First marine aquarium – technical equipment
You already know the dark sides of the hobby, and yet you still want to become a marine aquarist. Let’s see if you’ll be equally brave after reading this part… This time I’ll tell you what technical equipment you need for a marine aquarium. Below I will present the equipment that is essential for this hobby. I know, I know, someone might say that a marine aquarium without a skimmer or automatic refill will still work… but let’s just leave out exceptional and marginal situations. You can eat soup with a fork as well… but what for? An aquarium without a skimmer, especially one that is large and densely planted, requires knowledge of the issue and is not recommended for beginner aquarists. I’ll get back to that later.
In the previous section, I wrote about location and selection of a suitable tank, so you already know that we basically have two types of marine aquariums: with a panel (a lot simpler) and with a sump (more complex). And it is because of the complexity of the former, that I will focus on a sump in a marine aquarium and discuss all the necessary technical equipment. I will, however, refer to the aquarium with a panel.
What can be put into the sump?
Anything that does not need to be used in the main tank can be put in the sump or in the panel. However, in the case of the latter, you are severely limited by the size of the equipment. Unfortunately, some equipment will not fit in there.
A sump is an additional technical tank properly connected to the main aquarium. In the sump you keep all technical equipment intended mainly for filtration, but not only. Keeping all the equipment in the sump makes maintenance easier and the main tank look much neater. With a well-designed sump, you have quite a choice of filtration methods and required equipment.
Protein skimmer in a marine aquarium
The first device you will notice when you open the cabinet under the aquarium and look into the sump will be the skimmer. Although there are various designs, a skimmer almost always takes the form of a sizable vertical tube, with a vent at the top and a distinctly cut-off container. A skimmer is an electric device, usually powered by a pump (or several pumps), which mixes water with air under considerable pressure. That’s why you see white foam inside. In very simple terms, we can say that the skimmer works like a washing machine and cleans the water of proteins and other impurities (hence the name protein skimmer), which are separated into the previously mentioned container. By Mmixing water with air under considerable pressure, the skimmer creates foam, which, like washing, removes impurities.
The second very important task of the skimmer is gas exchange between the water and the environment. It is colloquially said that a skimmer aerates the water, and although the issue is much more complex, for the purposes of this text we can put it this way.
The sump gives you the option of using one of several types of skimmers, with plenty of power. With a panel aquarium, we don’t have as many options, although there are tiny skimmers available on the market that can be squeezed in there. However, in such cases, so-called cascades are more often used. Finally, I would add that small aquariums, say up to 100 liters, can be run without a skimmer, but this comes at a price. If you don’t include the skimmer as part of the filtration, you will have to perform frequent water changes. When there is no filtration, you will regularly need to change about 5-10% of the water.
Circulation pump in a marine aquarium
The use of a sump offers many possibilities, but they would not be applicable if it were not for the circulation pump that allows water to flow between the aquarium and the sump. Modern circulating pumps have a lot of convenient features, such as precise power setting, flow control, water temperature measurement, and blockage sensor.
In large aquariums with a sump, the circulation pump must have a considerable amount of power to not only work efficiently, but also to lift the water from the sump to the aquarium, which is about 150 cm up. It is assumed that the power of the circulation pump should be about 8-10 times the volume of the system, that is, for a 500-liter aquarium it should have a capacity of about 4000-5000 liters per hour. At the same time, taking into account the losses when raising water, one should rather stick to this upper limit.
In a panel aquarium, the pump is usually much smaller. Firstly, because they are usually smaller aquariums, and secondly because the panel is at the same height as the aquarium, so you don’t habe to bother about lifting water. Anyway, if it is a ready-made kit, the pump is most often already included.
Heater for a marine aquarium
Having a tropical aquarium at home (whether freshwater or marine), we must remember to ensure that the water temperature is right. For reef tanks, the temperature should be as stable as possible in the 25-28°C range. Such stability can be ensured by the heater, necessarily with a thermostat, which will turn on only when the water is too cool. On the other hand, there is often a need to cool the water. After all, marine organisms are very bad at tolerating temperatures above 30°C . However, this is a topic for another article.
As for the power of the heater, the rule is simple – you need about 80-100 watts of power per 100 liters of water, with this largely dependent on the ambient temperature. If you have a warm and well-insulated house, the heater will have less job to do. Although modern heaters usually come with a thermostat, it is worth having a special outlet with a separate thermostat. There are heaters whose thermostats get stuck in the ON position after some time. Another thermostat in the outlet prevents the water from “boiling over”.
