Newbie help setting up sal****er aquarium

[Eddy]

Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
similar
any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
thanks

[Ross Bagley]

(Eddy) writes:

> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..

1) Ask, listen, and read for the next six to twelve months.

2) Join a local marine aquarist club and ask for stories, advice, etc.

3) Buy a few books. Others will have other book recommendations. These
are mine:

a) The Conscientious Marine Aquarist
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1890087025/qid=1077505284/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1757134-1453517
b) Your First Marine Aquarium
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764104470/ref=pd_sim_books_3/104-1757134-1453517

4) Read online. Two great online magazines started two years ago.
You should read just about all of the articles in every issue.
Each one will teach you something new.

a) Reefkeeping (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/past2.htm)
b) Advanced Aquarist (http://advancedaquarist.com/index/)

5) Read more online. A 25g tank is extraordinarily small for a
marine tank. Well, not so extraordinary any more. You will be
building what is called a nano-reef. Go to that website:

http://www.nano-reef.com

6) Stay on here and keep asking questions. The signal to noise on
r.a.m.r is substantially higher than most of the other online
forums I've found. The two magazines also have decent forums.
Don't know about nano-reef.com as I don't read there, but they
may be very helpful for you.

7) Develop patience. Zen-like patience. The patience that a buddha
statue wishes it had will work just fine. Good things take a long
time to happen in this hobby. Bad things happen very quickly.

8) Really, just learn for the next six months. Minimum. If you're
going to be a success in this hobby, you'll be the type who will
have a great time learning and you'll enjoy the hobby more with all
of the accumulated experience you'll have gained. Your pets will
appreciate what you know as well.

Regards,
Ross

-- Ross Bagley http://rossbagley.com/rba
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature...
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

[Richard Reynolds]

a slightly different point of view

get that tank filled with SW and a few pounds of uncured LR like aprox 10lbs

dont add any corals, or fish or inverts that dont come on the LR!

let it cycle, do a few waterchanges and test the water at least salinity & temperature
along with ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/ph, get good at keeping the paramiters in check. and
get used to how much to feed. while your doing this READ!!! and when your done reading
READ SOME MORE!!! now is the time you want to make mistakes when little will be harmed

then in 2 to 4 more months or so, add some more LR, this time get cured LR continue the
drill of waterchanges/checking/feeding/READING! at this time you might consider some
macroalgae and a one of many invertibrates(keep the crabs out) to make up your clean up
crew, and maybee some small starter cultures of amphipods/copepods/mysis all or none or
any combo in between.

then 4 to 12 months after you have added your last piece of LR add corals, and 1 small
fish.


you cant get everything you need to know by reading, and you should wait until your tank
is stable before adding corals/fish and its not that easy to mess up LR as long as your
not trying to. and the longer you go before adding things higher up the food chain the
more chance you give the population of those lower down a chance to get really stable


--
Richard Reynolds




"Eddy" > wrote in message
om...
> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
> thanks

[Dinky]

"Ross Bagley" > wrote in message
...
> (Eddy) writes:
>
> 2) Join a local marine aquarist club and ask for stories, advice, etc.
>


People always say this, but they're just not all that common, IME. There
isn't a single formal aquarium club within 400 miles of my home, and I live
in a town of 600,000 people. I'm thinking of starting one.

[Christ's Soldiers]

In the land of rec.aquaria.marine.reefs the word of the Lord came to
Eddy and verily he spoke saying:

> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
> thanks

This post is all you need!

http://tinyurl.com/266nn

OK, I lied, not even close, this guy obviously did a lot of homework
before even starting this thread but it's a great success story that
will encourage you and help you get an idea of what your getting into.

BTW, it is going to cost you a lot more than think even for that small
tank. Whatever number you had in mind, triple it at least! You may
think I'm kidding but if so do this, write down today on a piece of
paper what you expect to spend and if you are still in the hobby this
time next year read the number and have a good chuckle ;^)

Hey have fun and good luck! By the way, specific questions will be met
with a LOT more helpful information that the typical "can you tell me
how to do everything" post.

--

-John

Because it makes things difficult to understand.

Why shouldn't I top post?

[Richard Reynolds]

> > 2) Join a local marine aquarist club and ask for stories, advice, etc.
> People always say this, but they're just not all that common, IME. There
> isn't a single formal aquarium club within 400 miles of my home, and I live
> in a town of 600,000 people. I'm thinking of starting one.

the only thing i know is you dont live within 400 miles of me :D as there are like 5 SW
ones within 400 miles of me, and I cant count the formal FW clubs. but go for it start
one up!!!


--
Richard Reynolds

[Ross Bagley]

"Dinky" > writes:

> "Ross Bagley" > wrote in message
> ...
> > (Eddy) writes:
> >
> > 2) Join a local marine aquarist club and ask for stories, advice, etc.
>
> People always say this, but they're just not all that common, IME. There
> isn't a single formal aquarium club within 400 miles of my home, and I live
> in a town of 600,000 people.

