New Highs cool student to the hobby!

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Hi I'm new here lol.

Next year for my senior year in high school we are required to do a "Senior Project" where we choose something to research and physically do to then present throughout the year to our teachers and classmates. I have chosen to build a small Saltwater tank. I have no experience with saltwater. I however kept many Freshwater tanks with Dwarf Ornamental shrimp (you can find me on The Shrimp Spot forum).
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Anyways is salt water hard? I plan to have a 5-10 gallon tank. For a packet I have to list all the items needed and prices can anyone help me fill it out?
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Oh I also need a mentor for the project, I have one but if I have anymore questions I hope that I can post on here to receive an answer
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Thanks,
Nate

Chris Adams · May 16, 2016

1 suggestion I would have is check your local Clubs. You may find a good local mentor and the club may just have equipment to donate for the project. Club members usually have all kinds of dry goods just sitting around in boxes unused at this point.

4FordFamily · May 16, 2016

Welcome home, you'll love it here! Good luck with the project!

twilliard · May 16, 2016

Welcome to R2R!
The best mentors you will have are right here!

sNaFu · May 16, 2016

Welcome to R2R, you wont find a better more helpful group!!!

Anirban · May 16, 2016

Welcome...

You are at right place and we all will try to help you out.

Small water volume need more attention for maintenance and regular care (like baby sitting). So you have to be on top of your maintenance schedule. You will learn a lot of chemistry with this venture and possibly marine biology.

As this is your first venture in salt water and this is a project so possibly I will recommend to buy used stuffs from local fish and reef forum as they will be quite cheap.

Small wavemaker (Hydor should be good enough and cheap)
Tank (look local reef forum for cheap used tank)
HOB filter and skimmer
HOB refugium (if needed)
Good light (if you are keeping hard corals or SPS) - A chinese blackbox led from ebay should cost $80. They are capable of growing everything.
Salt (instant ocean cheap)
live rock (need cleaning)
Sand or you can do bare bottom
Good quality RODI water ( for your water volume I will not buy RODI unit but buy it from LFS)
Basic starting kit (RED sea or API)
Thermometer

Everything including livestock should come in between $500 or lower.

RyanCSGO · May 16, 2016

Welcome to R2R! Sounds like a fun project, wish i would have done something like this when i was in school.
Tons of helpful people on here.

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

twilliard said:
Welcome to R2R!
The best mentors you will have are right here!

Thanks I sure you guys would be perfect mentors but unfortunately my school requires physical interactions with mentors. So if any of you guys are in Central Florida lol

michellejy · May 16, 2016

Anirban said:
Welcome...

You are at right place and we all will try to help you out.

Small water volume need more attention for maintenance and regular care (like baby sitting). So you have to be on top of your maintenance schedule. You will learn a lot of chemistry with this venture and possibly marine biology.

As this is your first venture in salt water and this is a project so possibly I will recommend to buy used stuffs from local fish and reef forum as they will be quite cheap.

Small wavemaker (Hydor should be good enough and cheap)

Tank (look local reef forum for cheap used tank)

HOB filter and skimmer

HOB refugium (if needed)

Good light (if you are keeping hard corals or SPS) - A chinese blackbox led from ebay should cost $80. They are capable of growing everything.

Salt (instant ocean cheap)

live rock (need cleaning)

Sand or you can do bare bottom

Good quality RODI water ( for your water volume I will not buy RODI unit but buy it from LFS)

Basic starting kit (RED sea or API)

Thermometer

Everything including livestock should come in between $500 or lower.

The only things I can think of that you missed are a heater and a refractometer

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Chris Adams said:
1 suggestion I would have is check your local Clubs. You may find a good local mentor and the club may just have equipment to donate for the project. Club members usually have all kinds of dry goods just sitting around in boxes unused at this point.

What do you mean Clubs? Just Google saltwater fish keeping clubs?

Naiad · May 16, 2016

Welcome! Because this is for a school project I would suggest getting liverock from a reputable source. That way there is something going on other than the basic nitrogen cycle for you to report on during the month it takes for the tank to establish. It is a great way to learn about marine life and taxonomy through the hitchickers. The basic care of salt is the same as fresh. The problem is that there is a smaller margin of error and more variables. If you keep shrimp you understand somewhat of how that goes. Your mineral content has to be right or they won't shed properly.

michellejy · May 16, 2016

shrimpybuisness said:
Thanks I sure you guys would be perfect mentors but unfortunately my school requires physical interactions with mentors. So if any of you guys are in Central Florida lol

Check in the club sections in the forum. I'm sure there are Florida members who would be happy to help. @helen are you in central Florida?

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Anirban said:
Welcome...

You are at right place and we all will try to help you out.

Small water volume need more attention for maintenance and regular care (like baby sitting). So you have to be on top of your maintenance schedule. You will learn a lot of chemistry with this venture and possibly marine biology.

As this is your first venture in salt water and this is a project so possibly I will recommend to buy used stuffs from local fish and reef forum as they will be quite cheap.

Small wavemaker (Hydor should be good enough and cheap)

Tank (look local reef forum for cheap used tank)

HOB filter and skimmer

HOB refugium (if needed)

Good light (if you are keeping hard corals or SPS) - A chinese blackbox led from ebay should cost $80. They are capable of growing everything.

Salt (instant ocean cheap)

live rock (need cleaning)

Sand or you can do bare bottom

Good quality RODI water ( for your water volume I will not buy RODI unit but buy it from LFS)

Basic starting kit (RED sea or API)

Thermometer

Everything including livestock should come in between $500 or lower.

Ok thanks for all the helpful information! And I put maybe 3-$400 in my Freshwater tank so that's quite reasonable.

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Thank you all for the quick responses! And for being so nice

Anirban · May 16, 2016

michellejy said:
The only things I can think of that you missed are a heater and a refractometer

Bang on .....I missed those two.

Anirban · May 16, 2016

shrimpybuisness said:
What do you mean Clubs? Just Google saltwater fish keeping clubs?

I hope in central Florida you will find local people who formed clubs where they meet and discuss regarding the hobby. Those people will have a lot of spare stuff which they can sell cheap or even give away free.

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Also what kind of livestock do you guys recommend? I was thinking of basing the Project on Setting up/Maintaining a Saltwater tank and Breeding clownfish. Or is there an easier option, like I know freshwater they call it a Community tank.

shrimpybuisness · May 16, 2016

Ok thanks for the tip!

michellejy · May 16, 2016

If you just plan fish and live rock, you can do things a bit more inexpensively. My first saltwater tank (which I set up before you were born), was run almost exactly like a freshwater tank with the exception of adding live rock. I had a HOB filter and just stock, junky lighting. That is plenty for a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) system. Corals definitely add to the expense and amount of things you need to test/track.

I also recommend a quarantine tank. I don't know how common that is with a shrimp freshwater set up, but a single disease can wipe out all of your livestock and mean leaving your tank empty for 3 months while it runs its course. The quarantine tank can (and should be) even more basic. You don't even need dedicated lighting, although I recommend at least something (even a Home Depot Clamp on bulb option) so you can observe your fish for signs of illness.

Naiad · May 16, 2016

While not required to start up the tank do look into what might be needed to qt or treat a sick fish. These are very helpful to have on hand for emergency purposes.