I’ve been asked how to set-up a marine aquarium many times by people who are starting to think about getting a marine aquarium.  As with all things in this hobby, there is more than one way to set-up a healthy and thriving aquarium.  Before you can get to the point of a detailed step-by-step how to set-up a marine aquarium, you must first consider a few of the critical element to having a great set-up.  Once you have those basic elements figured out, planning the rest of the set-up quickly starts to become really easy.
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There are a lot of different opinions out there about the manual feeding of clams. I have had great success with weekly (or so) feedings until the clam is about 4 inches in size. I only feed monthly from 4 to 5 inches, following the below process.  The below process can also be used for the spot feeding of other filter feeders and some corals.
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Most of the marine fish that we keep come from the wild. It isn’t unusual for these fish to have internal problems such as worms, or even bacterial or parasitic infection in their intestinal track. External parasites are also just as common, if not possible more. I have read that it is estimated that as much as 30% of the marine fish in the wild have some kind of intestinal infection.

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I thought I would take some time to explain how I prepare the raw foods that I feed to my carnivorous / predator fish and my anemones.  This results in a higher quality food for less cost than purchased frozen fish foods.

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The below is some key learnings that I had stumbled upon in my never ending journey of learning and keeping marine aquariums.  I thought I would take the time to share them.
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 Overview

When we talk about having a cycled and established tank, we are really referring to having a tank with a developed and functioning nitrogen cycle within our aquarium.   Before you cycle an aquarium for the first time, it would benefit you to better understand how the nitrogen cycle works.
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So, now after deciding to set-up your first marine aquarium and having your patients tested to the limit waiting for your tank to become cycled, you are now ready to add your first inhabitants.

Wither you decide to start off by adding your first fish or two, or start by adding your clean-up crew (CUC), can really depend a lot on your personal preferences and potentially any algae you would need to start controlling.

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You have to be careful picking out a new fish for your marine aquarium. The last thing you want to happen is to take your new home and it becomes sick due to a disease or something else that you could have identified at the store.  There are a few things to watch for that will give you an indication there could potentially be a problem with a fish.  These indicators to watch for are both in the appearance of the fish as well as how the fish behaves.

Selecting a healthy fish is not a hard thing to do but it does require patience and restraint.  If you are not 100% sure that a fish is healthy , it would likely be best not to buy it.  The below are the basic rules of thumb that I follow.  Keep in mind, following a process like this can never be 100% safe or 100% accurate, so you should still quarantine new additions before add them to your display tank.
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As most people have already learned, the key to any type of successful marine aquarium is to obtain the best water parameters possible and to keep these parameters stable. When referring to marine aquariums, I am speaking of both reef and FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) style aquariums.  The reason being is that most of the marine fish that we keep are wild caught and come from (or near) a coral reef and therefore would need the same water parameters as a reef tank if they are to thrive and remain healthy over the long term.

Just like the key to cooking a good tasting meal is to use the good quality ingredients, the key to maintaining good water quality in your marine aquarium starts by using good quality water.
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When it comes to marine aquariums, you have a few choices for filtration.  I prefer to use live rock for many different reasons.  I have been asked many times why I prefer live rock over other types of filtration, so I thought I would take some time list the pros and cons of using live rock to help other decide if they would like to us live rock in their aquarium.

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