my newbie experience..

hey guys, i was on another forum and they had a long list of newbie experiences, so that people won't be asking the same thing over and over.. so i thought i might start this here, give my experience, and learnings, maybe it will help someone, maybe not... but here goes...

1- if an LFS is trying to sell you something, ANYTHING, don't buy it that day or on that trip... most likely the item is overpriced, unneccessary, or the store is trying to sell you something that will die so you can come back and buy another... instead, take a notepad and possibly a camera.. write down what the item is, the price, what the person says it is or what it does, if interested in livestock, take pictures, note the actions of the fish, etc.... the people on the forum usually know more than the people at the LFS... an example... one store i went to tried to sell me an oddysea CF light setup for $400 and a USED skilter for 80.... another store has sold me enough chemicals and additives that i feel like i'm building a bomb out of my 55 gallon aquarium...

2- bigger may not always be better... the important thing in saltwater is that you have a nice floor area.. i didn't know this when i started my 55, and about the best i can do as far as aquascaping is a liverock wall... now, i would much prefer a 75 gallon... biocubes are more attractive if you don't mind the extra maintenence...

3- BUY AN RO/DI UNIT!!!!! i thought i would be able to get away with buying gallons of distilled water at wal-mart, but the boxes and empty jugs are a PITA to get rid of...

4- aiptasia and bubble algae are unavoidable; best thing you can do is get rid of it as soon as you notice it...

5- some people will object, but T5 is better than MH... less heat, less money, i'll never buy MH...

6- don't harrass the livestock! best bet is to make 100% positive that you have your aquascape exactly the way you like it before you add any kind of inverts, fish, or corals...

7- cycling gets boring, but don't buy anything to add color or movement to the tank... let the LR do that for you...

8- (to go along with #4) don't rely on animals to take care of aiptasia/bubble algae/asterina/whatever... i've never tried this, but i've always heard that its hit-or-miss, and if they don't eat the bad stuff, they'll probably die from lack of food...

9- as anyone who has looked at at least 10 posts on here knows, "go slow let it grow" (matt rogers, forum owner)what i take that to mean is that even though any piece of livestock may look healthy in an aquarium, it may not be.. and if you add more to the tank, you may stress the original piece, and the new piece too, causing both to die... my recommendation is no more than one fish/coral/invert per month, maybe even 2 months... unless its a janitor pack or coral pack that you can buy online...

10- have a good paying, steady job, or you'll end up like me, spending money trying to set up a nice aquarium, only to be fired or quit, and not be able to maintain you aquarium, and losing all that invested money (around a thousand dollars in my case, and that's only in a few months..)

 

Disagree and agree with others.
5- It is known that t5s dont penetrate that well in tanks over 20" in height (unless maybe you buy the aquatinics solar flare and not even).MH work better in tanks 20" and greater in height.

7-Have a hard time with that one.;D

9-Matt Rogers (forum owner) came up with that saying.

 

I agree and disagree

#5 - t5ho is great for any tank under 20inches in height like IBMGeek noted.
#7 - I installed my skimmer and powerheads in the tank while cycling or else the detritus just settles.
#9 - is the most important advice for a newbie..going slow.

When you have passed a few months and your tank has become more stable you can add more than 1 coral a month. I have added at least 3 in 2 weeks. Corals don't add to your bioload.

 

I think your other forum filled your head full of a bunch of ****! :-/

 

well, #5 is just my opinion... i don't like MH lights... granted i've never tried them, but the only ones i'd be interested in are around $800, and i've been told that they produce more heat, and cause your power bill to be higher... i'm just saying that i'd take T5's over MH any day... but then again, i'm not much into SPS... so that may change things a little...

#7, i'm not talking about equipment... i'm talking about fish and stuff... for my previous setup, i bought fish mid-cycle because i got bored with watching the rock sit there and do nothing...

oh, and i didn't post this to go along with what everyone else would do.. i'm just going on my own personal experience... that's what i meant to do with this.. not necessarily to say that "i know everything"... but to add what i do know, and for others to post their own experiences and advice... maybe i should have reworded some things though...

 

ok, so have i made people at peace with me yet? i gave credit on #9, clarified #5 and #7... yeah, water movement is necessary, i was just thinking that the way i said it, people would realize that i'm talking about adding fish and stuff...

 

I never had a problem with #7 I just said i had a hard time because it was difficult for me to wait and not be able to add anything ;D What you said is true.

Now about #5. You have to be realistic. I have T5s and i like them but my tank is only 20". If you have a tank more than 20" then the light is not going to penetrate as well and is not going to reach the bottom with good intensity. You can just say youll never going with t5s. As an example, another member in this forum bought a 750 gallon tank which is about 3 feet in height. The only way for t5s to illuminate the bottom of that tank is maybe if you put them halfway underwater ;D. This members only option is MH. Now you can say you prefer t5s but dont say there bad because sometimes thats youre only option.

At war This is a friendly forum, theres no war here, theres just people who disagree.

 

The reason for the positive stuff about T-5HOs is the increased lumens per watt comparred to MHs. T-5HOs = 92 lumens/watt, MH = 80 lumens/watt. So for a tank that the T-5s can penetrate they are more powerful than MH because of the increased ammounts of lumens. For taller tanks, power does not matter because not enough penetration is occuring.

So, for tanks that can take advantage of the T-5HOs, they are cheaper, less hot, and...better than MHs.

Also...I sort of agree...demensions are important...I would rather a 50g cube vs my 55g tall rectangle...but hey, I want a 245 cube too hah!

 

I think you have a good idea twan; post 3 or 4 newbie need to knows.
Kinda like if you got to go back to highschool knowing what you know now. Things I would have done differently when I started...

1- Take a closer look at the turnover rate for 55g of water.
I started only having 300gph going through my sump, my overflow couldn't pull the suspended matter out of the water column fast enough to make my tank look clear. I now have 700gph passing though my sump soon to upgrade to 1100gph. This way the water passes though mech. filt. more often.

2- Get a nice auto top off system (or build a nice one)
I swear I use to overflow my tank weekly trying to top off with my RO/DI unit. Not only does it suck to have water all over the floor, I would forget about it and my salinity would drop fast, like from 1025 to 1017 overnight.

3- Quit moving stuff around
I could just imagine how huge my corals would be if I had just left them alone. I like to play with this stuff way too much

 

+1


As for the tank being 20"s or less is for growing SPS, you can grow most leathers and zoanthids up to 30"s. One misleading thing when the tank hieght is mentioned, its not the total hieght of the tank, its the height from the sand bed. If your tank is 24"s tall, and have a 6" sand bed, then from the surface of the sand to the top is 18"s. Thats something a lot of people dont think about.