From freshwater to marine aquarium: What do I need to know?

Many people who own freshwater aquariums are thinking about moving from freshwater aquariums to marine aquariums. In this article, I’ll walk you through what you need to know to get started. I will provide some links to other articles.

Will your knowledge of freshwater aquaristics be useful in marine aquaristics?

It depends on how you have run your freshwater aquarium. If you have developed habits of regular aquarium maintenance, it will be easier for you to build good habits on this basis, which will come in handy when working on a marine tank.

There are significant differences between marine and freshwater aquariums, so it is worth pointing them out clearly:

Filtration

In a marine aquarium, the filtration function is mainly performed by live rock. It cleans the water of impurities through the bacteria and tiny life that inhabit it. The impurities that appear are removed from the water through mechanical filtration such as cotton wool, filter socks, or automatics such as Smart roller or a skimmer.

Lighting

In marine aquaristics, the light spectrum is 10,000K or higher. We mainly use LED lights, with most people using mainly blue-coloured LEDs.  

Aquarium construction

The most common aquariums are a system where we have a main tank and a sump that serves as a technical tank. Read more about aquarium construction here.

Salt water and taking care of salinity

Another important point is that we use salt water, and take care of its proper salinity level. We supplement the evaporated water with osmotic water. We make water changes using salt water, that is, we mix specialized salt with RO water.

The marine aquarium forgives fewer mistakes

The ocean is a very stable environment, much more stable than rivers or lakes. Animals in the seas and oceans have lived under constant conditions (water parameters) for millions of years. Their adaptation mechanisms are not as well developed as those of freshwater animals. A marine aquarium must have constant water parameters, so it is important to read, ask and plan as much as possible before starting a project.

A much greater variety of animals and corals

The marine environment offers a huge variety of creatures that we can keep and nurture. Before placing an animal in an aquarium, we read up on it, learn about its requirements and only then decide to buy it. If we start the adventure with a marine aquarium, we add one animal at a time. 

A separate group are corals, which are beautiful animals and also require special treatment. They are absolutely not plants!

Maturation of the aquarium

The process of maturing an aquarium is crucial, and you should be guided by patience. It may take 4-12 weeks for the aquarium to go through the nitrogen cycle and be ready to be populated by the first animals.

A good advisor

In marine aquaristics it is very important to acquire valuable knowledge, so it is relevent to read a lot and talk to other people. I, for my part, can recommend materials on ReefPedia, which are created by knowledgeable people. Each article is read by me so that I can be sure that the person reading will get proven and trustworthy information.