Quick Question
- Thread starter Silver_Wolf
- Start date
You will probably save money (IMO) by starting out planning on a reef. My advice is to read, research and buddy up with some reefers.
Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums was incredibly helpful and is my handbook.
Starting with liverock will help the cycle out.
Ernie
Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums was incredibly helpful and is my handbook.
Starting with liverock will help the cycle out.
Ernie
I'm having success with the reef (well, kinda - darn algae
) but can't keep a fish to save my life.
No sense in starting with one thing and then haveing to invest more money to buy different things though. Get excited and do your research - some of the happiest people here visited the boards and asked and read tons of questions before they even bought a tank.
No sense in starting with one thing and then haveing to invest more money to buy different things though. Get excited and do your research - some of the happiest people here visited the boards and asked and read tons of questions before they even bought a tank.
IME, corals are simpler to keep than fish. If you want fish first, you have to be careful not to get any that will eat your corals that you add later. (angels, triggers)
If fish wind up fighting, you can't really separate them, like you can with corals. In the case of fighting corals, you can just move them to opposite ends of the tank, or in the case of leathers and the chemicals that they expel, adding carbon every now and then will do. Fish get diseases quickly, and can die quickly. Corals usually recede first, giving you time to find the source of their ill health.
I view most of my fish as being there for the tanks' and corals' benefit. (herbivores, waste producers).
Keep a simple coral, like a mushroom, first, to learn from it and boost your confidence when it reproduces. From there you can go to soft bodied corals and others. By that time, you'll know enough that you can try some more challenging ones, and aquire the appropriate equipment.
Mitch
If fish wind up fighting, you can't really separate them, like you can with corals. In the case of fighting corals, you can just move them to opposite ends of the tank, or in the case of leathers and the chemicals that they expel, adding carbon every now and then will do. Fish get diseases quickly, and can die quickly. Corals usually recede first, giving you time to find the source of their ill health.
I view most of my fish as being there for the tanks' and corals' benefit. (herbivores, waste producers).
Keep a simple coral, like a mushroom, first, to learn from it and boost your confidence when it reproduces. From there you can go to soft bodied corals and others. By that time, you'll know enough that you can try some more challenging ones, and aquire the appropriate equipment.
Mitch
I've been in research mode for about 10 months now, and I've read around 5 or 6 books. Until last month, all the books that I found were on fish only, and sometimes briefly mentioned anemones as hosts....but I found a few books at my new library on reefs. I've got a 75 gal tank with a wooden stand. I'm still in the whole planning stage, but I figured that I can buy stuff as I learn and spread the start up expenses over the next year or so. What I'm looking at now is at least a lb of liverock per gallon (maybe more), a protien skimmer, some sort of high flow power filter, and a mixture of live sand and regular sand. For lighting I'm looking at a mixture of the metal halite and blue actnic lights....So how am I doing?
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