Sk8r
12/28/2012, 01:55 PM
...to get started, and save a BUNDLE of money...start at the top of this forum and read the stickies, particularly about how to start your tank. I regret to say your local fish store may NOT provide accurate advice or sell you the right things. Before you remove labels, check out:
1. WHAT you want to keep...different fishes need different tank shapes. That's in the stickies. Corals need particular lights. That's in the stickies. Fish-only tanks are not easier than reefs.
2. WHAT you've got: Sumps are a good idea for reefs. Really efficient skimmers are important for sps stony coral, but lps coral may be happier with less skimmer. Read the stickies.
3. Maintaining salinity: you need an autotopoff. Read the stickies.
4. Tests: you start with test strips and a salinity checker---ammonia/nitrate and a refractometer. You progress to 3 more tests, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium. Read the stickies.
5. You're in the best place in the hobby to get advice. Don't rush to take the first advice offered, but get a consensus.
6. Don't be afraid of things that came in your rocks: most are good. Even the bristly worms. Read the ID sticky.
7. Don't buy fish until you have a quarantine tank: read the stickies.
8. LIttle tanks are harder than big tanks up to about 150 gallons. Then the equation gets iffier.
9. Ask on RC BEFORE you do something experimental rather than after you've ---that will save a lot of problems!
10. In the centuries-old history of this hobby, we've tried most everything, but we've got a sequenced list of things that we know work well together...in those stickies!
And if there's something they don't cover or you can't find---ask! There's no stupid question here---there's not a one of us that hasn't left a topoff unit unplugged or overdosed on buffer, ourselves.
1. WHAT you want to keep...different fishes need different tank shapes. That's in the stickies. Corals need particular lights. That's in the stickies. Fish-only tanks are not easier than reefs.
2. WHAT you've got: Sumps are a good idea for reefs. Really efficient skimmers are important for sps stony coral, but lps coral may be happier with less skimmer. Read the stickies.
3. Maintaining salinity: you need an autotopoff. Read the stickies.
4. Tests: you start with test strips and a salinity checker---ammonia/nitrate and a refractometer. You progress to 3 more tests, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium. Read the stickies.
5. You're in the best place in the hobby to get advice. Don't rush to take the first advice offered, but get a consensus.
6. Don't be afraid of things that came in your rocks: most are good. Even the bristly worms. Read the ID sticky.
7. Don't buy fish until you have a quarantine tank: read the stickies.
8. LIttle tanks are harder than big tanks up to about 150 gallons. Then the equation gets iffier.
9. Ask on RC BEFORE you do something experimental rather than after you've ---that will save a lot of problems!
10. In the centuries-old history of this hobby, we've tried most everything, but we've got a sequenced list of things that we know work well together...in those stickies!
And if there's something they don't cover or you can't find---ask! There's no stupid question here---there's not a one of us that hasn't left a topoff unit unplugged or overdosed on buffer, ourselves.