can you help me?

[glin7]

Hi, I'm new to this website, and I'm also a little new to saltwater aquariums, can you please tell me some important things that I need to know? (what kind of skimmers, lights, heaters, power sweepers to buy) I have a 75g aquarium, and I'm planning on buying corals and marine fish.
Andrew

 

[Krish]

Welcome to the forum if I haven't welcomed you already

Now...Important stuff. Hmmm...Where do you begin(LOL) First off, is the tank the only thing you have now or do you have other equipment you thought of using? Also, do you have a sump and what are your plans in terms of livestock etc?? Answers to these questions will give us a starting point on which direction to point you in

 

[wrightme43]

Your gonna need some books man.
If you want to succede you have to have a plan. If you just do what someone else tells you works for them but leave out one little thing it can go bad.
You have to have your OWN plan.

 

[glin7]

Welcome to the forum if I haven't welcomed you already

Now...Important stuff. Hmmm...Where do you begin(LOL) First off, is the tank the only thing you have now or do you have other equipment you thought of using? Also, do you have a sump and what are your plans in terms of livestock etc?? Answers to these questions will give us a starting point on which direction to point you in

the tank is all I have. I'm planning on having clownfish, and tangs for starters.

 

[cwby416]

the tank is all I have. I'm planning on having clownfish, and tangs for starters.

Tang'S?? in a 75?? you might pull off a single yellow tang. But a 75 is pretty small for most tangs.

I do agree, Books and lots of archive reading here on Reef Frontiers is the way to go!

I remimber when I started way back when......I bought my first 72g and it sat in my living room empty for 6 months while I did hours of reading and asking questions everynight....That way I knew what I was doing before I started making huge costly mistakes. I know it is hard to wait, but that is the key to this hobbie, patience.....It will pay off in the long run.....

 

[swissgaurd]

i always found another important thing is to think of a budget,then go from there, you may want to drill the tank, get a sump,external,or submersable pump,external i find get maintained alot easier,lights,liverock a good book,types of coral you want to keep,skimmer,ro system,and of course patience.

vic

 

[wrightme43]

in my experince tangs really are not as vicious as most people think.
Lets see, one 150 has a huge blonde naso, huge blue hippo, a huge yellow. No problems.
A 125 with powderblue, yellow, hippo
a 75 with naso and sailfin
a 150 with hippo, yellow, vlamingi
a 75 with yellow and hippo
Just my experince though, and I am sure if the fish could read they would fill the tanks with each others blood, and then the winner would die because the tank was too small.
LOL

 

[MarineTeng]

well i've got to say, it's good that you're using a 75 then a 55 you'll be very happy with that choice, wish i had,
here's just some personal suggestions
pumps i'd go with seios for flow, unless you're going to plumb a close loop
lighting, i'd go with t-5 w/ good reflectors to avoid a lot of heat issues with MH, though MH is a good way to go, wouldn't suggest pc's, you'll just want to upgrade - note i have no exp with vho and wouldn't rule those out completely
substrate - i would go bare bottom or thin layer of sand on the bottom for looks, though i have a sand bed it seems to collect bubbles which i don't think is good
live rock- get some good stuff from a local person
skimmer- i use Coralife super skimmers, not top of the line but have done fine for me, i'd research this more and see your different options such as in sump, hang on or in tank

fish - make sure u add ur clownfish before the tang, i added a yellow tang first and it killed all newcomers till i sold it, it got too territorial and established

general suggestions - read a lot, this is just how i kinda do things, i tend to have algae problems a bit ask a lot of questions here on the forums, and be very patient, it'll save you money.
equipment not listed i'd suggest- heard phosban reactors are a good investment and am thinking about doing that soon, and RO is good too, and a fuge, the algae in my first tank went down considerably when i added a well lit fuge w/ cheato

 

[Reefdaddy1]

I agree , Read , read and read somemore, There is no easy way to get going, all it leads to is dead fish and corals. The library here is extensive, Please use it.

 

[Scooterman]

I'm relocating this thread to help get better information & viewing, I would also like to give a warm welcome to RF & please feel free to ask away before taking the big steps & costly of getting started, please read forever to get a good start.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/reviews/index.php

 

[ReefJunkie]

I would say you only need 3 things to get started in this great hobby;
1. Money
2. Money
3. Money
After that, everything is downhill.

