Joey Mullen: Yes, another saltwater aquarium, shall we? Let's do it. Just hold on one minute though. This one almost didn't happen. You see, Aquadecor background sent me some new backgrounds to try out and one of them was like this, and I was like, "No, I don't like it. It's very different than what I'm used to seeing from you guys." It is hollow in the background, but boy, is this thing actually heavy. You can see it's still made the same as the others but it's like this rock, almost like cement on the outside. It's pretty interesting but once I put it together, I was looking at the pieces, I was like, "No, I'm not sold on this."
"When you guys send me backgrounds, I've always been in love with them, without a doubt. Always really, really liked them, but when I seen this one, I thought, "Wow, you guys really missed the mark on this." I just wasn't a fan. I told them that. I was like, "I can't use something and I refuse to use something I just don't like." They were like, "Well, first of all, Joey, you're not putting it together properly. Second of all, wait till you see it in the tank." Okay, I already know what it looks like in here. I want you guys to see the same thing, the same idea. It's not actually a full background.
I thought it was missing pieces. At first I didn't like the weight of it, then I was like, "Oh wow." This just basically goes in place, I don't have to silicone it, anything. If I ever change my mind, I could pop it right back out. She fits in there tight. I thought, "Wow." Once it was in there, it actually looks pretty natural. Let me explain. The typical saltwater aquarium, rock piled up kind of looks-- Do we actually see this in the wild though? No, we see this in saltwater aquariums. This is what we create. Of course, we create structures and whatnot but this here I found looks far more natural.
Anyways, to input, I drilled back there and put some black mesh on it, siliconed it. I'm going to put my filtration back through there so everything will be hidden. Let's keep going. This tank is going to be super, super easy to replicate, to set up. I'm not going to be doing anything fancy but we're going to have success with it. This is going to be the fastest setup ever. They also sent rocks and stuff to go along the bottom that matches this. I am going to be doing a fish-only display here and full disclosure, I think I'm going with a butterflyfish community.
Can't really have them in the main tank, but I've always wanted a nice array of butterflyfish, and they stay relatively small. Most species only 4 to 6 inches. 120 gallon is pretty much ideal for them. I could probably do six or more but we'll see. After these rocks, I'm just going to toss them in here and there and hope for the best. Tank is scaped, or at least the rock in it. I'm going to go ahead and fill this. Since I'm not using actual live rock, I'm going to fill it with fresh water. I want to create some amazing aquariums using relatable filtration methods for a lot of these tanks.
I'm going with a canister filter for this. I'm not going to get into brands or anything but it's a cheap Amazon filter that filters 525 gallons an hour. It has an ultraviolet sterilizer. You can get them for 200, 250 bucks, something like that. I felt like this is something that's really relatable. A lot of when I first got into the hobby, I was buying some of the most affordable filtration and some of the off-brand and no name stuff to get by, but I got by just as well as buying some of the more expensive stuff, but this stuff tends to break down and is a little more flimsy.
We'll be filling that with already established media from another aquarium, so this basically can go up and running almost right away. I will not be doing that because I still have to order the fish and decide on which ones I want, which I'm going to leave a little bit of that up to you guys, and when it comes to butterflyfish, which ones are your guys' favorite? Let me know in the comment section below. Now before anybody gets upset or thinks, "Oh my, I can't believe Joey's using a canister filter for saltwater." How do you think the saltwater hobby began or any of the hobby or how it progressed?
A lot of the fancier stuff like sumps and reactors and protein skimmers, are those absolutely necessary? In my opinion, if you're running coral or very sensitive systems, perhaps, but a lot of the times you can use the same methods from freshwater and apply it to saltwater. You can still run the same types of filtration and do your water changes, and still enjoy a saltwater aquarium. It's easy to talk the talk though, so I'm going to walk the walk and I'll show you firsthand that this is possible. This tank is also going to get a substrate, it's just a basic crushed coral substrate.
I've actually used this before. I saved it. Is this setup actually ideal? The short answer is absolutely not, but is it possible? Absolutely. I think one of the big things with saltwater aquariums and why they're not necessarily as popular as freshwater tanks is cost. It's expensive to set up a saltwater tank and maintain them long-term, but is it possible to do it in an economic way that you would set up a freshwater, like the lower costs of setting up a freshwater, and then the only thing moving forward is water changes every week and those costing more because you got to buy this, I think it's possible.
I think one of the things that this video and I hope this aquarium does, is not only potentially inspire you to maybe start your own aquarium, your own saltwater aquarium and then if you want over time, slowly upgrade. Maybe we do add a sump back onto this. Maybe we do get fancier equipment and whatnot. Fortunately, I already have a bunch of fancy stuff. For example, for circulation I'm using an MP40 from EcoTech. Full disclosure, I've had this for three years. As for the salt, that can be a daunting thing, like which brand should you get, what should you buy, et cetera.
In my opinion and from what I've used over the past decade, salt is salt. It just comes down to the additives within it, and when you're just having a fish-only system, get the most economically-priced and what's available on a consistent basis to you. Luckily, I have a relationship with Fritz, and they sent me enough salt to run my 375-gallon for an entire year. I think they want me to stay in salt but I'm going to be robbing that tank of its salt and using some for this tank. Now the thing I like about Fritz, I don't know what's in it, I don't know the measurements or the different additives, et cetera. I know three things.
