⚠ Start Here: Saltwater Reef Aquarium Good Practices
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I. Aquarium Hygiene
Do not wash your hands with antibacterial soap prior to dipping your hands in the aquarium. Any leftover antibacterial agents can leak into your aquarium and cause an imbalance with the bacteria colonies. Use regular soap and dry your hands very well. Be sure not to have applied any lotions or skin products at least 6 hours before dipping your hands and / or arms into your aquarium.
Keep all metals away from the inside of the aquarium to eliminate any chance of copper coming into contact with the water. Copper is deadly to invertebrates. Copper damages vital organs and depresses their immune system. Hemolymph to invertebrates is the equivalent of red blood cells to vertebrates. Invertebrates do not have a circulatory system, instead, they have a cavity known as a haemocoel of where the hemolymph fluid circulates within. Hemocyanin to crabs is hemoglobin to humans. Hemocynanin uses copper as the respiratory protein, rather than iron in hemoglobin, but both bind to oxygen. Hemoglobin is red in color because blue light is mostly absorbed when iron and oxygen combine. Conversely, hemocyanin is blue in color, because red light is mostly absorbed when copper and oxygen combine.
Your aquarium’s beneficial bacteria live primarily in the filter media. Likewise, when replacing any filter media, do not replace them all at once, but do so in small pieces and spread this out over the course of several weeks. That way, the bacteria have a chance to regenerate their numbers, and you don’t risk losing plenty of them in one instance. Doing so means that you’ll have to start up the nitrogen cycle process again.
To wash your filter media: pour some of the aquarium water (enough to soak all of the filter media) into your bucket (designated only for your aquarium) and slowly squeeze out any larger particulates and let that settle into the bottom of the bucket. Do not over-rinse the filter media. Leave some of the particulates on the media and return it to the filter.
When you first add the sand in your tank, your water will be cloudy from the sandy particulates floating around in the water. To speed up the settling process, use SeaChem Clarity™ in conjunction with filter floss, and in 24 hours, your aquarium will be crystal clear. SeaChem Clarity™ works by clumping smaller pieces of particulate matter into larger ones to allow the filter floss to catch these larger particles. A brown stain is normal, at the first addition of SeaChem Clarity™ to the aquarium water.
Do not keep your substrate “too clean.” Leave some detritus like fecal matter for the nitrifying bacteria to consume. I personally like to keep a relatively large dosage (i.e. approximately seven day’s worth) of fecal matter, to condition the aquarium to be self-sustaining, say, in the instance that I won’t be home to perform tank maintenance. This way, the bacteria is conditioned to consume already higher levels of ammonia. It is for this reason that I only clean (using a siphon to pick up pieces of fecal matter and decaying food) the aquarium every 10 to 14 days.
Treat all forms of rock as if they contain even a minute amount of a toxin called a “Palytoxin,” which originates from Zoanthid corals. Read more about Palytoxin poisoning here.
II. The Nitrogen Cycle
Purchase a saltwater test kit such as the API Saltwater Master Test Kit to test for the pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels of the water, as well as separate tests to measure the Calcium and Phosphate levels, once your aquarium has completed or is nearing completion of the nitrogen cycle. API doesn’t always carry a complete range of test kits, but I’ve had accurate results using their test kits, aside from their being readily available at most pet stores. Some tests like Phosphate, are not always stocked by your local fish or pet store, and in such a case, I have to default to ordering them online. I once ordered a Salifert (Dutch) test kit through Amazon, but the test kit was most likely expired, as the yields kept producing a zero reading for ammonia, when I knew it was not. I highly recommend sticking to purchasing test kits from brick and mortar stores. At the initial phase, I had to test the water twice a day to watch out for any changes in ammonia levels, but as time went on and nitrifying bacteria took up residence, ammonia and nitrite levels slowly lowered to the point that I could skip days without taking readings. Once your aquarium’s nitrogen cycle has been established, it won’t be necessary to test frequently, as your goal is to allow the aquarium to be self-sustaining in the long-run. For me personally, I like to do tests at least once a week, but in reality, I could go up to two weeks or more, without testing.
Setting up an aquarium should be done prior to acquiring livestock, but it is possible to complete the nitrogen cycle with livestock already added. It is a risky take, but it is possible, and expect to lose several nights of sleep, until your aquarium’s parameters have been stabilized.
Familiarize yourself with the nitrogen cycle here.
Do not obsess over test level readings. While ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels read zero in the ocean and are the most ideal conditions that should be emulated, data shows that it is more important to keep these levels as close to zero as possible, and not in constant in fluctuation.
