Better to start with corals or fish?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Okay. As you know I'm goin with easy easy corals and already am figuring that out. I will start looking for rock. I've got around $100 bucks to spend on rock so that will have to do for the first little bit and I'll get it up to around a 100 lbs before adding any sensitive fish and just keep adding rock from there. I'm going to fill my Fx5 with carbon and some ammonia fixing media. Then have around a 15-20 gallon fuge section in the sump with another chamber for the skimmer and heater. then a direct drip line into the tank for dosing and feeding the corals and other inverts on the rock.


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Ok, so you're just starting out then? Then don't go for even fish right now, you need to educate yourself on the cycling of saltwater tanks first so you can make sure that setting up your tank and getting it running, and on it's way to maturation is smooth and insightful - not an expensive and frustrating distaster. Cruise the forum and seek out the cycling threads. You'll learn a lot, and as you learn, don't hesitate to toss out some more questions!
 
Have you cycled the tank yet, or are you just setting it up now? If it's already cycled, I'm assuming you might already have the live rock in there. If so, I'd suggest adding a couple reef-safe fish to the equation, just one or two, and some cleaner crews. You'll want to wait then for the system to catch up with the new biological waste additions, and then slowly add a coral at a time. You never want to add corals into a tank that hasn't matured for at least 6mo-1yr because though there are some pretty hardy soft corals, they still require a more stable and pristine environment than most fish and inverts and other plants do. Not to mention, they're expensive, and under threat in the wild, so it'd be a shame to just rush out and buy them because they're so amazing, and then contribute to their decline by not being able to properly maintain it. Everything in salt is better done slow and steady.

This is good sound advice
 
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