New Member from New England

[yondermountain91]

Hello all, I'm new to the site and figured an introduction was in order. I live in Western Ma., I am new to the hobby and will most likely stick to the shadows until, I learn enough something. My plans are smaller coral tank. Been doing a lot of research online so figured it was time to join a forum, and really start diving into the hobby. Thanks for having me, glad to be here. 

-Laramie-

[yondermountain91]

And that quickly I will be exiting. Thanks for having me, but omg I cannot afford this hobby. I really wanted to get into it, but man I just can't justify spending this kind of money. Like $600 maybe $700 sure. But $6000 to $7000 is  outrageous. I commend all that pursue this incredible hobby.

[TheKleinReef]

You definitely do not have to spend thousands to have a successful aquarium. I think my first 10g nano was well under $1000. if you buy high quality equipment the first time around the only truly essential running costs will be: power, water, salt, foods, and media/additives.

[mitten_reef]

1 minute ago, yondermountain91 said:

And that quickly I will be exiting. Thanks for having me, but omg I cannot afford this hobby. I really wanted to get into it, but man I just can't justify spending this kind of money. Like $600 maybe $700 sure. But $6000 to $7000 is  outrageous. I commend all that pursue this incredible hobby.

how did you get to 6000?  unless you're no longer talking about a "smaller coral tank"

IM and WB tanks are some of the nicer ones on the market, sure, that should only set you back a few hundred. 

 

Do not buy in to the hype of every equipment BRS (or other retailers) are pushing for "easy reef keeping" - you'll end up with a pile of unused gear.  perhaps, look through here, make an informed understanding of what is minimally necessary to run a system that will look decent.  corals need - light, heater/chiller (most likely heater for you), and flow, that's the minimum to keep them. 

[debbeach13]

You could also check for a used setup, maybe craigslist or even search for a local reef club. 

[yondermountain91]

I just need to take like 20 steps back and re-evaluate all this. A lot to process, I commend anyone who just jumped into this hobby.

[yondermountain91]

Is there a section for new people where I will get responses on equipment or something. I've been reading for days, on this forum and I feel I'm more confused now than I was. Like everyone has a different approach and Idk. I like the fusion pro 20 gallon tank its in my budget. But what else would I need to start. From what I read I need to wait a year before adding anything into the tank to let it cycle completely. Is this true? I read another post on this forum saying only mature live rock from the ocean will properly cycle a tank. Like what is this voodoo magic you guys call reefing. Assuming I would need at least a light, and wave maker to start. Would I need a skimmer to start too, or is that something that could wait. How much sea rock should I buy, and where would I buy this. And isn't buying ocean reef stuff like bad for the reefs, isn't the great barrier reef disappearing. I really would much rather not be part of destroying the reefs. I will wait the year or so if that's what it takes to properly cycle with synthetic rock. I really would like help guys, tell me what to buy so I can start. lol Mitten Reef help, you have a thousand dollars, and are setting up a tank for the very first time. What do you buy?

 

[braaap]

11 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

Is there a section for new people where I will get responses on equipment or something. I've been reading for days, on this forum and I feel I'm more confused now than I was. Like everyone has a different approach and Idk. I like the fusion pro 20 gallon tank its in my budget. But what else would I need to start. From what I read I need to wait a year before adding anything into the tank to let it cycle completely. Is this true? I read another post on this forum saying only mature live rock from the ocean will properly cycle a tank. Like what is this voodoo magic you guys call reefing. Assuming I would need at least a light, and wave maker to start. Would I need a skimmer to start too, or is that something that could wait. How much sea rock should I buy, and where would I buy this. And isn't buying ocean reef stuff like bad for the reefs, isn't the great barrier reef disappearing. I really would much rather not be part of destroying the reefs. I will wait the year or so if that's what it takes to properly cycle with synthetic rock. I really would like help guys, tell me what to buy so I can start. lol Mitten Reef help, you have a thousand dollars, and are setting up a tank for the very first time. What do you buy?

 

 

Whoa. Lots of bad information.

