I realize this is about salty water

[snookfish]

But I was wondering if there are any people out there that also have freshwater setups. I've been doing the cichlid thing for awhile but i wanted more info on the meetings i see posted here. i'm interested in setting up a saltwater tank but quite frankly, here in sarasota, I'm just not impressed with the LFS helping me out as much as I would like. and I've been to them ALL in the sarasota area. I've done some research and I'm not a one time idiot that will kill my fish, so any info will be of great help.:rolleyes:

[ladybug_Montreal]

Good Morning

What size of a sw tank were you thinking about setting up? how deep are your pockets.........lol. this can be a very expensive hobby. But with help from other local reefers, you can set up for much less that just doing the lfs thing. They are in business to sell you stuff, and it makes no differance to most of them if it's just junk that doesn't work all that well for the job your tying to do.

I have just restarted my 33g....I have a 2-3" sand bed. This time I am trying the agra-live sand....bought it in Ft Myers for 24$ a bag. Picked up some rubble rock for .99cents a pound in Venice. From walmart picked up a 10g with a incandescent ligh hood for my sump.

this set up will take about 4-6 weeks for a cycle....I will be getting my critters fro Ft lauderdale.

25 scarlets- $ 20.00, 3 emerald crabs- $ 7.50, 1 serpant star- $ 4.00, 1 sally lightfoot crab- $ 4.50, 20 astreas- $ 8.00, we can send it ground for $ 13.00 to save on shipping. Total- $ 57.00.

There is a place just S of Tampa that sells live rock for 3$ a pound, but his scarlets hermit carbs are 4+ each. It pays to look around the net and check out prices of things b4 U buy.

Dorothy

[jdtaz69]

I converted from a freshwater to a marine setup in February of this year. However, I had spent the previous 6 months reading up everything I possibly could (whilst putting some money away) on the hobby to make sure I keep mistakes to just a few small ones. "Natural Reef Aquariums" by Tullock is my bible.

As for equipment, I bought a friend's old tank off him and then set about searching on the internet for the best deals on equipment. I made sure that I oversized expensive items so they could be re-used if I ever upgrade to a larger system (my protein skimmer is 4x too big!).

I find that posting a question on sites like this is a great way to get info from a wide variety of experienced people. It doesn't matter how stupid you think your question is - the most stupid question is the one you didn't ask, and that could potentially lead to a major tank disaster.

It took me a while to find a good LFS which I saw an advert for in a reef magazine which I got a subscription for. The magazine also gives pointers to things you might not have thought about before.

Hope this is of some help.

[myakkareef]

Hey Snook,and Welcome to Reef Central....There are quite a few people in our area that are very knowledgable in Marine Aquaria...You are more then welcome to attend any of the meetings, even though we really have not had a meeting for a coule months. I think quite afew people keep freshies as well, most of us started with freshwater aquariums and I for one still love ours...There are a few LFS around that can help you out, but remember they are all in business to make money and the saltwater aquarium can be expensive to get started. If you ever have any questions or would like to see my tank and talk about the Salt Water side of aquarium keeping just let me know or send me a P.M....Later hope to meet you some time...By the way we live in Bradenton now just off I-75...