New to the game

[Cheesehead_Sven]

Hello All,
We are in the process of finishing our basement and I would like to get a SW tank as the focal point down there. I am looking at a tank in between 75 and 100 gallons. I have never had a salt water tank before, so please bear with me on this. I would like this to be a very colorful tank. My wife would like to have clown fish, and a Blue hippo tang(go figure). I would like something a little more aggressive. I think the lionfish look really cool. I also want inverts maybe star fish and/or anemones. I really want it to be vibrant center piece of our new living area.

Do you have any suggestions on equipment and setups?
Any suggestions on what should and shouldn't go together with the clownfish and the blue tang.
General suggestions for a beginner such as myself?

thanks

 

[beth]

Welcome to the hobby! Some new hobbyist issues I see already. Hippo tangs should be in no less than 125 tank. All tangs need space to swim hard. They are swimmers and can't do that except in larger long tanks. Also, lionfish are aggressive fish, aggressive eaters. They don't belong in tanks with most inverts nor anemones.

I would suggest taking a few mos to get your feet wet learning. If you enjoy that part of the hobby then you are truly made for this hobby. Deciding on setup and planning out exactly what you want and what you need to achieve it is a big part of the fun and excitement. However, if done incorrectly or haphazardly, you are in for some bumps and lessons from the school of hard knocks. When I first decided to set up a reef tank, I took near 6 mos to plan it out, though many would say that was too much time.

Forums such as this aid a lot. I'd also suggest to look at some reference materials. There is a lot online and there are also some good books. For beginners, I'd recommend "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist". A great starting reference with a wealth of useful guidance. easy to read and understand with lots of visual aids.

 

[Cheesehead_Sven]

Thanks for the info, I appreciate the feedback. That alone has saved me a world of headaches, as well as a few dollars. It'd be great if there was a site, that would allow you to "build" your tank online, with what corals, fish, etc that you want in it and would give suggestions on what is/isn't recommended to go together.

 

[jay0705]

I agree w beth. Go 125 or bigger. A dwarf lion would be ok w big clowns. Shrimp iffy at best. They won't bother corals tho.

 

[Cheesehead_Sven]

Any tips on "cleaning" fish, plants, inverts?

 

[jay0705]

Inverts depend on the stock u want. Plants for sw are macro alage. Cleaning fish, eh not really bc most are hard to keep in captivity. Skunk cleaner shrimp do a nice job

 

[beaslbob]

I recommend you have a refugium full of macro algaes right from the start.
But that's just me and my .02