Ammonia and nitrite levels should be zero, in order to give your animals the best possible chance of living their full lives, but nitrate levels on the other hand can be tolerated much better. The exact value of nitrate readings is in flux (with some aquarists claiming that their livestock live happily even at levels up to 20 ppm!), but to play safe, readings should go no more than 5.0 ppm.
Use a frag (i.e. a single coral fragment broken off from a coral colony) to gauge the conditions in your aquarium, especially during the first stages of setting up the aquarium. Think of it as an analog to the canaries used in coal mines to detect the presence of carbon monoxide.
Bottled bacteria is the most important aspect of establishing a healthy nitrogen cycle and ecosystem for your livestock. Instant Ocean’s BIO-Spira® managed to lower the ammonia within a day after adding it into my aquarium. Although not necessary, the traditional method in establishing a healthy nitrogen cycle and ecosystem involves the use of live rock and an aged filter from another aquarium, but this process can take at least a year to establish itself.
Do not buy your bottled bacteria from Amazon. Storage conditions in warehouses could have gone high enough to the point that the bacteria in the bottle was killed off. Stick to your local pet or fish stores or through buying directly from the manufacturer’s website (wherein they take care to ship their products with cold packs, depending on the time of the year). Because of this, I had no such luck with FritzZyme® 9 Saltwater’s live nitrifying bacteria, as it was sold by Amazon. I tried two bottles but doses from both bottles both did nothing to lower the ammonia levels in my aquarium; only a locally-bought nitrifying bacteria-in-a-bottle such as Instant Ocean’s BIO-Spira® did the trick.
Aside from corals and livestock, watch your live rock closely for the stages of algae that appear. This is a metric stick for determining the health of your aquarium and the stage that it could be at.
Before adding any nitrifying bacteria to the water, test the solution first to be certain that only ammonia is present, and not nitrite nor nitrate. This means that you’ll need enough of the bacterial solution to dose your aquarium with, even if you subtract some for testing. Ammonia is added to the bottle of the beneficial bacteria to serve as a food source to keep them alive, so, high levels of ammonia are to be expected. One unfortunate aquarist however, posted a review on Amazon, stating that the bottle of nitrifying bacteria that he purchased, contained high levels of nitrite instead, which became responsible for the death of his animals, only finding out when it was too late. It is good practice to test any bacterial solution or water prior to adding it into your aquarium, and one that can spare the lives of your animals.
Do not overstock your aquarium with animals. The following are two major reasons not to:
For every animal / livestock added, consider that this equals waste and waste means more ammonia is produced. Plan accordingly.
Be sure to note that some species of animals can need more room than others. Overstocking an aquarium can lead to a lower quality of life for, not just the new resident, but also for the rest of the animal inhabitants living in the aquarium.
III. Substrate (Sand)
New aquarists will soon realize that some form of mathematical calculation can pop up at any time — with the bulk being at the initial phase of the aquarium’s setup. For time-saving purposes and increase in accuracy, there exists a sand calculator. I used this one to calculate the number of bags of sand I needed to fill my 29-gallon tank, for at least 5 inches of substrate.
Use live sand such as CaribSea for your saltwater aquarium. The bacteria in the sand will help maintain the nitrogen cycle in your aquarium, and provide a source of nutrients for your livestock.
During my research (both online and consulting with people I’ve met locally), there were conflicting answers as to how deep the sand bed should be, and what kind of sand to use, but I came to settle on this setup:
For the bottommost layer, I spread out five 20-pound bags and one 10-pound bag of CaribSea Bahamas Oolite Sand (~0.25 – 1.0mm-grained sand)
For the topmost layer, I used two 20-pound bags of CaribSea Reef Sand (~3.0 – 5.5mm-grained sand)
It is a fact that crustaceans need a deep sand bed in order to molt. Complete darkness is necessary to trigger the molting hormone called crustecdysone. The sand bed needs to be deep enough for your crabs to be completely buried in it.
The reason I used two different types of sand is because the topmost layer is constantly turned over with crab activity (eating, digging, and burrowing in it) and the oolite is simply too small in particle size, that it clouds up the tank quickly. The bottommost layer of sand however, needs to be compact enough to prevent pockets of hydrogen sulfide from forming. Anaerobic bacteria will eventually colonize the deeper layers of your sand bed, and while the presence of excess anaerobic bacteria is currently debated by aquarists, anaerobic bacteria feed on nitrate, which completes the final stage of the nitrogen cycle.
IV. Aquarium Rock, Media, and Water
Stick to using live rock or dead rock. Going all-natural only makes sense to replicate as close of conditions as possible, to a natural reef.
Opt for actual ocean saltwater. The salinity has already been adjusted by Mother Nature, and you don’t risk poisoning your animals with stray chlorine levels that can stem from water sources other than reverse osmosis (RO) water. There are solutions such as SeaChem Prime® that can be used to safely remove chlorine from the water, but this introduces another element in to the equation, for things to go wrong, if the proper ratio to water is not met or if the solution itself is not viable.
