new and need help

RichardsFishies · Dec 28, 2014

Once your tank is ready for fish ect. How do you know what kind of fish will work with others and how many will work in a 75gal salt tank? How many frags can you have or how many? How long do you have to wait per fish when adding a new one? Sorry for all the questions. Anything would help.

.AcroKiller. · Dec 28, 2014

Try to add one at a time and wait a week or 2 for the next fish. If you go to live aquaria they have a chart that tell you if a fish is compatible and also it will tell you if it's reef safe or not. I would do no more than 6 or 7 fish depending on filtration and size of the fish And for corals you can add as many as your tank can fit or what's pleasing to your eye.

TankedNTn · Dec 28, 2014

Pretty much what iiluisii said. There isn't really any limit to number of corals you can have. The size they grow and the size of your tank is the only limit. Your fish (bioload) is your only limited factor. It all depends on the size of the fish (don't forget they grow) and how good of a filtration system you have. Make a list of the fish you want and add them slowly. Add the most aggressive of the fish last. Other than that, take your time with everything you do in this hobby and you'll have better results than rushing through it.

NeveSSL · Dec 28, 2014

RichardsFishies said:
Once your tank is ready for fish ect. How do you know what kind of fish will work with others and how many will work in a 75gal salt tank? How many frags can you have or how many? How long do you have to wait per fish when adding a new one? Sorry for all the questions. Anything would help.

Welcome to MTRC!

Do you have a tank setup already, or are you about to set one up?

I would recommend starting to read and research a bit, starting with live aquaria as Luis mentioned. Most people generally try to fill their tanks up with coral. So long as you keep the water parameters in check (IE, corals use calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium to grow, so you have to keep the levels of in your water at optimal levels) and keep your water filtered well, you can add as many coals as you want. Some corals aren't compatible with each other and some prefer different water parameters than others, but this may just affect how quickly they grow or not.

For fish, I would recommend waiting 2 to 3 weeks between adding them to give your bacteria plenty of time to catchup with the new bioload from the new fish.

As you research, if you have more questions, post them here!

Brandon

RichardsFishies · Dec 29, 2014

Thanks everyone for the great advice. We bought a tanked already set up used. Recently changed fliters and did a water change so just waiting for everything to settle again. As for lighting the tank whats the best for a fair price?

NeveSSL · Dec 29, 2014

You're welcome! What kind of filters does this tank have? Is it using cannister filters?

As far as lighting goes, that depends on what you want to keep. What lighting does it have now? I would recommend getting used to your tank and taking care of it for the time being. This will also allow you to do some research and find out what types of corals and fish you really like and what you want to keep, which will drive the direction of your tank longterm.

Brandon

RichardsFishies · Dec 29, 2014

This is our tank set up. It has no lights and it has two canister fliters.

bknapp · Dec 29, 2014

Welcome to MTRC!

The thing you need to know about canister filters on a salt/reef tank if that they can become detritus and nitrate pits which in turn will cause issues, mainly with coral at first. With that said, you're going to need to stay on top of water changes and cleaning out the canister filters. As far as fish stocking goes, I agree with what was said above, try to refrain from impulse purchases (we all know how hard that can be,) and research any fish before adding it to the tank.

And lighting is somewhat of a personal preference and is dependant on which type of corals you intend on keeping.

Just an FYI, we have our first monthly club meeting of 2015 in Hendersonville on January 17th, check the stickies above this thread for more info. Hope to see you there.

angrycubano · Dec 29, 2014

Oh how I remember when I first started I bought the same tank and the same filter. I still have that tank and stand in my garage....lol. I'm going to repeat what everyone is saying here and take your time. You can add fish as soon as your water shows 0 ammonia. After that just keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates before adding corals at first. I would recommend starting with LPS and softies which can handle less than ideal parameters.

I would highly recommend going to the meetings as that' what helped me the most starting off.

JOKER · Dec 29, 2014

Good info here and the meetings are great so I highly recommend going also. Only thing I would do differently is getting rid of the canister and adding a sump. You could keep the canister and run media and or to filter water from time to time, but a sump imo helps keep things stable and makes life much easier.