Want to get into Saltwater - Page 2

Loverotties · 06-08-2005, 04:21 PM

Welcome to TRT!

You have alot of good advise but check your water ,you say it's well water.Well on the east coastI know well water here usally have Copper in it ALOT so please test for everythingyou don't want that.I always say is getting into SW you need to go SLOW!Good luck and were here to help and to try to keep you from making $ mastake that we probley did!

ErinGoBragh · 06-08-2005, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamba

An easy way around it ErinGoBragh (mighty Irish!) is to have a refugium with macro algae. That will outcompete other algae. Plus the algae will suck out other micronutrients.

Or, use phosban or other phosphate remover.

good point, but I am going to be bullheaded on this one. Having to tear down my tank had a lasting effect. Anything I can to to limit algae, I will do. I do run phosban now, and not sure if I will get any macroalgae at this point. (don't want it to go sexual and take over the tank.)

skeety · 06-08-2005, 04:51 PM

my final thoughts on RO/DI necessity is...

it all depends on YOUR own tapwater.

I agree with Erin that if you're using tap water to top off evaporation, and do your water changes...and the water your doing that with has a lot of the same junk your trying to take out...you'll never get anywhere.

in closing...while your tap water *MIGHT* be okay...RO/DI water is DEFNITELY purified...and while it might not be a necessity....it's not a bad idea to get one.
$100 isn't much in this hobby (the price of SOME corals!). So why not?

But I'm sure some, like jamba, are capable of running great systems for long periods of time, without problems using only tap water.

But I feel comfortable betting my house, that he's more of a minority in that regard than he is the norm.

jamba · 06-08-2005, 05:16 PM

MightyIrish one said "don't want it to go sexual and take over the tank"

If you stay away from caluerpa and go with chaetomorpha you will be ok. Caluerpa goes sexual and can mess up the tank, but chaeto does not. Caluerpa also has other alleopatic substances that can mess with corals. It is best to avoid that one.

Cheers

ErinGoBragh · 06-08-2005, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamba

MightyIrish one said "don't want it to go sexual and take over the tank"

If you stay away from caluerpa and go with chaetomorpha you will be ok. Caluerpa goes sexual and can mess up the tank, but chaeto does not. Caluerpa also has other alleopatic substances that can mess with corals. It is best to avoid that one.

Cheers

You know, My grandma "came over on the boat" as she put it, and when I was in trouble, she would start yelling at me in english, then she would start working Gaelic words in until it was all Gaelic, kind of like a red headed Ricky Ricardo from I love Lucy.

I will keep the macro info in mind, thanks.
Sorry for the hijack WA#####, but like I said, all kinds of info here.

WA98296 · 06-08-2005, 05:30 PM

Thank you all again. I am trying hard to look into what all these things do. There is a lot to know. We are new to this, and actually fairly new to the entire hobby of aquariums at all, but please don't suggest more time with FW. We are willing to learn whatever it takes to get into the saltwater world. We'll be getting a couple of the books from the list you folks recommended.

The RO/DI purified water sounds like it warrants some research. At this point though, I'm not sure if that would be part of the aquarium setup, or something that deals with all the water supply into my house? (How's that for a newbie?) I'm still trying to check out skimmers and even the differences in live rock. The only requirment we have now is that all equipment for the setup has to fit into the bowfront cabinet (nothing hanging onto the tank). We are pretty handy, hopefully that will help. We did run two dedicated electrical circuits to the area before we set the tank in place, so at least we do have power, hopefully enough.

Thanks again, I'll be here on the site reading as much as possible before any more purchases.

WA98296 · 06-08-2005, 05:35 PM

P.S. I've really enjoyed looking at the pics of your tanks and also your avatars! You are very much like a big family here. Since we have nothing to show yet, and we've noticed that some of you seem to also like dogs (I've seen a couple photos of them lurking here too) I thought I would invite you to see my other passion, our show dogs and even a pic of our koi pond. If you like you can check us out at: www.iconboxers.com

Tim224DT · 06-08-2005, 05:45 PM

I got my first tank about 1.5 years ago from a friend that went into the Army. It was a 15 gallon SW tank with a very small yellow tang. I didnt know anything about SW, i didnt know anything about fish tanks at all never had one. My friends parents owned a saltwater business for some time in Tampa area. I keep asking them questions after questions till i figured out what was going on. Im sure they got tired of me asking so many questions so thats when i joined this site when i got my 72 Gallon tank. This is a great site to learn from like i said before just keep asking questions.

Tim

ErinGoBragh · 06-08-2005, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WA98296

Thank you all again. I am trying hard to look into what all these things do. There is a lot to know. We are new to this, and actually fairly new to the entire hobby of aquariums at all, but please don't suggest more time with FW. We are willing to learn whatever it takes to get into the saltwater world. We'll be getting a couple of the books from the list you folks recommended.

The RO/DI purified water sounds like it warrants some research. At this point though, I'm not sure if that would be part of the aquarium setup, or something that deals with all the water supply into my house? (How's that for a newbie?) I'm still trying to check out skimmers and even the differences in live rock. The only requirment we have now is that all equipment for the setup has to fit into the bowfront cabinet (nothing hanging onto the tank). We are pretty handy, hopefully that will help. We did run two dedicated electrical circuits to the area before we set the tank in place, so at least we do have power, hopefully enough.

Thanks again, I'll be here on the site reading as much as possible before any more purchases.

The ro-di is seperate from the tank. set up as an extension of your house's plumbing. with the new outlets, are they GFI? They could save you a heck of a jolt.

ErinGoBragh · 06-08-2005, 06:05 PM

I really like the pond, and boxers are great dogs. One of my favorites.

WA98296 · 06-08-2005, 06:27 PM

Yes! The new circuits are GFI, thanks for thinking to ask though. Tom is a chief engineer (marine), and as such a great resource for ou electrical, plumbing, and general jury-rigging projects. Also, he really likes doing the water testing -- I never get to "play" with his testing supplies. I'm more the artistic type, so I hope I can figure out how to arrange this nicely, when the time comes.

Thanks for the comments on the pond. We learned as we went, I did the design and Tom figured out how to make it work. The pic doesn't do it justice, its about 7,000 gallons with 14 koi.

VWD · 06-08-2005, 07:09 PM

Welcome, looks like You have gotten a lot of good advice already to get You started. So I won't add anything.

skeety · 06-09-2005, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWD

Welcome, looks like You have gotten a lot of good advice already to get You started. So I won't add anything.

But Vince...you did add something...you added that you won't add anything.

it's like a paradox or something.

whoa!

pnkpanther · 06-09-2005, 10:13 AM

you've come to right place, read a lot of threads and you'll learn a lot. I've been learning tons and it's helped me w/ new hobby.

FW and SW arent really all that related and it's not requried to FW first

skeety · 06-09-2005, 10:32 AM

Truly...other than the main ingredient being water, the only similarity between FW and SW is that FW teaches you that an aquarium isn't just a painting you can hang on the wall and admire. There's work involved. And with sw...there's MUCH more work...but MUCH more reward.

I'm guessing you already learned that...so no further experience with FW is needed.

just know, with SW, REGULAR scheduled water changes aren't recommended...they're REQUIRED!