Required Reading - Newbie wanting to study up for a 14 gal Nano

[redwarrior]

Hello everyone!
I guess this is kind of a cross-post since I posted something similar in the beginner's thread here. I am brand-new to aquariums and I'm in no hurry to run out and buy a tank without studying up. What I'd really like is a 14 gallon nano tank for work (since I'm always there), mostly corals and invertebrates...maybe not even ever any fish. I love the little crabs and shrimps and pretty coral.
My issues (besides not knowing anything) are that I'm planning a major move in 2-3 years. I'm pretty much planning on packing up and moving halfway across the country and I don't want to spend a ton on critters if I can't move them with me. Has anyone moved with a tank? Can you use battery-powered equipment, pack them carefully in the trunk, and drive for 2 days and expect survival? My other issue, is that I'm going to have to plan and budget carefully so I'm probably going to move slowly when I do get started. If I can move my critters when I move, then I'll probably make my biggest investment in good live rock and live sand and slowly add things one at a time.
So...if you were starting out fresh, what would you read? What would you study? Where would you begin? Even if I put my tank at home, I won't have room for a big one, so it's small or nothing for me.

 

[redwarrior]

bump - Any suggestions?

 

[nietzsche]

hmm, im not sure where to begin.. i believe that there was a 101 things posted by one of the mods you show read into. i can provide some stuff that you might already know. i would do the tank at home only because you dont want to get into trouble if something happens to the tank at work, like it catching on fire--- also, you might not always be there to check it out like the weekends
-use a refractometer instead of a hydrometer-- it helps A LOT to measure salinity for mixing tank water and checking the water in your aquarium
-when water evaporates from yout tank, add back RO/DI water, salt will stay in the tank thus increasing salinity -never add salt directly to your tank, EVER, unless youre starting out without any livestock in it-
-buy an RO/DI unit, and dont use tap water. buy the best you can get it because youll use it a lot and youll love it. get one that does 75 gallons per day
-buy yourself a test kit from API (i use it mostly for alk and calcium and to monitor parameters through a cycle)
-you can add about 1lb of live rock per gallon-- you can start out with that for your tank
not sure about sand, i think i have an inch of sand in my 14g, didnt want too much sand
-keep Salinity at 35ppt, alk from 7-11 dKH, calcium from 400-480ppm is fine, magnesium in the 1300s would be good. keep temperature between 78-83
-if youre going to add any chemicals make sure you can test before and after!!!!! if you cant test for it dont use it!
-if you want to learn about cycling a tank, look up the nitrogen cycle. you have to establish bacteria in the tank before you begin adding livestock to it, otherwise youll have dead fish and corals. how do you cycle? after youve added your rock and sand, you can add a source of ammonia by adding a piece of raw shrimp or "feeding" the tank. meausure ammonia until theres a spike-- i think .5? is good, then just let the tank do its own thing-- itll take a month before its done. first ammonia will go down to 0ppm, then nitrites will spike, then theyll go down to 0ppm, then the end result is your nitrates. after youre done, change out 10% of the water
-have an ice chest or bucket dedicated to this... add water first then add your salt, throw a couple of powerheads in the bucket to mix the salt. let it mix for 48hrs at least before using it. make sure the temperature is not too hot before adding it to your tank
-different corals need different lighting demands, make sure you can provide that for them (also water quality and other certain parameters for some)
-research the size of the fish before getting them and what they eat-- meaning to make sure you research the max size.
-do not go about this hobby buying cheap stuff thinking it will save you money, itll come back and bite you. youll end up spending more money trying to fix youre mistake. unless you know someone who is selling something used and works properly (and is a good brand), then dont go buying things at a store just because the LFS tells you its the best. research it as well. hope that made sense
-dont believe everything a fish store tells you, theyll tell you anything to sell what they have-- then when something dies theyll tell you they cant replace it. Ask online first or do searches on forums
-buy snails instead of hermit crabs for a "clean up" crew. hermit crabs beat on each other and kill each other. snails wont do this and will help you clean your tank up
-Kelvin is the color temperature of the bulb, so when someone says its 10,000k (kelvin) theyre telling you what itll looklike. 10,000k is a little yellow/white. the higher up, the bluer it appears to you, but also the higher the number the less growth you will get out of your corals. 10,000k-14,000k is good. theres also Actinics which appear very blue and are just used to help some of the colors "pop."
-acclimate invertebrates slowly, theyre sensitve to water changes
-acclimate fish properly
-setup a quarantine tank so you can monitor any diseases they have prior to adding them to the tank, you dont want to add a fish to your tank and have all the other fish get the disease
-how do you acclimate inverts? temperature acclimate them first by floating the bag there in your display tank for 15 minutes. open the bag and put them in a container where you will begin slowly dripping water into the container until the water doubles in the container. or, you could add half a cup to the container every 15 minutes--- i do it for 30min, others recommend for at least an hour
-same thing with fish, temp acclimate for 15 minutes and slowly add half a cup to the bag every 15 minutes until it doubles-- i also do this for 30 minutes and have never lost a fish or snail either way (make sure you do the procedures the store tells you to, some have a certain way of you to do it in case your fish/snails die)
thats all i can think of for now, i hope it helps you to get started though. sorry its long and boring

 

[davmul]

If you want to pick up a book for beginners, I would suggest "The New Marine Aquarium" - Micahel Paletta. This book takes a very practical approach to selecting equipment, setting up the aquarium, and planning your stock list. This is a great book to get started.