New to aquariums

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pack2010

New member
Hello all!

I'm just starting on this hobby so am a highly impressionable newbie. I have been doing a ton of research over the last month (reading and Youtube) on everything involved. Decided on a saltwater setup instead of freshwater because 1. love the creatures and their idiosyncrasies in the saltwater world and 2. find the water chemistry and interconnected ecosystem of a saltwater tank fascinating.
Now starting out all I have at this point is a RO/DI system and did get a 40g tank on sale from Petsmart. That said I'm trying to decide if I want to wait on the 40g since for the first year or two I'm thinking I'll just do a simple budget friendly FOWLR setup (also a decent chance we'll be moving states in the next 2 years so don't want to make an elaborate reef and then figure out what to do at that point). In that thread I'm wondering if a 15 or 20 g AIO setup with just a couple of clownfish and maybe a lawnmower blenny would be a good thing to run for the next year or two to get the hang of it? I know smaller tanks might be more volatile so I've read that bigger tanks are easier in that respect. But had to convince the wife to let me do this plus we're having a heck of a time trying to figure out where to put the 40 so a 15 or 20 might be easier to place. Was looking at some of Innovative Marine's tanks and they looked promising.
Other thing is, wife has a cat that she is worried will mess with the tank so any cat proofing tips would be appreciated too. Thanks in advance for the help y'all!
 
Welcome to the site! You ask questions that suggest you'll likely have pretty good luck, because planning and caution is huge in this hobby. Setting up a 20 and really making it work with a couple of fish is a fine plan and may be all you ever really want. All sorts of cat-proof tank covers are available. Good luck!
 
Welcome! I agree with the above but I’ll also add it depends on what type of AIO you want. BioCube, NanoCube and Fluval all have built in lights in the hoods and should be relatively cat proof. Compared to an open top AIO.
 
The best universal advice I can give is to make a plan and buy once/cry once.

Don’t shortcut. I once built a 6’ SPS dominated tank for $1k. I’m an experienced aquarist and it did come out spectacular.


Do your research, ask questions and don’t be upset if some of your ideas aren’t as great as you thought they were.

You only need a few things for a successful reef tank

Light (probably the biggest expense)

Water flow (think of maintenance, the pumps need to be cleaned, how difficult and often?)

Stable temperature.

Stable chemistry.

Get those 4 things and your coral will grow

A buddy of friend of mine had some life events 9 months ago and his tank deteriorated. He got it back up to snuff and today he came to my house I pull probably $2500 retail coral clippings from my tank fro him. You can’t even tell I cut anything by looking at the tank. The stuff just grows.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone! Only other question I have at the moment is if I do go with a 20 gallon FOWLR what is the fish limit. Is say 2 clownfish, lawnmower blenny and maybe a royal gramma too much? Certainly will just be sticking with the two clowns for a while but trying to think through what my expansion options would be down the road. Also what about possible urchins or snails?
 
pack2010 said:
Thanks for the advice everyone! Only other question I have at the moment is if I do go with a 20 gallon FOWLR what is the fish limit. Is say 2 clownfish, lawnmower blenny and maybe a royal gramma too much? Certainly will just be sticking with the two clowns for a while but trying to think through what my expansion options would be down the road. Also what about possible urchins or snails?
Click to expand...
Urchins are like a bull in a china shop. Snails have a proclivity for getting stuck in plumbing systems. I like hermit crabs. YMMV

I will say this, up to about 150 gallons, the bigger the tank the easier it is to maintain. Once you get up over 100-150, just the volume of materials consumed starts making it more difficult. The most challenging tank I ever had was a custom build 5 gal SPS AIO I ran for a year or two. Point being, get the biggest tank you can. The more water, the more forgiving it is

Clownfish are pretty indestructible.
 
five.five-six said:
Urchins are like a bull in a china shop. Snails have a proclivity for getting stuck in plumbing systems. I like hermit crabs. YMMV

I will say this, up to about 150 gallons, the bigger the tank the easier it is to maintain. Once you get up over 100-150, just the volume of materials consumed starts making it more difficult. The most challenging tank I ever had was a custom build 5 gal SPS AIO I ran for a year or two. Point being, get the biggest tank you can. The more water, the more forgiving it is

Clownfish are pretty indestructible.
Click to expand...
I wanted to start with a 40 because of this but unfortunately space is a concern with the size of our house and I had a job just getting my wife to let me do this :). As best as I can tell it looks like coral is where it gets really challenging hence why I'm probably going to wait on that for a while and just stick with a few fish.
 
pack2010 said:
I wanted to start with a 40 because of this but unfortunately space is a concern with the size of our house and I had a job just getting my wife to let me do this :). As best as I can tell it looks like coral is where it gets really challenging hence why I'm probably going to wait on that for a while and just stick with a few fish.
Click to expand...
Back in the old days of prodigy, we hat a term for that: “WAF”



Wife acceptance factor. It is a very real consideration.

See if you can swing a BC32. The BC 29/32 is glass and has curved corners, there are nice looking stands commercially available for it so it rates very high on the WAF scale. Also, they are very prolific. All of the R&D on lighting, mods skimmer etc have already been worked out. Turnkey, it will keep everything you have mentioned as-is. With a skimmer, flow and lighting mod you can keep most of the more difficult SPS.

 
If I were starting over, and size was an issue, along with inviting other family members to enjoy the project (ok, WAF), I'd go for the BC32. All the individual components would be a challenge to find in good working order for less than $400.
 
five.five-six said:
Back in the old days of prodigy, we hat a term for that: “WAF”



Wife acceptance factor. It is a very real consideration.

See if you can swing a BC32. The BC 29/32 is glass and has curved corners, there are nice looking stands commercially available for it so it rates very high on the WAF scale. Also, they are very prolific. All of the R&D on lighting, mods skimmer etc have already been worked out. Turnkey, it will keep everything you have mentioned as-is. With a skimmer, flow and lighting mod you can keep most of the more difficult SPS.

Click to expand...
That was one of the ones I was looking at. Might be able to swing it based on those specs. Also as good a deal as the 20g IM kit is (170$) I would have to order a lid which as best as I can tell is at least 100$. So for only 100 I can get another 12 gallons. Will have to see if I can push that WAF a little more!
 
five.five-six said:
Back in the old days of prodigy, we hat a term for that: “WAF”



Wife acceptance factor. It is a very real consideration.

See if you can swing a BC32. The BC 29/32 is glass and has curved corners, there are nice looking stands commercially available for it so it rates very high on the WAF scale. Also, they are very prolific. All of the R&D on lighting, mods skimmer etc have already been worked out. Turnkey, it will keep everything you have mentioned as-is. With a skimmer, flow and lighting mod you can keep most of the more difficult SPS.

Click to expand...
Had to really convince her due to the space considerations. Then make her less paranoid that the cat and the fish could coexist. It was quite the job! Helped that I got the M-I-L on my side.
 
So I found a used for 6 months 32g Biocube on FB marketplace. It looks like a pretty good deal that includes live rock and corals. How wary should I be and what questions should I ask the owner to make sure I'm not getting a lemon?
 
I’ve never owned an AIO tank. I’d say just make sure there are no leaks, no scratches in the glass/acrylic, and ask if everything is working properly.
 
In addition to the above, maybe see if the return pump has been changed (not a deal breaker but just make sure the connection appears tight)

Generally if it’s a running tank, you don’t have to worry too much except for what @griss mentioned.

Main thing would be to see what types of nuisances there might be such as Aiptasia, flatworms, nuisance algaes, etc). Some can be more difficult than others.
 
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