BIG NEWBIE ON SALTWATER, TIPS PLEASE

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duongsta4o9

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 10, 2011
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USA
im looking forward to getting a small aquarium possibly about 30 gallons in the future. my goal is to raise a regular lionfish or dwarf once im used to the whole "weekly/monthly" routines. will do research on the fish later on...also the fish will be alone.

But what do i need to know is!??

WHAT DO I REALLY NEED TO SET UP THIS SALTWATER TANK?
i'm thinking about just having liverocks, possibly corals, and the fish itself thats all. thanks




[i've seen tanks with no protein skimmers and instead of using sumps, they just use hangon filters.] o_O
 
You would not be able to house an average lionfish in a 30 gallon for life possibly a dwarf. You would probably start off nicely with 20lbs of live rock and get a hob filter with a hang on skimmer, which is what I would do. I have heard though that dwarf lionfishes are a harder fish to keep mainly with the difficulty of getting them to eat frozen food which can be a problem at the start.
 
i haven't really done research much about lionfish, but if dwarf lionfishes are that difficult, i'll most likely change my mind to raising clownfishes.

What are some good brands for hangon filter and price range for 30 gallon?
Have not thought of the future yet, just looking forward to trying to successfully setting up one first.
 
sounds boring but my advice would be read books! They explain alot better than I would on here without specific questions.

I don't have a HOB filter mines external was thinking about sumping, clownfish are alot easier to keep and a lion and require different needs ( tank size mainly! )
and you're "thinking "about corals would mean to question lighting.

I think you should start by knowing what you want to keep then go off on research from there....you'll lead onto a million things like I do lol and end up want a 300G tank to fit everything in
 
It's good to plan ahead esp. if you might do corals, not all fish are reef safe, most are not. Best place to start is research stability and cycling saltwater systems. Start out with pourous calcified rock - dry or live, a few powerheads rated at least 10x the tank volume. a quality heater, a saltwater basic test kit, hydrometer, and a quality salt mix. As you learn how to keep the salinity and ph stable thru the cycle you can start researching Nitrate mangement and so on.
 
There's a thread in general salt....Ohhh...Probably 3-ish months old now where Wiggles92 wrote down a nice "saltwater setup to-do" list. I'll try to find it for you. It will get you some of the more basic info so you can start to plan better and dream bigger....:naughty:
 
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?466282-Help-me-help-my-friend!!!-Please!!!

I also suggest reading through a bunch of the saltwater threads in your spare time. I did that when I first started and it was an enormous help! Questions I hadn't even thought of yet were popping into my head and you're very conveniently positioned to ask.

And one more thing, don't be afraid to ask questions! That's what we're here for, right? To help each other. So good luck from one newblet to another!
 
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