"The Hobby" as seen by a beginner

"Research research research, then research some more." Sound advice at every turn.

But it isn't as simple as it sounds. You see, with books you can see the publication date. With magazines too. The internet however, is a whole new ballgame. And oddly enough, forums don't help as much as you'd think, thatnks to "stickies" and "article databases".

Let me elaborate by telling you of my own research.

One day you look at your 7 gallon guppy tank with blue-red-green gravel and "way cool" Led-lighted sunken ship and decide you want something more. Something like what you saw when in Egypt, the Maldives or Cuba or Bali, other then the scantily clad supermodels I mean. You want a Coralreef with Picasso triggers, and Copperband Butterlies or Raccoon Butterflies, Oh and Dotty and Nemo, not tank can go without them !

So you open your firefox or IExplorer or opera or whatever and your Quest begins : "setting+up+seawater+aquarium".

And then the sorrow begins. You discover that wet/dry trickle filters and canister filters are nitrate factories, to be avoided. OK. So what then ? More research teaches you of the Jaubert system. Fantastic ! Only it isn't, you discover later when you find Shimek's articles and you start "designing" your sump with a DSB in mind. Then that too gets blown out of the water because two years down the line it'll kill your tank unless you keep seeding it for lots of cash.

On the site of Caribsea you see "mineral mud" so that leads you to mangrove refugiums and caulerpa/chaeto refugiums. And to your great delight, except for caulerpa going sexual, you can't find downsides to this system.

So you start designing and planning, 55 gallon with about 250 WATTS of T5's ( Metal halides are deemed to expensive and not needed for the beginner corals and so on ) SCWD Closed loop circulation with buried PVC tubes with exhausts blowing up the "reef wall", sump with skimmer and refugium, seeded with some copepods and chaeto you plan to feed your yellow tang with, bags of carbon and phosban, a calcium reactor in the future, even the Balling system perhaps... the works.

And then you see a thread of a guy setting up his so manieth successful reef tank. ..... with just canister filters.

That's when your left eye starts twitching.

And I'm not even talking fish compatiblility yet.... let alone "Start with a nano VS start with a 70G"

So : in a few short lines, what IS the state of the hobby ? What do you recommend ? If you'd start anew, how would YOU do it ?

 

Lol well all very good questions. For one thing in this Hobby no one is really always right imho. As you may ask questions to 20 different people and get 20 different answers. I would say with some basic knowledge, its just a matter of learning some of the stuff on your own and taking some helpful advice from others with some experience to help guide you in your new saltwater hobby. Its a great hobby! I have learned tons of stuff and I keep on learning.

"You discover that wet/dry trickle filters and canister filters are nitrate factories, to be avoided."

I wouldn't say Nitrate Factories unless your being lazy and never doing a water change or not cleaning your filters. I have had 3 tanks in the all that where for over 2 years old and I had a hang on filter for everyone of those systems and did fine.

"On the site of Caribsea you see "mineral mud" so that leads you to mangrove refugiums and caulerpa/chaeto refugiums. And to your great delight, except for caulerpa going sexual, you can't find downsides to this system."

Looks like a great system I have yet to try it. (some of these things I think tend to be personal preference).

As far as Lighting goes I guess it really all depends on how far you want to go and what you plan on putting in your tank. MH are more expensive then T5 but boy if theirs one thing in this hobby I would not go cheap on is the lighting. Maybe keep in mind you may want to upgrade to more advanced things later on so it might be better to get a better hood/lights for the long run.

For how big you wanna go I will say its personal preference and what will fit your needs/lifestyles. Nanos are great tanks! Large tanks are great as well! I have gone from 15 to 20l to 29 to a 46g. I would love to have a bigger tank but I just don't have the room for one at the moment and one thing I love about the larger tanks is they tend to be more stable. I would maybe sug. in getting a 40g breeder or a 55 if thats in your budget range. And then its just a matter of piecing together your tank (skimmer, filtration, lighting, ect.) Hope this helped you out a little I'm sure you will get some other great feedback from others.