 

First off. What are your goals? Some coral? 2 clowns? An anemone?

 

A Fusion Pro 20 is a great tank. It comes with the tank, filter caddy insert, some filter media and a return pump. All you would truly need would be a heater like an eheim jager. Its cheap and really good quality. I prefer a Cobal Neotherm as it is thinner. But its 3 times the price. You would also need a light. An Ai Prime would be perfect. You can routinely find them for $100ish used.

 

Rock can be bought dry. There are DOZENS of places to get rock. Bulk Reef Supply, Live Aquaria, Aqua Cave, Saltwater Aquariums, Reef Cleaners. It does not have to be wet rock. You can cycle with adding a raw shrimp that you would cook to eat. A cycle usually takes 4-8 weeks until your tank is ready for livestock. Sometimes quicker. Sometimes slower. But the average is 4-8 weeks to really establish the tank.

 

Then you really only need some basics. Sand. Test Kits. Refractometer. Salt mix.

 

You'll learn as you go. And come back here and ask for help. In this hobby no question is a dumb question.

 

Wet water is wet. That is about the only thing certain in this hobby. Everything else takes time and experience.

 

 

[yondermountain91]

So far I have the fusion 15 by IM, then on amazon, I have the caddy basket for the filter thing as the tank only comes with the filter sock and I'm not trying to constantly be washing socks, would rather just change filter floss. Then I got 20lbs dead rock, 20lbs of live sand, a cheap wave maker, a heater, and I'm gonna use a small/medium LED light that I use to nurse house plants back to health. Works really good for growing plants so figure it'll get me up and running. Also have Dr tims ammonia stuff, and the one and done chemical. Salinity checker too. Right now I'm sitting just under $500 for everything. I need test kits too, but I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna wing it for the first week or so. Still reading up on proper test kits. The API test kit is in my cart. But It doesn't seem many of you guys use that one. Also I happen to work for a paper company, Neenah technical papers, and we make the paper for RO filters, so trying to see if we got 'Test' units lying around the office.  The sales team are constantly getting cool filtering gadgets from our customers. Just gonna use distilled water for now though. The only thing I think I'm forgetting is some salt mix stuff. I have epoxy already to make the rock scape. If there's anything I'm forgetting that I can't live without please let me know. Other wise I'm ordering it this weekend.

[braaap]

43 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

So far I have the fusion 15 by IM, then on amazon, I have the caddy basket for the filter thing as the tank only comes with the filter sock and I'm not trying to constantly be washing socks, would rather just change filter floss. Then I got 20lbs dead rock, 20lbs of live sand, a cheap wave maker, a heater, and I'm gonna use a small/medium LED light that I use to nurse house plants back to health. Works really good for growing plants so figure it'll get me up and running. Also have Dr tims ammonia stuff, and the one and done chemical. Salinity checker too. Right now I'm sitting just under $500 for everything. I need test kits too, but I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna wing it for the first week or so. Still reading up on proper test kits. The API test kit is in my cart. But It doesn't seem many of you guys use that one. Also I happen to work for a paper company, Neenah technical papers, and we make the paper for RO filters, so trying to see if we got 'Test' units lying around the office.  The sales team are constantly getting cool filtering gadgets from our customers. Just gonna use distilled water for now though. The only thing I think I'm forgetting is some salt mix stuff. I have epoxy already to make the rock scape. If there's anything I'm forgetting that I can't live without please let me know. Other wise I'm ordering it this weekend.

 

Do you want me to put you together a full tank setup? If so what is your budget? Do you want a stand? Do you want a sump? I can make you a much nicer setup than what you listed for around $500.

 

Also API kits are fine for basic testing such as PH, Nitrite and Nitrate.

 

When you reply quote me so I get an alert.

[yondermountain91]

Dude that would be amazing. Something in the ballpark of $500 is where I wanna land. I thought I was doing so good too lol. Braap, I greatly appreciate the gesture. Thank you.

