Supplies for Salt Water Aquariums

The list of supplies required for successful setup and ongoing maintenance of a salt water aquarium can be daunting. Many of those supplies are actually pieces of equipment that you might set up once and maintain occasionally, such as lighting, substrate, biological filtration, protein skimmer, pumps, UV sterilizers, lights, timers and heaters. Beyond these equipment components, most of the remaining supplies you may need fall into specific categories: test kits, water additives, medication, food and maintenance.

  1. Test Kits

    • High water quality is a basic tenet of a good salt water aquarium. One of the ways you ensure good water quality is regularly testing water chemistry. Water testing provides information to help you make adjustments in your aquarium environment. You can test for many components of water chemistry, including pH, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, salinity, chlorine, copper and phosphates.

      You can buy individual test kits that test the critical elements. However, many aquarists get master test kits, which include tests for the most commonly tested items of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and alkalinity. Saltwater hydrometers, which are typically separate from other chemical test kits, test salinity.

    Water Additives

    • If you do regular testing, you may find that you need to make specific adjustments to the water chemistry. Chemicals and additives help maintain balance in water chemistry, especially when you are doing regular water changes and adding water.

      For example, if you use tap water as your water source, you need a chlorine neutralizer to combat the chlorine in the water.

      Depending on your tank and its inhabitants, you may also need other additives. For example, reef tanks typically require calcium additives, and may require an additive called kalkwasser that supplements calcium, alkalinity and pH.

    Medication

    • Promptly treating fish is key in preventing spread of infection or disease and even in keeping the fish alive. The most common fish diseases are treated by medications that you can keep on hand. For example, copper-based medicines are used for a variety of parasitic conditions, and ich responds best to proprietary medications, such as Quick Cure. Just as with medications for people, medications for fish have a limited shelf life. So only stock medications you might use frequently or that have a longer shelf life. Bags of activated carbon to place in your filter are also helpful to have on hand.

    Food

    • Different species and sizes of fish eat different diets, from meat-based to plant-based. For example, common foods that carnivorous fish like to eat include brine shrimp, krill, blood worms, daphnia and silversides. Fish that are primarily herbivores typically like foods like spirulina, algae wafers, seaweed sheets or even flake food.

      Fish, like many animals, need a varied diet to get the proper nutrients for optimal health. Many aquarists rotate through a variety of food.

    Maintenance

    • Daily or weekly maintenance requires some specific supplies. For example, several times a week you might use an algae scraper to clean the glass. Water changes require clean buckets (like paint buckets) and plastic tubing to siphon water. Multiple sizes of fish nets and handled pincers also come in handy for picking up detritus, moving decorations or even capturing fish.