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  L# Im a newbie, and well need help..
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SubscribeIm a newbie, and well need help..
nickatnite90
Small Fry
Posts: 1
Kudos: 1
Votes: 0
Registered: 16-Nov-2011
male usa us-arizona
Well I just took my old fish tank out of our garage since my girlfriend would like some animals in the house. Im 21 years old, no experience. Im pretty sure my tank is a 37 gallon, its 12'' wide and 30'' long and i think 22'' tall. Looking at fish yesterday we decided on going with salt water.. just way better looking fish plus all the cool coral and stuff. My tanks isnt very old and has the cover with a light and filter included but it hasnt been used in years.I turned it on and the light works but im not sure about the filter... I just need to know basically whats the big steps i need to take to get started. i know i need to buy smashed coral or whatever instead of normal gravel, and half cup of sea salt per gallon of water.. what else?
Post InfoPosted 16-Nov-2011 18:30Profile PM Edit Report 
Babelfish
 
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Administrator
Small Fry with Ketchup
Posts: 6833
Kudos: 8324
Votes: 1570
Registered: 17-Apr-2003
female australia us-maryland
EditedEdited 16-Nov-2011 22:36
Well, first off welcome to the site . Really glad you stopped to find out how to start before you started!

I got into fish because my boss wanted some life in the office

Before you make your final decision on saltwater you should read up on how to care for and maintain the tank. Sure they look right but are you really ready to put in that much time, energy, and money into the tank?

Here is a FAQ on Saltwater http://fishprofiles.com/faq/sbegin.php. I've not kept saltwater personally, but I'm fairly certain that most people go with much larger than a 30 gallon tank (Tank calculator can be found under the interactive menu up there ^ I got 34 gallons (http://fishprofiles.com/interactive/convert.php?type=capacity) for you, minus what the substrate and decorations will take up and you're pretty much at a 30 gallon tank).
Additionally fish need room to swim, just because they're in a 20 gallon tank at the shops doesn't mean that is the right environment for them. Besides the fact that they grow up . Corals take a lot, a LOT of light, besides the initial cost ($200 or so plus bulbs) there's the long term cost of the electricity from running the lights 12+ hours a day. Pretty sure you'll also need a protein skimmer: http://www.bigalspets.com/Protein-Skimmers-Fish/b/3010431011


Did the shop you visited have any cichlid? A lot of the african rift lake cichlids can be just as bright and colorful as saltwater fish, though the small size of your tank will be a bit limiting again. Often times they wont be showing their full colors when they're in the shops because they're young, and often slightly stressed.

I'd suggest having a read through the FAQ's on this site Here's the one for fresh water: http://fishprofiles.com/faq/begin.php the important part for any tank is the cycling process: http://fishprofiles.com/faq/begin-cycling.php#cycle. Once you've read up a bit more on tanks, you might make a few more trips to the shop, and find others in the area to visit. Write down the names of the fish you might be interested in and look up their profiles http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/ to make sure they're the right size for the tank you have.

I'll move this thread over to the SW forums, hopefully you'll get some help there.


^_^

Edit: sorry the links look messy, I did have it looking nicer but somethings wrong so I had to go old messy way, at least they still work right !

Post InfoPosted 16-Nov-2011 22:25Profile Homepage AIM MSN PM Edit Delete Report 
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