Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hey everyone! I am a frequent over in the Freshwater section but have always been interested in getting into Saltwater. To be honest, we were going to do a 55 gal saltwater tank but got too scared and stuck with what we new, Freshwater. Now, we have decided to take the plunge into saltwater with our next 55 gal that should hopefully be purchased in the upcoming weeks. Before going out and buying a bunch of stuff, I wanted to do some research into what we need. I bought the book Saltwater Aquariums for dummies but I must be a REAL idiot because I just got confused.
We plan on keeping Tangs or Triggers, something of that sort. I haven't completely decided. That will come later on, much later on. But for planning purposes we only intend to have fish and life rock.
We already have a Cascade 1000 Canister Unit and have decided on a 55 gal with Sedona stand and canopy. When I bought the 29 gal it came with stuff to make it a saltwater tank, but again, we chickened out and made it freshwater. So currently we have Instant Ocean Synthetic Sea Salt, AmmEx Aquarium Evolution, SeaTest Hydrometer, and Chlor Out by Water Care.
I have many questions but I will try to limit them in single posts. So I guess to start, do I need to purchase any special lighting for this tank? I have heard of people spending $3,000 on lighting for their SW tanks but I figured for lr and fish, that we wouldn't have to have anything spectacular. Am I correct? Maybe later on down the road (a few years) we may get into corals and things such as that.
Also, does anyone have any experience using the products that I listed above? I want to start out on the right foot and would rather use quality products over something that we got for free in the "marine ready" tank. I just know that if we have a bad experience starting out (killing many fish because of poor products) it will most likely turn us back to fw fish keeping. I'm just nervous about trying saltwater. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the post being so lengthy.
We plan on keeping Tangs or Triggers, something of that sort. I haven't completely decided. That will come later on, much later on. But for planning purposes we only intend to have fish and life rock.
We already have a Cascade 1000 Canister Unit and have decided on a 55 gal with Sedona stand and canopy. When I bought the 29 gal it came with stuff to make it a saltwater tank, but again, we chickened out and made it freshwater. So currently we have Instant Ocean Synthetic Sea Salt, AmmEx Aquarium Evolution, SeaTest Hydrometer, and Chlor Out by Water Care.
I have many questions but I will try to limit them in single posts. So I guess to start, do I need to purchase any special lighting for this tank? I have heard of people spending $3,000 on lighting for their SW tanks but I figured for lr and fish, that we wouldn't have to have anything spectacular. Am I correct? Maybe later on down the road (a few years) we may get into corals and things such as that.
Also, does anyone have any experience using the products that I listed above? I want to start out on the right foot and would rather use quality products over something that we got for free in the "marine ready" tank. I just know that if we have a bad experience starting out (killing many fish because of poor products) it will most likely turn us back to fw fish keeping. I'm just nervous about trying saltwater. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the post being so lengthy.