Newbie

[Brit21]

Newbie is an understatement in this case. I want to start out with a very, very basic saltwater tank. I had freshwater before. I didn't feel like the aquarium was a good place to ask questions because their job is to sell. What do I need to start out very basic and build up from there? I want to do this as cheaply as possible while not killing any precious living beings and keep them healthy and happy. My tank is 37 gallons, and like I said, I want to do it cheaply at first and invest money in it as I am growing my tank.

[Joamos2]

One hint, nothing in this hobby is cheap. Everything adds up very quickly. I had a budget for my tank and I blew it before I even got to buying live rock or livestock. I would try to find someone who is upgrading, moving, getting out of the hobby etc. You can find a lot of used stuff on ebay as well.
As far as what you need you have to decide what you want to keep in the aquarium. that will have a big influence on how much startup cost will be.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I agree. Save up your money and buy a quality skimmer (Aqua C Remora or CPR Bak Pak) and metal halide lighting. Check out the selling forums at the bottom of the forums page to see what you might be able to pick up from someone here.

[jrallison]

if you want to do it cheaper (i didnt say cheap) ... buy quality used equipment and build as much as you can yourself.

Buying cheap stuff early on, just means you will have to replace it with a more expensive/quality piece down the road ...

[Brit21]

Thanks! What is the skimmer and lighting for? Are these things a must for starting out?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

All too often, people assume that "saltwater tank" means a mixed reef with live rock, etc. That's definitely a popular and effective way to run a marine tank, but it's not the only way.

If you really want something simple and basic, there's no reason why you can't start with something easier than this popular configuration.

For instance, if you just wanted a small number of easy, hardy fish, you'd be totally fine with a good quality hang-on power filter, a basic single-tube flourescent hood, and fake, dead decorations in the tank. You could buy and run that sort of setup for a tiny fration of the cost for something with live rock and the light and filtration needed to support corals.

[Brit21]

What do you guys think the basic things I need to buy are?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

What type of livestock do you want to keep, how much money do you have, and do you think you'll want a more advanced tank down the road?

[Brit21]

I just want a couple small fish. Yes. I plan to have an advanced tank down the road. I am going to stay on these forums and keep adding and making better.

[Brit21]

How much money? How cheaply can I get away with to start? Like I said, I want to invest the money after I get the hang of having the tank and when I know what I really want.

[Kohaku]

I would recommend buying a canister filter like an Ehime or Fluval. They run about $100 brand new. These sit underneath the tank so all you have showing in the back are some pipes or tubes that run to underneath your tank. Use it as prescribed with the biological filter media in it, and only clean the filter media with tank water. Also keep up on carbon changes, and you may think about looking for a filter media that extracts phosphates. You'll want to keep up with weekly water changes too because a biological filter creates large amounts of nitrates, which can eventually be deadly to the fish.

You could also get something like the classic AquaClear hang on filter. You probably used one for your freshwater tanks. Use them the same way, but get the largest AquaClear out there, the 500 I think it is. It's about $60 (if I remember correctly).

Also, you might want an air pump and air stone. A small one of each should work fine. Total that would cost you maybe $30-40.

You'll want some sand or crushed coral for the gravel. Don't put a whole bunch in, and when you do a water change, use an aquairum vacuum like the Python to suck out the fish poo and such. Gravel costs $15, the vacuum hose can cost from $5 to $50 depending on how fancy you get.

You also need to buy a good quality dechlorinator if your tap water is chlorinated. Seachem's Prime is what I've always used. If you're just keeping a few small, hardy fish, don't worry about getting an RO/DI unit. It's not worth the expense until you move on to more difficult fish and/or corals.

Some people may say you should invest in a good quality protien skimmer. If you're only keeping a few small fish, you probably don't need one. But that's all a matter of opinion. Read up on protein skimmers and decide if this is the way you want to filter.

You'll also want to get some testing kits. pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are musts. You can get a medium quality master test kit that includes all of these for $30-50. You'll also need a hydrometer. The hydrometer tells you the salinity or specific gravity of the saltwater. These can cost anywhere from $10 for a cheap plastic one, which works fine for hardy fish, to $100 for an expensive refractometer, which is most accurate and more for reef tanks than saltwater fish-only (FO) tanks. That's one thing thats easy to upgrade with in the future, as well as the testing kits.

And last, get some Instant Ocean or other sea salt. A 50 gallon bag will be fine for start up. About $25. Go for price here as there doesn't seem to be much difference between salts, especially when it comes to fish. Oh, get a thermometer. Petsmart sells a coralife digital thermometer for $15. Works great.

All of this advice is good only for hardy, small fish. Good luck!

[vince R]

Welcome to RC. My first tank was a 37 gallon also. The problem I kept having "was how much money do you spend on a small tank". The 37 gallon is a PITA. It is too tall to have any light demanding corals. What I did was fill it with about 4 inches of fine argonite sand and roughly 50 pounds or so of live rock. For fish I have a pair of mated false percs ( You could have more than 2 fish but 3 or 4 tops). As for corals I have some anthelia, zoo's, xenia and shrooms. IMO it is a nice setup and a very nice home for my fish. I use an Aqua C Remora and it works great. For lighting you will soon find out that unless you want to build your own fixture not much comes in 30 inches. I got the custom sea life fixture which comes in 30 inches but is only 130 watts. Not strong enough to keep many corals. My advice would be to do something along these lines. If you want a full blown reef later on buy a different tank. Thats what I did. To me it didnt make sense spending thousands of dollars on a 37 gallon. Kinda like getting a gremlin car and chroming it out, putting a V8 in it and leather seats but in the end it's still a Gremlin. good luck and keep us posted.

[Stevan]

Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht
All too often, people assume that "saltwater tank" means a mixed reef with live rock, etc. That's definitely a popular and effective way to run a marine tank, but it's not the only way.

If you really want something simple and basic, there's no reason why you can't start with something easier than this popular configuration.

For instance, if you just wanted a small number of easy, hardy fish, you'd be totally fine with a good quality hang-on power filter, a basic single-tube flourescent hood, and fake, dead decorations in the tank. You could buy and run that sort of setup for a tiny fration of the cost for something with live rock and the light and filtration needed to support corals.

True,True...for Fish only you could easily go w/an Ecllipse all in 1 system. Some store bought Saltwater/extra for frequent changes and a few basic tests.

And just to balance out a previous comment...My Remora stinks! Won't skim at all under most circumstances.

Also a reasonably decent Refractometer costs about 30-40 bucks if you check around. And it will be useful when you upgrade. That plastic float thingy swing arm is junk. It's only real use maybe keeping your water at the same consistant SG...The numbers can be off. In some cases WAY OFF.