So, I am new to the forum and to the aquatic hobby world as a whole. I have never owned a fish, nor do I have any knowledge on the subject. My expertise is summed up by Finding Nemo. I have always wanted to own a tank, and have been fascinated with the concept since I was a kid. I never had the time or money to be able to undertake such an expensive hobby, but now that i've been working full time since I graduated college, I want to jump right into starting my own aquarium. My friend has a 45, 75, and 90 gallon tanks that he will give me for free. I obviously would love to do a 90 gallon SW tank, but think I might be getting ahead of myself. Are there any books, links, tips, threads that you (the AF community) might be able to send my way? Besides the tank what would I need? (I know thats vague, but I know nothing a/b skimmers, pumps, live rock, coral, what fish work well together etc..) Basically I need a crash course and the name of a great book. I am blown away by some of the tanks I have seen on this forum!
Thanks for all the help in advance!

AC Tropical Fish & Aquarium

and especially

Free Tropical Fish E-book

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Just starting:

10 Gallon
1 Honey gourami
3 Peppered corys
3 Ghost shrimp

Wisteria
Aponogeton
Amazon swords
Anubias nana
Marimo moss ball
rotala indica

any other tips amigos?

I'm actually learning about saltwater myself and I've been reading Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies. It has been really helpful in breaking it down into fairly simple terms so that you don't get hung up on a lot of the terminology.

Hope it helps.

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www.howtocareforfish.com

IMHO the single most important thing to do is to first establish thriving plant life then do the rest.

With FW that means true plants with ciculation systems, roots, and so on.


For saltwater that means macro algaes or even common algae grown on screens. Both in refugiums.


But either way if you follow that simple idea you will wind up with tanks that are not only heathier but also more stable and easier to maintain.


still just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thanks for the link pjones! I will be using it too!

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www.howtocareforfish.com

That's really a great site. I would second the recommendation!