newbie no nothing

[fizz]

i have 7 fresh water tanks and im looking at getting a salt tank. what do i need i know tank and salt but the filter is it just the same as a freshwater filter what else do i need?

 

[seatank]

to start you want to get at least a 75gall tank and if you go to the home page of this site it has all the directions you need to start up it is under hobbiest infomation.
Remember there is 2 major things you need not to be cheep with they are your lighting and filtration.
[ August 11, 2001: Message edited by: SEATANK ]

 

[tmncali]

hello,
do plenty of reading, and then some more reading. before you start converting. ask for advice and for guidance. and then some more reading. and a little bit of ca$h flow for equipment. and then some more reading. and a lot of patience.
HTH
tony

 

[tanker newbie]

do lots of reading ahead of time, my parents have fresh water and when i set up my tank i thought it would be easy, the set up i think is the most important part, after that there might be a few bumps but its pretty much smooth sailing, if you go to www.saltwaterfish.com then go to infomation for hobbiest, then tank set up, you should get alot of infomation to get started, whatever you dont understand you can ask us

 

[vince]

I disagree with the comment of " you need to have at least 75 gallon tank to start."
it could be smaller than that

 

[@knight]

you dont NEED a 75 gal tank to start. You can have a sucessful SW tank as small as 5 or 10 gal. the problem is that the smaller they are, the more difficult they are to keep under control. A deadly level spike can occur in a small tank in a few hours, not to mention a smaller tank can hold less fish. The more water volume you have in your tank, the more stable it is, plus it's easier it is to care for.
a smaller tank also limits you to the number of fish you can have.
I recommend taking a look at BurNSpy's webpage if you are wanting to start a reef. he has a lot of good info there.

 

[bassmaster]

Just thought I'd help out a little with a recomendation or two.
First: I have a 20 gallon tank. Personally, I love it, even though it's small (a 20 gallon is very small for a salt water tank. You should probably get a bigger one then that). What I would recomend is that you DON'T get a big tank to start out (ie. don't get a 125 gallon tank right off the bat).
Here's why:
Starting out with a big tank is a big hastle unless you have a ton of money and can afford 100+ lbs. of LR within the first couple days of your setup. A smaller tank allows you to build more slowly, which means less dough to dish out.
Secound: The number of fish you have in your tank is determined by the tanks size (duh). But just incase you don't know if you have to many or not, here's how you figure it out:
1. Estimate the length (in inches) of each fish in your tank.
2. Add the # of all the fish lengths together.
3. Divide the # of gallons in your tank by 2.
4. If the # of gallons in your tank is larger than the fish lengths, then your set. IF NOT, THEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!
Just thought I'd help out.

 

[q]

Yeagh they'll tell you what to do. It may or may not be a good idea.
My LFS couldn't give me a quote on a MH/VHO combo and was suprised when they found out that MH bulbs run 80+ dollars. Also I just got into the hobbie a few months ago and I know more about a DSB than they do.

 

[afishmonkey]

my first tank and the 1 im using now is an eclipcs 20 gallon is pretty cool but i now want to upgrad but no cash flow
u dont get 2 much monkey mowing lawns if u know wat i mean and i hope u do <*}}}>< + ^0_o^ = afishmonkey

 

[dockery07]

I run 2 30 gallon tanks, with plenty of lighting you can keep the cool stuff like the big tanks. I run a Pegiun 300 with a protin skimmer and do a water change every saturday. I have had great luck and no fish loss.