New to the hobby and need some advice

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feifster1108

Registered Member
Jun 18, 2009
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Hi there,

I have never had an aquarium before but I am starting to setup a reef tank. I live close to the Malibu, CA area and am wondering if it is ok to just use fresh ocean water collected from off a pier?
Also, is it ok to use regular ocean sand or does the local sand have too much silica and thus not the correct type of sand base?

Lastly, what few bits of advice do you have so I don't make big mistakes?

Thanks to all,
D
 
Good luck- I hope you have success! I would guess you may want to avoid collecting water from the wild- you may end up with pests you don't want- but I'm no salt expert so I don't know.

Plenty of people have started out with their first tank being saltwater and done fine- but if you want to avoid mistakes on your first aquarium and avoid a costly learning curve- freshwater aquariums offer less expense and are "easier" to learn to balance and keep running nicely.

I can certainly see the appeal to salt-water- you have much more diversity and beautifull choices and of course a beginner can learn with salt water.
 
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