new to this hobby.. looking for advice and a used setup...

[landric]

hi!. our names are rich and laura... were new to the wonderful world of reef tanks. were currently in the market for a fairly priced reef tank. nothing too extravigant ( YET!! ) but something the two of us can maintain with the help of some people on here... we would truly appreciate whatever advice any of you could give and would really be thankful if someone would be willing to take us under thier wing and help us along to getting started... thank you ... we look forward to making many friends on here in the future...

 

[Aquaman_68]

hi!. our names are rich and laura... were new to the wonderful world of reef tanks. were currently in the market for a fairly priced reef tank. nothing too extravigant ( YET!! ) but something the two of us can maintain with the help of some people on here... we would truly appreciate whatever advice any of you could give and would really be thankful if someone would be willing to take us under thier wing and help us along to getting started... thank you ... we look forward to making many friends on here in the future...

Welcome to the hobby of insanity, Laura & Rich...you still have time to change your mind... Most start on the "not too extravagant" level...It's where they go from there that can get interesting...

Best advice to start...Patience & don't be in a hurry...slow & steady wins the race in this hobby!!

 

[mikede]

Hi Rich, Hi Laura
Welcome aboard. You can see by my join date that I have been here for a little while and as I write this I am currently cycling my first marine system a couple years later. I have been reading and researching all this time. Now I am probably the worst person to give equipment, chemistry or biology advice but I will tell you some things I have learned. Alot of people are going to respond to you and most of them will start off with telling you to read many of the great books out there on the marine aquarium lifestyle. Believe me this is a lifestyle and not a hobby. I went out and bought The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner. I found it very helpful in helping me make some decisions on where to start getting started. There are many other books out that will help as well. Also, if you haven't become a member of this site yet, you may want to look into that. There is always someone selling a setup or parts there of on this site so keep a sharp eye out. Only advice I am capable of giving is plan everything out before you start buying. Plan what you want to keep (i.e fish only, fish/inverts, reef...etc etc etc) and buy accordingly. Hope this is a start for you, but research now and save later. Best of luck and hope to see you folks around for a while. OH wait and there is a meeting coming up the 22nd( I think) try to make it if you can, you can learn alot from them alone.

 

[naturebatslast]

Welcome!
Thae tank itself is usually one of the cheaper items you'll purchase. If I had to do it all over again from the very beginning, I would spend money on a really good protein skimmer oversized for your system, nice dry rock seeded with a bit of live rock(LR) as oppossed to 100% LR. and lighting, metal halide or T5, the latter generally being most efficient.
The forum will be a great place for used equipment, livestock and a ton of knowledge from members, and the search feature is essentially a reef encyclopedia.
Good Luck!

 

[afboundguy]

Welcome to the insanity!!!

 

[jbishop]

Welcome. Best bit of advise i can give is take it slow.

 

[RayD]

Welcome. Best bit of advise i can give is take it slow.

+1 on what Jared has to say. Take it very slow and read, read, and read some more. You'll find a ton of great folks here that will help you with your setup.

The slower you go the better success rate you'll have.

And WELCOME!!

 

[jbishop]

Just looked and saw your looking for a used setup.

Make sure you watch the equipment for sale thread.

Also the paid members have another for sale thread and not too long ago another member that was getting out GAVE their entire setup to another member.

There is also a lot of free coral offers made to members in the special for sale forum.

 

[landric]

laura and i would like to take this minute to thank all that have so speedily given some advice to us.... please keep it coming... and as ive said. we are in the Immediate market for a great used system... were itchin' over here.... we do definitely intend to do our research and our reading to bring ourselves up to speed... we are looking to start a reef system with some really nice fish .. we understand that some fish arent capable of being with other fish etc etc so some advice on that would be greatly appreciated. thanks to all who have taken the time to write to us ... we hope to make it to one of the meetings someday soon to meet you and learn some valuable tricks of the trade... we look forward to making this wonderful lifestyle one of our own... thanx again, L&R.

 

[SharkLover]

Here's the salt water compatability chart. Not set in stone but helps give an idea of the things which can go together.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/compatibility_chart.cfm

I'm new also, my tanks been running about 3-4 months now. just ask around before doing stuff you'll save yourself alot of aggrivation. It took me 3 or 4 months just to get all the tank parts, and all parts I got used at great discounts always more than 50% off except for my lighting

 

[jbishop]

laura and i would like to take this minute to thank all that have so speedily given some advice to us.... please keep it coming... and as ive said. we are in the Immediate market for a great used system... were itchin' over here.... we do definitely intend to do our research and our reading to bring ourselves up to speed... we are looking to start a reef system with some really nice fish .. we understand that some fish arent capable of being with other fish etc etc so some advice on that would be greatly appreciated. thanks to all who have taken the time to write to us ... we hope to make it to one of the meetings someday soon to meet you and learn some valuable tricks of the trade... we look forward to making this wonderful lifestyle one of our own... thanx again, L&R.

Any information of specific fish you are looking to get?