Sk8r
11/03/2007, 11:48 AM
1. cycle with a damsel. No. Cruel and useless. Use only a few fishfood flakes a day to cycle with, stopping once you have ammonia.
2. coral banded shrimp. Pretty, but they're carnivorous, and may soon take after your fish.
3. bristleworms are dangerous. No. They're safe. DO wear latex gloves when handling rock they're in, but they're not only safe, they're downright essential to your tank.
4. sally lightfoot crabs: I love these guys, but they rapidly take to a fish diet---your fish. And they grow to the size of a dinnerplate.
5. you need a filter. No. Not for a reef. Useful for fish-only tanks, but you have to clean them obsessively [like weekly] or watch your fishes' health decline. For a reef, they can be lethal if not cleaned, and live rock and sand only do a much better job and never have to be cleaned.
6. aiptasia, majanos are a horrid plague and will rapidly kill your whole tank. Nope. Just a pest. The common mushroom is just as dangerous if you're going to keep corals. Relax. Just go on a campaign to get rid of them bit by bit: peppermint shrimp are a bit of a pest, but the juvvie ones are more inclined to eat these things.
7. caulerpa. NOT in your display: and the problem is, it breaks off bits that can get through the sump return and INTO your display. If you have a tank under 100 g, it is a serious problem, because your tank is too small for any fish that can keep it eaten-back and under control. Inverts can't really get it, because it roots into the rock and they can't get it out. AND, just to make things really fun, if you change the light cycle on caulerpa it goes into a sporing frenzy, turns your water to milk and suffocates all your fish and corals. Over 100 g, great. Fine. NOT under.
8. additives beyond reef salt and alkalinity buffer, maybe calcium. No. Snake oil. Mostly useless, and a few potentially harmful. "If you don't own a test for it, don't dose it into your tank." Memorize that mantra.
9. nano tanks, undrilled tanks, drilled tanks. Reef ready tanks. I'm not going to say one is 'right', but let's have some helpful info here about sales pitches. Nanos are not an easy break-in to the marine hobby: they're very tricky and difficult. I haven't got time to keep one. My 54g causes me much less hassle. 2. buying a cheap tank at Petco isn't always cheap. A cheap tank is frequently very thin glass, and it isn't pre-drilled. A reef weighs a lot. Thin glass is very vulnerable. One thing you can do to protect a thin glass bottom is lay down a layer of 'egg crate' lighting grid, preventing a rockslide from slamming a sharp point down on it, but finding a crack across your tank is a real nightmare. Thicker glass costs more, but breaks less often. Sometimes a novice looks at two tanks and can't figure out why one is twice as expensive: glass thickness is often the answer. Ask questions. 3. a predrilled tank is ready for a sump and all that goes with it. Pricey? Yes. But you can end up spending extra for devices that compensate, like a hang-on-back [HOB] skimmer that isn't as powerful as the skimmer you could have gotten had you had a sump; etc. 4. Can you drill your own? Yes---but. You need a drill, proper coring bits, goggles, and nerves of steel. Many tanks' bottoms are tempered glass, and will shatter if you attempt to drill them: nobody can drill them. Some tanks have ALL tempered glass. They can't be drilled at all. AND you have to know where to drill: you can talk to people in the DIY forum who will walk you through this, but do realize you could gamble for lower cost and lose the bet. 5. If you want to keep fishes as large as a yellow tang, you have to have a tank of AT LEAST 75 and properly 100g. Do not attempt to keep angels, tangs, triggers, and rabbits unless you have a big tank. If that's what rings your chimes, budget for it.
10. Large fleshy inverts: no. Sea apples, cucumbers, medusa worms, etc, are just not for novices. They can take out a tank. Get a year of experience before you take on a cucumber, and just don't get a sea apple, basket star, etc: they have no business in our tanks.
11. inappropriate fish: do not attempt: butterfly fish, sea robins, mandarins, scooter blennies, sharks, rays, and I'd add, eels, until you know what you're doing and know the ins and outs of these species. Personally, I'd advise against mated pairs of most fish: breeding activity can turn mild fish into a problem. Fish don't need friends: they need territory that's theirs, that they can 'defend' and claim: that's what warms their little hearts. EVERYBODY loves a clown---but do NOT get more than one species in the same tank.
12. DO: get test strips for ammonia and nitrate; an alkalinity test, and if keeping corals, a calcium test kit. I use Salifert, myself. Get a refractometer [NOT a hydrometer], get a ph meter, and get a log book. If, when you get into trouble, you can report the results of all these tests PLUS the trends over the last week PLUS what you added and when, we stand a really good chance of being able to answer your question within 10 minutes.
13. Here: have another fish. No. Do not go into the fish store with big eyes and end up with an overcrowded tank lethal to every pretty fish you bought and provoking territorial fights at every turn. Plan on your fish living at least a decade: they can. Do not impulse-buy a fish. Research first. They can always order you another. Do not pity-buy. A sick fish can kill everybody else. Do not listen to your significant other. Research first.
14. Quarantine tank? It looks healthy...just put it on in. No. Quarantine your new fish. A new tank in the hands of a new reefer is a guarantee of an ich breakout at the first opportunity. Water instabilities, falling alkalinity, all these things irritate fish skin and gills, and if the parasite is there---bingo! Every fish in the tank comes down with it. Particularly susceptible: tangs, angels, clowns, rabbits. [And clowns get brook: they even have their own disease. Google brooklynosis AND ich: know what you have to avoid and don't buy a fish that has it.] And STILL quarantine: you owe it to your other fishes.
