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Get a longspine urchin. Mine has absolutely demolished the hair algae in my tank!

To be honest, I was going to buy a 5ft tank. Im choosing to get a 6ft purely for more space. You can have a 4ft lighting ficture above a 5ft tank with only .5 ft on each side with a lower lighting. This can be good to place some lower light corals. Anemones just wont go there on their own...

Timers for lights are really cheap, so thats something that would be easy, the auto top off is a little bit harder but definitely worth it! you can get away without feeding everyday, i feed like once whenever i feel like it :) and my fish are nice and fat.

Yea, unfortunately the internet isnt the best forum for arguments, but no moderator here is quick at banning someone. And yes, he didnt like it when I told him he was wrong ;) I just didnt like his advice, not because he had no merit, just because the he worded things can really confuse newer...

Thanks guys :) Anything that should be in there that im missing? I chucked it together quick while I was bored lol

You know how i deal with it? I dont keep track of my spending and just buy what I want :D but just dont go to the LFS so much :D Seriously though, dont add 3 fish at once like what got suggested, one fish at a time.

Another article, this ones a bit of a mess with formatting so any mods feel like editing or formatting it? go for your life :D But hope this helps some newer members.

2026 REFRESH: Please note that I'm currently learning reef keeping from the ground up, while also documenting my own first build. This thread was originally written years ago and still contains a lot of great advice. However, some practices have evolved, and I’ve added an updated 2026 summary...

Hermits are the best for that, but I hate them, they grow, kill snails and take their shells XD Strombus snails are good for stirring and cleaning sand beds, and turbos are also great, its good to have a mixture of snails. Never just one type. One emerald crab is a maxiumum, but you dont...

What do you mean by bottom feeder? 1 emerald crab would be all you want, and he is good for certain types of algae. If your looking for cleanup crew, get snails that stir up the sand and some other ones that are larger. Not sure on names. Other than that, shrimps are great cleaners. I wouldnt...

Amazing tank Dana, Manits are so cool!

Btw, you dont have to buy live rock and live sand. Just by normal coral sand which is very fine, and get dry rock. This will all turn live as your tank grows. This way you also avoid any nasties in your tank. Like Alex said, a thin layer is better in the DT because if it isnt 6 inches deep it...

Pods are live food that grow in our tanks. Its like a small population of creatures that fish feed on. Dragonette fish only feed on live foods, generally and are very hard to get onto frozen because they grazy constantly. If your pod population is low, a dragonette will quickly decimate it.

+1 My mandarin, luckily eats frozen, my lfs had him in a new tank with very little pods and I also saw him eat the live food. But my tank has enough pods to support 2 of them. Unfortunately, I would never bury food in the sand, your just asking for nitrate build up and for something bad to happen.

Was between hannah and dana, well, dana won this battle :D That picture is superb! and off an iphone? wow, good job. Everyones photos were amazing

There are a few problems, move away from underground filters. Crushed coral that is 1-2 inches thick will just hold nitrates and will do nothing for filtration. The next part is get more Rock in the tank. Live rock is a natural filtration. Get some power heads, there might not have been enough...

+1 Ryan I just hope no one put copper in their tank because of him :S

Yea, well, he never treated me that well, from day one. Also gave some dangerous advice at times.

Haha Ryan... Yea, reef nutz was a nasty peice of work, even to me. One thing with vodka dosing you need to remember is this, it removes oxygen from the water. So when you overdose, you can actually suffocate your corals. Vodka dosing feeds bacteria which help change bad chemicals. With this...

I would love to have fish that eat out of my hands! I guess I could try with my clowns hahaha