One, it mixes well and my fish do well in it. Those are two reasons of course. The third reason is this is 200 gallons of salt but it comes in four bags, each bag mixes 50 gallons. When it comes to saltwater, 50 gallons, you have to use this much salt. I remember the days when I thought I could just open a salt shaker, dump it in and now it's a saltwater tank. That was a long time ago. This holds about 100 gallons of water once full, so here's 100 gallons of salt. That's what I love about it. Now when I do water changes on my 375-gallon tank, I fill up my 50-gallon barrel.
It's technically 55 gallons, but I fill it up to a certain mark, dump a bag of this in, and already know it's the proper salinity. You always want to dump salt into water. You don't want to put the salt into the tank and then add water on top of it. This isn't enough water to actually do this but just for the video's sake, we're going to go ahead and do it, it's going to be pretty cloudy though. For the initial setup of the tank, I always just mix the salt inside the tank, I don't have hundreds of gallons of spare totes and stuff to mix up all my salt, and you probably don't either, so this is completely fine.
Although if you're using live rock or a substrate with live bacteria or anything like that, the freshwater and then this high of a salinity, that's going to shock it, most likely kill it. How do I know if I've got the right amount of salt in there? Of course, those 50-pound bags are useful, but we could use things like a hydrometer. Now when we fill this up with salt, this little indicator's going to rise and lower based on how much buoyancy the water is essentially. Have you ever tried to float in the ocean? It's much easier than floating in a freshwater pool. It's kind of the same idea.
Now I'll be looking to get it around, I don't know, 1.0 to 3 specific gravity, or to 1.0 to 5, that's the sweet spot for a fish-only. You can go a little lower of course, but if it's too low, I add more salt. If it's too high, I'll drain some water and add more in. Now the conversation of, do you need reverse osmosis water? Should you be preparing your water beforehand or is it reverse osmosis? Deionized, like RODI or RO. Do you need to use all of them? It's going to make your life a lot easier, especially if you're going to be keeping coral. However, that's just because you can't really control exactly what's in your tap water.
I'm on a well and it's pretty consistent year-round. I don't even have to treat it for chlorine or chloramines, but if you're using RODI water or RO, it's going to be much easier to control algae, and when you add in your salts, it already has all the extra additives in there. It's not just necessarily salt. Then of course you can get the reef type of salt where it has even more additives, ideal for reefs. You don't really want to mess with those levels either, so you want to use RODI. It's going to be completely up to you if you want to connect an RO system, but for me, I am literally just using my well water, and for all of my saltwater aquariums, I always have.
When it comes to the intake and output of the canister filter, I did drill, I don't know if you're going to be able to see it. I did drill holes back there, so the plumbing actually comes right through the bottom. I'm going to hook this up to the canister here in a moment, but the input and output is going to be back here and hidden as well, as you can see. That's actually a pretty handy location, especially if you want to do canister filters and/or sites of return, as it can still be hidden behind there and you can still access it there, as well as over in that corner, although that's a lot smaller.
There you have it, the tank is now filled up, salinity is correct. It's been up and running for a couple of days, so it's had a chance to clear up a little bit. You'll notice a couple of things. I added one of the floating rocks to fill in that gap back there, and pulled it out a little bit to add a little bit more depth. I think that looks absolutely gorgeous. Incredible. I know how simple this tank is. We're running some basic filtration, you could definitely mimic this. You don't have to get the expensive equipment. I had that already and I was set this for free, so let's not get it confused and think you need to have expensive or complicated equipment.
That is something that's for your budget, and over time, you might want to invest. To get started, if you have been running a freshwater aquarium, I don't see much of a reason why you can't start to dabble in salt. Maybe you go fish-only like myself and slowly get into coral if you want. I think the idea here is to stop being scared of saltwater. Saltwater isn't complicated. Saltwater hobbyists wants you to think it's complicated because there's a weird competition between fresh and salt, like, "Oh, freshwater's for noobs and you don't know very much. Saltwater is so advanced and so exotic and so much better."
Hey, the argument is there for both sides I guess, but me, I don't base my ego on the tanks that I keep. I base it on a number of other things and it's already massively big, so I try not to let that spill into aquariums. [chuckles] Over the next few months, what I'd like to do here is turn this into a butterflyfish aquarium. I think I'll probably add a nice assortment and we'll see what happens. I'll probably get a cleanup crew, some snails and crabs, some shrimp, some butterflies. I think I'm actually really excited about this tank and I hope you guys are too. The only thing I got to do here to get it actually ready for fish is I'm probably going to add some of that live bacteria from Fritz.
I do find that really kickstarts a lot of things. I'm going to fill the canister filter with already established media, let that run for a couple of days and then I don't see any reason why I can't start moving fish into there. Obviously I got to have the fish first though and I do not. I've got to order them in and find out which ones I got. That's where you guys can take part is what do you think I should get? I do have my eye on a butterflyfish, a copperband butterflyfish. That's literally one of the first butterflies I've ever seen and I've wanted it ever since, and I'm talking back before the internet times, when I had a library card and getting books and learning that way.
I'd seen the butterflyfish, I was like, "Wow, isn't this thing gorgeous?" It's so unique and interesting looking. If you're not into salt, you can live vicariously through me and/or set a tank up with me and we'll do it together. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this video. I know that it's very simple and maybe drawn out a little bit, but really, this took me maybe 20 minutes to set up. It's not that complicated. Over time, if I want to upgrade to a sump, if I want to improve my system, I can, but there's no reason why we can't get our toes wet with using simple equipment.
Everybody does it. If you want to do it, feel free to do so. Hope you enjoyed today's video, guys. I will see you shortly when we start shopping for some of the fish for this tank. See this in the next one.
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