Hey all

Some of the initial enjoyment in the salt water aquarium hobby has been removed by bad advice.

Most of the advice resolved around protein skimmers, lighting and live rock. The advice has come from 3 different salt water aquarium stores.

Live Rock
Store 1: You don't need it initially

Store 2: No point in dried live rock, wait until your tank is broken in and add wet live rock.

Store 3: You absolutely need dried live rock to start your tank. 1lb per gallon at least if you can afford it.

What I did: Followed store 3's advice, it seemed the most logical.

Lighting
Store 1: Your 15 watt bulbs will be fine for coral as well as live rock.

Store 2: Those bulbs are fine for live rock most of the time. But if you want some anemone or coral, you'll want about 3 watts per gallon (rough guideline).

Store 3: nothing said

What I did: I believed Store 2 and will upgrade my lighting when I go coral

Protein Skimmers (The bane of my existence)
Store 1: Don't need it, unless you're using coral. Not even in stock.

Store 2: Absolutely need it. Sells me a Coralife Super Skimmer 65. It leaks in two places, replaces it with another of the same model. It leaks in one place. I give up on Coralife... it was also really loud. I also find out I was hosed price wise.

Store 3: Absolutely need it. Absolutely hoses me on a Seaclone 150. I can't believe what I paid for it. I get on the web and find out I bought a piece of crap again.

I don't get why all 3 stores are so far off from each other. There has to be some basic science to this stuff.

The protein skimmer, I am completely and utterly out to lunch on. No stores seem to stock anything that doesn't suck in my neck of the woods.

What protein skimmers are quiet, reliable, and do a good job? I'm not on a budget really, I just want to stop getting screwed.

I've never run into a hobby with this much contradictory advice.

I'm taking the Seaclone back, hopefully I don't get any grief.

Thanks for reading my vent.

From what I've found there really isn't a science to it. People break the "rules" all the time and things are just fine. Then you have the same setup as someone else and it all goes bad. Best thing is to ask the forum get hopefully a larger response than 1 LFS clerk and then decide what to do.

Internet searches and comparing is also a good idea, read the job descriptions for Petsmart applicants. Every single one of the states "must be comfortable with suggesting additional supplies to pet owners".

Products such as a protien skimmer (very important for SW tanks from what I read) research them read reviews, the only bad step for an aquarium is speed. Do something fast get it wrong and it all goes downhill quick.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

welcome to the hobby

all rules are made to be broken, let me give you one piece of advice and this is something that is TRUE no matter what you hear from so called reputable sources....EVERYONE'S TANK IS DIFFERENT.

Just because person A has a perfect tank without xyz doesnt means yours will. and vise versa. Its more or less hit and miss. All you really should know is that you can talk to a lot of people and formulate your own opinion on how you want to start your tank, after that you will have problems, decide how to best solve each problem with advice and your own thinking.

Trust me, nothing in this hobby is globally excepted as THE ONLY WAY. Just everyone running their tanks the way THEY know how.

Slight Example i ran a 150 gallon mixed reef for over 3 years without any skimmer, any sump, etc. The point is your tank will run much better after you do some good ol` fashioned hit and miss

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Thanks for the responses. I should have read Protein Skimmer reviews. I always try to buy local as well. Some retailers need to know that some customers will pay for quality, so you might as well stock at least one good one.

I agree, I'm happy I found Super Pets in Annandale. Excellent "pet" store not some big chain that hires the HS kids who don't care.

__________________
100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Yep you'll get contradictory advice.


To me what you must do is balance out the bioload with plant life (algae).

skimmers effectively reduce bioload, Live rock has algae so that advice you received is consistant with that over arching idea.

So to me starting the tank with a refugium full of macro algaes is what is important with everything else being a far distant second considerations.

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

Well, thanks for the replies to my little rant! Things are better now.

I finally bought a new protein skimmer that I'm happy with. I got the Deltec MCE300. It's way quieter than the Coralife Super Skimmer 65 and Seaclone 150 I tried. It seems a lot better made too. You get what you pay for. I thought about the MCE600, but for a 55gal tank, it would have probably been overkill. It also cost twice as much.

I'm 2 weeks or so from adding a fish, looking forward to it.