 

I have been in this hobby for many years and have tried most of the filtration system out there, and I believe that no one has found the perfect system yet. If you read an article that claims otherwise, they most likely just have not had their system running long enough for things to go wrong.

One of the things I enjoy most about this hobby is that it is a constant learning experience and hopefully with each new setup you come a little closer to finding that “Magic Bullet” that will create that perfectly balanced maintenance free tank that we dream of.

On to the question of “If you’d start anew, how would YOU do it?” –
Personally I would get the biggest tank setup I could afford (pre-drilled, aka reef-ready); including a top quality skimmer and Halide lighting. My current set up is a 90g with a 40g sump, separate dual chamber refugium, and a tuber-floater 1000 skimmer. There is a lot of other accessories in the system as well; waver makers, auto top-off system, timers, etc… The whole goal is to make it as maintenance free as possible.

This setup is somewhat of a budget-buster, but it is working very well for me so far.

 

Great commentary! Being new to the hobby myself, I also researched til my eyes bled. I think when I get a chance to "do-over", I would do a bunch of little specimen tanks, a igawumi, a fish only, a mushroom only, on and on... I like the look of a single species showcased in its own environment. But give me 6 months and I'll change my mind again- nothing is consistent but change!

 

one good piece of advice is dont cut corners and go buy something because you have and itch to get it...get the right stuff from the start or you will waste money...also take it reallllllllly slow when stocking your tank...another main thing for you and the critters you buy is research what a creature needs in captivity before getting that reef fever and buying it...theres way more but some of that is trial and error...not to mention i learn new stuff all the time about my aquarium;D

 

oh yea i would start with a larger aquarium also no smaller than a 25 gallon...smaller environments change faster and need to be watched carefully

 

there is no right and wrong in running these reef tanks, just pros and cons. one filtration system that is as near perfect as possible, maximum pros and minimum cons, is a good protein skimmer, you don't have to have one but boy does it make life easier. also it won't result in failure in the long term of the system with water changes

as for lighting you want to get lighting that matches your tank size and corals. it is probably gonna end up being either t5 or metal halide, they are other lighting systems out there but these are two of the best. as for which one to get thats another debate entirely. keep an eye out for led systems in the future though, right now they are too expensive for the average aquarist and some of the wealthier ones also.

these are the two truths that i have found to be universal in reef tanks to this date october 21, 2008.

 

One thing which is nice about this hobby is that there are many ways to get it done right. But these same options can make it very confusing for the beginner. I'd advise that you pick out one particular approach which most appeals to you. Set it up and run it then make changes which most make sense to your situation.

Wet/dry trickle filters over live rocks and rubble is a good solution.

DSB works for me but I apply it selectively. For example in my main tank only half of the tank is covered with DSB the rest is rubble. Larger live rocks are atop smaller rubble instead of smothering over DSB beneath.

I'd stay away from mineral mud for a general reef tank unless you're designing a specialty tank.

250w lighting for a standard 55 gallon configuration is a bit weak.

Can you get away with running just a canister filter? Probably. But it means more daily maintenance and cleaning which can get old pretty fast when there are other things in life to attend to.

 

In this hobby what works for one, doesn't for another. I have seen beautiful systems with Drip filters and I have seen beautiful systems with just a canister filter, and I have seen articles that paint both these types of filtration as the Antichrists.

The one thing I think everyone agrees on is you have to do what works for you and you cannot be lazy, you have to stay on top of your system or you will have problems.

My main system is a 75g mixed reef with 38g Fuge and 50g sump with a MAG 7 return pump. I have a light hood with 8 T5-54 watts for a total of 432 watts. The 75 has a closed loop using a Dart Pump and one SCWD on one set of returns, the other just runs into the tank. there is about About 125 to 150 LBS of live rock. I run a Magnum canister filter filled with Carbon and ChemiPure.

My other tank is 56 tower Seahorse tank, that has a Foster and Smith brand HOB power filter and one MaxiJet 1200 for Circulation. No fuge, no sump and about 108 watts of T5 lighting.

My very first and most successful tank to date was a 10 gallon. So I would look, read, and figure out what YOU want and just go with what works for you.