The bad and the good

[KevinB79]

Hey All,

So I'm new and starting to get stuff for my new tank and yesterday I saw a post about sand and the fact that it was too light and caused the tank to cloud up. I thought to myself wow that is not anything I had even thought of. So I thought I would put a thread out there and ask what have others learned along the way. Can anyone give me a few ideas/suggestions/do's/donts of what worked or what to avoid when starting a new tank. Does anyone have any good suggestions for equipment to get or avoid or even brands that might be cheep and not worth the money. Any ideas or thoughts would be awesome. I'm just starting so I dont really need help with fish or corals yet but more thinking about the start up and equipment since there are so many brands and the prices vary drastically.

 

[James M]

don’t rush anything. It always results in causing other problems.
If your on a budget or just don’t want to spend lots. Look for tank breakdowns. Even for corals and equipment. Lots of people who breakdown tanks will sell stuff for cheap.
Also research anything you want to get for your tank. Even if it seems like a simple fish, invert, or coral. It’ll save you lots of time and you could spread the info to others.

 

[Jeight]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[FishyFish]

Hi, welcome to R2R! I'm also new to the hobby but there are already a few things I wish I'd done differently when I started. First, I know you said that you weren't worried about fish yet, but please look into quarantine procedures for new additions before you start. There are many schools of thought on how to do it, some people proactively medicate everything and some people don't QT at all. I won't tell you what you should do, but please research the issue and decide for yourself before you start. I made the mistake of assuming that you didn't have to QT/treat your first fish, but now that I know better I really wish I had.

Stay away from API test kits!! They have good Amazon reviews but they are notoriously inaccurate. I personally used them to ammonia in my tap water and it came up positive. Gave me a major scare that could have been avoided. I use Salifert kits now but Red Sea is recommended a lot by people here too. Hannah checkers are also good but more expensive.

One more bit of advice, always double check information that you get from your LFS before making any purchases. I had a LFS try to sell me a ribbon eel and a hippo tang for my 30g tank and another one told me that flame scallops were great additions for reef tanks and that they only lived 6 months in the wild. Some stores have awesome employees that will be honest with you and won't sell you fish that aren't right for your tank, but others aren't so trustworthy. Until you know which is which it's best to just double check.

 

[KevinB79]

Hi, welcome to R2R! I'm also new to the hobby but there are already a few things I wish I'd done differently when I started. First, I know you said that you weren't worried about fish yet, but please look into quarantine procedures for new additions before you start. There are many schools of thought on how to do it, some people proactively medicate everything and some people don't QT at all. I won't tell you what you should do, but please research the issue and decide for yourself before you start. I made the mistake of assuming that you didn't have to QT/treat your first fish, but now that I know better I really wish I had.

Stay away from API test kits!! They have good Amazon reviews but they are notoriously inaccurate. I personally used them to ammonia in my tap water and it came up positive. Gave me a major scare that could have been avoided. I use Salifert kits now but Red Sea is recommended a lot by people here too. Hannah checkers are also good but more expensive.

One more bit of advice, always double check information that you get from your LFS before making any purchases. I had a LFS try to sell me a ribbon eel and a hippo tang for my 30g tank and another one told me that flame scallops were great additions for reef tanks and that they only lived 6 months in the wild. Some stores have awesome employees that will be honest with you and won't sell you fish that aren't right for your tank, but others aren't so trustworthy. Until you know which is which it's best to just double check.

Thank you very much for the info this is great to hear....

 

[LynzieS]

See if there's a reef club local to your area. People are usually willing to help out a new person and give cheap/free frags and advice. And usually you can find someone who has those few pieces of equipment you only need to use occasionally, like a par meter. And if you're making changes to your tank, do it slowly and always give it a couple days before you change something else. If you change too many things it's hard to tell what had a good v. bad effect.

 

[KevinB79]

See if there's a reef club local to your area. People are usually willing to help out a new person and give cheap/free frags and advice. And usually you can find someone who has those few pieces of equipment you only need to use occasionally, like a par meter. And if you're making changes to your tank, do it slowly and always give it a couple days before you change something else. If you change too many things it's hard to tell what had a good v. bad effect.

I dont think I even know how to find a reef club around me?

 

[LynzieS]

There is an area in reef2reef that has an option to search through by state and then area. You can also try asking a local fish store, they usually know the groups in the area.

 

[RIreefGuy]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[KevinB79]

There is an area in reef2reef that has an option to search through by state and then area. You can also try asking a local fish store, they usually know the groups in the area.

Aw I found it but looks like nothing in our area.

 

[LynzieS]

Dang. Could still reach out to some lfs and see if there's a group not on reef2reef. It's always more fun to have people to talk with.