Noob in waiting

Hi All;

I've been lurking this site for the past few months and finally took the plunge to join. Why so long you ask? Well, while I aspire to have a system one day I am currently tankless, and may be for a few years yet. Basically my wife, year old son and I live in a confined space/3rd floor condo. I could probably make a Nano fit, but I don't think I'm skilled enough to maintain the best water params for those kinds of systems. I had a small tank about 10 years ago that I loved, but had never ending problems giving my inhabitants the quality they deserved. I fell in love the the hobby nonetheless, and have been dreaming/waiting for the day when I can jump back in the right way. I also learned a heck of a lot of sad lessons I don't plan on repeating! For now, we (like everyone else) have to wait for the market to come back before we can hope to move into a space that will be better suited to a larger tank.

In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of reading, lurking, and some basic planning for what I would want in a tank. In any event, I will be hitting the ground running when I get the chance .

You all inspire me! Best of luck in all you do...

Thor 8)

 

Welcome to 3reef

I hope we can give you all the tools to have an awesome tank when you can start one up.

 

Welcome to 3reef,

Why don't you check out a biocube 29? they are pretty compact, and come with all your basic necessities but that can all be upgraded in the future.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

 

Believe me som3 reef3r, I have considered it (okay, I still am) as something to keep me until I can have a larger one.

I know that maintaing params is a challenge with those (or so I have heard) and they are best left to more experienced hands. Is that a fallacy?

 

Welcome to 3reef,
Feel free to ask any question all day long, have a plan on what type of system you want to keep and the equipment it will take. Because of this your quality of the system and required maintance will be better overall.

 

Just don't over stock or move to quickly, this is where most people get into trouble. Do your cycle and stock very slowly so the system can catch up. Check for phosphates and dont overfeed, run a shorter light cycle if algea becomes a problem. Oh, and use DI water from the start!!!! it should keep itself after that with routine water changes.

 

;DWelcome To 3reef;D!!!
hey I have been keeping a 6 gallon ( my first tank) for 9-10 months and hears what I think can help when keeping nanos ...
good filtration- a fuge and\or chaeto algae, chemi pure LR, LS etc are good. sponge filters and bio balls are worthless
good light if keeping coral- leds are best then T5 and T5HO lights are second then PC and metal halide lights are third
water changes- 10-15 percent every week is good
do not put Caulpara in the DT = not good, give caulpara a fuge with a 24\7 light and give it its own small rock. they will spore in your DT sometimes because the light on it is off so when they spore everything suffocates to death
params do need to be VERY stable but I did it until in the middle of the night(in march i think) my caulpara in the DT spored (because water params when all out of hand in 6 or so hours)and everything died
not much else to say since I just woke up ...

 

Welcome,
And don't be intimidated! There's a lot of bad press in the world about the difficulty of keeping a saltwater tank. Frankly, it's not true. Once you understand the basics it's not hard at all. Just remember guide lines and rules of thumb are just that and can get very blurred from tank to tank. What works in one tank, doesn't in another and vice versa.

What ever you do, don't buy cheap crappy gear!

Dive in, the water is nice.

 

1.0 I think you meant LED>MH>T5>PC