New Need Ideas on Fish
- Thread starter ty_05_f
- Start date
eelfreakrobi
Member
My first fish was a royal gramma, very hardy and colorful. 
mykgillespie
Member
What have you seen that interests you? Clowns and gobies are always a safe bet, stay away from damsels unless you want to have just damsels. There are many options for you though, so look around at your LFS and grab some fish books and research whatever catches your interest.
Myk.
Myk.
mykgillespie
Member
You bet! Well, first I should ask what you plan on doing for filtration? Any live rock, deep sand bed, protein skimmer?
mykgillespie
Member
I would definitely recommend a protein skimmer for almost any size tank. I know that you're on a budget, but you can probably find a CPR Bak Pak for less than $150 and probably much less used. If you can find a Bak Pak make sure to pull that blue bio-bale junk out of it, there is no need for it. The skimmer should be the only physical form of filtration on your tank, no sponges or carbon. Run at least a 3" depth of live sand. Actually the sand doesn't have to be live, you can just use clean dry Oolitic sand and purchase high quality live rock. The rock should populate the sand bed. Even better would be to use uncured rock and let it cure in your tank, more likely to get better bio-diversity from the rock that way. Of course, if you go the uncured route, don't add the clowns or any fish until the cycle is complete! Be sure to have a good quality powerhead for circulation too because the entire contents of your tank (rock and sand wise) is now your bio-filter.
mykgillespie
Member
Never a problem, glad to help!