[yondermountain91]

I need to go to bed, I check back in tomorrow morning. Again thanks so much Braaaap, can't help but not hear a freaking yz 125 from my childhood everytime I type BrAAAAAppppp. lol

[braaap]

37 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

Dude that would be amazing. Something in the ballpark of $500 is where I wanna land. I thought I was doing so good too lol. Braap, I greatly appreciate the gesture. Thank you.

Braaap with 3 As 😀

 

 

Tank - IM 15 $99

 

Kessil A80 $139

 

Kessil mounting bracket $25

 

InTank Filter basket $42.99 @StevieT makes your wet water wetter

 

Floss $11.99 makes your wet water clearer. Thank Stevie for that.

 

Heater $55.24 With such a small tank I prefer these. But could always get this one. LINK

 

Dry Rock $2.99 a pound Usually 2lbs per gallon or so. Put it in wet water and it becomes live rock soon.

 

Red Sea Coral Pro 55 gallon $34.99 Always tests really good. Atleast for me.

 

Refractometer $36.99 Can be found cheaper. But @BulkReefSupply always takes care of you. They replaced mine when it broke. They are the best.

 

Sand is sand. Go look at it at an LFS. Or at BRS. It is personal preference on the texture. I use black sand. $30ish a bag. One bag is likely enough.

 

Test kit $35.98 These work fine. Anyone that says they don't are snobs and like wasting money. 

 

Clean up Crew. Email @johnmaloney if you have questions. But his website is very easy to figure out. He is a homey. He has THE BEST customer service in the industry. Wait for your cycle to complete and then order these bad boys.

 

For flow the stock return pump is likely enough. You won't need too much more than that. If you do a AI Nero is a good option for slim. But there are dozens of other powerheads.

 

Water you can just use the 5 gallon jugs that you can refill at virtually every grocery store. Its like 39 cents a gallon. Or many LFS will sell RO/DI water. Mine sells it for 50 cents a gallon or $1 per gallon premixed. Eventually you can get an RO/DI. But its easy to buy water for smaller tanks.

 

That is $481.18 all in. Not counting your rock or your sand. And it is a damn good setup for the size. Quality equipment and supplies.

[Dave21]

1 hour ago, yondermountain91 said:

Dude that would be amazing. Something in the ballpark of $500 is where I wanna land. I thought I was doing so good too lol. Braap, I greatly appreciate the gesture. Thank you.

Definitely doable. I started brand new into the hobby purchasing new items. And came out at abt $500 on my first tank. Here's what I started out with. 

 

29 gallon petco tank $30 on sale

Nicrew 32w 30-36in bar light on Amazon $57

Eheim Jager heater 100W $30

Tidal 55 hang on filter $50

One hydor koralia pump 565gph $40

Stand $110 (could easily build one to save money)

Carib sea live sand two bags on sale $30

Caribsea Moani dry rock 50lb box $110

Basic API saltwater test kit and 46lb bucket of salt $70

Amazon refractometer $15

Background $15

 

Almost everything came from petco sales or mail order from Amazon or chewy. I also only used tap water with conditioner for the first year. I know RODI is better and eventually did pick up a cheap Amazon filter but don't think it's necessary if someone is just trying to get started with easy fish and soft coral.

 

Coral stocking is only $200 in coral buying one or two at a time starting with frags from Petco and finding people on Facebook selling corals. 

 

Started with a cheap pair of clownfish $15 each at petco.

 

Here's were I started abt a year and a half ago to today. First pic is first day with water and second picture is 1 year mark. 

 

 

You definitely don't have to buy all the name brands or spend a fortune to get into the hobby but you will probably find once you're into it you want to invest in upgrades etc. Though that being said I'm still running the same cheap Nicrew light on my 29 gallon and only upgraded a few small things. 

 

I followed a few YouTube series (here was a good one I found helpful https://youtu.be/LbpO8MRO0w4 ) to get a lot of good info on starting out and of course got a lot of great advice on here 😀

 

[mitten_reef]

I skim thru topics and threads, and I have no idea where you’re getting all these wild info from. You def don’t need a year to cycle a tank. 
Sounds like IM15 is a good starting point. 

