Thinking about doing corals

[MikeyDew07]

if i am going from a fish only tank to doing corals as well wat would i need
and about how much would it cost do to the fact kinda tight on money

 

[JohnK]

One question leads to many many more

First and foremost, Welcome to the club!

Do you have any idea what you would like to keep? Different corals and other reef inhabitants have different needs. How you plan and put together your set up depends a lot on what you want to keep.

If you have no idea right now, I would suggest visting as many LFS's as possible and seeing what catches your eye and take note. Ask a few questions, read a few books, ask some questions here. The plan will come together.........

jk

 

[JayM]

What John said. If you are going to do 'starter corals', many members here will give them away at low cost or free. Don't buy Kenya tree, colonial polyps, GSP or Xenia at a LFS, when there are members who consider them weeds, and will give them away.

BTW, welcome to the club, and the Dark Side of salt water tanks

 

[Jocko]

Are you really fish only or are you FOWLR? If you don't have live rock, that would be my first suggestion. You'll want to start building that up in your tank so you end up with a nice stable biological filter. That's pretty universal, so you could do that while you are researching and discovering what kinds of corals you want to get into.

 

[wbrodeur]

if you are on a tight budget now, then I would suggest softy's only or maybe a few select low light lps corals. That way you could get away with a less expensive light fixture (no MH). No matter what, going into corals is going to cost a bit. You'll have to get appropriate lighting, skimmer, supplements possibly, etc. If you then happen to stumble on some money in the future, you could always upgrade one thing at a time (like lighting) to expand into other corals such as SPS...trust me, it undeniably happens in this hobby...nothing is good enough, you'll always be wanting bigger and better and more...