Recipe for success, anyone? (beginner needs advice)

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snytiger_92

AC Members
Jan 31, 2005
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Odessa, TX
Hello all,

I am new to the hobby. I just received a 58 gallon aquarium (from a friend who was trying to get rid of it). The tank came with absolutely no equipment – not lights, no top, no filter, etc.

I bought a top cover, a double strip light, a filter, and thermometer. With these, I began keeping FW fish. My plan is to buy a piece of SW equipment at a time while I keep FW fish. My question is this: could someone give me a beginner’s list of supplies that would allow me to start up a SW tank? I have no SW supplies, but I do have plenty of time to save money, so I would like to begin with a fairly decent start up.

What types of filters, lights, or other equipment do I need? How much live-rock / sand do I need? What other supplies might I need?

I've read some of the posts here, but unlike most of the people on this site, I do not have anything set up at all, so I would like to start off on the right foot.

Like I said, I am trying to prepare a shopping list. Thanks for any help.
 
what u should do is ask your pet store for how much they are willing to sell you a saltwater setup for becuase some of the saltwater pieces arent cheap
i have a 20 gallon saltwater and i havent finished yet and i would suggest you do a little research on saltwater fish and taking care of it
 
lots of research, goiing to LFS (local fish stores) that auctualy know what there doing, ones that's just dont want to make a quick buck...

her's a little list of what u will need, some optional and some a little differnt based on what kind of saltwater tank u need...

tank (which u have)
stand
canopy (depending on if u want one or not, and how ur lights are)
lights (wattage per gallon: lower for fish only tanks, higher for reef tanks)
potein skimmer
heaters
power heads
live rock (they say about 1 lb per gallon)
sump (comes in differnt sizes, not too sure about those)

substrate:
sand or live sand or crushed coral
(there are definatly alot of differnt opinions out there on all those, but this board seems to enjoy sand as a substrate)

filters:
canister filter (some say yes some say no) or wet/ dry filter

that's a basic list, i'm kinda new at this too, i just wanted to help out a little bit...

good luck... hope someone else give u more detailed info...
look around on the net... and just remember you get waht you pay for...

-brandon
 
Thank you very much. I read the posts from JasonA et. al. The info was great, but stopped. Anyway, like I said, I am starting slowly. I'll pick up the equipment as I can.

My stand has room for a short sump. Any suggestions?
 
Dont need a sump, or a filter. You can use LR and LS (love rock and live sand) as your filter, and just run a protein skimmer and you'll be fine. I would do closer to 2lbs per gallon of LR though, 1lb per gallon is a little low if you want to use it to help keep your tank balanced and clean.
 
Hi Snytiger,

I'm similar to you in that I recently got into the hobby doing FW with the plan to advance to SW when I get some experience under my belt. I'm not planning to go SW for a few years, but I can't help constantly doing research on it :) - I've got a growing wish list of books to buy. I've found the info on the web for FW is a lot more comprehensive and consistant - SW, especially reef setup, is a hobby still developing and the info is more piecemeal. To me, the real draw of SW is all the cool inverts you can keep, and I'm planning on doing a reef tank (hopefully ~100gal) with very low fish load - maybe just 1 tang.

My 5 cents on what's already been said: You don't need or maybe even want a filter - lots of quality live rock will do a better job. Live sand will help too, but depending on how deep you do it, you'll want lots of snails/starfish to keep it clean. Whether you want a sump or not will depend on what type of protein skimmer you want, but it seems like a great idea - expands the total volume your system and gives you a place to try out stuff such as refugium as you get more advanced. Good luck!
 
i will side in on doing a refugium and skipping the protein skimmer except when there is overfeeding. The theory here is the skimmer pulls out lots of naturural seeding of healthly specimens from maturing live rock. I see new things sprout up from spores in the water and added solutions are readily available.
The inconsistencies out there on reefkeeping are due to the many successfull yet variable and defendable stratagies. Bottom line, if carefully manaaged, no overfeeding and overloading you will still need to be prepared for challenges faced by occasional ammonia loading. If you learn to read the early signs and keep with simple starters animals, you can build you own best practice. Be prepared to spend time daily and keep charts.
 
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