My parents are planning on getting a show reef tank. I am looking for an 'if you could sum up the entire saltwater hobby including need-to-knows, do's and don't, common misconceptions, and beginner guidelines' to aide with the research I'm doing.
So if I understand correctly, lps is beginner, sps is advanced, for coral actinic lights are an absolute necessity. Fish in coral tanks need to be reef compatible, no open water fish like (can't think of any examples). Some corals are not photosynthetic (like sun corals which is carnivorous?), clownfish breed in anenomes. Anenomes are for begginers. Need to have a skimmer. Sumps are the best. Invertz have next to nothing (in terms of bioload). Nano tanks are under 30g, pico under 3g. Small tanks are incredibly difficult to keep stable. Don't add saltwater to replace evaporation, only do it when physically changing the water. Otherwise just freshwater. Prime is the best dechlor. Cheato refugiums and deep sand beds are very effective at reducing nitrates. Their is such a thing as a saltwater planted tank (not talking about coral here). Bamboo sharks need minimum 180g. Blue tangs need minimum 75g. Clownfish need minimum 10g. Their is something called a mantis shrimp (or some name along those lines) that will kill any and everything in the tank and must be kept singly. SW puffers are MUCH more peaceful and not poisonous compared to fresh. Some SW puffers (like the dogface) can blink their eyes and have eye lids. Saw a video on that. Lionfish get big and are poisonous, labeled as 'caution' for reef compatibility. Moray eels are specialist and not for begginers.
So if I understand correctly, lps is beginner, sps is advanced, for coral actinic lights are an absolute necessity. Fish in coral tanks need to be reef compatible, no open water fish like (can't think of any examples). Some corals are not photosynthetic (like sun corals which is carnivorous?), clownfish breed in anenomes. Anenomes are for begginers. Need to have a skimmer. Sumps are the best. Invertz have next to nothing (in terms of bioload). Nano tanks are under 30g, pico under 3g. Small tanks are incredibly difficult to keep stable. Don't add saltwater to replace evaporation, only do it when physically changing the water. Otherwise just freshwater. Prime is the best dechlor. Cheato refugiums and deep sand beds are very effective at reducing nitrates. Their is such a thing as a saltwater planted tank (not talking about coral here). Bamboo sharks need minimum 180g. Blue tangs need minimum 75g. Clownfish need minimum 10g. Their is something called a mantis shrimp (or some name along those lines) that will kill any and everything in the tank and must be kept singly. SW puffers are MUCH more peaceful and not poisonous compared to fresh. Some SW puffers (like the dogface) can blink their eyes and have eye lids. Saw a video on that. Lionfish get big and are poisonous, labeled as 'caution' for reef compatibility. Moray eels are specialist and not for begginers.