Just looking for solid advice since I have not purchased anything yet and haven't totally convinced my wife to give me a full green light.
I am looking to start a 40 gallon tank with rock and fish and move to some soft coral. Nothing crazy, just want to keep everything alive and not throw money in the fire. I am hoping I can get by with a cheap 40 gallon from Petsmart and it won't hurt me in the long run. I also plan to run a canister filter like the Marineland 220, a heater and a wave maker. I will probably also start with dry sand and dry rock so I don't have any pests to deal with. How am I doing so far? From research, it sounds like I will need to run the system with just the rock and sand for a few weeks before I add fish to get the algae built up or add some algae in a bottle. After I feel I can keep a stable tank with no fish I will probably add only 2-3 fish and some clean up crew. This sounds pretty straight forward to me but I would love for the reefer community to poke holes in plan before I get started. This is also my first post here so be gentle.
I am looking to start a 40 gallon tank with rock and fish and move to some soft coral. Nothing crazy, just want to keep everything alive and not throw money in the fire. I am hoping I can get by with a cheap 40 gallon from Petsmart and it won't hurt me in the long run. I also plan to run a canister filter like the Marineland 220, a heater and a wave maker. I will probably also start with dry sand and dry rock so I don't have any pests to deal with. How am I doing so far? From research, it sounds like I will need to run the system with just the rock and sand for a few weeks before I add fish to get the algae built up or add some algae in a bottle. After I feel I can keep a stable tank with no fish I will probably add only 2-3 fish and some clean up crew. This sounds pretty straight forward to me but I would love for the reefer community to poke holes in plan before I get started. This is also my first post here so be gentle.