New aquarists need to be aware that they will need ample storage space to store at least 15 gallons of saltwater in their home at the initial phase, and about 5 gallons after the nitrogen cycle has been completed (and the need for frequent and larger water changes becomes a thing of the past). I prefer Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water, which comes in 5-gallon bladders packaged in boxes, for the main reason that the water has been monitored by independent laboratories, and the pH is within the right range for reef aquariums. (As a side note: I’m planning to look into Nature's Ocean Nutri-SeaWater Natural Live Ocean Saltwater as an alternative, and will update my findings accordingly.)
If you live next to the Pacific Ocean or Atlantic Ocean, it is possible to collect saltwater directly from the ocean, along the shore, like I started to do, once I performed water tests to determine if there are any traces of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates in the water. However, it is still best to collect during high tide, and at least 100 meters away from shore.
Update [2022-June-14 at 14:27 ET]: The risk of collecting water contaminated with pollutants is just too great of a risk. Stick to using boxed ocean water.
Maintain a salinity between 1.022 to 1.026. Consistency once again, is key.
Do not go below a pH of 8.0 in maintaining a saltwater reef aquarium.
V. Aquarium Temperature
The temperature in the aquarium must be kept constant. For marine crustaceans, the recommended temperature range runs from 75ºF (24ºC) to 82ºF (28ºC). I keep mine on the lower end of the spectrum using an Eheim heater such as this one.
VI. Sterilization
Do not stick anything that has been bleached, into the aquarium. Many sources recommend bleaching aquarium media to sterilize them and to neutralize the bleach with water afterwards, but for myself personally, I would not take the chance. Bleach is highly toxic to invertebrates in particular.
In order to sterilize any media that will go into the aquarium, or ones that have been taken over by pests like brown algae / diatoms (alternatively, snails can be used to consume brown algae / diatoms, for example), I recommend a soak consisting of:
Hydrogen peroxide (2 parts),
distilled or reverse osmosis (RO) water (1 part), and
SeaChem Prime® (1 to 2 capfuls)
Combine the soak and scrubbing of the media with an old toothbrush (or even better yet, an electric toothbrush head such as a Sonicare toothbrush), over the course of 1 to 2 hours. Rinse the media with distilled water or reverse osmosis (RO) water, drain the media of excess water, then reintroduce back into the aquarium.
Do not boil any form of rock (even dead rock) in order to sterilize it. If the rock contains even traces of a toxin called a “Palytoxin” originating from Zoanthid corals, boiling the rock will only aerosolize the toxin and you risk inhaling it. Read more about Palytoxin poisoning here.
VII. Livestock (Crustaceans) / Your Pets!
When setting up the aquarium, with your animals in quarantine in smaller tanks, be sure to:
Change their water daily and feed either only every other day or once a day in small quantities. Without any beneficial bacteria in the tank to consume ammonia, any waste they produce and any decaying food in the tank can quickly release ammonia and pollute their water.
Break the surface tension in the quarantine tank’s water, every two hours, if no filters are attached. As much as it doesn’t seem to be the case, aquatic animals actually need oxygen in order to survive, and the stirring up of the water breaks the surface tension enough for the exchange of oxygen bubbles to flow into and out of the water; otherwise, they risk suffocating from the lack of oxygen in still water.
When introducing animals into a new aquarium, use the “float method.” Take clean resealable baggies like Ziplock bags large enough to contain your animals along with some water from their respective temporary holding (quarantine) tanks, and add in the animals with some of that water. Take these bags and float them in the aquarium. Leave them in the bag for no longer than 30 minutes. The purpose of this method is to allow the temperature of their holding tank water to equalize with the temperature in the aquarium — their new home — to minimize shock.
Do not disturb your crustacean during a molt. Doing so could be fatal to them!
Larger crustaceans can take over one month to molt. The exact timeframe for the white-speckled hermit crab to molt is unknown, but sources say that larger hermit crabs molt every 18 months while some say two to three times a year.
Update [2022-June-14 at 14:20 ET]: A white-speckled hermit crab can molt in its shell. It stays ~2 to 3 days inside its shell after molting, then emerges afterwards, rests in place, slowly begins to eat, and regains full strength by the 2.5 to 3-week mark. A young crab will molt as often as every 2 to 3 months.
Watch out for pre-molting signs such as excessive digging and restlessness and excessive eating (to store up nutrition during the molt).
Finding a new shell for your hermit crab is important, but be sure to keep the following conditions in mind during the hunt:
Exclude any shells that have been bleached.
