Warlock Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Hi, ARC!! i am a current Freshwater Discus Person.. and i am going to start my first Salt Water tank!! No reef.. , not yet! simple and low tech can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austx Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Best of luck! You've got the right idea already by starting off slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 thanks! i learned my lesson with my discus of jumping in without research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Welcome. You finally found a hobby more expensive than discus keeping... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Haha! Thats no understatement! I should have chose classic car collection...would have been cheaper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Welcome Warlock, Hit us up if you have any questions. There aren't as much discussion threads these days about coral husbandry/tank setup just because it's been pretty much nailed down for the most part now as a collective whole but happy to explain anything that seems confusing. Someone will always chime in if you ask. -Ty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Cob Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 welcome...search feature is always helpful too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Most important key ingredient: Patience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 my plan so far.. is to set up a 29 or 20 with some live sand and live rock, filter.. and let it run for a couple of months... the only fish that i am interested in getting is FIREFISH.. and i just found out i need a clean up crew per gallon also.. i figured that would give me a good start on this.. i have enough to handle with my 3 discus tanks but i am "Searching" live rock vs dry rock.. how does this sound.. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 My personal opinion is to use dry rock. You dont end up with pests this way usually but will take longer to cycle. Maybe get some of that bacteria in a bottle that Mark talks about, not sure where to get it. Firefish are very low bio load and very skittish. Be careful, they are known carpet surfers(jumpers). Mine ended up in my OF box and was a total pain to get him out only for me to forget to close one of my canopy doors and he bailed out. Great community fish in small groups and easy to take care of. Note, if you get any other fish that are more aggressive, the FF will go into hiding most of the time and only come out during feeding. Dont use damsels to cycle either, if they dont die they will drive you crazy trying to catch them to remove later when they start being nazi's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 i saw a tank awhile back of just fire fish.. i heard about the jumping part but i do have a lid.. but they don't seem to be super expensive.. so i am ok with that.. compared to losing one of my HANS Fire Reds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizzy Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 My personal opinion is to use dry rock. You dont end up with pests this way usually but will take longer to cycle. Maybe get some of that bacteria in a bottle that Mark talks about, not sure where to get it. +1 to what Derrick says. If I could start over, I'd do it with dry rock. The polyclad flatworm was a nightmare... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 thanks ya'll.. for sure it looks like best way no need to rush this! would tank be more stable if i let it cycle for several weeks.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VooDoo Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 the only downside to starting off with dry rock is the long a** cycle time. so, if you're gonna go this route, you've gotta be patient (yeah, get used to this beating of the horse). in the end, you'll be pest-free; that is if you use preventive measures with introducing everything else. good luck and congrats on being another convert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Tide Reef Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 congrats and welcome to the world of reefin! start a thread on tank builds if you want so we can all watch your progress. good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 GOOO BAMA!!! ps.. thanks for the TANK BUILDS threads!! i am going to look at them right now to see peoples progress.. !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Tide Reef Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 haha thanks for that go bama but im still hurtin after our kicker gave the game away to lsu! if you wanna check out tank builds though my brothers and i have a thread, its "75g Reefer x3." you should definitely check out the trade/free forum too cause you can pick up a lota cool stuff in there and interact with a lot more people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Hi, ARC!! i am a current Freshwater Discus Person.. and i am going to start my first Salt Water tank!! No reef.. , not yet! simple and low tech can't wait! If you keep it simple, there is a "Bullet Proof" approach to setting up a reef tank. http://www.garf.org/bulletproofreef/bulletproof.asp At GARF (Geothermal Aqua Research Facility) they favor Jaubert Plenumns with a coarse substrate (2mm-5mm), as do I. In my opinion, the grain size of the substrate determines the biodiversity of the system. This crushed coral grainsize of the Jaubert Plenumn favors bacteria; aerobic, anarobic and faculative. Many advocates of sand beds favor 2" of .1mm -1.0mm grain size for a more diverse sand bed of micro fauna and flora http://www.inlandaquatics.com/DETRITIVORES.html. Morgan Lister at Inland Aquatics has good information on grain size substrate. http://www.chucksaddiction.com/cleanupcrew.html Chuck details the start up of a reef tank. The best size that I have found for a small reef tank is a 29 gallon high. The extra vertical height (18" high) of a 29 galloon tank compared to a 20 gallon long (13" high) accommadates the deeper sandbeds that I use in my tank husbandry. If you follow Chucks procedure, you would not add high level predators, including fish or corals, for six months. At that point you could have a fish only or a reef tank. Because of so many dfferent types of systems in reef keeping, it is best to make a committment up front as to the biotheme. John Tullocks book, Natural Reef Keeping, focuses on a biotheme or a pivital species for our reef systems. Happy reefing. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlock Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 thank you Pat!! i will be checking this out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Welcome to the hobby! You'll find this is a great source for information and plenty of opinions, so post your questions and watch the for sale threads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 We also a have wiklipeda of sorts. Just click the Resources Tab. Check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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