checklist of necessary beginning items
- Thread starter hippiefish22
- Start date
biowheel = don't use this for SW . It's a nitrate reactor.
You need live rock, they will do the best bio filtration. Take some porous, light one. Tokota, Fiji (premium), Vanuatu, Sulawesi, Tonga (on the top 'cause it's fragile) are all great. For the lighting, it depends if you plan to keep corals. Might want some good amount of sand if you plan to have a deep sand bed that helps filtration..or you could go bare bottom ( no sand at all, rocks placed directly on the bottom, easier to clean but less appelaing ). You need great water movement in a SW tank. You might wanna check Seio pumps, they have wide flow, the corals prefer that compared to a direct, powerful flow. Fish food...mhh..dry one ? Mysid shrimp frozen seems to work on many carnivorous fishes, high in proteins. Test kits..keep in mind that a cheap "all in one" test kit mays have atrocious readings, therefore giving you bad info and after that you might change your parameters and mess all up.
You might wanna have a RO/DI unit system, if filters the water before it gets in the tank, reducing the risk of polluting the tank with unwanted metals, chemicals, even phosphates. This is pretty much a must. Around 150$ you can get a decent unit, 5 stages. Those units are used for consommation, so they'll often include a 6th stage but dont' use this one ( the odor and taste remover ), it leaches phosphates (po4).
The prizm protein skimmer isn't great for a 100g tank, even a little one. But hey, keep it a while, until you wanna try a real good one, if you have a big bioload ( many fishes, many crap in the water ). Please don't skip on the live rock, it's the best way to have a stable tank. You need a heater too. 300w Ebo-Jager can do the job, altough you can try the Titanium ones, they can't break easily.
You need live rock, they will do the best bio filtration. Take some porous, light one. Tokota, Fiji (premium), Vanuatu, Sulawesi, Tonga (on the top 'cause it's fragile) are all great. For the lighting, it depends if you plan to keep corals. Might want some good amount of sand if you plan to have a deep sand bed that helps filtration..or you could go bare bottom ( no sand at all, rocks placed directly on the bottom, easier to clean but less appelaing ). You need great water movement in a SW tank. You might wanna check Seio pumps, they have wide flow, the corals prefer that compared to a direct, powerful flow. Fish food...mhh..dry one ? Mysid shrimp frozen seems to work on many carnivorous fishes, high in proteins. Test kits..keep in mind that a cheap "all in one" test kit mays have atrocious readings, therefore giving you bad info and after that you might change your parameters and mess all up.
You might wanna have a RO/DI unit system, if filters the water before it gets in the tank, reducing the risk of polluting the tank with unwanted metals, chemicals, even phosphates. This is pretty much a must. Around 150$ you can get a decent unit, 5 stages. Those units are used for consommation, so they'll often include a 6th stage but dont' use this one ( the odor and taste remover ), it leaches phosphates (po4).
The prizm protein skimmer isn't great for a 100g tank, even a little one. But hey, keep it a while, until you wanna try a real good one, if you have a big bioload ( many fishes, many crap in the water ). Please don't skip on the live rock, it's the best way to have a stable tank. You need a heater too. 300w Ebo-Jager can do the job, altough you can try the Titanium ones, they can't break easily.
Kahluazz, covered just about everything, I can add a few things though. You will need two heaters one for the tank and one for the container that you put your RO/DI water for your water changes in. You will need two containers, one that you will put your RO/DI water in and one container to drain the old water out of your tank when you do water changes. This next item is not a must, but it sure makes it easier if you have it, a submersible pump, you will use this to pump the new RO/DI water out of your container and into your tank and also to pump your old water out of the other container and down the drain. You will also need a small pump to put into your new water container to circulate the water when you add your salt to this container to help it desolve. You will also need a salt water test kit ( I forgot what these are called, lol) Thats about all I can think of. Now, this is going to be my best advice for you, its advice that I didn't have when I jumped in with both feet before I really new what I was doing and Kahuahzzz kinda touched on it a bit. Learn all about the differant kinds of salt water tanks there are and decide which one you like the best and work towards that end. You Tube is nice for helping you decide, you can look at a ton of clips people have posted in there.