Saltwater beginner basics

Vnessa123456

Right now I only have experience with freshwater tanks, but I would like to start planning for a saltwater tank (years in the future, when I can afford it!)

Would it be possible for someone to give me a crash course in setting up a saltwater tank? The equipment, tank size, tutorial on live rock, etc?

I have heard that live rock is not necessarily needed and you can get dead (?) rock, is this true?

Obviously I have no idea what I'm talking about and plan on buying books to learn about this process in the future, but for now I would really appreciate a general idea how how to set up a saltwater tank with some interesting specimens.

Thanks!

Reefing Madness

How to Set Up a Saltwater Aquarium - How to SetUp a Salt water Fish Aquarium
Live rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What Live Sand Is and How It Is Used in a Saltwater Aquarium - Page 1
Feature Article: Elemental Analysis of Skimmate: What Does a Protein Skimmer Actually Remove from Aquarium Water? — Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine
Yes, you can use just dead rock. People use this becaues its cheaper and it does not come with unwanted hitchhickers.

Vnessa123456

Thanks Reefing Madness!

I will certainly look over these articles. I'm discovering that I'll need a larger aquarium size, because this is better for beginners (is this correct?) and also another tank to sit underneath the display tank to house the sump (would you suggest a sump? I'm reading that it might be difficult to plumb and can cause leaks).

I think that my first tank, I won't start out with a reef tank. I've heard that the corals can move about, and can get stuck in the filter intake and die (!). Do you think it would be safer for me to begin with just live (or dead) rock?

Thanks again for all the help! I really appreciate it; I know it can be pesky to have to answer all these newbie questions.

Reefing Madness

Good first saltwater tank would be like a 30 gallon. Easy to watch water parameters and cheap to do water changes. As for a sump, thats up to you. It basically better to have one, because of the things you can keep in it to filter your water naturally. Chaeto, string algae, carbon, things that will be out of sight and not an eye sor in your display tank like, skimmer and heaters. I don't like sumps for the reason you said, overflows and floods, unless you get a Reef Ready tank which is alreaady drilled for a sump, it can get difficult. But the Reef Ready tanks make sumps alot easier to deal with. I tell people to get like 10-20lbs of Live Rock and the rest of what they need using base rock (dead rock), the Live Rock critters will seed the dead rock. As for corals running around the tank and getting stuck in your powerheads and dieing, those would be Anemones, they won't stay where you initially put them, they detach from the rock and float around the tank. those are the only things that I know of that do that, unless i'm missing something.

Vnessa123456

Thanks for the information! I'll be sure to add a reef ready tank on my wishlist (though it does sound expensive, probably won't be able to afford it for quite some time.) I'm glad that I know all this before starting out - I started my freshwater tank pretty much blind and uninformed, and though I was lucky to not have any casualties, it was really frustrating to deal with problems that arose.