Beginner needs your help
 

Hi all,
I am new to the forum, and after 15 years of having freshwater tanks I am ready to jump into the marine world.
I want to set up a nanocube type reef tank. I am looking for help and tips.
I am also looking for members who have live rocks, corals and sands for sale.

Any tips are much appreciated.
Also if anyone knows a good deal on a nanocube type tank please let me know.
Right now I am looking at setup 48L complete package for $170 when all said and done.


Thanks
Ray

Welcome.

Keep a eye on the Buy and Sell forums, they're pretty active.

nano
 

There's a Red Sea 34gal nano set up on Edmonton Kijiji for sale. I think the asking price is $800 and thats including everything.

What I did was read and google...google google google.

My first tank was a 20 gal with 2 damsels. Over the course of a year and a few months, I slowly upgraded. It has now been 3 years since I started and I can safely say I am about 1 percent knowledgeable in the saltwater hobby. I am not exaggerating when I say there will ALWAYS be something to learn.

One piece of advice I can give you that "beginners articles" usually won't is: don't be cheap.

If you get the smallest and cheapest this and that, you will want to upgrade shortly (and I mean shortly) after that and the money will be spent in vain. the problem comes into play when you say "I was a 10 gallon system" and you buy a filter, skimmer, lighting all around this. 2 months down the road, you learn more and you want..more. Now you are upgrading to a 70 gallon system and you wasted 600 bucks on nano reef equipment. Be very SURE that you will be satisfied for a while with your initial purchase. I know I wasn't. I upgraded everything several times.

Trust me, you will enter the phase of "i want a _____" and it will not fit in your current tank even if you crammed it in with a plunger. You will find yourself blowing twice as much as you had to to get that "______".

I couldn't agree more. I started with a 60g and a 15g shortly after that. Upgraded to a 120g and a 30g cube. Then went to a 230g and I just set up a 28g. Now I want to add 300g, which hopefully will happen by Christmas :mrgreen:.

Ultimately I don't think I'd be happy until I had a tank that was at least 1000g, but until I find a way to make more money I'll have to sick with what I got.

just jump in and do it. No knowledge like first hand experience :). You can read and read and google and google and you'll get confused by conflicting methodologies and difference in opinions. Learning for yourself is one of the best ways to learn how to do things. Don't be afraid of mistakes; have faith and just leap in.

That could be life advice too ;)

There is no perfect science here...Fact: you will make mistakes,,we all have, you will lose both corals and fish..we all have. you will spend way more money than you thought you would, but it is still so fantastic you will enjoy it more than you thought you would..as per other suggestions, asking on forums like this is great and look at other salt tanks and see how they are running and ask for advise.....have fun:biggrin:

I completely agree. I'm new into salt too. I purchased my 1st salty tank, a 24g plug-n-play(now have wellllll over $1000 into it) in April and I've already upgrade to a 90g(not even stocked yet) but a already thinking larger, lol.

PM me, I can probably get you started in a 25 gallon tank, stand and skimmer, powerhead and livesand for around 200 bucks.
I have lots of LR for sale too.

Get your hands on and read "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael S. Paletta. Although it certainly isn't a bible, it is an excellent beginner's book, IMO.

Is that mean a big start for me in this?
 

Mostly, I've seen people start getting into this wonderful reef at soe reasonable small gallons, like small cubes, 20, 30.. or 50...)
But for me, somehow, after finish reading a few book, google and google, I started this expensive hobby at 210G (170+40sump) system.
Is that mean my "step in" was abit risky? - Hope not!

And I 100% agree with noirsphynx about the "never end" as a matter of fact - As right now, my system is still under cycling (2 and half mnths now), BUT I already have a big plan for a giant system down in the basement- And the plan is already have SECOND VERSION DRAWINGS, cheez!!! - and the funny thing is, how much knowledge do I have about reefing? - Maybe, just maybe, PPM (parts per million, not percent though)

All I am trying to do is to bring a part of those pictures I captured from diving "into" my house ?!? - :cool:
have fun reefing to you all - Watch your pocket when reefing !!!

Yeah baby, 210 gal, that's the way to start!! No kidding, with that amount of volume, it's less likely you will suffer any dire consequences if you make an error. From what I've heard, read, googled ... starting small, especially with SW is more difficult since a mistake can crash the system pretty quick ... more difficult to keep small systems stable than larger ones.
I started with a used 75 gal, bought another used 65 gal six months later and now have a new 90 gal sitting dry in the basement waiting to build. The used 75 or 65 will come in handy as a sump/refugium.

While its true that a large aquarium is less likely to "suffer dire consequences" keep in mind if they do have problems they are a lot harder to fix...unless you have the ability to make up 200g of fresh saltwater :mrgreen:

Yes, thanks for that reality check, I guess I got a little carried away there.