Intro and questions

[Lax_cornuta]

Hi I've been doing freshwater for a while and I've decided to start salt water as I have a little more free time on my hands. One of my friends kind of nudged me into it over the years and currently I have another member drilling my 60g to do plumbing, overflow, and sump. At first I was thinking of going with a smaller tank but but after reading about all the extra things you have to monitor, it made sense to me why having a bigger tank would be better. I figured I'd start by joining the local reef club and plan on becoming a supporting member as I've heard that you guys have meetups or events and stuff like that. I'd prefer to get advice, equipment, or fish from a smaller community as opposed to a larger forum like some of the other ones I've come across where it seems like everyone has a different opinion. I'm still a ways off from having a running tank with fish as I'm having the stand built and the plumbing done custom. I'm still not sure about the sump but the person who's building my stand and taking care of converting my tank explained to me the benefits of extra water volume and a tank with fresh water in it. I prefer to keep my tank as simple and low maintenance as possible without compromising anything. I did notice right off the bat that everything seems to be way more expensive, but turning a Petco freshwater tank into salt water wasn't very expensive and I think I'm getting a good deal on the stand based on what I wanted but I still have to figure out other basic equipment. Someone I know said they would give me some live rock to help start up my tank which I understand is kind of like biomedia and a canister filter? But regardless I've been wanting to do this for a while as I slowly broke down my fresh water tanks. Look forward to starting my first saltwater tank, if anyone has any general advice for newbies I'd be glad to hear it. Also, I don't want to rush into it and end up losing a bunch of money so I'm going to start easy with just sand fish, Rock snails, and basic stuff and wait on trying coral, but if I'm just doing fish do I need expensive or saltwater oriented lighting? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on lighting that I may not end up needing on a beginner's tank.
Thanks guys

 

[chaples55]

Hi, welcome to ARC!

You will be very happy you went with a sump. Saltwater aquaria typically involve much more equipment than a freshwater tank. The sump gives you a place to hide away all that stuff. Starting out, you can just stick your heater down there and maybe use filter socks. I would recommend a protein skimmer as one of your first pieces of saltwater-specific filtration equipment. Skimmers help remove dissolved and particulate waste from the water (basically a dish fish poop foam machine). I'm sure someone can hook you up with a good deal on one here on the forum.

To be clear, the sump is circulating aquarium water (saltwater). If the person referred to a tank of freshwater they were probably talking about a separate reservoir for top-off water. When water evaporates from a saltwater tank, the salt stays behind. That means you need to regularly top it up with freshwater to prevent the salt from getting more and more concentrated. For the sake of stability and ease of maintenance, most people automate this with a device called an auto top off (ATO). The ATO senses when the water level in your sump decreases and pumps freshwater from the reservoir into the sump to keep the water level constant.

Live rock is basically like bio-media, yes. It is very porous and houses all the beneficial bacteria. Be aware that saltwater tanks take significantly longer to cycle than freshwater and can take a full year to be considered mature.

You don't need fancy lights for fish only. In fact, you don't need a light at all! You can use whatever is cheap or whatever you already have lying around. Keeping the lights off or very dim for the first month or two will help avoid algae. There's some soft corals that will also grow under pretty much any light if you'd like to give those a try at some point. And once you're ready to make the jump into more corals I can recommend good lights that don't cost a kidney.

I would recommend binge watching the 5 minute guides from Bulk Reef Supply on YouTube, and check out some of their longer form content or the Tidal Gardens YouTube channel if you want more in-depth info.

I would highly recommend that you learn about quarantining your fish. There are diseases in saltwater such as Velvet that can kill an entire tank in a matter of days (happened to me in my first year in the hobby). Humblefish is a trusted resource for all things quarantine and saltwater fish disease. I would say the essentials are 2 weeks in copper and 2 doses of PraziPro 7 days apart.

 

[ecoreefguy]

first, welcome!!!
2nd… I want a TLDR