I moved to LA a year ago and for all of the downsides, one of the upsides
is a huge reefkeeping community. I could probably eat out three times
a week just going to club meetings for all of the clubs around here.

I can fully appreciate your situation as where I used to live (San
Antonio), the reefkeeping hobby isn't nearly so well represented.

All in all, I think this newsgroup and the forums that are available
online can be a sufficient community, but someone to lean on for
patience when your tank doesn't look exactly the way you'd like it to
is a real benefit of having others near you.

> I'm thinking of starting one.

A fantastic idea. I'd suggest that you create a Yahoo Group (named
something like "Timbuktu Reefkeepers") and have that already up and
running before you go looking for other people so that the various
normal messages: "regular meeting time", "staying in touch", "sharing
hints, advice, etc.", and "frag party" are all pretty easily managed.

Regards,
Ross

-- Ross Bagley http://rossbagley.com/rba
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature...
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

[twp]

Here's an overview:
http://www.vividaquariums.com/troubleshooting.asp#6b

I would go to a local fish store and ask them to show you around a
system and find out what it means to cycle a tank. There's a great
book called The New Marine Aquarium. It's big, thin, and easy to read.
If you want
fish, I would also read up on fish disease. It's interesting and
good to know. I have a book called Diseases in Marine Aquarium Fish.
It talks about causes and prevention.


(Eddy) wrote in message >...
> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
> thanks

[Jerry]

BELIEVE what these guys are telling you. I'm new to the hobby also. I have
had a tank up and running for 14 months now and just put my first corals in
a month ago. I bought several books and did tons of on-line research before
I even bought a tank. I patiently set up in stages. This is the most
important thing. Live rock and sand, then cleanup critters, then fish, and
now my tank has matured enough to support corals. allowing the tank to
mature prevents disasters when you add new life to the system. it makes it
easier for the system to recover from imbalances. Everyone wants an instant
beautiful tank setup, myself included, But after reading several aquarists
opinions, I realized this is not possible. Everything would die.
"Dinky" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>
>
> "Ross Bagley" > wrote in message
> ...
> > (Eddy) writes:
> >
> > 2) Join a local marine aquarist club and ask for stories, advice, etc.
> >
>
>
> People always say this, but they're just not all that common, IME. There
> isn't a single formal aquarium club within 400 miles of my home, and I
live
> in a town of 600,000 people. I'm thinking of starting one.
>
>

[John Krempasky]

"twp" > wrote in message
m...

> I would go to a local fish store and ask them to show you around a
> system and find out what it means to cycle a tank.

There's about a 75% chance that doing so would be a total disaster,
depending on the LFS, of course. Especially since he wants a "reef" tank.
Most stores will send him out the door the same day with some huge canister
filter and a bunch of fish and corals for his "reef."

[Bill Kirkpatrick]

Dated, incomplete coverage, but you need to understand
everything you find here to start...

http://fins.actwin.com/reefkeepers/

***********************

Eddy wrote:
> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
> thanks

[Ross Bagley]

(twp) writes:

> Here's an overview:
> http://www.vividaquariums.com/troubleshooting.asp#6b
>
> I would go to a local fish store and ask them to show you around a
> system and find out what it means to cycle a tank.

I wouldn't trust a LFS employee to do anything other than sell me
a product.

Whether or not I needed it.

A LFS is quite possibly the worst place to get information about
setting up a marine tank. They are there to sell products and most
(not all) are quite willing to fleece you for all you can cough up.

I've been burned far too many times to just trust a LFS employees.
They, like car salesmen, need to earn trust. First time I meet them,
I assume that they're trying to rip me off. Almost all of the time,
I'm right and my wallet is better off for having been cautious.
Occasionally, I'm wrong and then we can start a beautiful
relationship.

> There's a great
> book called The New Marine Aquarium. It's big, thin, and easy to read.
> If you want
> fish, I would also read up on fish disease. It's interesting and
> good to know. I have a book called Diseases in Marine Aquarium Fish.
> It talks about causes and prevention.

Now that's good advice (both books).

Regards,
Ross

-- Ross Bagley http://rossbagley.com/rba
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature...
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

[Ross Bagley]

(Eddy) writes:

> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..

Here's a pretty good "getting started" article:

http://www.reefcentral.com/modules.php?s=&name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1

Regards,
Ross

-- Ross Bagley http://rossbagley.com/rba
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature...
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

[Marc Levenson]

Hi Eddy,

Take a look at this page please:

http://www.melevsreef.com/overview.htm

Marc


Eddy wrote:

> Hi everyone, my first time on this ng, I'd like to setup a sal****er
> aquarium. I have no experience, this will be my first aquarium ever
> and I have a 25g aquarium, i'd like a litle coral reef or something
> similar
> any help, info, pointers, links will be a great help..
> thanks

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com