Getting started, a couple questions

Hi everyone,

I really want to get started with a marine aquarium. But at this point, the costs are overwhelming me.

Here's what I have:

35 gallon tank
Hood w/florescent lighting
Aqua Clear "Power Filter"
Millennium 2000 Wet-Dry Multi filter
Heater

What I need (I think):

Hydrometer
Salt mix
Sand substrate
Live Rock

To be honest, it's the Live Rock that is depressing me. The only store in town that sells marine aquarium supplies is charging $13/lb for premium fiji live rock. And I've read here I need about 2 lb per gallon. That's $900 for rock.

Combine that with all the costs for water testing and necessary maintenance, I'm not sure I have the funds available to do a marine tank -- I'm only 16 and can't afford to blow all I have on this.

It's what I really want to do, but I may just go with a freshwater aquarium.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[dx7fd2]

First of all, Shane, welcome to 3Reef, and please take the time to join the Forum!!

You have a good initial list to start with. One of the other main components you will need is the type of lighting. The hood you have will do fine, to begin with, but I would plan on upgrading the bulb type, and eventually retrofitting a different type of lighting into your exisiting hood. This can get expensive but is a needed expense in that reef inhabitants, unlike freshwater inhabitants, need certain types and intensities of light.(especially corals, both soft and hard) *[smiley=mellow.gif]

You do not need to get 2lbs of live rock per gallon unless you are trying to jump start an aquarium and get it going really fast. What you will need is some base rock (rock formations that are not live but have nice shape to form your reef display) and a few nice pieces of Live Rock. The live rock will seed the rest of the rock. It takes time and patience, but the reward is watching the whole tank grow into what it will be. You can also get some live sand from the LFS, if you choose to seed the substrate. This again is faster, but not necessary, the Live Rock will also seed the sand. Once these are in place and allowed to cycle stabilize, you will want to wait quite a while before adding livestock, but adding a few critters is not out of the question after a couple of months. Start slow and then build up little by little, and remember the limitations of the size of your tank. The Bio-Load that that tank can handle in saltwater is lower than in freshwater.

I think at some time you will want to purchase a skimmer. There are a lot of discussions here at 3Reef about types of skimmers and what is needed. Also, at some point (months from now) you will probably want to add a couple of little powerhead pumps to circulate the water a little more than the Aquaclear and the wet/dry. A small expense and again worth it.

If you check out the 3Reef Home Page, there is a good primer for the starting reef tank in the menu at the top left 1, 2 and 3. Read all three of these and that will reinforce what you have already learned and give a few starting Reef Tank basics.

The people here at 3Reef can give you a lot of pointers and I suggest you read through as much of the already posted forum information that you can. There is a wealth of knowledge herein. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Again, Welcome and have fun!!

Drew

[fletch]

Shane, *Perfect timing we here at 3REEF just got a new sponsor http://www.liverocks.com They seem to have some great prices Check Them out ............... *John

PS Don't Forget to join it is FREE

[dx7fd2]

Ditto that....John!!!! (I just emailed liverocks to get some more info on shipping here to SoCal!!)

Drew

[fletch]

Looks like some nice rock!!! It comes to about $5.88 lb delivered to me in upstate NY..................... John

[Shane]

Thanks a lot guys, but after some consideration, I've decided to do a freshwater tank. I don't want to move ahead with salt if I can't afford to do it right and end up having beautiful fish dying on me.

I'll be lurking around the freshwater forums.

[somethingfishy]

We hope you will be back here sometime in the future to set up a marine aquarium. I am glad you made the decision you don't want to get over your head. JMO but a great Freshwater fish would be some shell dwelling African Cichlids, Cichlids have great personalities. You should try Cichlid-forum.com they are great there.

[Birdlady]

I would agree with Somethingfishy...in that I was going to suggest a species specific tank....and possibly planted freshie tank.

Some of the equipment can be later adapted to Saltwater, eg. a wet/dry sump, upgraded lighting, etc.

and with the freshwater, you don't need all of that to get started....you can upgrade and make improvements gradually

Lots of Luck to you and Have Fun!!!!!

[Shane]

[quote author=Shane link=board=Newbie;num=1091987416;start=0#5 date=08/09/04 at 10:01:13]Thanks a lot guys, but after some consideration, I've decided to do a freshwater tank. I don't want to move ahead with salt if I can't afford to do it right *and end up having beautiful fish dying on me.

I'll be lurking around the freshwater forums. [/quote]

After even more consideration, I've decided to stick with the Marine aquarium.

I'm going to take Matt's advice of "go slow, let it grow" to heart and start off with one thing at a time. Maybe in a few months it will start to look like something!

[Matt Rogers]

Good for you Shane! [smiley=thumbs_up1.gif]