiddle with their settings to make sure they're working optimally. Another consideration is that you'll need more aeration than you'd find in a freshwater tank. That's because saltwater holds less oxygen than freshwater of the same volume.
Corals and other invertebrates in your tank can limit your selection of fish, as some marine fish will eat or otherwise damage those corals. In general, larger, more aggressive fish (which are often quite pretty) are inappropriate for reef tanks that are more dense with rock and have tasty coral for them to eat. Here is a short list of fish that have been successfully kept in reef tanks (deemed "reef-safe"): Watch out, though, most of these fish are EXTREMELY territorial.
- Damselfish - these will be the last fish you'll want to introduce to your tank or you'll have a very hard time getting other fish into the tank once these guys set up shop.
- Clownfish - keep just a pair per species for the best harmony in your tank.
- Blennies - work well in a reef tank and you don't have to worry about them eating other fish as much as you would with some of the other reef fish
Online Sites related to Reefs
Reef Central is a great online source for more information on reef tanks
CaptiveReefing - is a great online forum for those interested in reef aquariums.
Doctors Foster and Smith - sell saltwater fish, live rock, invertebrates, and plants as well as aquarium supplies.
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