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Old June 25th, 2007, 08:00 PM
MyBirdIsEvil's Avatar
MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Missouri
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I agree with all of that, though saltwater/reef clubs are hard to find depending on the size of your town.
Here there aren't any clubs, but the clubs in the closest big cities often have message boards, or people will be willing to talk to you on the phone if you join. If you don't mind travelling they'll often have meetings and coral/fish swaps and sales. Some people are also willing to ship depending on how fragile the stock is and their experience in doing so.

Also, yes, I agree, don't rush into saltwater. It will probably take a fairly long time just to catch on to all the terms used and get an idea of what types of fish/corals you will be able to keep with your experience level. Corals are also animals, so like fish they require different levelf of water quality, feeding and care, with the addition of lighting. Some corals require HIGH lighting, which can be extremely expensive depending on the size of your tank (and I recommend not starting with under a 55g because smaller tanks water quality will drop FAST, and a tank crash is not fun, especially if you are inexperienced and not sure how to save your stock. Lower tanks are also better since the light has less water to penetrate).
Corals and inverts must also be chosen carefully because believe it or not some will predate fish or other corals. Anemones especially can be aggressive, and large anemones can potentially eat live fish, which is frustrating if you've just spent 30-75 dollars U.S (pretty common price for many SW fish) buying that particular fish.

Quote:
there are also quite a few symbiotic relationships in SW such as the hosting clownfish and anenomes or the cleaner(peppermint??) shrimp and other fish
Yup, notice the shrimp in front of my anemone? He doesn't leave that rock 'cause he decided to host the anemone

I'd also add, get GOOD live rock. Either bring an experienced person with you or learn how to figure out good or bad liverock. Good liverock will have TONS of cool organisms on it, sometimes even nice corals. Fun to look at and can potentially save you money from having to buy every single thing for your tank. If the rock is cured that is especially nice since you'll spend less time waiting to add fish and other creatures. (Cured means the rock either hasn't "died" in the process of being shipped, or has been kept in a curing tank so that it's been "brought back to life" and hosts plenty of nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria. Think that's the simplest way I can put it. Any decaying stuff has also been removed. The rock is safe and ready to be added directly to your tank).

Yeah, I'm probably getting ahead of you here , those are the basics though.

Last edited by MyBirdIsEvil; June 25th, 2007 at 08:03 PM.
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