akamel

hello everyone ! I am fairly new to the site--have been browsing and learning for few months but have yet to post! This is an awesome forum!! I have learned so much ! I have had aquariums most of my life but havent had one in about 5 yrs until recently. Now I am collecting tanks. Only have one 30 gallon set up--have africans cichlids in it. Of course I will have to get a bigger one soon. I also have 2- 10 gallons not set up. Im not sure wut i wanna put in them. my husband and i want to go SW soon but the LR is expensive. any ideas on how to start one (sw) on a budget ?? Any ideas wud be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance !!

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!! (if i havent already)

Ive moved your post to the sw section so that our salty members might be of more help good luck!

ATP

Look for cheap tanks on craigslist. Try and find a complete set up. Also try and find a local aquarium group and join their forums to find local things for sale.

sgould

live rock provides a lot of benefits, both in terms of bio-filtration and in terms of aqua-scaping and providing hiding places for your fish. Wherever possible, live rock is the way to go.

Having said that, you are right...it can be expensive. It is possible to do a "fish only" tank with no live rock. Or you can start with a small amount of live rock and add more later as funds are available. Some is better than none!

Here is some basic info on fish only vs live rock tanks.

Time

Welcome! Ask questions and they will be answered even if it takes a while. Saltwater is nice and with live rock you don't need a filter if you have enough. I agree with ATP, you could also take live rock from the ocean. I have been trying to get critters from the tide pools.

aquarist48

to Fish Lore!
Ken

charzar-g

Welcome
I used to just read peoples posts on here too!
I didn't do this myself, but I have heard of people who have:

Get some 'not live' rock and put it in the tank, then once you've got all that in the right place and settled etc, get a few peices of live rock, the hitch hikers on the live rock will repopulate and thus making the other rock live too!
You won't see it is live for a while longer, but it will be live with all the tiny stuff you don't see

akamel

thank you !! good idea!!

akamel

thanks for the info. now i know i can start slowly and work my way up !! Im excited bc i thought i wud have to wait a few months before i could afford to get started !!!

charzar-g

haha Thats the knowledge I didn't know when i started, but i now have almost enough live rock, so i thought i'd keep going like this