# Beginning of a saltwater reef aquarium (opinionated)



## Elder1945 (Apr 18, 2009)

I think this might help someone out there so here it goes....

So you want to start a saltwater reef, This is a fun and exciting time but will end up being a frustrating, costly, infuriating, and quite defeating road ahead. There are many factors in keeping a reef aquarium that it is almost impossible to not have at least one bad experience.

This said when your tank is working it is one of the most rewarding and amazing things to have in your home.

So after that little tidbit let's start down the road of setting up a saltwater aquarium.

1. Picking your LFS. (THIS IS MY OPINION from my experience)
There are many LFS in the Toronto area some amazing some ok and some that I just will not go to.


1. Canada corals and Reef Boutique
Pros
These two stores are just amazing, The owners are actually there, helpful and know there stuff.
They both carry a large assortment of products and can guide you down the path of sustainable reefing. 
Cons
Can't think of anything other than going to Canada corals extremely hungry and looking into their tanks you might feel like passing out.


2. Reef supplies.ca,Goreef.ca
Pros
Has most of the things Bulk Reef Supply has and ships next day.
Cons
None

3. Aquatic Kingdom
Pros
Coral and fish everywhere, Aquatic Kingdom also stocks a lot of dry goods and they custom build tanks as well. They are also extremely knowledgeable.
Cons
Would not sell me a giant squamosa clam for $200 


4. Sea u Marine
Pros
Fish and coral at a price that is just crazy. Deals every Friday, And a large assortment of dry goods.
Cons
Ich...


5. Big Als
Pros 
They sell saltwater fish stuff and tanks.
Cons 
I am not going to post anything.....

There are many great other stores out there H2O, CoralReefShop and so on but I can't list them all


2. So you have picked a LFS you will now need a tank... Now this sounds easy but in this alone there are many decisions to make.

What size gallon wise do you think is best? what dimensions do you want? do you want a overflow built in? rimless??? all in one?? and the list goes on and on. 

So I will let you know what I did and hopefully this helps in this decision.

When I first walked into BA I was blown away by their display tank it was a monster with amazing coral, fish and inverts. This made me want to jump right into saltwater with no prior knowledge of the hobby or any tank for that matter. So I started to google and man there is so much information out there it is crazy. So after reading for a whole 6 hrs, I ran to BA and picked up a Oceanic Biocube (29gallon), Live rock and some live sand. 

In hind sight this was a complete waste of money. What I should have done is google saltwater aquarium and look for images of tanks that I like that are within reason. Then I would have a goal of what I want to achieve in this hobby. After doing this I could relatively easily chose my tank size and the dimensions that looked in my opinion the best. 

The tank size I would recommend to start this hobby would be in the range of 20 gallon - 65 gallon. Now this does not take in to account nano tanks this is a whole other world that I do not know. 

The sizes that are offered in this gallon range are shallow ( Later in post will explain why this can be better). A lot easier to do regular maintenance on, and the most important thing is equipment for this size of tank does not cost a arm and a leg to obtain.

3. You have a tank now let's talk about filtration.....
I would like to start off by saying there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to do this. I would not dare to say any one of the ways is best. That being said this is what I would have done.

As a new hobbyist I would not bother with a sump for anything is the 20 gallon range I just do not see a need. They make a tone of HOB equipment for this and to be honest with regular water changes you should not have much of a problem keeping things in check.

Now for anything larger I would start delving into a sump, protein skimmers and reactors. With this comes plumbing, sump design, planning and a larger investment in time and money.

You can get around this by acquiring a red sea max or another all in one aquarium but these tend to be astronomically priced. This is where a good LFS comes in handy they will help point you on the right path.

(I am not saying you can't run a large reef on HOB equipment alone because you can)

4. Maintenance.
A 20-65 gallon tank is usually shallow this in turn make is quite easy to move stuff around and clean.
With the low volume of water a water change also takes almost no time.

You will find maintenance of a reef aquarium usually goes great for the first 6 months but keeping it up for over a year or more you will have to make it as quick and easy as possible.

5. Stocking guide
This is up for debate but in general I would follow the advice of my LFS and liveaquaria.

I still do not understand how a certain store can stock 50+ large tangs every 2 months, when I know for a fact in the town it services there are not a Thousand 200 gallon tanks....

This section I will just leave it at that.

6. Read Read Read gtaaquarua is a great place to ask questions and get good answers. This is true for most online boards out there.

The last bit of advice I would like to give is that once you get your fist tank out of the way and you are ready to upgrade, go as big as you possibly can. I upgraded from a 125 Gallon to a 200 Gallon shallow reef (32"w 15"H 96"L) and I am still kicking myself for not making the tank 192" long . As we speak I am building my 16' tank wondering why I just did not make it in the first place.

I know this post is vague but I hope it helps someone out there.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Good read and some really sound advice.

Except the part where you mention Reed Boutique is there for you....I've been there four times and they were always closed. I've heard its a nice store though


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## Elder1945 (Apr 18, 2009)

Yea this is why i mentioned the opinionated part. I find everyone will have different experiences from LFS no matter what.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

But the idea of picking one LFS and developing a relationship with them is great advice.

