Beedeejay Posted November 22, 2012 Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 Hi all, I have a friend whose 9yr old has asked SANTA for a BIG fish tank with a Lion fish in it? I believe this maybe thanks to Fish tank kings on fox, Problem is they haven't ever had fish at all, And I have told them what they would be in for! I only have a Africans and am relatively new to it as well, but I am guessing cycling the tank and setups are similar? and I have told them what I had to do to cycle my tank, so does anyone have any advice on a way to tackle this? Maybe A really tactful way to steer away from it, or any other way that a set up may be done so Xmas wouldn't be an empty tank, Any help appreciated Cheers Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betta Posted November 22, 2012 Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 If they are only going to have one fish in the tank then it isn't too much more work than freshwater, the only thing that makes it difficult is the fact that you can't just do a water change from the tap, I wouldn't go anything less than a 3ft tank for a small lion fish & a 4ft for a large one. They are a predator so will eat other live fish, you can get them to eat processed food but they do better being fed live food. Saltwater is unstable so requires frequent testing. I wouldn't recommend a marine tank for someone's first tank cause there will be tears, hope this helps & good luck trying to persuade them not to get it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedeejay Posted November 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 Thnx Betta, Great reply and is pretty much as I figured. Keep it coming any other info from anyone would be appreciated the more things I can go back to them with the better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted November 22, 2012 Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) Mate it’s extremely easy to do this in a few weeks to full maturity. Marine fish are very simple, corals even easier!!! Tap water is fine for evaporation top up, the only real issue with tap water are from some substances and are issues for sensitive photosynthetic life and a lion fish as with most marine fish, though it does need some vitamin conversion through its flesh from the tanks lighting, is not photosynthetic, lol. A predator needs an extremely robust bio system and just some chunky base rock in the tank with some swim throughs and hiding spots. A slightly converted canister filter will do fine with the support of the live rock for a predator tank. It is better with a sump and you can make one very easily and far better then you one can buy as well. Just remember that marine tanks should not be run with out a chiller for summer, a heater for winter and the surface tension of your waters has to be violently broken or you will have PH issues and with them done in these ways, do a fifty percent water change here and there. What creates stress for your fish and is in the water,(with massive amounts of water consumed each day by marine fish),gets into them, these two kills 99.9.9 percent of all marine aquarium fish! Edited November 22, 2012 by liquidg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedeejay Posted November 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2012 Thanks liquidg, I wouldn't have a problem setting up a tank, but I think the biggest problem is the 2 shows on foxtel, fish tank kings and tanked, thanks to them my friends thought that you bought a tank filled it with water and then dropped in the fish!! Hopefully they can talk their daughter around to getting one later and not ready made for xmas, so they do it all properly, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
