Newbie with some basic questions...

[00bolt]

hey guys,

iv never had a fish tank before... we at least not a real one.. as a kid I remember having guppies or whatever they are called.... but never a real one.


anyway, i have a 4 year old son now and he mentioned he wanted a fish. well im the type of person that can never take the simple route, if im gonna do something, I always do it extreme. So i wanna have a big salt water tank. I remember in high school I took a marine biology class and remember this one tank we had. it wasnt real big, i would say under 100gallons. but the teacher insisted that it was a real life echosystem. i think it only had 1-2 fish in it, but said he never had to feed the fish... the fish eat off stuff that eat off of stuff that eat off of algae or whatever.... i was always amazed with that....

before I jump into a project like this, i wanna do ALOT of reading first and have an idea of what to do first. Basically what I want is a fairly good sized tank with seahorses, nemos, live plants, rocks, spounges, etc the works!!

but I dont know the first thing... what fish and things cannot survive each other, how do I mix the salt and water, what equipment do I need, etc

i have 2 local pet stores semi close to me, but they are NO help... i would probably have to order my fish online or something because I woudnt trust either of these places... not to mention, neither really have nice fish anyway...

can someone please give me a link or smething that will basically answer all my newbie questions??

p.s. i know this can probably go up as much as you are willing to pay, but on average... what would it cost to setup a 50-100gallon tank with all the equipment??

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi and :welcome:

The first thing to do is get a good book or two. Check out our recommended reading list for beginners:
http://www.reefs.org/library/reading/beginner/beginner.html

Also, here's a guide for those new to the hobby - sorta sums up the basics:
http://www.reefs.org/library/newbieguide.htm

Here are some compatibility charts from our library that might be helpful as well:
http://www.reefs.org/library/compatibility.html

I'm a bit pressed for time right now, but I'll try to add to this later...

HTH

 

[SnowManSnow]

Good luck with your first SW tank. Some say that FW (fresh water) should be your first tank type, but I think that if you're willing to learn you will be fine with SW. I'll offer one bit of advice.

My bit of advice: Don't be overwhelmed with the marine hobby termonologies. I KNOW it can be very confusing. Just take it a little at a time and you'll be fine.

Good luck!

B.

 

[WannaBeReefer]

Read all ya can in the books and when you have a question about something you read, search the archives here. You will find tons and tons of info once you know what you want to look for, if you cant? just post, everyone here is great!

Do yourself a favor and read read read! Personally I researched for 4 months (mostly just reading these boards after I finished the 3 books) before I even bought my tank, then took another 2 before I filled it. I tend to be a bit extreme myself...

 

[paultaylor]

I started off thinking about doing this about a year ago and didn't know a thing.

I ordered a book off the net called :
Natural Reef Aquariums
'Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms'

It explains everything in a very easy to understand way and I still use it as a point of reference even now. Whilst it far from explains EVERYTHING, it is a great start point and gives details of equipment and how to get yourself up and running

The author is John H. Tullock and its ISBN 1-890087-00-09

Enjoy.

PS. Get the biggest tank you can. No matter what size it is you will always wish you got a bigger one later