Hope that helps, guys. It's not universal, but I hope to save you some money and some grief.
2. coral banded shrimp. Pretty, but they're carnivorous, and may soon take after your fish.
3. bristleworms are dangerous. No. They're safe. DO wear latex gloves when handling rock they're in, but they're not only safe, they're downright essential to your tank.
4. sally lightfoot crabs: I love these guys, but they rapidly take to a fish diet---your fish. And they grow to the size of a dinnerplate.
5. you need a filter. No. Not for a reef. Useful for fish-only tanks, but you have to clean them obsessively [like weekly] or watch your fishes' health decline. For a reef, they can be lethal if not cleaned, and live rock and sand only do a much better job and never have to be cleaned.
6. aiptasia, majanos are a horrid plague and will rapidly kill your whole tank. Nope. Just a pest. The common mushroom is just as dangerous if you're going to keep corals. Relax. Just go on a campaign to get rid of them bit by bit: peppermint shrimp are a bit of a pest, but the juvvie ones are more inclined to eat these things.
7. caulerpa. NOT in your display: and the problem is, it breaks off bits that can get through the sump return and INTO your display. If you have a tank under 100 g, it is a serious problem, because your tank is too small for any fish that can keep it eaten-back and under control. Inverts can't really get it, because it roots into the rock and they can't get it out. AND, just to make things really fun, if you change the light cycle on caulerpa it goes into a sporing frenzy, turns your water to milk and suffocates all your fish and corals. Over 100 g, great. Fine. NOT under.
8. additives beyond reef salt and alkalinity buffer, maybe calcium. No. Snake oil. Mostly useless, and a few potentially harmful. "If you don't own a test for it, don't dose it into your tank." Memorize that mantra.
9. nano tanks, undrilled tanks, drilled tanks. Reef ready tanks. I'm not going to say one is 'right', but let's have some helpful info here about sales pitches. Nanos are not an easy break-in to the marine hobby: they're very tricky and difficult. I haven't got time to keep one. My 54g causes me much less hassle. 2. buying a cheap tank at Petco isn't always cheap. A cheap tank is frequently very thin glass, and it isn't pre-drilled. A reef weighs a lot. Thin glass is very vulnerable. One thing you can do to protect a thin glass bottom is lay down a layer of 'egg crate' lighting grid, preventing a rockslide from slamming a sharp point down on it, but finding a crack across your tank is a real nightmare. Thicker glass costs more, but breaks less often. Sometimes a novice looks at two tanks and can't figure out why one is twice as expensive: glass thickness is often the answer. Ask questions. 3. a predrilled tank is ready for a sump and all that goes with it. Pricey? Yes. But you can end up spending extra for devices that compensate, like a hang-on-back [HOB] skimmer that isn't as powerful as the skimmer you could have gotten had you had a sump; etc. 4. Can you drill your own? Yes---but. You need a drill, proper coring bits, goggles, and nerves of steel. Many tanks' bottoms are tempered glass, and will shatter if you attempt to drill them: nobody can drill them. Some tanks have ALL tempered glass. They can't be drilled at all. AND you have to know where to drill: you can talk to people in the DIY forum who will walk you through this, but do realize you could gamble for lower cost and lose the bet. 5. If you want to keep fishes as large as a yellow tang, you have to have a tank of AT LEAST 75 and properly 100g. Do not attempt to keep angels, tangs, triggers, and rabbits unless you have a big tank. If that's what rings your chimes, budget for it.
10. Large fleshy inverts: no. Sea apples, cucumbers, medusa worms, etc, are just not for novices. They can take out a tank. Get a year of experience before you take on a cucumber, and just don't get a sea apple, basket star, etc: they have no business in our tanks.
11. inappropriate fish: do not attempt: butterfly fish, sea robins, mandarins, scooter blennies, sharks, rays, and I'd add, eels, until you know what you're doing and know the ins and outs of these species. Personally, I'd advise against mated pairs of most fish: breeding activity can turn mild fish into a problem. Fish don't need friends: they need territory that's theirs, that they can 'defend' and claim: that's what warms their little hearts. EVERYBODY loves a clown---but do NOT get more than one species in the same tank.
12. DO: get test strips for ammonia and nitrate; an alkalinity test, and if keeping corals, a calcium test kit. I use Salifert, myself. Get a refractometer [NOT a hydrometer], get a ph meter, and get a log book. If, when you get into trouble, you can report the results of all these tests PLUS the trends over the last week PLUS what you added and when, we stand a really good chance of being able to answer your question within 10 minutes.
13. Here: have another fish. No. Do not go into the fish store with big eyes and end up with an overcrowded tank lethal to every pretty fish you bought and provoking territorial fights at every turn. Plan on your fish living at least a decade: they can. Do not impulse-buy a fish. Research first. They can always order you another. Do not pity-buy. A sick fish can kill everybody else. Do not listen to your significant other. Research first.
14. Quarantine tank? It looks healthy...just put it on in. No. Quarantine your new fish. A new tank in the hands of a new reefer is a guarantee of an ich breakout at the first opportunity. Water instabilities, falling alkalinity, all these things irritate fish skin and gills, and if the parasite is there---bingo! Every fish in the tank comes down with it. Particularly susceptible: tangs, angels, clowns, rabbits. [And clowns get brook: they even have their own disease. Google brooklynosis AND ich: know what you have to avoid and don't buy a fish that has it.] And STILL quarantine: you owe it to your other fishes.
Hope that helps, guys. It's not universal, but I hope to save you some money and some grief.