My personal top 5 things to be aware of when starting a new tank.

P.Olsen

New member
5. You cant have it all in 1 tank. Before you put 1 fish, rock, coral, invert, anyhing come up with a plan and what and how you much maint. you want to put into it and most importantly your budget. Many species of corals and some fish and inverts require more care, higher end equipment and may not be compatible. Do some asking around and research on compatability before investing dime 1, you dont want to end up costing more in the long run to save a little up front.

4. Buy smart, it is better to buy used quality equipment than new lower end equipment. You can also save a lot by buying through forums, your local craigs list and clubs for fish, equipment, lighting, etc and end up with a better system for much less $$$. It may take longer to get your final envisioned tank but #1 covers that.

3. Size matters, although equipment like filtration, skimmers, UV's etc have all improved over the years which is why nanos are much easier to keep BUT size still matters. A smaller tank with filtration running will run great with extremely stable params but if there is an issue like a power outage, airborne contaminents a smaler tank will end up with less time before a system colapse than a larger tank will. Nanos are beautiful, I have had them in the past without issues and love them but they also do require more maint than a larger tank, another thing to e aware of.

2. Dont put all your faith in one way of doing anything. Everyones tank is so unique that they really do require very specific maint. Monitor your set up closely for a long time. Testing params will let you know how often and how much volume you will need for water changes, the std 20% rule, a weekly rule, bi-weekly rule, etc is a good place to start but tweaking it as you go will give you a tank that will be easier to maintain and more importantly remain stable.

1. PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE! I have seen way to many people get into the hobby but rush through it ending up with disaster after disaster until they finally either get to discouraged or cant afford to keep in the hobby. Go slow and you will be in the hobby for a long long time. From initial set up, acclimating new fish, corals or iverts everyhing in this hobby works best when done slowly.
 
I completly agree with all said very good and useful info. My biggest thing is buying fish and coral. Alot of people know to look at what your buying see what its eating and such. I find myself talking to workers at the stores we go to to buy livestock. I ask about filtration and such. If the place runs all thief tanks off of one big filtration system and they have one sick fish in the system I found its easy to bring it home. I don't have a at tank because I'm not conntly bringing new stuff home. But of the store doesn't have one I find it a problem since that's what they do. Fish on fish out. That being said if I see anything funny I don't buy which was so hard to do since there's always that fish or coral we wanted and we see it and jump on it. Its not worth spending the fifty or more dollars on somethingbjust to bring bi home and endanger the hundreds of dollars we already have invested. Patients is soory important. Do yourself a favor and wait for that perfect piece or fish. Might be anal but this hobby is too expensive to make bad purchases.
 
Yea I found this out trying to maintain a 410 mixed reef. I had SPS,lps,nps, inverts, fish, ect... It was very time consuming and in the end I decided to go one direction. Sharks and rays.
 
Wish I would had this info when I started my first tank.all i had was my lfs saying its fine then wondered y my tank crashed

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