new to hobby

[fz6bill]

Hello all,
First i would just like to commend the community on their good nature and overall wanting to help each other. very informative and friendly helpful posts is what keeps me coming to these forums.

so I am thinking of diving into this hobby, trying to take in all the information i find. my thought is to start with a 20 gallon tank at first with some live rock and a couple fish. I would like to grow the awe-inspiring corals which draw me to this hobby but you gotta crawl before you walk, right. I am looking for all the advise i can get, so if you all dont mind I would greatly appreciate it. oh and please forgive me if i dont understand some of the terms or techniques only, knowledge i have of this hobby is what i have read

Thanks!
Bill

[reefermike1]

let me be the first to welcome u....

WELCOME TO TRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[seachicken]

Welcome aboard.... Dive right in!

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT! and don't think you have a dumb question.

[reefermike1]

crawling before walking is a great way to put it. patience is definatly rewarded in this hobby. a 20gallon tank can be setup somewhat inexpensively if u wish, although ive seen some pretty impressive-quite a bit more expensive "nano" setups. i like dimensions of a 29gallon tank better but thats just my opinion.

my advice is always be thinking about when u upgrade when buying equipment... if u get bit by the bug u will want a bigger tank, and likely sooner than later. id start out with a 20-30lb bag of aragonite sand, ~20lbs lr as porous as u can find, an appropriate sized power compact or t5HO light fixture, and a maxijet 900 or 2. a heater and thermometer also. that will be enough to get u going for a while. when u get through the initial cycle and start wanting to add livestock it would be a good time to look into a protein skimmer. this is where thinking about upgrading is a good idea, and its ok to go overkill with a skimmer imo. the best way imo is to run a sump with the skimmer in it. but if u dont want a sump an aquac remora would be a good choice. that should give u a little bit to thnik about im sure others will chime in, the tank i described should be good for most any zoa, paly, shroom, leather, and most lps. good luck and if u need anything jsut ask!!!

[fz6bill]

thanks for the warm welcome , i was contemplating the 29 gallon tank but a lil concearned about the trial and error portion dont want it to be a huge battle, but from what i read it seems it might be a touch easier to regulate the 29 gallon tank?

mike you mention the "initial cycle" i have seen that brought up alot could you elaborate a lil on that for me

[Sprayin70]

Welcome to TRT! This is a great place to learn about the reefy stuff.

[ckusnierek]

Welcome!
Look into Aqua Pods. They are all in one tanks.

But like reefmike1 said once you get bit you will want a bigger tank! The nice thing about the Pods or other nano setups is that you can put them just about anywere you want. Including a kitchen countertop And they are fairly inexpansive. If you decide reefing is not your cup o' tea you can unload the Aqua Pods eaisly on Ebay or here in TRT.

The down side is the size. The more volume you have the eaiser the tank is to maintain. Larger sytems are more forgiving. Lets say you have a fish that dies. In a nano if not caught quickly amonia could build up very quickly but in a larger system you may see no ill effects. Also you are limited on the inhabitants. (due to size and bio-load)

I started with a 75g and now (within 6 months) have a 75 and a 35 plumbed to the same sump and am in the process of setting up another 55g. I wish I had started with a 125-180g

[Hardhead Cat]

Welcome to TRT! If you can afford a 24-gallon or larger, I would recommend the 24-gallon Aquapod, Nano or Oceanic cube tanks (all-in-one, lights and every thing are included). However, you will want a bigger one soon!


HHC

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!



check into getting an RO/DI filter or even buying RO/DI water for the tank from the beginning. the better the initial water the less problems you will have down the line.

G~

[reefermike1]

Originally Posted by fz6bill

thanks for the warm welcome , i was contemplating the 29 gallon tank but a lil concearned about the trial and error portion dont want it to be a huge battle, but from what i read it seems it might be a touch easier to regulate the 29 gallon tank?

mike you mention the "initial cycle" i have seen that brought up alot could you elaborate a lil on that for me

the denitrification cycle in laymans terms- organic waste in an aquarium becomes ammonia as it decomposes. bacteria will multiply in the tank to consume ammonia and turn it into nitrite, then more bacteria will consume nitrite and turn it into nitrate. in an aquarium ammonia and nitrite is harmful to its inhabitants so u never want anything exposed to it. so when u set up a new tank u need to check the water for an ammonia spike, and then watch for it to reach 0. this will usually take about a month and once its completed u will usually see a large diatom algae bloom (brown and all over everything). after that u can start adding snails, crabs, and maybe a fish. depending on the critters in the tank nitrates should be maintained at less than 10ppm. to do this u can do waterchanges, run a protein skimmer, and/or run a refugium for the most part.

with the suggestions of getting the all in one nano cubes, i have one and have major heat issues and really couldnt reccomend one as it seems im not the only one with this problem. in an open-top tank heat seems to be much less likely to get out of hand. jmo hope this helps.

[Loverotties]

Like Chris said the bigger the tank is easyer to start with,because the bigger the volume of water the harder for it to fluculate.Example your salinity in a 5 gallon nano that had a gallon of evaporation will change alot compaired to a 100 gallon lossing a gallon.And that's with all the chemicals.

[reefermike1]

i forgot to add how to start the cycle. if u get liverock shipped to u or buy it from your lfs it will have die off when u add it to your tank. the die off will decompose triggering the ammonia spike and starting the cycle.(this is the preferred method imo)

if u use baserock or home made rock (or u just get particularly clean/cured lr)u likely wont have much die off, so u can put a cocktail shrimp(like u eat from the grocery store) in there for a few days. that will start to decompose and start the cycle.

[fz6bill]

great...thanks for all the info, looks like i got some decisions to make dont I

[Doug1]

Welcome to TRT, check out these FAQs and articles

The best advice I can give you is plan out what kind of tank you want, research it, then plan out the specifics, ask a lot of questions and get user feed back before spending a lot on anything