Newbie - Inverts Only (So Far)

EricR

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Howdy,,, new to aquariums and found this site. Cool!

I’m seeing discussions like, “running a QT, waiting on new DT, <something, something> diatom and some GHA”

…so far, my thoughts are What the heck?

Also thought I accidentally redirected to NASA when I found something about “CO2 scrubbers.”

Anyway, learning a lot here in the reef2reef forums. Here’s my life story (aquarium-wise):
  1. Got FREE 5 gallon jellyfish aquarium — in-law got as a gift years ago and never used.
  2. Jellyfish went well (for the most part) for about 1.5 years.
…after last jellyfish finally disintegrated into nothing, figured water and substrate was already established so bought:
— a chocolate chip starfish
— 2 tiny hermit crabs
— 2 small snails

Jellyfish tank (old-style that they don’t seem to make anymore) didn’t seem ideal so:
  1. Moved everything into a 10 gallon aquarium we had from a gecko long ago.
  2. Next bought 37 gallon started kit (tank/pump/heater/hood/LED/etc) on sale (allegedly) for like $110.
  3. Later bought some cultured live rock from local PetCo which introduced some unusual (to me) new life forms that I didn’t expect but I think is all good, at least cool/interesting — snails, copepods, bristleworms
  4. Lastly threw in a pack of 5 brittle stars that came with a clump of cheato (so I did the cheapie “cheato soap dish” thing I saw on this forum).

*Current status — original chocolate chip starfish and hermit crabs/snails are all going strong after about 2.5 months so I think that’s good.

Invertebrates only (‘cause I think they look cool) but might go for a clown fish or two in the near future if my kids ever get interested (…which they really haven’t as much as I had expected).

Wish me luck!
Peace,
Eric

...the "star" of the show (cheesy/sorry):
starfish2.JPG
 
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Living Reef Orlando

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Welcome to the madhouse! The world of marine aquariums is so vast and this forum is so useful with the years of experience from the members here.

If you ever want to dive into the coral game let us know! We will hook it up!
 

ClownWrangler

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This is a good way to start a tank. I added inverts after fish and ended up with a velvet outbreak as a result. Establishing a tank for 72+ days with only inverts is the way to go. Check out the QT threads and use that 10 gallon tank to quarantine any fish before adding them. The 5 gallon tank would work well to QT any new inverts as well.
 

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