I am going to start doing Salt as well!!!!

Gonna need lots advice in the salt water world, but I am going to do it. I will keep you posted with what i decide for a set up.

We need more people with saltwater knowlege.

Im game for salty talk! keep us posted and im sure we will be able to help you out with your set up, Id say the first decision is to know if want to go straight fish, FOWLR(fish with live rock, or reef-SPS(small polyp stony). or soft/LPS (large polyp stony). personally, i prefer reef- LPS and soft corals. softies and especially alot of the LPS corals have alot of movement in the water. SPS's are nice but I like watching stuff sway back and forth but thats just me.

Have you started yet?

was that question for me fish_love?

Bigfish wrote:

Gonna need lots advice in the salt water world, but I am going to do it. I will keep you posted with what i decide for a set up.

I can help you with the basics:

protein skimmers
calcium reactors
chemicals
substances
live rock
salt mixes
correct lights for tank depth
corals
common fish
wavemakers
uv sterilizers
hydrometers

let me know what you have planned or what you're planning to do.
I know a few short cuts that could save you money.

Ill be more than happy to include my knowledge also. Do you have any ideas on what you want? reef or FOWLR

I am starting my saltwater fish tank; i read the advice given by Bigish :

and in my list i did not include an uv sterilizers. do i really need that ?.

naa not really. honestly, there are alot of things for saltwater that you do not 'NEED" granted it makes it esier but i like a simple set up, some prefer their tanks to be like chemistry seats its really all in what you want. but there are 4 basics, LR(live rock) water movement, filtration and light. I do not have many of the ...gadgets for my tank, no sterilizers, oxidizers, sump, ref, I have powerheads , Alot of rock, good lighting and a solid filter, open lid for better gas exchange and I stay on top of my water changes, get in the habit of this, and everything else just makes it easier/convenient

milongo wrote:

I am starting my saltwater fish tank; i read the advice given by Bigish :

and in my list i did not include an uv sterilizers. do i really need that ?.

It's good for:

disease prevention , water quality control, you'll never get
ich (if you're keeping tangs, triggers or clowns) cause they seem to get
it a lot in new tanks, it also limit green water algae.

I recommend it in a new tank. FOWLR or REEF. after 2or3
months you can put it on a timer or use as needed.

You can find a used 9watt for around $25-$30.

true, they are good for that, not to knock nitty at all im just stating some other points that you might not have though of, it will not cure disease though, lets say you get a tang who is already sick the sterilizer isnt going to..fix it so to speak, QT'ing fish and keeping a good water balance/schedule is crucial not to make it sound hard but you can have all of the add ons you want to but if you slack in that aspect you will still end up with a rough tank. basically all im saying is,yes it has its benefits but do not put you faith in it like if i get this then this wont happen to me, because I have this piece of equipment..I got a buddy who has probably every add on you can buy lol but he feeds heavy, has a CC bed and does wtr changes when he remembers, he also just buys fish, acclimates them and then tosses them in the display tank and something is always going wrong...but that because he believes that if he has the top fo the line sump and skimmer and sterilizer and lights that the tank will basically take care of itself which anyone who has saltwater will tell you, that is a recipe for disaster. I got 2 sick clowns (worms) but I got them from my LFS who is a very reputable trustworthy store, and I didnt ask them to feed them and I didnt really study the fish I just bought them on faith and now, they are in the display and I cant catch them, they are doing good now but if I would have stuck to my rules of the little things, the problem wouldnt have occurred now I have to increase my water changes to keep my water quality good. good thing my tak is well established and my other fish are pretty hardy, engineer goby and mandarin but it could have been bad it I had foxfaces or tangs

I guess it would be easier for us to advise you if we knew what you were leaning towards, tank size, set up, fish only or reef, when you get into corals the game changes a bit than with just fish, you have to incorporate the corals in your treatments of the tank, fish only you can be a little more laxed with say, dosing for a problem at lest that s my opinion and assuming that you have a problem in your display tank you should NEVER dose your display but depending on the problem, you can get away with it more with a fish only set up, do you agree nitty?

I agree. I keep a 20 gallon hospital(lol). I treat sick fish there(if I can catch it)

If you ever get worms again, try Coppersafe. It's good for external parasites.
Worked for me once. I think it was lie $4.

i got some medicated food for them but I will remember that(its cheaper than what i bought lol) right now i got on on fresh garlic and brine.mysis / phytofeast to get their appetites up. are you reef or fowlr?

I brought my snails, rock(some with coral) and sand along with me last month when I moved from Atlanta.

I bought all the fish and most of the coral once I got here to Houston.

FISH
1 firefish goby
2 false ocellaris clowns
2 green chromis
1 six line wrasse

INVERTEBRATES
2 cleaner shrimp
1 huge coral banded shrimp

CORALS
1 small sebae anemone (NEW)
1 small carpet anemone (NEW)
5or6 different kinds of mushrooms (all giving to me out my brothers tank)
3 small branching hammers (4 heads each) (NEW)
2 small finger leathers (OLD)
1 medium favia brain coral (NEW)
lots of pumping xenia (all giving to me out my brothers tank)
1 organ pipe coral (NEW)
star polyps (NEW)
botton polyps (NEW)
green star polyps (OLD)

nice!!
this is what im workin wit until I move and set up my 90 gal or 125, havent decided yet
I love this piece!

