now ive been researching a lil but without picking up any real literature... trying to save my cash to dump into the habitat and the fish .... so from the ground up if i can get some advice for a 10 gallon salt water tank . what are some good starter fish... live rock.. crustacions.... and testing kits i would really appreciate it *SUPERSMIL
my first salt water tank...... will you guys hint me to the first steps?
- Thread starter davesfirsttank
- Start date
your best investment is a book, go buy one, and if you can you should try to start with a larger tank, and yes you will want LR and test kits for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, Alkalinity, and phosphate, but before you do this, go buy a book... they are way cheaper than anything you would buy for your tank and in my opinion and some others at MFT.net not the thing that you want to be saving money on. so get something like mike paletta's "new marine aquarium" and read it then come back and ask some questions that the book didnt answer
agreed with aresgod...but, if you don't have the opporuntity to get to the bookstore this weekend you should read the "What will I need to start a SW tank" sticky and also look through the nano-saltwater forum as there have been quite a few tens started up over the last couple months where all of these questions have been answered
Forget the bookstore, like I did, and go to the library!
Look for the Conscientious Marine Aquarist. If that one isn't there, get several different books and use them as a resource for basic saltwater info. A ten gallon saltwater tank is considered a nano, and many books published pre-2000 have no info on nanos.
Check out nano-reef.com and peruse the threads in our nano section, you'll get oogles of info about staring out. In fact, lately, as caramo said, there have been several threads with people just starting out with ten gallon tanks, lot of helpful advice.
Look for the Conscientious Marine Aquarist. If that one isn't there, get several different books and use them as a resource for basic saltwater info. A ten gallon saltwater tank is considered a nano, and many books published pre-2000 have no info on nanos.
Check out nano-reef.com and peruse the threads in our nano section, you'll get oogles of info about staring out. In fact, lately, as caramo said, there have been several threads with people just starting out with ten gallon tanks, lot of helpful advice.
good point, your local public library should be able to request any book you want via interlibrary loans (trust me, i used to be a librarian)...oh yah, and while it is true that most books don't cover nanos, having a general understanding of the workings of a SW tank will be critical if you are to succeed in nano keeping
yeah i started off with with just live sand and live rock along with some small blue leg hermits.. after a few weeks i added a clown then a week later i added some more live rock and a better bulb (the 18" corallife floresent 50/50) then started adding other inverts: feather duster,sea urchin,ect (check my sig) a month into to the project now and my water seems stable and pretty much cycled i plan to add some more live rock and maybe a cleaner shrimp and thats about it... you can see pics in the "here are a few pics" thread 