Tropical Saltwater Aquarium Buyer's Guide

If you are planning to set up a tropical saltwater aquarium in your home you will do well to learn the things you need to buy from the pet store. At first you must decide what the size of your aquarium is going to be. Tropical saltwater aquariums range from small sized ones that have a twenty gallon capacity to the ones that can hold up to a thousand gallons. Of course a larger tank means more investment and more time spent in maintaining it.

To go with the ambiance many people prefer to have a nice background painted on the tank. If you decide to have a painted background then you must get it done before setting up the aquarium.
In the next step you will need to fill the bottom of the saltwater aquarium with a substrate. Some people prefer to use crushed coral for this while other simply use live sand. Decide what you prefer and buy accordingly. The quantity you need will depend on the size of the tank.

Tropical saltwater fish and tropical saltwater corals need warm water and you will need suitable heater to keep the water warm. Having a spare heater is also a good idea. You will also have to buy a filter that big enough for the capacity of the tank. A spare filter will come in very handy later so buy one. Also having spare filter media, like filter floss or activated carbon, handy can save a lot of time if your filter stops working suddenly. If you are concerned about the health of the fish then you can buy a spare quarantine tank in which you can put new fish or sick fish.

For filling the tank you will need to buy a suitable saltwater mix usually available in a store that deals with salt water aquariums and accessories. To maintain the salt concentration at the right level you will also need a salt hydrometer. You will need to buy test kits for testing the specific gravity/salinity and to test the levels of nitrate, ammonia, pH, carbon dioxide, chlorine, hardness, phosphate, etc. Instead of buying different test kits for different purposes you can buy a master testing kit form the store specializing in tropical saltwater aquariums.

The other accessories that you will need to purchase are two large buckets, rubber gloves, a fish net to handle the fish, a scrub brush for scrubbing the aquarium walls and a power strip. Finally of course you will need to buy the tropical saltwater fish of your choice. Make sure that the varieties are compatible to one another. If you are a beginner then choose the fish, corals, etc. that can survive adverse conditions created by the lack of experience on your part.