Starting Out On Marine

[Seg]

Hi there, I am new to this site, but think the info and advice on here is second to none.

I have a 106L Tropical setup at the moment, but I am wanting to start a marine tank as well. Now I know there is a lot more involved with Marine set ups so I thought I would start slowly and work my way up.
My dilema is, I have a hexagonal tank spare approx 36L and thought I would put some marine sand, piece of Live rock and an anemone in and just see how I get on, just to get to grips with things before moving on to a larger tank. Or should I just start out with the Larger setup? I know the general rule is "Bigger is Better" and also easier to manage, but I don't want to go all out and mess things up on a large scale.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S Sorry for the long post

Thanx

Simon

 

[fishlover500]

Its a bit easier to get a bigger tank to start with 30 gallons is recommended

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, probably better to just start off with the bigger tank . Small volumes of saltwater are difficult to control in terms of chemistry, flow, and temperature and not always the best choice for beginners.

 

[ox5477]

Also, an anemone is not really a starter creature..... they like mature tanks with very stable conditions... if only the anemone was in the tank and it died, you wouldn't really be nuking anything else no big loss I guess, but I wouldn't wanna clean up that mess if it did happen...

I started out with a standard 30G US tank with just FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock). Let the live rock and tank stats settle for about 3-4 weeks, then add cuc (Clean Up Crew)... about a week later, started to add fish slow enough to allow the live rock to adjust to the new bioload.... after about 4 months, I added my first corals, some mushrooms. Along with mushrooms; zoanthids and many of the soft coral species are very good beginner style corals...

The keys are 1) stable water quality, pH, dissolved minerals, temp, 2) quality lighting if you have corals, many of the beginner type corals are photsynthetic and will use the light to survive, 3) Patience... as soon as you start rushing anything, things can go wrong quick and all your hard work up to that point can be lost over night or through a few days... aka "A Crash"

Ox

 

[Seg]

Thanks guys for you replies. I think I will hold off untill the end of the month and go for a bigger tank. I will be taking each step very slowly.

Simon.