Dead shells taken straight from the ocean are much preferred, but check for aquatic mites prior to introducing it into your aquarium.
The next shell has to be slightly larger than your hermit crab’s present one, to make room for new growth.
Emerald crabs may spend the next few hours or couple of days [in some cases, up to 3 months] hiding under or in rocks after introducing them into a new home. This is normal. Leave them be to allow them to adjust to the new conditions. Emerald crabs are known to be susceptible to dying if subjected to too much stress. Eventually, once they’re ready, they’ll start to emerge and explore their new home.
Emerald crabs are known for picking one spot in the aquarium to call their own. My emerald crabs can easily be told apart by their specific holes in the rocks in the aquarium that they like to hide in. It is also possible for them to switch homes, after enough time for them to grow used to their environment, has elapsed.
Emerald crabs’ legs can sometimes detach for various reasons. This is typical and is not necessarily a cause for alarm, as they will regrow the lost limb/s during the next molt.
Emerald crabs undergo a molting phase, just like hermit crabs. The exact timeframe is not known.
Emerald crabs and hermit crabs are fond of grazing on live rock with green hair algae. It is possible to go on a day or so (research shows that hermit crabs can even go up to two weeks without food, but starving them is obviously not recommended) without feeding them anything, but for optimal health, they must be provided with additional supplements to account for the protein segment of their diet. Read this article for more information on what to feed your marine crabs.
A molted emerald crab’s exoskeleton will look exactly like itself. It is common for owners to initially mistake the exoskeleton for the death of their crab. Update [as of 2022-June-14 at 14:29 ET]: A hermit crab’s molted exoskeleton will have three distinct features: i) The exoskeleton will be hollow, ii) The part where the crab’s eyes go, will be transparent, and iii) The length of the body — i.e. the abdomen / smooth tail will be absent, as the exoskeleton cuts off along this mark.
Aquatic mites can sometimes hitchhike with your marine hermit crab. The best method to rid your hermit crab off the mites is to pour saltwater or distilled or reverse osmosis (RO) water into its shell while draining the water into a drain (not over the aquarium — for obvious reasons!). Continue doing this each time you see the mites regenerate, until all stages of their lifecycle have been dealt with. The mites can take anywhere between a week to 10 days to regenerate, but repeating the rinse will lessen their numbers over time. Do not use fish medication to treat crustaceans infested with mites.
Hermit crabs like the Paguristes puncticeps (white-speckled hermit crab) or the Clibanarius infraspinatus (orange-striped hermit crab) are very fond of climbing. Be sure to include live rock and / or dead sea fans — i.e. natural media that give them something to climb on.
Saltwater marine crabs like the white-speckled hermit crab, orange-striped hermit crab, and emerald crab are opportunistic feeders and scavengers. Yet, while they are very fond of sifting through the sandy substrate, sucking the nutrients out of them as a source of calcium, similar to us human beings, they need a well-balanced diet of protein and vegetables, in between. Read this article for more information on what to feed your marine crabs
VIII. General Comments
Process every piece of information you receive, and back these up on your own with trusted sources like university publications and the likes. Additionally, if you discover that no such publications are available, reading through various online forums and distilling the information down to recurring successful methods can also be helpful, as online forums mostly discuss the results they received from the various methods they employed.
For the sake of your animals, start with top-notch equipment immediately. Doing so can prolong the life of your animals and even prevent disasters. The last thing you want is cooked livestock!
Although not necessary, I always opt to use a pair of nitrile gloves, each time I have to dip my hands into the aquarium, for the sake of sanitation.
Treat all forms of rock as if they contain even a minute amount of a toxin called a “Palytoxin,” which originates from Zoanthid corals. Read more about Palytoxin poisoning here.
Always quarantine every animal for at least 1 week, and observe it for pests or disease before introducing it into your aquarium.
Overfeeding rather than underfeeding, has been known to be indirectly responsible for killing livestock. Uneaten food produces ammonia. If there is a lack of nitrifying bacteria to consume this excess ammonia, the ammonia can promote disease or death, as it pollutes the water that your animals live in!
Pairing up a more active marine hermit crab with a less active one, can make for a counter balance to each other. This can be done by obtaining a crab that dwells along the waves that wash up on the seashore, with a crab that resides on the ocean bed. The former is more active.
That’s all for now! I’ll update this page as I progress along!
Update 2: June 14, 2022 at 14:35 ET
Update 1: February 19, 2022 at 18:00 ET
Special thanks goes to:
Joe and Eric for the aquarium equipment and saltwater
Anthony for the note on the basics of the nitrogen cycle and for the filter floss
Manoah for Hermy’s quarantine tank
Tyler and Hiram for helping us adopt Tick and Tock