trble81

Well, we made a trip to Scales in Silver Spring today and were very happy with our visit. AndrewB helped us out with picking out everything that we needed to get things started. We picked up a filter, heater, thermometer, salt, chem kit and live sand. After we let things get settled for a few days we will be heading back to pick up a protein skimmer (it was ordered for us) on Tuesday and possibly grab some live rock at that time as well. We definately recommend checking it out if you live in the Baltimore area (it was closest nice store to us).

OK, Mike and I are planning on going out this weekend to try and buy some things to get this started. We are planning on getting the filter, live rock/sand, and a protein skimmer (obviously some salt and a chem kit too). How do we put it all together? Can we just put everything in at once and let it start to balance off or do we have to add one thing at a time, etc.? Thanks, Heather

Thanks for the sand info.

I think we are going to try to find a canister filter for our first tank. I have been checking on the for sale part of the site and haven't seen any yet. Does anyone have one they are looking to sell?

FWIW I started out with a 33 gallon FBH as a FOWLR several years ago, then moved to a 65 gallon reef tank when I was given the tank, stand and canopy. I stuck with the 65 gallon size because it fits best in my house and budget. A bigger tank is certainly in the future but not until I get a bigger house, which will be 5 or more years down the road. That is the main reason we are sticking with the 35gallon tank. We just bought our home and we really don't have a ton of money to go right out and buy another larger tank right now. In the future if we get a larger home, or rearrange some things, we would love to go with a larger tank. This weekend my hubby Mike and I are planning on going to some LFS.

Thanks very much everyone. We would have responded earlier but we were too busy reading all the good pointers. We did become members a couple of days ago, so we're excited to see what cool stuff we can get from you guys. We figured we would take the time to post some info on what we're trying to do here and hopefully we'll get more good information. -We live in the Columbia, MD area (21045). So any word on good LFS to check out would be greatly appreciated. -We have a never been used 35-gallon hex tank that we're going to use. We're not dancing for change on the corner but we don't want to spend millions on our first tank. We're looking to do a fish only set up with live rock (and some live sand too). We know we're going to be limited as to what fish we can get but we are excited to get into the hobby and branch out from what we have at a later point. -We would really appreciate info on canister filters, live rock/sand, fish, heater, etc. so please, if you have the time and are willing to share some wisdom, we do appreciate it. Thanks again for everyone's time and we will be checking out this forum and all of the other goodies we are able to access from this site on a regular basis. Thanks again!!

Hello Everyone! My husband and I are looking to start up our first saltwater aquarium starting after the new year. We were directed to this site by a very helpful employee of PetSmart (who is also a member of this site). This will be our first salt tank and any suggestions on how to get things started would be much appriciated. It seems a bit overwhelming right now but we are really looking forward to getting it up and running.