Starting up my very first marine tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Test your home water to see if it is of high enough quality for reefing. I would get it professionally tested for phosphates and nitrogenous wastes. Copper and other things if you can as well.

I would recommend jaeger heaters, and aquac skimmers. Although I am a huge fan of oversizing skimmers, there is no way you need one that big. I would get a remora, and probably a bubble trap.
 
Liz Sagara;4975987; said:
Professionally tested?
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Take your freshwater test (since I assume you have a freshwater tank at one time) and dechlorinate a 5 gallon bucket of water. Use your freshwater test and measure for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. You can pick up copper and phosphate test for saltwater from an LFS.

Some LFS will even test for copper and phosphates if they are nice, for free.

You can also get with your local marine aquarium society and see if anyone would let you borrow a hand held TDS meter. I bet someone would have one...

I think the expense of professional testing is a bit of a waste. If you honestly think or have reason to believe your water is that bad, then the money spent on a test to confirm it would have been better used towards a RODI system.




On another note, if you do decide to go through with a turf scrubber, the phosphate and nitrates wouldnt much matter, since turf scrubbers are typically powerful enough to absorb them before they had any real impact.
 
Liz Sagara;4976301; said:
and there are no aquariums here just fish stores
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What I meant by marine aquarium society was a local club. Since I am around the dfw area, I am a member of dfwmas.org, and we have monthly meetings and frag swaps, along with people selling commonly needed equipment and corals for decent prices.

It says you are from texas, but I dont know from what area, but you probably have an aqaurium society near you. If you want, I could try and find out for you, I would just need to know the general area of Texas you live in.
 
Liz Sagara;4977092; said:
Lubbock and I"m 98% sure that we don't have a club. I've looked since august... If you can find one I'll be eternally grateful.
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its small, but this is the lubbock aqaurium club.
http://www.lubbockreefclub.com/


 
Well I posted on the club board that I'm looking for some equipment and got a couple responses. I'm gonna see if the guy will sell me just the tank and light. He's selling a stand with it but I don't need the stand.

He mentioned a Sump. Are sumps strictly necessary? Just wondering. Because I dont' know how to drill or plumb one... so. I do have a couple 10 gallons laying around and 10 gallons is 25% of the capacity so I got that part of it covered. I can run my Algae turf scrubber on that to help with the algae in the display. And if it does the other things it says it will do... fantastic.
 
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