just some questions tog et started

[sessogrande]

im a freshwater hobbyist right now but im buying a new tank 90g for xmas and i was wondering how to set it up. i am very interested in going saltwater. my goal is to get a bluespot stingray eventually but until then just wondering what i can put in it that will be ok with him. like can i have live rock stuff like that. and the difference between wet dry filters and a filter that can due both salt and fresh water??
thank you for your time
josh

 

[leopard_babe]

First you need a tank, water, and salt. Then you need to get a kind of substrate. Such as live sand, or crushed coral.
Live rock is a great filter for your tank. No it is not really "alive" as my mom likes to put it. It also adds great hiding places for your fish, and it makes the tank look cool.
i have a wet/dry filter with a protein skimmer. I was told by my friend that was the "way to go". It is easy to clean, and set up. My tank looks very neat. I do not think that a freshwater filter can be used in a saltwater tank.
I don't know if you know this, but your tank must cycle before you put anything in it. It took mine a month to cycle, and i just added my first fish. In this hobby you have to be very PATIENT. Otherwise it will cost you lots of dollars, and you will be very unhappy.
hopefully I haven't scared you. I had a freshwater and went to salt and I love it!!! Welcome to saltwater, and enjoy!!!!

 

[gollus]

Just wanted to add, I just recently came from your side too. A few things I would recommend
1. Use sand over crushed coral, there are many reasons the biggest would be that the crushed coral gets ugly and dirty easily and must be cleaned, and the sand will be able to host many micro and macro bioda that will help in creating a more natural filtration system for the tank
2. There is really no difference in freshwater and saltwater filtration as far as I know, though some will work better in fresh and some will work better in salt. For instance a protein skimmer is I belive the second most important piece of filtration, and you would almost never use one of these in a freshwater tank.
3. The first most important filtration system is NATURAL. This includes live rock, live sand, macro algae, and a clean up crew. Again this is my oppinion but I think most will agree with me here. I wont go into details on these things right now, but if you truely get lost dont be afraid to ask
4. Read. Even if you know EVERYTHING there is to know about freshwater, saltwater is all that and more. While not necesseceraly more work than a freshwater, it is defenitly more research.
5. I dont think a stingray will fit in that small of a system, but I dont know for sure. Once again read about that kind of fish, if a stingray is what you truely want, than prepare for that, I wouldnt go build the "basic saltwater tank" and then throw a stingray in. Most of the shark and ray family take a lot of special requrements. But like I said if that is what you REALLY want then go for it, there should be experience you can tap into.
6. welcome to the forums and the experience, feel free to tap. There are other forums out there with more users even, but after being involved with about 4 this one has become my main one, the people on it are friendly, quick to respond, and over all willing to go out of there way to help, and that after all is what makes a forum, the people.
I could tell you a lot more do's and dont's but I will leave that for you to read up on, but make sure you know them before you start, it WILL save you money.
Just wanted to make this clear this is only MY oppinion, in this hobby you will find that everyone has their own. And its definetly not cut and dry which is the best way to do things. I got a quote that I like that goes like this "The only thing I have seen that has completly destroyed a tank is leaving it with no water for a while, if you do this nothing lives"

 

[sessogrande]

thank you for your help. i was going to go sand because i know the stingray like to bury itself i have read up on him and i know "In the wild they feed on prawns,molluscs,crabs,worms,and small fishes" so the reef style with the nice rocks i know ur supposed to have like shrimp and all that so i was worried if i started that that i couldnt get my ray.
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/aquaria/bluespot.html
that is a link to the ray i want.
it says a 75 is good for it and im getting a 90. i was told how important the skimer was so i guess wet dry will be my choice, and i will make sure the water cycles before i put fish in........ does live rock count? or can i add that before my tank is cycled?
ill do more research my main thing right now is types of fish i can have with a reef and types i can have with a ray. lol im torn between two parts, anyways thank you very much for all ur help it is most appreciated
josh

 

[gollus]

putting the live rock in while cycleing shouldnt be a problem, acctually if you are getting uncured live rock then it would be much better than putting it in afterwards.
Well, like I said before I know nothing about rays and sharks, but to me it sounds like a standard aggressive fish. If that is the case then it would probably do well with other aggressive fish, such as lionfish, pufferfish, ect. You may want to check in the aggressive fish section of these forums. As far as aggressive fish go, if you want some fish now that are easy to care for and will be better than looking at an empty tank untill you do get your ray, I would recommend damselfish. These guys are very aggressive and will be able to live with most other aggressive fish, plus they are cheap, and very hardy. Just make sure that is what you want to do before you put them in, because they are near imposssible to get out of the tank. I know domino damsels get fairly large and are very active, but they are very territorial and you cant have too many in your tank or they will kill each other. But I am not that up to date with aggressive tank set ups. Hopefully someone more experienced than me in this could answer better. And I would look in the aggressive tank set up section of these forums, maybe ask your questions there.

 

[dreeves]

Be smart..buy a life sized poster of someones reef tank...frame it, and stick it on the wall...much cheaper and entirely less frustrating....and it never needs water changes and algae wont be an issue..ever!