Four months into the hobby, already obsessed

[Natecx]

Hey everyone, pretty new to the site and the hobby itself and i'm already loving both:mrgreen:
First started off with a 20 gallon tank and quickly upgraded to a 75 gallon two months later. Right now I have no idea if im going to stick to FOWLR or switch to a reef tank, but here's my tank so far :)

 

[Civicdemon]

I would get rid of the fake plastic plants, Trust me all the plastic does is atrack algea and diatoms like crazy. Also what type of rocks are the dark ones ?? If there lava rocks you should ditch them also, i read they can have unwanted stuff in them that leaches out into the water.

 

[Natecx]

they're made of silk apparently, should i still take them out? my fish love to hide in them.
not sure on where the dark live rocks are from, I should have asked my LFS:-|

 

[Civicdemon]

I would still remove them. if you like you can get real plants like maybe some culerpa ( i think thats how its spelled ) it grows good in a sump im sure it will grow great inside the tank.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard.

 

[chichimom79]

Welcome aboard!

 

[little_fish]

Hello and welcome!

 

[Natecx]

Will do civic, ill check my LFS for the caulerpa, thanks for the advice

 

[little_fish]

I would actually pass on any sort of caulerpa, it can be impossible to get rid of once its established and it can reproduce sexually which basically means it dissolves overnight and causes the worse mess you have ever seen and will likely crash the tank. Not worth the headache IMO. But there are lots of other really beautiful and much better behaved macro algae out there. Check out of reefcleaners.org for more ideas

 

[Natecx]

Hm, alright. I would honestly rather have some anemones, so ill wait until I get my skimmer next week :D

 

[little_fish]

Nems require very high lighting conditions, pristine water conditions and a very stable tank. The last two aren't usually seen until the tank is around a year old so I would wait on the nem. Also having the plants won't prevent you from having a nem, in fact having would only help the nem because they help keep your water cleaner

 

[Natecx]

I'll definitely have to wait on that then, thanks for the insight, what type of lights should i get? Im looking to spend around $400

 

[Angelajean]

Welcome. I have been in this hobby 9 months. I have upgraded from a 14 to a 40 and to my finale of a 90 with a sump.

Slow is fast. That would be my best advice and listen to the people with the experience. Most of them as well as some of us newbies have all made our mistakes. A dead fish = heartbreak and a waste of $$$.