Automatic top-up in a marine aquarium
Topping up the water… is easy, isn’t it? Why spend money on it? Well, it’s not as easy as it may seem. An Automatic Top Off (ATO) is one of the most important devices in a marine aquarium for stabilizing water parameters.
Seawater is water with various salts dissolved in it. As the water evaporates, the salinity of the remaining water in the aquarium increases. This is, of course, a highly uncomfortable situation for the aquarium’s inhabitants. When we allow 5% of the water to evaporate from the aquarium, its salinity will increase by 5%. Later, when we manually replenish the evaporated water, the salinity in the aquarium will rapidly drop again by this 5%. Marine invertebrates are accustomed to very stable water parameters. Any rapid changes affect them badly. And this is where it is necessary to have an ATO system, which replenishes the evaporated water many times a day in small portions. In this way, it virtually eliminates salinity fluctuations. However, this has one drawback. You must have a container with water somewhere near the aquarium.
Circulation pump in a marine aquarium
Despite the use of a sump (or panel) we still need some technical equipment in the main marine aquarium. These are mostly circulation pumps.
Unlike lake waters, the waters on coral reefs are in constant motion. In the seas you can observe currents and waves. You need to induce similar conditions in the aquarium, and that’s what circulation pumps (circulators) are for. These are devices attached to the edge of the aquarium glass, usually with magnets. With the help of small propellers on rotors, they cause the movement of water in the aquarium.
Circulation pumps come in different shapes and with additional features, such as remote control via bluetooth or variable power to simulate different sea conditions. With this equipment, you do not need to buy many large pumps right away, because the intensity of water movement in the aquarium will depend on the type and number of its inhabitants. In a young and rather empty aquarium, a small pump shall be enough. The more SPS corals and the larger they are, the more circulation will be needed. Fortunately, we can add new circulators as the reef ecosystem in our tanks grows.
It is assumed that, depending on the stock and the shape of the aquarium, circulation should be 10 to 40 times the volume of the main tank. This means that the power of the pump usually quoted in liters per hour must be from 10 to 40 times the volume of the main aquarium (for example, the power of the circulator in a 500-liter aquarium should be from 5,000 l/h to 20,000 l/h. This is quite a wide spectrum, and unfortunately there is no single, fixed rule for all. Fortunately, modern direct current (DC) pumps have adjustable power, so you can get a more powerful pump (or several if the aquarium is larger), but set it to a smaller capacity at first. Such pumps also have different circulation programs. This causes their power to be automatically changed every few minutes, which gives wave simulations.
Lightning a marine aquarium
This is a very complex issue and I will discuss it another time. I’ll just mention the basics rules here. Coral reefs are found mainly in equatorial and sub-equatorial zones. As you know, in those parts of the world, the sun’s rays fall almost vertically on the water. This gives corals a lot of light, and over thousands of years of evolution they have learned to use it. In a marine aquarium, good quality light is essential. Here I mean not only power, but also spectrum (color). There are quite a few marine aquarium lamps on the market: from the increasingly rare halogenlamps and fluorescent lamps, to LED lamps. There are also numerous hybrids that draw the best features from each type of light.
Unfortunately, the lamp will be one of the more expensive pieces of aquarium equipment. Fortunately, a good and well-thought-out model will last for many years. Choosing a lamp is a big challenge, and as many heads, as many minds. Some prefer lamps with fluorescent tubes, others like LED lamps. However, not to leave you without any advice here, I will say that the future lies in LED lighting. Although corals prefer fluorescent light, modern LED lights are not only becoming the standard, but also offer solutions that other types of lighting do not.
When it comes to selecting lamp wattage, there is an old and hated by many aquarists conversion factor of 1 watt of total illumination per liter of water. This conversion rate is not perfect. However, it will give some idea of what wattage lamp to consider to start with. It is worth adding that when planning lamps (especially LED lamps), you should consider the appropriate coverage of the water surface. A single LED spotlight, even a very powerful one, will not properly illuminate a long aquarium.
Additional technical equipment of the marine aquarium
In addition to the essential equipment I’ve already mentioned there are a few extras that will prove extremely useful. They are not essential, but they will make aquarium maintenance easier. I mean all kinds of hoses, scoops, magnetic cleaners, long grabs, fish nets or even simple buckets. There is no need to elaborate here, because the aquarium market is full of such equipment. It is rather inexpensive, so it is best to check if it suits you or not. It is important that it does not have any metal parts, and if it has, it should be stainless metal.
I hope I have dispelled any doubts about the technical equipment in the marine aquarium. In my next article, I will focus on what to consider when selecting and arranging a marine aquarium.
