Advice for beginner setup?

[peteyspizza]

Would anyone have any advice for a 13 year old wanting to get into the reef keeping hobby? E.G. setup, easy corals/anemones/inverts? I've done a lot of research, and I can't decide between a Biocube 32 tank, since not as much money (probably) would go into salt/rock etc., or if I should start out with a larger (perhaps 100 gallon tank parted together) since it might be more forgiving to water changes, etc. (I'd also be open to another setup, however, it would need to be relatively quiet at night, and lights at night for corals and stuff doesn't really matter.) The tank would also definitely need to accommodate at least 2 clownfish, a dwarf lion fish if possible, and some starfish (what goes into keeping starfish?)

 

[Reefing Madness]

#1-Dry Rock, there are a few hitchhikers on Live Rock that people want to stay away from, so they opt for using Dry Rock, or Dead Rock. Macro Rock is a good place to start looking for that. Either way you go you will need a minimum of 1lb per gallon. You can use Fully Cured Live Rock, and have the tank cycled in just a few days also. Other way is to use just a couple of pounds of Live Rock and the rest Macro or Dry Rock.
#2-Replacement filter media like filter floss and activated carbon (if you get a filter) Which is really not necessary.
#3-Multiple Power heads (2 or 3) 10x your water volume for just a Fish Only With Live Rock, and at least 20x your water volume for a Reef Tank. So lets say your going reef, and you have a 100g tank, you would need flow in that tank at minimum of 2000gph, or 2 1000gph power heads.
#4-Protein Skimmer, rated at 2 times your water volume. Unless your tank is under 30g, in which case you can do 10% water changes a week to rid the system of detrius. But, you'll have to watch the water parameters close, if things go haywire, you'll have to do more water changes.
#5-Saltwater Test Kits. Reef Test Kit. Test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Phosphates, Calcium, ALK and Magnesium.
#6-Saltwater fish food. Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Cyclopease, Algae Sheets, Romaine . Flake food is not really a good food to feed your marine fish.
#7-Aquarium vacuum. This one is iffy. Most don't use one, if you have enough flow in the tank you won’t need one
#8-Rubber kitchen gloves
#9-Fish net
#10-Two, clean, never used before, 5-gallon buckets
#11-Aquarium thermometer, digital being the best.
#12-Brush with plastic bristles (old tooth brush) - needed for cleaning the live rock if you don't get Fully Cured Live Rock.
#13-Power Strip, possibly GFCI outlets by the tank.
#14-Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water, and a barrel for storing the water.
#15-Possibly a Quarantine Tank for your new fish. They sit in here for a few weeks to kill off parasites and bacteria, to keep it from getting in your main tank
#16-Heater rated for your size tank.
#17-Saltwater Mix. Marine Salt. Instant Ocean is the cheap Salt that beginners and Advanced use alike.
#18-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a Refractometer, which is more accurate. There is also a Digital Meter that is way advanced if you have the cash.
#19-Aquarium filter (not absolutely necessary if running with adequate amounts of live rock, but nice to have if you need to use a mechanical filter or activated carbon, or GFO and such)
#20-Aquarium substrate such as live sand or crushed coral. Some go bare Bottom, others choose the 1-2" bottom, others, more advanced will try the Deep Sand Bed, which is over 6" deep.
http://www.scaquariums.com/category-s/103.htm
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=aquarium+heater&_sacat=20754&_odkw=power+heads&_osacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=power+heads&_sacat=0&_odkw=salt+water+refractometer&_osacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-0-10-Sa...905?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a792587d1
http://www.marcorocks.com/
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulk-dry-live-rock.html
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/aquarium-substrate/ps/c/3578/9805
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html
http://live-plants.com/
http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/what-your-coral-needs/
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=t-5+lighting&_sacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=cree+led+aquarium&_sacat=0&_odkw=t-5+lighting&_osacat=0
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/saltwater-aquarium-salt-water-mix/ps/c/3578/4685
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15473
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4749
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4145
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/4/chemistry
http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/about-corals/what-your-coral-needs/

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

 

[peteyspizza]

