Home » Freshwater & Saltwater Walkthrough Guide

Step By Step Saltwater Aquarium Setup

  1. This first step is the same for a freshwater aquarium also. Make sure to place the aquarium stand on sturdy floor that will resist the weight for a very long period of time. For example, an aquarium larger than 200 gal you might want to have it in a first floor or a very sturdy building floor, (No wooden floor) preferably concrete. Water can get very heavy. Make sure that you have space behind your aquarium to run pipes. Also, especially if you are using a glass tank, your tank needs to be leveled and with no pressure points, otherwise you are having the risk of cracking your tank. You can use a sheet of Styrofoam under your tank. Also make sure is away from direct sunlight.
  2. Rinse with warm water all elements that will go inside the tank, including the tank and your wet dry filter. You could use natural sponge, dishwashing sponges might contain harmful chemicals packed from the factory so they need to be avoided.
  3. With the empty tank, install all the filters that you will use, including your Wet Dry Sump if you got one and the overflow unit that hangs on the back of the tank following the manufacturer’s instructions.
  4. Set up your protein skimmer. If you got a wet dry sump you may want to set it up there. Install a water pump on the sump area of your wet dry filter along with your protein skimmer, Remember to follow the manufacturer’s instructions to set up your skimmers, because not all skimmers are created equal.
  5. Fill your tank with water and check out if there are any leaks. Check your Wet Dry filter also if you got one. Start running all your pumps and check the pipe feeding the wet dry sump and the pipe returning the water. Also make sure that you have placed your power strip in a way to prevent any water traveling from your aquarium to your connectors. This is a very important step. It is amazing how water seems to find it’s way to your power supply every time that advice is taken lightly.
  6. Setup your lights system now with your lights timer if any. For more information on what would be the right lighting system you can go to our Aquarium Lighting by Aquarium Type area.
  7. Add chlorine and chloramines remover if you don’t have a stage 2 or stage 3 Reverse Osmosis system. Add salt mix to the water following the manufacturer’s directions. Use a Refractometer or a hydrometer to make sure that you gut the right salinity and gravity in your water and check that it is stable at 1.023 to 1.026. For more information on refractometers go to ourRefractometers and Hydrometers information area.
  8. Add the substrate for your tank. If you want to know how much substrate do you need for your tank you can use are substrate tool here. For FOWLR and Reef systems use live sand, a 4“ to 5” substrate depth is recommended. For FOWLR and Reef add live rock.
  9. Follow the instructions start a fishless cycle in your tank for detail instructions here.
  10. After the cycle has been established, For a FOWLR and Reef tanks you can add cleaning shrimps and hermit crabs first and then your fish. On fish only tanks you can add your fish at this point.
  11. In a Reef aquarium soft corals and anemones can be added after at least 3 months after adding your fish.


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