New here looking for advice

[sjsoto]

new to the hobby. am excited to start my new reef tank. my question is...
1. can i keep live rock only with no added fish or corals, just hitchers and do nothing just watch tank and top off? or must i add besides top off water to keep reef healthy?
2. the tank would be a ten gallon. filtration would just be besides live rock, emperor 400. would that be sufficient water flow?
thanks in advance

 

[Killerdrgn]

new to the hobby. am excited to start my new reef tank. my question is...
1. can i keep live rock only with no added fish or corals, just hitchers and do nothing just watch tank and top off? or must i add besides top off water to keep reef healthy?
2. the tank would be a ten gallon. filtration would just be besides live rock, emperor 400. would that be sufficient water flow?
thanks in advance

So wait you just want it to be an invert and Rock only tank? If so then yeah that should be enough filtration depending on how much and what kind of inverts you get.

And yes you will have to top off with fresh water because of evaporation. If you keep filling it with salt water the salinity will slowly go up.

 

[sjsoto]

thanks for the advice killerdrgn

 

[sjsoto]

For a ten gallon reef, what is the best combination of cleaners. Ill just have two clown fish (ocellaris). i would like for algae, detritus and sand swifter as well. Nothing that will harm my two clowns and future corals.

 

[Killerdrgn]

5 astrea snails, 5 cerith snails, and 10 nassarius snails. That's a good mix.

 

[sjsoto]

killerdrgn would i have to supplement them with any food (the cleaner pack you reccomended) or they can handle their own in an established tank?

 

[inkblue]

Cool articLe for peeps downgrading to a nano:

:bagfish:


http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/03/28/nano-reef-aquarium-secrets-simplicity-key/

 

[Killerdrgn]

killerdrgn would i have to supplement them with any food (the cleaner pack you reccomended) or they can handle their own in an established tank?

well you'll have to feed every so often the intended occupants of the tank so, yeah. Do you have to feed them anything in particular, no not really.

 

[sjsoto]

in a all live rock tank, no fish, corals or invertebrates. would i have to supplement calcium and other stuffs?

 

[Killerdrgn]

no, probably not.

 

[sjsoto]

what is the easiest to keep coral? what is photosynthesis coral? is there a coral that can live just of light? what feed them and what supplements are required?

 

[jrobbins]

time to start reading...

www.manhattanreefs.com
www.wetwebmedia.com
www.reefcentral.com
www.fishbase.org

These sites are a good place to start.

RIF

what is the easiest to keep coral? what is photosynthesis coral? is there a coral that can live just of light? what feed them and what supplements are required?

 

[sjsoto]

i read and surfed all artcles posted jrobbins, but none were helpful in my question.

 

[jrobbins]

i read and surfed all artcles posted jrobbins, but none were helpful in my question.

It would be pretty hard to read all the articles on one of those sites, let alone all of them in one night. I'm not trying to be a dick, but in this hobby information you learn for yourself is a million times more valuable than random crap someone tells you on a board. here is a link to the main marine index at wetweb. i promise you that each question you asked (and many you never thought of) are covered here. Dude...Read...Trust me

http://wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm

 

[marrone]

I'm not trying to be a dick, but in this hobby, information you learn for yourself is a million times more valuable than random crap someone tells you on a board. here is a link to the main marine index at wetweb. i promise you that each question you asked (and many you never thought of are covered here). Dude...Read...Trust me

http://wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm

I have just the opposite view. There are tons of knowledgeable hobbyists, who have never written any articles, who experiences most of the time are just as good, and in some case better, than people who write articles or answers questions in their own forum. Remember this is a hobby first and foremost and a lot of time people writing articles aren't always the best.

 

[jrobbins]

I have just the opposite view. There are tons of knowledgeable hobbyists, who have never written any articles, who experiences most of the time are just as good, and in some case better, than people who write articles or answers questions in their own forum. Remember this is a hobby first and foremost and a lot of time people writing articles aren't always the best.

I completely agree with that statement, but how is a beginner to know which advice is worthwhile and which is just wrong? ie. how many times have you heard (read) someone say (write) that keeping a tang in a 30 gallon tank is fine because they managed to do it for 6 months??

the one benefit of sites like wetweb is that at least you know the person writing the articles has some degree of experience, where as on open sites like here and RC it is kind of a crap shoot.

Not to say there aren't a lot of very smart and qualified reefers here, but again, how is a beginner to sort it all out without at least a small base of knowledge of their own?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

New thread started for SJSOTO to continue his conversation.

 

[Bahamian1999]

Don't forget some blue & red leg crabs and a shrimp.

 

[Killerdrgn]

what is the easiest to keep coral? what is photosynthesis coral? is there a coral that can live just of light? what feed them and what supplements are required?

Softies are easy to keep and really only just require light. Like zoanthids, or ricordia, very easy to keep and really only need good stable water parameters and decent lighting.

 

[baja2700]

you can look on nano-reef.com they are a nano tank forum so you may be able to get more help there and there is tons of pictures to look at for ideas. Good luck with your tank!