New guy/gal

First of all, welcome to the site! This is an addicting hobby, so be carful.

If you plan on just keeping fish in your tank, it doesn't matter what kind of light you have. Anything to make it look good. May I suggest a combination of white lights and actinic to bring out the colors of the fish.

Before you introduce snails, crabs, shrimp (clean up crew) you'll have to decide on what kind of fish you want. What kind of fish you put in your tank will greater determine if you can have corals or invertabrate (some fish eat snails, crabs, shrimp, small fish, corals, etc.) I'd check out a local fish store to see what kind of fish you'd like to get, and go to as many as you can. Fish For You is close to you. Good knowledgable people, but I'm not too impressed with there selection. The Aquarium is in Sandy. Good store, with pretty good selection.

In my opinion, you should start out with liverock first, before ever introducing fish. Its a great filtration system also. Usually you have about a pound of rock per gallon. Sounds like a lot, but its really not. Plus this gives your fish a place to hide and swim around. Makes it more natural for them.

Hope this helps!

I'd say start with some live rock, and some live sand from people in the club.  I'll bet you can get some at the meeting on Thursday.  Oh, and yes the meeting is free and open to the public, so we hope to see you there.

Don't dip inverts, only fish.  Actually, I don't really think dipping the fish is all that good of an idea.  Tough call.

I agree with pmpt on the lights as well.  Two whites, two blues. Pick what fish you want ahead of time (Yellow Tangs I believe) and most importantly, look at other aquariums.  Lots of people here willing and wanting you to come visit their houses and see their tanks.

Adam

Oh, once your tank is cycled...Definately do an eel.  They are so cool!  I have four of them.  If you are ever in the Sandy area, let me know and you can come see my tanks.  In fact, there are quite a few of us in Sandy that would be happy to show off our tanks.

When is the next reef tour?

We would LOVE to see everyones tank!!!  We have friends  in sandy, so a trip out would be great as long as you don't mind a well behaved 5 yr old girl :)

We will try very hard to make it to the meeting, it sounds like fun!  And summertop you need to tell me all about the eels!!!!!!

Also pmpt, thank you for all your advice, and we have already decided against petco/petsmart after our initial visit, the live sand advice did them in.

By the way what time is the meeting? I just looked but couldn't see a time, I swear I saw it somewhere before along the lines of 7pm, is this correct?

We have parent teacher conference at 5pm that night, but the school is also close to us and so is the meeting so if it is indeed at 7, we should make it!

We are going out tonight to look at live rocks if we can find any, we just learned what cured rock was (and found out its not ever cured till you cure it)

Summertop I forgot to mention, the tank was given to my friend and sat in our basement, it was a saltwater tank before he got it, so when it was given to us it had dried algea all over, we scrubbed it down with soap water before doing anything to it.

It has been running now since saturday waiting for something to go in, but we aren't in to much of a hurry, well my daughter is, she loves fish!!

I'd make sure all of that soap is out of that tank! Soap is very bad for fish.
Just as a FYI, you're looking about 3-4 weeks letting your tank sit without anything but rock in it. Thats your tanks time to cycle. Biggest thing in this hobby, don't be in a rush.

Welcome to the board and the club.  I'm so glad you found us before you got too deeply into setting up your tank.  I was at the 4 month mark spending too much money and killing fish before I found this site and the club.

As pmpt said the most important thing to remember about this hobby is PATIENCE.  You'll hear that from all of us and it's because we all learned the hard way.  (At least many of us did. )  It really hurts to buy a $25 fish and find it dead in less than a week.

First off the aquarium definitely needs time to cycle.  I would suggest at least a month.  I know having a box of water and rock makes waiting very difficult, but believe me your tank and your critters will be the better for it.

My first suggestions would be as follows:

1)  Get a cup of sand from 2 or 3 different people from the club.  This is the best way to jump start your sand and make it all "Live".  Many of us would be happy to bring a cup to the meeting if you ask.  Myself included of course.

2)  Definitely do live rock.  This serves several purposes.  First it is the best biological filter you can use.  Secondly, it looks good and provides hiding places for your fish.  Most fish need a place to hide in order to feel comfortable.  This will lower the stress level of your fish and keep them healthier.  Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, when you decide you want coral the rock will be there to put it on.

3) Along with the live sand from other tanks get some live water as well.  This could all come from one tank.  Many of us use "live water" from another tank when we set up a new one.  This water already has the microbes and whatever other life in it that you are shooting for by cycling your tank.  This will help jump start the cycle.  I will be doing a water change this weekend and would be happy to let you have all the water you want.  I would say change out 50% of your water with this water if you decide to do it.

I wish you the best of luck with your tank and we would all love to see you Thursday at the meeting.  Be for warned, however, that this meeting will get you pumped up about corals.  Also, on that subject, I would say and I think many others would agree that corals don't make the hobby more difficult.  In fact, Mark Peterson will likely be on here soon telling you that they actually make keeping your fish easier and that they do a great deal of water filtration themselves.  Coral's do require better lighting, however, which can increase the cost of your lighting by a significant amount. (But not necessarily.)

One last thing.  In your original post you mention the fish you like.  The correct names are Tangs and Gobbies.  You specifically mentioned the Yellow Tang. 

Sorry for the length of this post, but I hope it is of help.

Thansk Will!!!  long posts have a lot of information, so they are always welcome.

If i'm not mistaken, the ruler(fiance) and I would love to have corals, but as I stated before, from reading faq's and posts, it seemed that newbies like myself should not attempt this, not to mention we only have a 40 gal tank, which also seemed a bit small for a novice to start coral in.  Also lets talk about cost, we spent $250 already and would prefer not to spend another $250 just to have everything die.

Now, that said, we have not bought any lights yet, and I grow carnivorous plants as well so we already have a ton of ligths around and I could easily use the excuse that more lighting on the tank gives me the ability to grow my plants next to the tank.  We are also open to any ideas on starting a reef tank if it's feasable and cheap enough ;)

I made a post in the trade/buy section asking for live rock to be purchased at the meeting on thursday,  if ANYONE has some more additions that would help my tank, I would be happy to consider and purchase as needed.

As for live sand I'm a little nervous about, if I have a live rock from one tank and live sand from a few tanks, how well will this play out? Will they benefit each other or hinder each other?  Also add in live water from other sources, now I have 3 minimum sources of live organisms.  Is this good or bad?

I apologize for so many questions, but you are all so helpful and kind that I can't stop talking ;)

On another note, I think learning about the fish we want before we buy them  is very solid advice!!  This is the reason nothing is in out tank, we have been reading about it for 4 days and only feel comfortable enough to buy a rock heh.


Edited by vidar

Skip the eels, they are just too much like snakes! They climb
outta the tank and could strangle you in your sleep. You would
be much safer with seahorses!

Welcome to WMAS!!! Come see our tanks when you cruise to
Sandy! We are just west of there!

Ouch!