Can someone ease my worries?

So for about 6 or 7 months now i've had a FO tank. I've been starting to become curious about corals and plan on moving into a reef tank. i found a great deal on a bunch of live rock and a 4x65 watt pc coralife lighting system which should be fine for a large assortment of corals for my 75 gal. The only worries i'm having are this is going to be quite the investment. for the live rock and light alone it's going to be around 200 dollars, i'm worried that i don't know what i'm getting myself into. That maybe i'm not ready to care for corals and i'm underestimating the amount of work the corals are. I just don't want to invest a lot of money into it and end up realizing it's just all to hard.

 

Corals really aren't a lot of work. Corals just mean that you have to keep up with the water parameters that you can kind of let slide on a FO system. They don't require expensive food..trips to the vet..or brushing. Just start out with the easy ones (zoas, mushrooms, etc..) and you will be just fine! I kept a wide assortment under PC's with great success, so unless you begin wanting SPS and other high light demanding creatures, your light you're getting will suit you just fine.

Ivan

 

its alot of money!

 

Thanks, and what kind of investment am i looking at? I mean the corals themselves are quite expensive. Not as expensive as fish obviously but still up there. Do the corals really need the additives i read about and if so how much do those cost and what not? After the initial spending (lighting, live rock, and corals) what am i looking at spending? I'm only 16 years old so money is definitely an object! i've already shoveled out close to $1000 of my last summers paycheck on my FO tank.

 

OK, what all equipment do you have on your FO? as I look at Fo and corals the same just a couple more test which you will get the hang or real easy. feeding i just dump some coral frenzy in the tank and good bye. eat away coral and fishes. it is real easy what kinda corals is this person trying to sell you?

 

I have a uv steralizer, a protein skimmer and then all the necessities (heater, wet/dry overflow etc.) no one is trying to sell me any corals. Just lights and live rock. The corals i would probably be buying from my lfs.

 

you'll probly spend another $750-1000 on the lights, rocks, chemicals, test kits, corals, inverts, & food in the next 2-3 months.

 

is his rock in tank now? sorry for all the questions is that I don't want to tell you to jump on it and you get off started with 200 bucks of hair slime algae rock. How much rock are we talking about?, or better how much is he asking per lb? if he has it set up and you do not see red slimey stuff or green fuzz all over the place you will more then likely be ok. and the bonus is keep it in a tub for a couple weeks with a power head in the dark then add to the tank. don't have to re cure it all over but that will help reduce some of the issues. lights and rock sorry I didn't see that was a combo deal. in this hobby ask alot of questions please it is better to ask then to keep dumping money out the window.

 

Yeah like i said i found the guy through craigslist. he said he has the rock in a running tank right now. so if i go to his house and see that it's not in good shape i'll tell him i'm not interested. It's 50-60 lb of live rock and he's selling them together not rock by the lb. he said he would take 250 for all the rock and the lights and then we agreed on 200. so for 200 i get 50-60 lb of live rock and a 4x65 watt 48" coralife lighting system.

 

yeah i would say get it if the rocks looks good you got a deal even @ 4 bucks a lbs say at 50 lbs thats 200 then the light is free lol google slime algea and also hair algea and also cotton candy algea I beileve thats the name of it. to get a good picture in your head to know what you are looking for. any of those tell him nevermind or qt in tubs for 2 months in dark.