• get a replacement pump by tunze or sicce that is rated slightly higher than the kit pump. Don’t worry, the kit pump will become our mixing pump when you mix up new saltwater 
• yes, the media caddy/basket is very nice to have
• one quality heater. This is tough, different ppl have varying opinions on brands. I like my cobalt neotherm, but it seems they sold their business to someone else AquaEL or something. BRS has the ones that come with temp controller, you can read up on them
• one powerhead/wavemaker. The IM mighty jet is one of the better budget ones. Or reefbreeder. Otherwise, there’s always Jebao on Amazon.
• lighting- do NOT skimp on lighting. But you don’t need a Radion to start either. For a cube tank, I’d start with one AI PrimeHD. Their lighting and overall ecosystem is easily expandable. Try to find a used one local
• rocks and sand, get wet live rocks from local fish store (LFS) if you can. Life will be much easier. If you like to work with shaping the aquascape, then dry rock is a nobrainer. Dry rocks experience varied among ppl. A bag of live sand will be plenty. 
• Water.  Again find an LFS, their RO or RODI water will likely be cheaper than continually buying distilled water jugs from the supermarket
• salt, I’m a big fan of Red Sea brand. Buy the small blue bucket, it’ll last a while with a 15 gallon tank

I think that should cover a starting set of equipment and a few other things 

[Snow_Phoenix]

You have a lot of good advice and pointers in this thread, @yondermountain91. Just take a deep breath and slow down a little. Budget-reefing is completely possible. I'm still unsure how you drew up the original figure of $6K to $7K - I'd run away from this hobby so fast too, if that was true! 😅

Take some time to decide what fits your budget and go on from there. Also, there are plenty of beautiful, inexpensive, basic/beginner-level aquacultured corals available on the market, in local reef clubs etc. You can still have a nice setup with common critters. 

 

One last thing: Don't forget to start a journal thread on here so that all of us could follow along! And some pics, please! 😄

 

Lastly, welcome to NR! 🌺

[yondermountain91]

@mitten_reef I'm really not sure what thread I was in, pretty sure I was just skimming through someone's journal and they started talking about cycling in the thread and a member, stated that he was going to have to wait about a year for his dead rock to become fully cycled and stable. And that the only way to avoid that was to use live wet ocean rock. Maybe I'm a little too gullible. And I forgot how these forums can be sometimes. I'm feeling way more confident about this endeavor, thanks so much for the replies.

 

@braaapThanks so much for the list my man, items are in my cart and now. I'm just filling in the odds and ends. Appreciate ya brother.

 

@Snow_Phoenix Rapid, shallow, panicked deep breaths. Got it. 😆 No I did take a bunch of steps back, super glad too cause apparently I found a dark corner of this forum and read some really bad info. The $6000-$7000 was a combination of a youtuber and my own super awesome math skills. Like I just started adding all the stuff this guy said I would need and it got over $5k after like 6 items. Also I found a website that I now know are like rare corals and hard to find ones and the prices were shenanigans. $400 for a single frag kinda shenanigans. But at the time I was like holly crap I'm not even gonna be able to stock this freaking thing. After much reading of much better information, I now realize this is doable. And the prices are not that bad for critters I will keeping. The channel Fragbox Corals is full of information. And I really enjoy that his videos don't really come off like a sales pitch. 

 

 

Really appreciate all the replies, good stuff. I got a much better handle I think around all this. Probably order everything within the next couple days. So within a couple weeks from now you'll see me post a journal. And begin this awesome adventure.

[braaap]

29 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

@mitten_reef I'm really not sure what thread I was in, pretty sure I was just skimming through someone's journal and they started talking about cycling in the thread and a member, stated that he was going to have to wait about a year for his dead rock to become fully cycled and stable. And that the only way to avoid that was to use live wet ocean rock. Maybe I'm a little too gullible. And I forgot how these forums can be sometimes. I'm feeling way more confident about this endeavor, thanks so much for the replies.

