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In-experienced Reefer -- brandnew to the scene

Hi All,

my name's james. I just started this hobby about 3 days ago. I currently have only raised freshwater fish, but I got bit by the saltwater bug and am doing a saltwater tank. if you guys have some suggestions feel free and throw them at me. my inexperience will abosorb what you have to give.

I have a journalling page setup in one of the other parts of this forum already. I'm hoping because everyone is local we can all feel for each other =).
 
Welcome james :) Like you, I started out in freshwater. The best advice I can give is to take your time. Read up a lot and ask a lot of questions to clearify things you don't understand. Rushing in this hobby can be devistating. Nothing good in reefing happens quickly ;)

Check out these links! Tons of good info here for you:
http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074
 
awesome -- thanks for the info. From my freshwater experience, from what I've learned, and you've mentioned -- is patience.

I'm pretty sure i'm waiting for the tank the cycle before I can add fish, but my biggest concern would be does the methodology change between fresh and salt?

cycling fresh requires feedings to the tank and measuring of ammonia -- since i have live rock and also live sand, my biggest question would be, how can I maintain everything? do I water change per week since i'm cycling? -- etc etc -- *while reading*

thanks again for the info!
 
for SW cycling, you also wait for nitrate to go to zero. Phosphate should also be zero as well.

Your rock (even if purchased as cycled, live rock) will still cycle. Organic material will die off and rot.

I personally wouldn't water change while cycling unless your rock has tons of dieoff. Once cycled, you will want to probably do a 25% water change and then maintain your tank with 10% weekly water changes.

You will want to maintain salinity by topping off evaporated water. DO NOT top off with tap water or with salt water. ONLY top off with RO/DI water.
 
sweet -- I just went over that article in one of the links you gave too -- thanks for putting my worries at rest. On the tank journal there's a couple of pictures of star polyps growing in my tank -- progression is fast too. day 1 I saw 3-4, day 2 I saw like 4-6 and today there was 14!!!. I started to see other stuff grow too -- so i'm just waiting but really just stoked about this. thanks again!

I'll start testing weekly and post results.
 
where are you located? There may be a reefer near by willing to Big Brother you with this :)
 
My advice is to start slow, hell maybe only do fish, once you start doing corals its all down hill from there as you find one that looks a little better and you feel you must have etc :D

Seriously that's how I started, a standard 10g tank, bag o sand, plastic rock (yeah you heard me no live rock here!) 2 fish (tomato clown and blue damsel) and a couple hermit crabs and snails. Oh yeah best thing was my lighting was some pink looking bulb that took like 18 watts or something.

The unfortunate thing for me is I found a 135g tank on craigslist for $200!!!!
 
I'm in the santa clara area. right off of lickmill.

I don't want to do fish only, but i'm not 100% into coral either, I want live rock and fish with some small coral -- my main interest is fish, so some easy to take care of coral is great. I'm just excited for my star polyps growing in the tank.

Fish only is cool, but I've always wanted a reef =) it looks so cool with a reef tank. I got my buffering supplements, i'm just worried about what to do next. heh thanks all for the advice =) i'll welcome as much as I can get, more experience the better.
 
Hey James,

I live pretty close to you in North San Jose, near Santa Clara. If you want some advice or if you'd like some easy to keep corals to start off with let me know. I'd be happy to give you either or both. :)
 
Hi, i'd be an idiot for saying no, but currently considering my tank is only 4 days mature I must decline for now =).
I will take your offer once I know my tank is up to speed and I can keep them healthy. Plus I would love some more knowledge on it. I just don't want to jump and say yes, then know that it'll die within a few days due to my lack of knowledge =) But if you have advice and want to chat about it online or something, i'm up for that!.
 
Yeah, should have caveated the free coral offer until after your tank is ready of course. :p Just PM me if you have questions or if you want to chat.
 
awesome I'll definitely PM you after I find out how lol.

but yeah, i just got 7 lbs of more live rock and re-aquascaped the tank, it doesn't look at amazing as some of yours right now, but I think that will come with time.

I'm just hellla stoked since i have star polyps growing. (I know it's gimp since it's just polyps, but for someone who just started it's great!) I just also received a small hermit crab for a buck at the store -- testing the waters, though I know it's not ready it's the only thing that'll be alive and actively moving until the water gets to the right conditions.
 
Welcome!
#1... You are in the right place
#2... as said by others here... sometimes hard to do... Take your time, go slow, enjoy every moment. You can't rush good things.
#3 You may never have to buy a single coral if you join this club. (you will anyway but plenty :) are available through the DBTC program!)
 
google is my friend -- after I found that there are aquarist clubs in the area, I decided to google everything around the area and find a club stable around the area.

this looks like it's it. I enjoy every day of it so far, and it's great -- i'm definitely going to be taking it slow. check out my build thread in the journaling section.
 
Do you still have FW set up? I am finally taking down my planted FW tank this month. A year and a half of salt and the plants in the refugium are as vibrant green as the FW ever was. My roommates like the fuge better than the tank, or at least they did. The tank now has fish. I started with the corals first for a full year and added fish one at a time. Glad I did as the fish and feeding make the water less clean. A little boring for the fish people, but it was great to me.
 
I love my freshwater setup --
I have a 90 gallon FW fish setup, completely planted -- not as heavily as some tanks, but it's still well done.

5 Otocinclus Affinis
2 Blue 3 Spotted Gourami
2 Yellow Gourami
2 Lavender Gourami
1 Pearl Gourami
3 Pygmy Gourami
3 Sunset Gourami
1 Red Tail Shark
9 Tiger Barbs
 
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