A Good Place to Start
- Thread starter bruno321
- Start date
Here's what I did:
1. Bought a book. I chose the book book Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms because it covered fundamentals of ecosystem design, illustrated some biotopes and basically worked on foundation knowledge, staying away from equipment or trend based info.
Look it up on Amazon or wherever you prefer; ISBN: 1890087009
2. Use the search feature. Why? Because all our questions have been asked 1000 times and there are already hundreds of answers out there waiting for you! Usually I get really annoyed when people say that to newbies, but here it's actually useful!
3. Ask smaller questions with limited scope if you are confused as to how the parts all fit together. Don't worry about the best brand of refugium if you don't know what a refugium does or why a person would cultivate macroalgae like Calupera.
4. Bing!
http://www.reefs.org/library/subject.html
1. Bought a book. I chose the book book Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms because it covered fundamentals of ecosystem design, illustrated some biotopes and basically worked on foundation knowledge, staying away from equipment or trend based info.
Look it up on Amazon or wherever you prefer; ISBN: 1890087009
2. Use the search feature. Why? Because all our questions have been asked 1000 times and there are already hundreds of answers out there waiting for you! Usually I get really annoyed when people say that to newbies, but here it's actually useful!
3. Ask smaller questions with limited scope if you are confused as to how the parts all fit together. Don't worry about the best brand of refugium if you don't know what a refugium does or why a person would cultivate macroalgae like Calupera.
4. Bing!
http://www.reefs.org/library/subject.html
Find a real-life friend who's kept a reef before.
My biggest advice came from a friend who has had successful reef aquariums in the past. Having someone you can call on a moments notice is actually really good. It'll help you keep a more level head, as its easy to see something minor and start freaking out about it.
reefs.org is obviously a great resource, but you need to realize that there are lots of different ideas, techniques, and styles. I think an important thing to do is "pick your camp" so to say, and figure out where you lie. Many times, this is a combination of philosophy and economics (as many people here seem to have nearly unlimited budgets, and that leads to some impractical advice every once in a while)
Everybody has different opinions about what works, and what doesn't. To me, this just means that there is no *one* solution to having a good tank, and there is definately some amount of luck & magic involved.
You'll develop your own techniques and philosophy after you've set up your first tank, and had it running for several months to a year. I tend to think that it takes first-hand experience before this will really set in. With that in mind, remember that your first tank will be in no way "perfect" -- there will be tons of things you'll wish you had done differently. Some you'll be able to fix, and others will be very difficult.
Oh, and by the way: never ever rush anything. *Everything* takes time, and various amounts of it. Being too anxious was (and still is) my biggest weakpoint. If you take your time, you'll find your mistakes before its too late to change them. For example, in my next tank I'm going to do a full electrical system in the cabinet, outlets, switches, everything. My last tank was a tangle of corroded powerstrips, extension cords, and crappy lamp timers. This won't happen this time. It may take me several weeks to just get that part of the system to my liking.
Steve
My biggest advice came from a friend who has had successful reef aquariums in the past. Having someone you can call on a moments notice is actually really good. It'll help you keep a more level head, as its easy to see something minor and start freaking out about it.
reefs.org is obviously a great resource, but you need to realize that there are lots of different ideas, techniques, and styles. I think an important thing to do is "pick your camp" so to say, and figure out where you lie. Many times, this is a combination of philosophy and economics (as many people here seem to have nearly unlimited budgets, and that leads to some impractical advice every once in a while)
Everybody has different opinions about what works, and what doesn't. To me, this just means that there is no *one* solution to having a good tank, and there is definately some amount of luck & magic involved.
You'll develop your own techniques and philosophy after you've set up your first tank, and had it running for several months to a year. I tend to think that it takes first-hand experience before this will really set in. With that in mind, remember that your first tank will be in no way "perfect" -- there will be tons of things you'll wish you had done differently. Some you'll be able to fix, and others will be very difficult.
Oh, and by the way: never ever rush anything. *Everything* takes time, and various amounts of it. Being too anxious was (and still is) my biggest weakpoint. If you take your time, you'll find your mistakes before its too late to change them. For example, in my next tank I'm going to do a full electrical system in the cabinet, outlets, switches, everything. My last tank was a tangle of corroded powerstrips, extension cords, and crappy lamp timers. This won't happen this time. It may take me several weeks to just get that part of the system to my liking.
Steve
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