 

@braaapThanks so much for the list my man, items are in my cart and now. I'm just filling in the odds and ends. Appreciate ya brother.

 

@Snow_Phoenix Rapid, shallow, panicked deep breaths. Got it. 😆 No I did take a bunch of steps back, super glad too cause apparently I found a dark corner of this forum and read some really bad info. The $6000-$7000 was a combination of a youtuber and my own super awesome math skills. Like I just started adding all the stuff this guy said I would need and it got over $5k after like 6 items. Also I found a website that I now know are like rare corals and hard to find ones and the prices were shenanigans. $400 for a single frag kinda shenanigans. But at the time I was like holly crap I'm not even gonna be able to stock this freaking thing. After much reading of much better information, I now realize this is doable. And the prices are not that bad for critters I will keeping. The channel Fragbox Corals is full of information. And I really enjoy that his videos don't really come off like a sales pitch. 

 

 

Really appreciate all the replies, good stuff. I got a much better handle I think around all this. Probably order everything within the next couple days. So within a couple weeks from now you'll see me post a journal. And begin this awesome adventure.

 

Glad I could help. 
 

Do some research on a return pump upgrade if you’ve got some money left. A new one will up your flow and be much quieter. There are going to be 5-6 that will fit. But it’s all about your budget. The stock one is likely fine for now. But it’s easier to install one before everything is wet. 
 

This is a quick search. But I know there are others. https://intankaquatics.com/tunze-silence-pump-powerhead-1073-008-210-gph/

[yondermountain91]

Tank has been ordered and says it was shipped today. WOOHOO!! Allegedly should be here Tuesday.. Also going a few towns over to visit a LFS, as the only one in my town is Petco. So probably gonna pick up some rock, sand, and salt mix. My order from Amazon also shipped, albeit a slightly trimmed down version due to lack of funds. But everything has been saved in my cart for when I have more expendable money. So fingers crossed everything comes in safe and sound. I paid for the extra packaging during shipping so hoping that helps. Will start a journal when all the stuff is here and laid out. So stoked!!!!

[braaap]

14 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

Tank has been ordered and says it was shipped today. WOOHOO!! Allegedly should be here Tuesday.. Also going a few towns over to visit a LFS, as the only one in my town is Petco. So probably gonna pick up some rock, sand, and salt mix. My order from Amazon also shipped, albeit a slightly trimmed down version due to lack of funds. But everything has been saved in my cart for when I have more expendable money. So fingers crossed everything comes in safe and sound. I paid for the extra packaging during shipping so hoping that helps. Will start a journal when all the stuff is here and laid out. So stoked!!!!

Nice! Congrats! Don’t get rock yet until you see the tank. That way you can visualize. The sizing is always hard to imagine until you see it. 

[yondermountain91]

Good tip, I'm gonna be the slowest reefer on the site I bet. Like I can imagine it'll take a few weeks just to get water in it. Yet alone critters. I'm really grateful for all the super helpful replies, and helping me feel welcomed on this forum!!

[braaap]

19 minutes ago, yondermountain91 said:

Good tip, I'm gonna be the slowest reefer on the site I bet. Like I can imagine it'll take a few weeks just to get water in it. Yet alone critters. I'm really grateful for all the super helpful replies, and helping me feel welcomed on this forum!!

 

Nothing good happens in this hobby fast. It is a test of patience.

[geekreef_05]

On 2/10/2023 at 11:02 AM, braaap said:

 

Nothing good happens in this hobby fast. It is a test of patience.

 

You can use the time to hit the casino and double your coral money. 

Daddy needs a new Goni Colony, hi-yo! 

 

/kidding

[ml86743]

Welcome to the community!  

[yondermountain91]

Things are happening guys, tank arrived safe and sound. And now the small items are beginning to trickle in. I suppose I'll start a journal thread when I actually get water in the tank. For right now I'm going to be playing around with super glue and rock dust. See if I can make some sort of interesting structure for my first reef tank. Thanks for all the help guys, will post when everything else is here and a final product list. Pretty sure I did alright