Cardinals,blendies what can i have?

Reefing Madness

Yup you sure could keep a Anemone and clowns. Other fish tend to try and stay away from anemones. You would definatley need T-5 HO lighting or better for those.

Administrator

I don't think anything has been said yet about your water source, Christople. I made the mistake of using tap water when I first started out, and I paid for it for a long time. I could have saved myself a lot of the money I ended up spending on nitrate reducing media, phosphate reducing media, salt for water changes, etc., if I'd spent the money on an RO/DI unit in the first place.

Even the gallons of distilled Poland Spring I bought from the store when I finally quit tap water had some amount of phosphates as per my Hanna Instruments HI 713 phosphate checker. The cost of bottled water eventually ads up anyway, and it can be a pain to get enough bottles to perform a non negligible water change, so if you're serious about starting a reef and have some money to put toward it, you might consider picking up an RO/DI unit. I understand there are some pretty good prices to be had for them over on eBay, although I got mine from bulkreefsupply.com and am more than satisfied with it.

Christople

I can buy RO water would that be good enough... what if my tap doesn't have phosphate in it, and it doesn't have ammonia nitrate or nitrite so I am good there,here is the list of fish i would love to have:
Nemateleotris Magnifica x6
Ocellaris Clownfish x2
Gobiodon Okinawae x3?
My lfs sells RO and i could buy distilled water from a local nature store and use it at a price of 49 cents a gallon, ech water change would be around ten gallons with a 38 gallon tank

Christople

and what is this about UV sterililizers

Reefing Madness

Nothing. They kill water born bacteria only.
UV Information - The Truth about UV
They are not needed.

Christople

Umm okay...so would need a protein skimmer with live rock, not sure if I'll be abl to transform my tank now but maybe around next Christmas so please keep feeding me your info

Christople

Also the ro subject

Reefing Madness

You definatley want a RO/DI, as the combo takes your TDS to 0, which is where you want them. Usually around a 50gpd will suffice. A brute trash can from Lowes or something to hold the water. Keep the water in the container without salt in it, and use it for top offs. Mix with salt 24hrs before you actualyl are going to do a water change. That way it totally disolves, you can bring it to temperature, check salinity, CA, add calcium when needed. Depending on the salt mix you use, you will have to dose calcium to bring it to 420.

Christople

is tis total dissolved salt?

kaxt

TDS is total dissolved solids- it is a measure of molecules dissolved in the water