John Doe's tank

[andersoned14]

I have a friend who wants to start a saltwater tank. He has had a fresh before but has lots of ??? about getting started. I thought I would post here to get the expert panels option. He wants to have corals and fish, for fish choices he likes the green MD and a blue spoted jawfish. He also wants a clown and a nem. I have warned him about the nems for at least a year and is willing to wait. He is looking at a 75gal tank.

Ok so that is the basics, so he doesn't end up with the excate same tank as me, what else would he need. Skimmer, please list names so he can do reascearch, power head what brand does everyone like, fug --no fug pros and cons to each, return pump brands again, and last but not least lights what do you got and what do you like about it.

Also think if you would like to post a FTS to show him what you got it would help him get an idea of what is possible. Any thing else you would like to post that you wish you knew when you set up your first tank would also be help full. He is aware of the cycle and the need for RO water and testing equpiment. Any fish you think would go good with these would also be great, along with a few web sites where to look things up and order things from. Thanks for all the help and I will keep you updated how this goes. He is still looking for a tank and says he plans on getting wet the end of April. Hopefully by then we have a new friend on LR.

 

[Northstar24]

Have him pick up a copy of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist and read it once or twice. That will definitely give him a good foundation

and if he wants to see a second tank, PM me. I see you're in the Milwaukee area

 

[little_fish]

If i could start my tank all over again, i would start with all dry rock from marco rocks, and just a couple lbs of live. I did the kinda cheaper thing by trying to find live rock on cragslist, and i really hated it.

I would have also build my scrubber much much earlier and chose a stand with room for a sump.

But here is FTS for him.

Also, he should get his own account here so he can read all the articles and stickes, plus post his own questions.

 

[Dana42078]

I kept it simple. Basic lights, basic filter, Hydor powerheads, hydor heater,....added live sand, added fully cured rock waited a week and added fish. No testing no nothing. Not that i promote that but i had a very small cycle on both my tanks. You can always call me Andersoned14 or PM me. Im in milwaukee alot and its not a far drive for me. Not that its going to help but heres a FTS

Reef tank

Mantis tank

 

[Dana42078]

Id like to eloborate.........I went about reefing the wrong way and it just happened to work out for me. Eventually i caught up with everything. I have ALL the test kits. I test on a mothly basis unless sumthing is fishy. I do WC every 3 weeks on both my tanks. LF (little fish) is right have him make his own account and have him read. This isnt rocket science but if you dont know what your really doing you can kill alot of stuff that didnt need to be killed.

 

[andersoned14]

Thanks for the pic and info. I have been telling him to set up his own account. He will come around.