#1-Dry Rock, there are a few hitchhikers on Live Rock that people want to stay away from, so they opt for using Dry Rock, or Dead Rock. Macro Rock is a good place to start looking for that. Either way you go you will need a minimum of 1lb per gallon. You can use Fully Cured Live Rock, and have the tank cycled in just a few days also. Other way is to use just a couple of pounds of Live Rock and the rest Macro or Dry Rock.
#2-Replacement filter media like filter floss and activated carbon (if you get a filter) Which is really not necessary.
#3-Multiple Power heads (2 or 3) 10x your water volume for just a Fish Only With Live Rock, and at least 20x your water volume for a Reef Tank. So lets say your going reef, and you have a 100g tank, you would need flow in that tank at minimum of 2000gph, or 2 1000gph power heads.
#4-Protein Skimmer, rated at 2 times your water volume. Unless your tank is under 30g, in which case you can do 10% water changes a week to rid the system of detrius. But, you'll have to watch the water parameters close, if things go haywire, you'll have to do more water changes.
#5-Saltwater Test Kits. Reef Test Kit. Test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Phosphates, Calcium, ALK and Magnesium.
#6-Saltwater fish food. Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Cyclopease, Algae Sheets, Romaine . Flake food is not really a good food to feed your marine fish.
#7-Aquarium vacuum. This one is iffy. Most don't use one, if you have enough flow in the tank you won’t need one
#8-Rubber kitchen gloves
#9-Fish net
#10-Two, clean, never used before, 5-gallon buckets
#11-Aquarium thermometer, digital being the best.
#12-Brush with plastic bristles (old tooth brush) - needed for cleaning the live rock if you don't get Fully Cured Live Rock.
#13-Power Strip, possibly GFCI outlets by the tank.
#14-Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water, and a barrel for storing the water.
#15-Possibly a Quarantine Tank for your new fish. They sit in here for a few weeks to kill off parasites and bacteria, to keep it from getting in your main tank
#16-Heater rated for your size tank.
#17-Saltwater Mix. Marine Salt. Instant Ocean is the cheap Salt that beginners and Advanced use alike.
#18-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a Refractometer, which is more accurate. There is also a Digital Meter that is way advanced if you have the cash.
#19-Aquarium filter (not absolutely necessary if running with adequate amounts of live rock, but nice to have if you need to use a mechanical filter or activated carbon, or GFO and such)
#20-Aquarium substrate such as live sand or crushed coral. Some go bare Bottom, others choose the 1-2" bottom, others, more advanced will try the Deep Sand Bed, which is over 6" deep.
http://www.scaquariums.com/category-s/103.htm
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=aquarium+heater&_sacat=20754&_odkw=power+heads&_osacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=power+heads&_sacat=0&_odkw=salt+water+refractometer&_osacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-0-10-Sa...905?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a792587d1
http://www.marcorocks.com/
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulk-dry-live-rock.html
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/aquarium-substrate/ps/c/3578/9805
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html
http://live-plants.com/
http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/what-your-coral-needs/
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=t-5+lighting&_sacat=0
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=cree+led+aquarium&_sacat=0&_odkw=t-5+lighting&_osacat=0
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/saltwater-aquarium-salt-water-mix/ps/c/3578/4685
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15473
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4749
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4145
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/4/chemistry
http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/about-corals/what-your-coral-needs/

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

WOW Thank you so much!! This helps a lot!

 

[Preme]

WOW Thank you so much!! This helps a lot!

Hey there!
I'm 16, and also in the reefing hobby.
One piece of advice from my experience is do things right the first time (wether this means spending more money in the beginning you won't have to spend more in the future).

To answer your questions!
Firstly lighting is a big deal, I got a great deal in my light (ATI sunpower). Here's where you might want to spend more money, I'd either suggest the ATI sunpower or Radions.

Also for corals, there's 3 kinds mainly kept but overall 4 types of coral.
SPS (small polyp stony), LPS (large polyp stony), Soft coral, NPS ( non-photosynthetic).
By far the easiest is soft coral (polyps, mushrooms, leathers). Then LPS ( Acans, torches, Frogspawn, hammers, plate corals, Duncan's) then SPS (Montipora, acropora) then NPS ( gorgonians, sun coral).

I'd give the advice of starting with a few Zoas, then a few LPS, then once you feel comfortable with keeping those try some easier SPS such as birdsnest or montipora.

For a tank I'd get as big of one as you can, but if I were to get another tank I'd get the Innovative marine 20 Gallon peninsula drop off tank.
http://www.marinedepot.com/Innovati...lqsK5lXmUwSc2E8veBYiCzXeBiG6elnOOgaAuo98P8HAQ

This tanks also an AIO (all in one) so you wouldn't need a sump, just a skimmer, heater, ATO (auto top off) and return pump.
You could build your own stand out of 2x4's. If you were to get this tank I'd get one Radions XR30 Pro
http://www.marinedepot.com/EcoTech_...riums-EcoTech_Marine-EM58600-FILTFILD-vi.html

In this tank you could only get the 2 clowns and maybe 1 other small fish such as a goby! Also as I'm sure you know if your looking to not spend as much get a smaller tank... the bigger the tank the bigger the equipment which means more $.

Star fish are easy to keep for the most part! Linka's and brittles/serpents are easy to keep.
Certain types of starfish are coral eaters so watch out for that!
Certain types are sometimes very hard to keep.

As it goes for invertes, most inverts have a job in the reef, this is where they get the name of Clean up crew. Most people's clean up crew consists of redleg/blue leg crabs, emerald crab, nassarius snails, astrea snails, turbo snails, and maybe even a sand sifting starfish. All these creatures have a "job" in your tank which helps maintain it and keep it cleaner. There many other types of inverts that can be used to clean your tank but most of them are only bought if you run into an issue were they're needed (which trust me you don't want lol)

Hope this helps! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask!!!

Also check out the BRS 52 weeks of reefing, might answer any other questions! Here's a link.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/video-category/52-weeks-of-reefing