Hey guys! The date is coming up this weekend of starting my newest tank. It's the one down in my signature.
So first things first
If you are on a budget, research like heck first. Don't expect those cheap eBay light ballasts to hold up and don't expect the 30 dollar skimmer "rated for tanks up to 150 gallons" to do the trick. If the instructions aren't clear in English, you are rolling the dice!
Figure out what filtration method you want before ordering a 100 dollar wet dry filter. I've traded in my 10 gallon wet dry for a 30 gallon wet dry, and have already started getting rid of bio balls.
Understand curing lr and save yourself a few weeks of rotten egg stench in your living room (and keep your girlfriend from staying with mom for a weekend)
Petco employees aren't hugely knowledgeable of maintaining a healthy reef tank. Lots of "yeah this shouldn't be an issue in your tank" and "this bottle of pods can be dumped in the water column cold as soon as you get home"
I've spent a year randomly looking at folks setups and doing light reading until December when I really started going through the novels everyone has submitted.
Sandbeds look cool, but wait a few weeks after you put fish on and give it a stir.
Don't expect everything to live when you are starting up. I have flushed three critters down so far. Never once from a disease though. I had a beautiful domino damsel and he had new tank syndrome and must have gotten bullied by my clowns, she only lasted the weekend. My neon blue hermit and my scooter blenny "benny the blenny", he starved because there were not enough pods to go around.
When thinking of getting a new creature, read the description on live aquaria!!!!!!!!! Read it!!!! Then Google the creature again and read some forum posts. If you can buy it, somebody has experience with it. I've never had something I haven't read someone from 2006 complaining about being a butt head in their tank.
Do not blindly dose. Get test kits, and avoid api like the plague. Shoot for elos or red sea.
Use Craigslist. I got my 600 dollar timed led for 150 bucks from an old reefer a few miles from my house. Also when you visit people with tanks of a decades age, sometimes you can go home with really really cool new additions to your tank for penny's on the dollar.
Also check to make sure there's not a stud where you are installing a toggle bolt. I should upload a picture. I had my buddy installing it on one side of the ceiling and I was doing mine. Once I had mine in place I looked at his worried face and noticed there were two holes in my ceiling already. Two more before he got the dang thing in....
Do weekly water changes and keep an eye on all your critters.
Occasionally check on your brittle star fish and make sure it's not decaying in your sand bed..... Don't ask.
Google is your absolute best friend. If I made a thread for every question I'm sure 75% of this community would say oh boy.. Here we go again. If I posted my search history it would be for weekend beer tastings and "yada yada in reef tank"
Okay I have to say this though, if I die, do not let my girlfriend sell my coral for what I told her I paid.
If any of you have any questions about what I've done, please please ask.
So first things first
If you are on a budget, research like heck first. Don't expect those cheap eBay light ballasts to hold up and don't expect the 30 dollar skimmer "rated for tanks up to 150 gallons" to do the trick. If the instructions aren't clear in English, you are rolling the dice!
Figure out what filtration method you want before ordering a 100 dollar wet dry filter. I've traded in my 10 gallon wet dry for a 30 gallon wet dry, and have already started getting rid of bio balls.
Understand curing lr and save yourself a few weeks of rotten egg stench in your living room (and keep your girlfriend from staying with mom for a weekend)
Petco employees aren't hugely knowledgeable of maintaining a healthy reef tank. Lots of "yeah this shouldn't be an issue in your tank" and "this bottle of pods can be dumped in the water column cold as soon as you get home"
I've spent a year randomly looking at folks setups and doing light reading until December when I really started going through the novels everyone has submitted.
Sandbeds look cool, but wait a few weeks after you put fish on and give it a stir.
Don't expect everything to live when you are starting up. I have flushed three critters down so far. Never once from a disease though. I had a beautiful domino damsel and he had new tank syndrome and must have gotten bullied by my clowns, she only lasted the weekend. My neon blue hermit and my scooter blenny "benny the blenny", he starved because there were not enough pods to go around.
When thinking of getting a new creature, read the description on live aquaria!!!!!!!!! Read it!!!! Then Google the creature again and read some forum posts. If you can buy it, somebody has experience with it. I've never had something I haven't read someone from 2006 complaining about being a butt head in their tank.
Do not blindly dose. Get test kits, and avoid api like the plague. Shoot for elos or red sea.
Use Craigslist. I got my 600 dollar timed led for 150 bucks from an old reefer a few miles from my house. Also when you visit people with tanks of a decades age, sometimes you can go home with really really cool new additions to your tank for penny's on the dollar.
Also check to make sure there's not a stud where you are installing a toggle bolt. I should upload a picture. I had my buddy installing it on one side of the ceiling and I was doing mine. Once I had mine in place I looked at his worried face and noticed there were two holes in my ceiling already. Two more before he got the dang thing in....
Do weekly water changes and keep an eye on all your critters.
Occasionally check on your brittle star fish and make sure it's not decaying in your sand bed..... Don't ask.
Google is your absolute best friend. If I made a thread for every question I'm sure 75% of this community would say oh boy.. Here we go again. If I posted my search history it would be for weekend beer tastings and "yada yada in reef tank"
Okay I have to say this though, if I die, do not let my girlfriend sell my coral for what I told her I paid.
If any of you have any questions about what I've done, please please ask.
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