 

[Cajun Reefer]

My 2 cents

Welcome glin7! I have been on this forum a little over a month and have found it to be extremely helpful! :exclaim: You will find no better place! I wish I would have found it about 2 months earlier, right before I got started. I wasted a lot of money on stupid items and lost some beautiful fishes.

Now for my 2 cents. Invest in a quaratine tank to save you lots of headaches and expensive fish losses. Fishes should be quarantined 3-6 weeks before you introduce them into your main display. If not, you risk bringing ICH (white spots / parasites) and other problems into your tank which are near impossible to treat in your display tank without harming other things. Research the fishes before you buy them! Some fishes do not mix well with smaller aquariums, and some are extremely difficult to raise. I unfortunately lost a beautiful 7-inch Powder Blue Tang ($75) after only 3 weeks. He was gorgeous! My setup and experience was not ready for such a delicate fish. Also, don't waste your money on wet/dry or BIO filters. They will accumulate nitrates which are very bad for corals and to fish a certain degree.

As the previous users suggested, do lots and lots of reading and come up with a general game plan. It will save you money and headaches in the long run. I would highly recommend the following books which you should be able to find second hand:
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner
Aquarium Corals Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History by Eric Borneman

I would suggest buying a lot of your equipment online as it is quite a bit cheaper than at your LFS (local fish store). However, I believe in buying my fish locally at my LFS as I am still new to the hobby and do not have enough skill and faith in myself to try mail-order fishes. Invest in live rock and a good protein skimmer. I just recently got in 2- Seio 1500 Powerheads ($60/ea) for my 90 gallon aquarium which caused a sand storm, too much power! I would recommend 1- Seio 1100 Powerhead ($55/ea.) or a Tunze Turbelle NanoStream 6025 Powerhead ($62/ea) for your 75 gallon aquarium. That should get you start as far as waterflow is concerned. Plus you will not be wasting any money since they will carry over once you become more advanced. Many advanced aquarist use them. Also, get a portable refractometer to measure your salinity / specific gravity. Those plastic swingarm hydrometers are not always accurate. I would suggest a Visi-Therm Stealth 250 watt Heater or any other non-glass heater. There is nothing worse than a glass heater shattering in your beautiful tank. And lastly, consider purchasing a Pinpoint pH monitor to accurately measure your pH. It makes life much easier to see a hard number as opposed to trying to decifer what color the test kit came back at and comparing to a faded chart! I have found in my reading over the past month that the Salifert test kits are highly recommended on this forum due to their high reliability which can't be said for all kits. No sense in trying to fix an incorrectly diagnosed problem based on a bad test kit.

Best of luck to you! And I'll see you around!
-Dennis

 

[Cajun Reefer]

Use RO water

Also, don't use treated tap water! Nuisance algae loves tap water! Use Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Distilled Water. You want your water to contain as little Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) as possible, preferably 0!

-Dennis

 

[Cajun Reefer]

glin7,

Here's a good deal for you. Some good reading material!

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20625

Set of books for sale.
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Bob Fenner
The New Marine Aquarium by Michael Paletta
Marine Fishes A Pocket Expert Guide by Scott Michael
Marine Invertebrates A Pocket Expert Guide by Ronald Shimek
Great set of books for setting up a new aquarium, maintaining and stocking an existing aquarium.
The books are in good shape, covers intact and no missing pages.
Asking $30.00 + Shipping

 

[glin7]

another question....

Thanks so much for all of your time and answers! I'm about to fill up my tank with water, what would be the right thing to do, put in the live sand, or the water first?
Andrew

 

[Krish]

It's best to put in the sand in first and then put something like a dish in there to pour the water on so it doesn't scatter the sand everywhere

 

[glin7]

Thanks for your help!

 

[glin7]

where can I buy?

Where can I buy cured live rock online? (I only found pre-cured rocks.)

 

[Krish]

I've never bought liverock or livestock online, but check with www.premiumaquatics.com I know they have tons of it

 

[MarineTeng]

any live rock cured or not from online will have some die off in shipping and such and should still be cured unless u have a mature system that can deal with the extra die off, just my thought