Newbie, from southern Saskatchewan, Canada

[jman]

Hi all, newbie here looking to setup a live rock aquarium. i haven't bought anything for my tank. im starting small, with a 29 gallon tank. Just need some advice of which equipment i should be getting, and stuff like that. I know this new hobby of mine will cost a bit, and hard work. Any advice will be appreciated.

thanks all.

 

[salt_for_brains]

Hi and Welcome!! Is your 29g all inclusive like a biocube or just a standard tank?

 

[salt_for_brains]

Also what are your plans with the tank----- fish only with live rock (fowlr) or fish with soft corals or fish with LPS corals, etc... I guess you probably expected more answers than questions:mrgreen:

 

[jman]

Hi Nick, my tank is just a standard tank. Should i stay with a 29g tank or should i go bigger as i am new to the saltwater aquarium world?

 

[jman]

im actually having a hard time deciding between lps corals or soft corals. any ideas?

 

[jman]

i think im leaning towards lps coral

 

[salt_for_brains]

Go as big as you can afford or have room to set up. The bigger the tank the more water volume which slows the swings in water parameters. Stability in the system is crucial to a healthy tank. I'm not saying you can't do this with a 29 b/c you can but things happen much quicker in smaller tanks. A bigger tank also offers a larger variety of fish. Most that start small want to upgrade to something bigger. Corals is just a matter of personal preference. Softies are nice but you will probably want to dabble with LPS and maybe even SPS. At MINIMUM as far as lighting I would go with T-5's which will allow you to keep any softies or LPS that tickles your fancy. There are so many equipment options and having a better understanding of where you want to start and end up will save you money in the long run.

 

[Smitty]

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

 

[jman]

so i have a question, in what order should i be buying stuff. or is there groups i should be buying in. for exaple, 1.tank,salt, substrate, coral, light. 2. powerheads, crabs, snails. etc. from beginning to end.
and i have decided to up my tank size to 90 - 100 gallon tank.

 

[Ted]

To get the tank wet and started on the cycle you need the tank, water (ro/di either purchased or your own filter), salt, live rock, sand, filtration (sump, return pump, power heads, skimmer) and a heater. Once that starts you need lights. After the cycle then you can start adding live stock but slowly on fish.

 

[jman]

Hi ted, thanks for the reply. Could you just tell me what ro/di means?

 

[salt_for_brains]

Reverse Osmosis De-ionization (RO/DI) is a process of filtering out a lot of the nasties that we don't want in our water.