Diving in head first.

Coldave85 · Oct 25, 2012

So i just got a 30 gallon acrylic tank that i am going to make salt water. I have friend from work that has been helping me set it up. I will mostly be marine with some live rocks and anemonies. I have a HOB filter right now will be adding a skimmer too. Any advise would be awsome. I am brand new to this.

user 26995 · Oct 25, 2012

Welcome to Reef Frontiers and to the saltwater hobby. We look forward to following along with the build of your new tank. Best advise I think you can get is Research everything (read and ask questions) and take it slow.
There are a lot of good informative threads here and a lot of people willing to help with any questions.
Again, welcome and enjoy the hobby.

mercenary-grunt · Oct 25, 2012

welcome. best advice you don't want but it is very important ... go slow.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2.

NemCrazy · Oct 30, 2012

When it comes to having an anemone tank you will really need to take it slow especially in a 28gallon. And as Ipisces said it right. Research everything extensively. It will save you hundreds maybe thousands of dollars

kpiotrowski · Oct 31, 2012

mechanical filters like your HOB are not needed in saltwater and in fact are in many ways a bad thing. they trap planktonic life that you want to stay in your sytstem and all the waste they trap just breaks down and turns into food for algea unless you want to be cleaning in every couple days. Most anemone need high light, and good flow. High light is an issue when it comes to keeping your tank from overheating and is more important in smaller tanks as they swing faster.

weather it fresh or saltwater all of the failure I have ever seen boiled down to the hobbiest not being properly edjucated and giving up when they are faced with their first failure. so dont give up a read, read, read!

You will hear the phrase " my tank crashed"...well unless it actually fell to the floor and broke, in MOST cases that just means the hobbiest was ignorant of the goings on of their system.

sedrostyle · Oct 31, 2012

Welcome.
Hopefully your friend will point you in the right direction.
What kind of lighting are you going to have?. My advice is to start slow like everyone is saying but on top of that. when your tank is finally cycled after your Clean up Crew ( cuc ) you can get a couple fish.. then look into getting some Palys or even some ZOAs they are beautiful and great for starters. not too hard to keep and it will get you in the right motion or watchign your test levels and waterchanges and such.
Good luck and let us know how it goes with pictures and more information

Coldave85 · Nov 1, 2012

Thanks everyone for all the help. I've had tons of help from red c aquqrium. I've gone with a canister filter fluval 404. I know its not popular here but i've intertacted with people that have made it work great. My cycle is almost over! My ammonia is down to .25ppm from 1.5ppm. My nitrates r at 20ppm as well. I added about 35lbs of LR and 2in of LS. I'll be adding a cleaning crew shortly of 5 turbosnails, 5 hermit crab and an emerald crab. Actually there is a soft coral on one of my live rocks that opens and closes with my lights. So if he is doing well then i think things r looking up.