FISH- 1 engineer goby, 1 spotted mandarin, 1 suntail goby, 3 false percs, 2 small orange and 1 med black

INVERTS- 1 tiger pistol shrimp, 1 pencil urchin, 1 pincushion urchin, 2 lrg turbos, mexican and zebra, 6 smaller snails(give or take) 7 nassarius snails, 8-10 hermits, 3 peppermint shrimp, 3 emerald crabs

CORALS- zoas/paly zoa, red/orange, neon green, ice blue frag, eagle eyes, brown and green buttons, shrooms, neon green, purple, watermelon(purple with green lines) ricordia, 1neon, lime green, 1 florida orange and blue(both are about to split) torch, 4 headed lrg canary yellow frogspawn, purple branching hammer, trumpet/candy cane, pearl bubble, 1 duncan frag huge head, black sun polyps(roughly 30 heads) green trachyphyllia, red and green lobo, purple lobo, green star polyps, yellow star polyps, long tent hydnophora, small finger leather, yellow encrusting montipora frag, staghorn frag, Pavona. baby Alveopora

not as hard as people make it seem.
salt mix and distilled water.
substrate go to home depot and get "pavestone" pulverized limestone. pavestone is the key word make sure the brand is pavestone.
skimmer,and sump.

I got lucky and got a tank with the sump/refugium built in to the back of it.
I'm starting up a 55g

fishyjoe is right, all you basically need(for reef) is Lr, circulation and a good skimmer, a sump helps out alot but even trhat is not a make or break component. If you stay on top ofyour water quality, you can get away with no having alot of pieces to your hardware. IM in the process of planning out/setting up a 90 long reef and all im going to get is a bigger skimmer, Ill add a sump later but for the tank, its going to be 3/4 rock(roughly 80 lbs and probably close to 60 lbs lf LS, thats enough to be a good bio filter. there are alot of different ways to set up your filtration. you can even get HOB filters which alot of reeefers do not like but I have had no problem with them as long as you change out your filter media regularly.
* i got a buddy with a 250 and he has 4 emperor 400's and like 5 PH's(power heads) andhis tank is super clean and crystal clear.. as far as a right or wrong way, there really isnt one, base it off of how much work you want to do on the tank,

fish:

regal tang
2 mated pair of ocelleris (one is in the fuge )
twin spot hogfish (was a mated pair until one died)
magnificent foxface
flame angel
large coral banded shrimp (in fuge)
mated pair of lemon damsels


nems:
rbta
gbta

corals (all frags):
frogspawn
pavona
mushrooms
yellow figi leather
brown pollyps with green centers
yellow figi leather finger
galaxia

tank is a 90 rr oceanic that i picked up with stand for 50.00 due to the front glass being really scratched up.

lighting is a 4 bulb T5 HO fixture from current

protein skimmer is a super skimmer 220 from coralife (i also have a SS 125)

i dose with liquid calcium so i dont use a calcium reactor (to much work with the CO2 bottles and the high cost)

my old 55 is in the fs/ft section

juice28 wrote:

fishyjoe is right, all you basically need(for reef) is Lr, circulation and a good skimmer, a sump helps out alot but even trhat is not a make or break component. If you stay on top ofyour water quality, you can get away with no having alot of pieces to your hardware. IM in the process of planning out/setting up a 90 long reef and all im going to get is a bigger skimmer, Ill add a sump later but for the tank, its going to be 3/4 rock(roughly 80 lbs and probably close to 60 lbs lf LS, thats enough to be a good bio filter. there are alot of different ways to set up your filtration. you can even get HOB filters which alot of reeefers do not like but I have had no problem with them as long as you change out your filter media regularly.
* i got a buddy with a 250 and he has 4 emperor 400's and like 5 PH's(power heads) andhis tank is super clean and crystal clear.. as far as a right or wrong way, there really isnt one, base it off of how much work you want to do on the tank,

one thing to add to what ryan said, is lighting, depending on what type of livestock you want as far as corals and anemones go. you could go pc (power compact), but i would recommend at least a 4 bulb T5 HO light setup so you can put your daylight bulbs and actinic bulbs on a timer to simulate dusk/dawn cycles. some use MH (metal halide) however i myself dont. the shimmer effect of mh is nice but 60.00 each for bulbs is crazy especially whne you really should replace them every year whereas a T5 HO bulbs are 30.00 each and can be kept for 18 months (i have had mine for almost 2 years in my fixture and i am just now noticing that i need to replace them)

i just finished setting up my tank been running for a week now. saltwater. fish only for now. about half the water was established already along with the rock. i added sand. there were already two clown fish and a crab. it probably would not take the tank that long to go through a cycle?