Newbie

[mschmero]

I am brand new to this hobby. Any advice for buying (and where to buy) live coral, soft coral, and fish would be appreciated. I am really excited as I my nitrate (0), ph levels (8.0) are ready to begin adding more items to the tank. So far I have a clown fish, 2 damsels (4 others died), and some soft and hard coral. My tank has been running for about a month now. I have a Red Sea Max 34 gallon tank. I am looking for a protein skimmer for it. The guy I bought it from didn't have the one that came with it. Thanks for any advice/help!

 

[geoxman]

Your Damsel's died? That is the cockroach of the sea...why did yours die? There are a few guys that run smaller type tanks that will chime in...good luck and I hate your avatar! JK

edit..
It is annoying... the avatar? JMHO

 

[wnaing]

welcome to a new wonderful hobby. I was like you two years ago and still learning everyday from webs particularly RC. My advice to buying tips is to look for ads locally from craiglist and these local forums. You can have a good price as well as some nice established fishes. For corals, coral conference is great. A few local stores are also worthwhile visiting regularly as well. Shoot me a pm if you want the names.

 

[rccub23]

not to rain on your parade, but if your tank is only one month old, you should not be adding any fish yet. it is extremely difficult
to kill damsels. i took a couple back to the LFS, and they didnt
even acclimate them, just threw them back in their damsel tank. they are a very hardy fish.

 

[serius77]

Is it possible that the damsels got killed by the dominant damsels that are still alive? I know some of them can be very aggressive

 

[bmrescort]

My advise to you is take things slowly. Don't buy things because they are cheap and you got a great deal on it. Buy things that are of good quality even if you have to save for a couple of extra weeks to buy them, because it is far more expensive to buy something because it was cheap and it causes damage to the tank than it is to buy something because it costs more up front.