New Saltwater Aquarist, lots of questions!

Biocube comes with everything except coral, rock,water.

Comes with bioballs and filtration system, you will need another power head though.

Ill give it to you straight, anemones in a 14g is a no no. the reason is because they need high light, atleast a 30g to roam around and find their area, and 14g are harder to keep stable then larger tanks, they are pretty sensitive. I would not do one until you have more expeirence keeping easy corals and learn the ways of the the reef hobby first before trying a nem.

Crabs are easy to keep, you can get some emerald crabs, just harmless little algae feeders.

What starfish?serpent star? if so, i dont know alot about them, but might get big for a 14g.

 

and the to answer these Q's,

I got all my corals and Mainstream Aquatics and my Local LFS. They are both great stores and mainstream is amazing corals. You could probebly get on craigslist and find some other hobbyist in your area and find some frags.

And for fish, you could get a wrasse,clownfish,dottybacks,gobys(small ones) those are just some examples..Once you start researching on fish you like they will say reef safe or not, smallest tank they can be in, andthe size they get...Anything that stays under 3" would be fine.

Please feel free to send me a PM for some Questions.

 

hurray for lots of questions! XD actually i dont recommend anemones for beginners so you might wanna hold off on that for a while for corals the biocube comes with the proper light so your good on that note. crabs are hard to keep if you dont feed'em XD; you need to make sure that they get food too, cuz thats how i lost a few crabs myself. fish ideas i think i already gave you some; you can still ask around for good ideas anyway. biocube comes with filter, lights, and its really good for a beginner IMO

 

You could get some stuff at Petco, but IMO they will sell you anything. I won't buy any livestock from Petco, I am sure you could find another LFS somewhere in driving distance.

If you were to get a serpent star they would really just eat the leftover food from feeding the fish. I have one and when I feed he just extends his arms from the rocks and tries to grab some floating food.

Anemones aren't for beginners. They usually need an established tank. You could get one down the road but I certainly wouldn't get one until 6-9 months down the road. And I wouldn't say they are hardy.

You could get some hermit crabs and an emerald crab. I personally like snails more than hermits but I love my emerald crab

 

There's this guy on 3reef who's name is Guy (lol); you could ask him; i think hes online right now, and he owns a serpent star. his serpent star actually lives with a yellow watchman goby and they like get food for each other too; really interesting relationship. Speaking of relationships, i assume your getting shrimp, right? maybe try a goby/pistol shrimp pair; they create a hole, watch out for each other, and live in it together, which is also a really interesting relationship

 

My pistol btw dude, and he is back to bullying the hermits..haha!

 

XD that sucks LOL

 

Hello and welcome,

in advance im not trying to sound bossy or mean but this hobby is really expensive even if it is done cheep.

I would go woth plan 2 since you are planning on going to collage since it is hard to keep a tank in a dorm (personal exp.). The manderian is a beutiful fish but very hard to keep even in good established tanks (again Personal exp.). with plan 2 you could get a 15 gallon and its easy enough to mave around with and its big enough that you can have 2 clows in but the catch is that keeping the water peramter in check will be difficult.

I have a 20 tall and tried a manderian and it sadly choked on a pice of sand , tried a scotter blenny and he starved , currently have a watchman goby and hes awsome with a skunk cleaner porcelin crab and a blue damsel with live sand and live rock , along with base rock that turned into live rock because of the live sand i started with.

the smaller tanks hav issues with water quality and seem to do ok for beginners, that said im upgrading to a 75 now and think i should have started bigger.

IMO i belive you should invest in a 14 boicube its got everything you need and is small enough to take to collage with you and designed with everything built into it including a small protiene skimmer, light which will help in the long run of the tank (personal exp.).

i would also do sand and if live is to expensive where you are then i know you can order it off of e bay for aroung 20 shipping includer for 20 lbs wich will help with the water quality, and if thats to expensine argonite sand is 3.00 a bag on e-bay shipped.

Thats only my opinion and i did my 20 gallon for arouun 150 with the stand light and tank off craigslist and e-bay.

 

posted all that and yall beat me to it lol

 

lol get the 29 gallon; more space and i guess a little bit easier to keep