what do i need to do here???

[mtdewlover]

I'm new to this whole marine thing. I've been researching but I have a few questions. How do you make saltwater to begin with? And do you have to add stuff to the tank when you start, when you do water changes and on a regular basis? What's with this calcium thing, do I have to add that? Should I get live rock? I'm thinking of having reef and coral as well can I have all three and any pros and cons there? Should I have a chiller? Is a 29 gallon tank a bad size for a saltwater aquarium? Any other tips ideas problems you've had with your own tank I should watch for would be great! Thank you for your help.

 

[Toooloud]

The first thing with marine tanks to know is.. BUY THE BIGGEST AND BEST YOU CAN AFFORD..

Save yourself the money latter on, Once you get into the hobby.. nothing is bigeough.. bright eough.. ect..

29 gallon is good.. with marine tanks they can be a hand full to maintain, So the larger the tank you go the easier it is to maintian.. i started with a 29 gallon tank a year ago.. i now i have a 29 gallon, 45 gallon, 90 gallon and a 72 gallon.. all marine tanks.. and im looking to have a custom 300 gallon made soon..

as for live rock.. YES.. You want 1 - 1.5 pounds of live rock per gallon of water.. this is what will filter your marine tank.. you do now want any Mechanical filtration on a marine tank execpt for a skimmer, and you want to get the largest and strongest skimmer you can afford.. if you have a 20 gallon now, Buy one good for up to 200 gallons, Becouse one day you will have atleast a 120 gallon tank with most likly a 60 gallon sump.. so you are going to need it.. so dont waste your money on a smaller one now when you are just going to buy one later.

as for CAL, Yes depending on what you are keeping, there is plently of Calcium in "Saltmix" what is used to make saltwater.. but if you are keeping much harder corals.. Like SPS pr clams.. witch eat up all the Calcium they can then you need to dose more into the system to compensate for what they are using up..

Ideally all you need to start your tank.. is .. a Tank, Salt mix, Heater, Sality tester, water current.. nad test kits.. ( Calcium, ALK, PH, nitrates, nitrites,ammonias, phosphates) are all kits i bought when i started my first tank.

as for the maintance.. depending on your bioload.. if you have the correct amount of live rock.. and a resonble bioload.. then you can do somthing like 5% water change every other weekend.. some like myself have too much in there tanks.. and i need to do 20% every weekend..

 

[beckyt_2]

What are you're suggestions on setting up a 125gal reef tank? We are planning on using a 30 long for the sump. Do we need a bigger one or is this fine? What lighting do you suggest for corals and a few fish. We are looking into a Halite or Halide...do we need this? We've heard that for the tank size we have it would cost us about $600 for the lighting!
We have a 25gal salt fish tank but we're new to this kind of tank so any other suggestions or tips would be great!

 

[Walrus]

Originally posted by beckyt_2
What are you're suggestions on setting up a 125gal reef tank? We are planning on using a 30 long for the sump. Do we need a bigger one or is this fine? What lighting do you suggest for corals and a few fish. We are looking into a Halite or Halide...do we need this? We've heard that for the tank size we have it would cost us about $600 for the lighting!
We have a 25gal salt fish tank but we're new to this kind of tank so any other suggestions or tips would be great!

Hi beckyt! Nice to see a fellow Kansas Citien here! Where do you shop locally? I get all my livestock from Fish World in Blue Springs, they are great and very knowledgable.

Welcome to AC!

 

[beckyt_2]

Thanks!
We are just getting started and are looking at about every place we can think of just to see want everyone is saying. We are kind of leaning toward a new place in Midtown called The Reef House.

 

[Walrus]

Where in Midtown exactly?? www.fishheads.org is a fairly local group of reefers. Check the site out, they do a lot of group purchases which you can get stuff a lot cheaper and they can point you towards good stores in the area. They also get together fairly regularly and swap coral frags. I bought some SouthDown sand from the guys running the board, great experience for meeting someone off the internet! Good luck!

Walrus