Another newbie question

[xlayedoutx]

Ok I hope this isn't to stupid of a question. Anyways the book I'm reading says that most reef tanks have very few fish, and I would rather have more fish then coral, but at the same time I don't want a fish only tank. My question is would it be ok to buy a reef tank setup with reef lighting and use it as a fish only tank and add coral later.

Just as an example lets say my tank could hold 30 specimens. I would end up wanting my tank either half and half at 15 fish and 15 peices or coral, not counting the cleaning crew, or more on the fish side at 20-10. To me the fish is what makes a fish tank but the coral look so awesome I don''t want to leave it out.

The way I see it is I should buy the fish I want first and add the coral as my tank allows. Either that or buy evenly a little fish here and some coral there.

How did you guys decide what you wanted in your tank. I just don't want to end up having to much coral and not enough fish or to many fish and not enough coral to make the tank stand out. What do you guys think.

Sorry I tend to over think things way to much but this whole starting a saltwater hobby has me all worked up.

 

[squibley2]

I would say that the biggest problem you will run into is nitrates. In a fish only tank you can be fairly safe around 20ppm, in a reef tank you need to keep them at <5ppm. This will become increasingly difficult to do as you increase your bioload with fish. There are however a few things that can help with this.

1)Water changes
2)BIG tank
3)Water changes
4)BIG sump
5)Water changes
6)denitrification unit
7)Water changes

Oh and then there are water changes...LOL

The whole point is FO tanks are more like FW tanks, Reef tanks are a completely different thing! The main things in a Reef tank are the corals and invertebrates. You can of course go more towards the FO and less towards the Reef but you just have to be much more diligent with everything!!! If you miss a water change of 2 or something similar you would have a huge problem... not trying to scare you or discourage you, I just don't want you be crushed with a tank crash when the whole thing is up and running.

Anyone else feel free to chime in.

Anyway just my :twocents:

 

[xlayedoutx]

I see I'd have to do some water changes. LOL. I don't mind that. How big would be considered a big tank. The tank I'm buying is a 90 gal.

 

[squibley2]

I would consider a BIG tank to be anything over 200G. The strange thing is we are trying to reproduce the ocean which last time I counted was 627,598,420,102,000G. So bigger is better :D

 

[minireefer]

Hi,
Welcome to the froum.Sure you can starty out fish only with reef componats already installed.To help with Nitrates that squibley2 spoke of I would add aleast a pould of Live rock per gallon.Also you can use some calcium-carbonate base rock as a start and seed it with good quality live rock(save some $$).try www.Hirocks.com 60 pound is about $90 shipped for there best rock.When migrating to a reef you need about half to 1 pound more.The articles page has a lot of really good and helpful information to asist with saltwater tanks(fish or reef)For fish just stock slowly after the cycle is complete and look one fish that are reef friendly.

 

[graphixx]

another thing your going to run into when introducing fish first is that you have to be very carfull to add "reef safe" fish. alot of fish with pick at corals. most of your angel fish are not reef safe and your triggers and such, this is somehting that you will want to research. make sure your fish are going to be compatible witht he corals that your putting into the tank later. if not your fish are gonna have a ball feasting on your corals.