You can find better deals at other stores. but if you try sticking with one store you get the advice that will save you hundreds of dollars and hours of frustration.


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## Elder1945 (Apr 18, 2009)

TBemba said:


> But the idea of picking one LFS and developing a relationship with them is great advice.
> 
> You can find better deals at other stores. but if you try sticking with one store you get the advice that will save you hundreds of dollars and hours of frustration.


I agree 100% relationships built at LFS will in the end up helping you. In the end tho they are a business and are in it to make money. This is where it can get tricky.. I personally like smaller one off stores where i am dealing with the owner of the business. This also helps us with larger tanks get a personal one on one experience when spending $1000 at a time in livestock. I do not want to be catered too all the time but it is nice when you are dropping large sums of money over and over to get at least some appreciation.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*just my opinion*

I find the problem with most newbies is what i call the squirrel symdrome.....

Squirel.......

Eyes on task stick to one way of doing a set up do your research
find the most logical and most successful way...so many take one idea from 
then mix it up with a little bit of john then a little bit of henry.just names guys.....

Then there is the miracle cures that they buy into that offer quick fixes 
for problems ... we do have availability to google/youtube/brs videos
mr saltwater/liveaquaria/ and of course the search engine in gta forum 
where u can just type in a subject and it will pull anything pertaining 
to that word even bettet if u like a certain persons build u can type in name and 
get a list of all his/her threads...so many ask questions that have already
been answered ....
just my opinion
cheers


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## Midland (Jan 26, 2015)

As beginner who has just set up, cycled and bought his first corals - I would like to say how much I like this post. Very good advice throughout. 

One thing I would add to the LFS section is just to emphasize what you imply. Take a tour of as many as you can at times when they are less busy. This forum and the net in general are invaluable tools, however, spending time with the owners of stores and experiencing the give and take of Q and A can't be replaced by online sources. With that in mind, I would like to thank Canada Corals and Flavio for their time and sound advice as well as everyone here. 

The last thing I would add, is to create a budget list of the million little things you will need (test kits, refractometer, water costs, scraper, etc.) and have people on line help you fill in the costs. I tended to focus on the main purchases and lost track of just how much the little stuff adds up.


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## Elder1945 (Apr 18, 2009)

"I tended to focus on the main purchases and lost track of just how much the little stuff adds up."

I do find this as well.... For a while there every time I went to a fish store i left with not only fish but a widget. I just went threw all my gear and gave or sold all of it. In the end I found having 10 power heads is not necessarily better, Having 3 of the same test kit does nothing. Creating a list and sticking to that list will save you a lot of hassle.

If you don't absolutely need it don't buy it.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

What are the essential test kits needed for reef tank?

What brand do you prefer?

What supplements do you add if any?


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## mmatt (Feb 12, 2012)

TBemba said:


> What are the essential test kits needed for reef tank?
> 
> What brand do you prefer?
> 
> What supplements do you add if any?


This starts getting into what works best for you and personal preference. I stated off with redsea kits. Pretty good. Another one that a lot of guys prefer is salfrite, I think it's called. Nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, PH, calcium and alk are good ones to have.

But for me I haven't done a water test in over a year. Do my weekly water changes and I'm good. All I ad is calcium and alk. I like to keep it simple. I have a heavy bioload and if stuff goes south I'll see it start to happen my corals and CUC will tell my what's going on. Now mind you, I have a 75gal display with a 30gal sump so I can catch a problem before it gets out of control. Smaller tanks everything happens faster. biocubes are a whole other beast

Excellent write up by the way!


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## Elder1945 (Apr 18, 2009)

TBemba said:


> What are the essential test kits needed for reef tank?
> 
> What brand do you prefer?
> 
> What supplements do you add if any?


I rarely dose any tank I have had so supplements not so much. I used HW trace tip for a while I think 1 and 2 but saw nothing. Some people swear by adding trace elements and who am I to disagree. This is just something I do not do usually.

I like Salifert but have used API and Redsea. They seem ok but I did find the Salifert test do seem to work the best.

As for the essentials I use this site http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ well I printed it off and laminated it.

Then I check the forums and see what everyone else is testing for and go from there. So Ammonia, Phosphate, pH, Temperature, Salinity, Alkalinity and Calcium. This is what I test for..... Ammonia not as much when the tank has ran for a while but still test is just to make sure. Never know when a large fish is missing for a few days rotting up you tank.

I forget where I read this and its a quote from somewhere. "Reef keeping is not about keeping fish or coral but about keeping water.

I just like that quote so threw it into this response.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

I believe that the key to the aquarium hobby be it salt or fresh is water quality.

I'm trying to convince myself I need a skimmer on my 20 gallon nano.

I'm pretty sure that if I do weekly 4 gallon (size of bottled water bottle)WC 

Don't over feed and siphon off the detritus I should have no need for a skimmer.

I do believe in Chaetoes,mangroves and live rock for biological filtration.

I never tested fresh water tanks. I could tell just by looking at it daily if something was going wrong.

If something was happening it usually came down to the following:

Water quality
Over feeding (water quality)
Filtration not enough or not cleaning the filter or over cleaning the filter. Biological unbalance.
Introducing sick or stressed live stock.

It never seemed like rocket surgery


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