I would hold off on an ATO until you get more familiar with everything first honestly. I have a 65gal tank with a DIY acrylic lid and I only have to top off maybe half a gallon once a week. Start simple and work your way up.
But those are for fresh water fish.
You can use tap for fish only systems but corals like better water quality and most tap water has an allowable amount of minerals in it that does not work out for sensitive coral species. Recommend using RO/DI water for salt mixing for favorable results in a marine tank.
They are just so expensive. I don’t really have a laundry room it’s more of a closet type thing so I don’t have a place to put a holding tank. I’ve seen ones under sinks but Idk how to do that
You don't need to store water. You turn your filter on, fill up a bucket with freshly made RO water, turn the filter off, add salt and mix it up. Now your ready for a water changed.
Depends on the size of the RO membrane in your RODI filter. 20-45mins for a 5Gal bucket depending on 6our membrane capacity.
I started out using a garden hose attached to my rodi unit and only mixing about 5 gallons of saltwater at a time it's also pretty easy to hook one up under the sink they sell kits to do it all you would need is a drill for the waste water and ato you could hold off on and add water every couple days same thing I did starting out
Watch what kind of damsels you get, some of them can be very aggressive and I’ve had them kill clowns in the past
Ok. I haven’t done any research on fish yet. I just went to my lfs and saw a few that caught my eye. I definitely would get a pair of clowns tho. What are those small purple and yellow fish that are longer than tall? I live in Louisiana and lsu is my team so I would love to get one of those purple and yellow fish if they are fine with clowns. Just looked it up and is called a royal gramma. Can it go with a pair of clowns?
Anything deemed “reef safe” should get along fine in a community
