Does any one no how to culculate how many marine fish you can have?

I don't know. I've never had a marine tank. Anyone else? It think there are just too many variables for there to be a rule.

there are a lot of variables. the two most important of which are how big is the tank and what all do you want to put in it? what filtration do/will you have? are you wanting to get live rock?

2 clown fish no live rock and probely an under gravel filter with 2 uplifts and maby power heads. probebly about 60L.

you need mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration. undergravels only provide bio and mech, but in saltwater it is better to use something like crushed coral as a substrate because it will be a good buffer. crushed coral would be too fine to use with an undergravel. why dont you want to use live rock? it will help a little to keep the water cleaner, and provides a lot of hiding places for the clowns (as well as some food for them to find). you should have some sort of hang on back filter. you could use canister if you wanted, but the hang on backs are cheaper, easier to maintain, and in my experience better for most purposes.

Yes I was about to ask you , would the PH stay at 8.4 without buffering media.(calsite?). I am not usaly good at lighting aquariums, and also would'nt the live rock need a blue spectrom light. what typ of light do you sugest I use.

i cant remember off-hand exactly what bulb live rock needs (if it needs anything special) but if it needs a special bulb you should just be able to put that bulb in the fixture, you shouldnt need any special fixtures or anything. if you dont have a buffering substrate (and sometimes even if you do) you will need to use a powder buffer.

Most reef aquariums use metal halides. That may be what Harry's thinking of. They make these new fixtures that house both metal halides and fluorescent lighting. Metal halide lamps are hundreds of dollars each but a real must for photosynthetic marine invertebrates.

thats why i havent ever set up a marine tank... i just dont have the money, i figure if i want a nice sized tank with a reef set up, filtration, lamps, lighting, fish, etc, i am looking at at least 1000 dollars.

when i first read your post robyn, i thought you said metal halide lamps cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars"... i was like WOAH!

my brother gave me a 30 gallon tall, which could work for a little reef with some clownfish, too bad i cant talk him out of that 55 gallon long he's got thats had the same stagnant water in it forever :(

i recently was planning on setting up a marine tank. if i do it i will use a 55 and have a lot of live rock. i checked everything with gynmonkey (very good with saltwater) and i would use 50/50 bulbs, but that was mainly for the bubbletip anemone. i think he said i wouldnt need any special lighting just for the live rock, but considering that fluorescent bulbs like 'Reef Sun' and 'Coral Sun' are pretty cheap you might as well use them.

I have did some mor research and I dont think live rock needs special lighting eather. I think its basicaly algee covered rock what acts as a biological filtration and denitrification, (the inside is normaly a bit unairobic). I am not shor about how I am going to acheave chemical filtration with a under gravel filtration system, I might put a small box filter in containing carben. as for flow rait I am going to use a 800lph power head in what will probely be a 12gal tank with a circulation of the tank aproxametly 16 times ph.

P.S.thanks for your help