New to saltwater

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Hey everyone. I'm new to salt water. I'm setting up a DSA 105 rimless. My dry rock has been cycling in a rubbermaid for 4 weeks have nitrate. And some nitrates. Waiting on my sump and fuge to come in (life reef) will be here in 2 weeks. Hopefully live rock will be ready to go. Plan on letting it cycle another 2 weeks in tank before I add anything. I have 2 AI hydras for the tank. So do I add fish or corals first? A little of both. Fish wise I was thinking 3 green chromis at first. I love the florida recorida. Everything I know about saltwater is from reading online. Had cichlid for 2 years now. I see tanks that are loaded with coral are there stocking limits with coral the same as with fish? What kind of corals can I get I have 2 ai hydra tank is 48x24x21. Have mp40. I know there are a lot of questions any help is welcome. Thanks

Reefing Madness · Jan 16, 2014

Add some snails and such first. Then Fish, then corals. Chromis are bad, as they will usually chase each other to the point of death, you will end up with just one.
Limits are not the same with corals as with fish. You will see that tanks are just busing at the seams with coral, you can't do this with fish. With the lighting you have, you can keep anything you want, provided your water is clean enough.

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Thanks. What would be a good small schooling fish. Like the look of 5 small all the same

Small triggers · Jan 16, 2014

Snails and clean up crew first..
Get a few good books...I really like Scott W. Michael for fish compatiability..
You'll want to make a fish list to see what you like and what you can have with the corals you want...

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

I did that already. Forget the name of the book. They recommend 5green chromis as a nice schooling fish. Some people say that's a bad idea.

Reefing Madness · Jan 16, 2014

There are several other Chromis that will school together. But look up the green chromis schooling theory, I myself have tried it several times, and each time with failure, and thst was in a 125g tank.

revhtree · Jan 16, 2014

Welcome to R2R!! Check this out as well: How to set up a saltwater reef aquarium tank- REEFEDITION

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Great article. Thanks.

3Twinklets · Jan 16, 2014

Dartfish school but they are also very timid. Lookdown fish will school also.

mike007 · Jan 16, 2014

Welcome

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Thanks everyone for their help.I'm sure I'm going to need much more.

lps1212 · Jan 16, 2014

Welcome aboard glad to see the Jersey reefers growing on this site love the tank dimensions

kschweer · Jan 16, 2014

Welcome to the site! Great to see more nj people over here. Where in jersey? Is your tank covered? If so maybe 3-4 firefish.

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Thanks. Williamstown about 30 min from AC. My tank is not even up yet. Waiting on my sump from Lifereef. Should be here in 2 weeks. Just painted the back black. Working on hanging the lights now. I have everything. Just working on getting it set up. I have clips that go on the tank to hold a glass top. Its a rimless tank.been planning this for like a year now and its starting to come together. Thank god because after buying everything I'm broke.ha ha.

classklown90 · Jan 16, 2014

Im in voorhees so you're not too far away

kschweer · Jan 16, 2014

Best of luck getting things set up. I'm in brigantine so not too far either. Be sure to start a tank thread I would love to see the progress

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Not far at all. Nice tp see people close by.

jerseypete · Jan 16, 2014

Plan on doing that. Been documenting everything so far. Did my aquascaping mortared everything together then threw it in a rubbermaid to get things started. Its starting to come together.