buying a new tank

seniorabreu

seniorabreu

New Member
I am getting ready to buy my 1st salt water tank in about a week or so. I was going to order an 180 gallon tank from the local petstore.(drilled). I wanted to have some live rock, fish and possbily coral. I wanted to know what to buy so I dont get ripped off. What do you recommend buying online versus a pet store? Would you recommend live sand as well as live rock or crushed coral. Would the lighting for coral be the same needed to have live rock? Any help would be much appreciated. :help:
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
Welcome. I bought all my equipment on line. much cheaper. do a lot of research. the search button and archives are great places to start. would sugest live sand and live rock--no crushed coral. though you can use dry sand and live sand together, and base rck and live rock together. that will save money also. lighting for corals is mouch more then for just live rock. do a search of pc, vho, t5 and mh. it will depend on what type of corals you want to keep.
good luck
 
patandlace

patandlace

Active Member
I would get live sand for a substrate instead of crushed coral. It is a lot easier to maintain and better for controling nitrates. You don't need special lighting for live rock. As for corals if you want SPS corals, clams and anemones Metal Halide lights are the way to go. If you want soft and LPS corals PC lights will work. I don't know how much your Fish store is selling live rock for but you should definately shop around. They sell it for a pretty good price on this website and others as well.
 
memphis

memphis

Member
Awesome! and welcome to the hobby. The single most important things are research and patients (oh and money
) . This is a great place for questions and there are some pretty smart folks here. You can start by thinking about what you would like to keep. Then, go from there. Get plenty of rock and lights, watch the water parms, LET IT CYCLE before adding anything, and during that cycle read read read. As far as getting ripped off, well, I am all about saving a buck or two and SWF has not let me down. The livestock is always in great shape and I have no loss on any orders. LFS's can go either way, there are some that sell em right off the truck and some that quarantine. Some are in business to promote the hobby and are conscience about what they do and some just want to make a buck. Join a local club ( they are great for swapping frags and having local knowledge on sales and what not. And most importantly, read these forums! They have helped me a TON! Good luck and post a pic once its up and going!
 
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