looking for advice super noob with the coral scene

[riice]

I've always been an enthusiast of the coral and saltwater tank scene but never had the opportunity to start. Recently I've been lucky enough to come across a 60 gallon tank a friend gave to me. I want to build a tank for strictly corals and have abosolutely no idea how or where to start. If there is any advice as to what kind of coral to put in there, how long it takes to grow, the equipment used to maintain a coral tank, and any other advice out there... your input is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and I'm really excited to get this tank started.

[TranZ]

my advice is research, research and be prepare to spend a lot of money. you need live rocks of at least 60lbs, a really good lights like metal halide to keep all kinds of coral. a really good skimmer. and a patient of a saint.

[riice]

how long does it take to grow coral? and also roughly how much would I be spending?

[Gryz]

Into the thousands....

[icereefer]

riice
having a coral tank is really only expensive if you can't wait.
if you look around and like tranz mentioned have lots of patients do some research on the types of corals you'd like to host, at first while your doing your research you could start out with some easy corals, like mushrooms and zoa's till you look around and ask questions like you are, and deside what you'd like to get into for corals, there's many ways to cut costs.
if you want to go sump you can make your own, theres retrofit lights kits to if your a person that like to make his own stuff, you can go as far as make your own base rock and seed it just with a small amount of live rock or make most of your reef out of base rock.
as for equiptment. there again if you look around you can always get good deals from others that are up grading equiptment or watch our sponsors for sales or others on the web. the key to doing it to suit your budget is to have lots of patients, and find what your looking for, for your tank so you don't have to keep doing up grades like most of use wind up doing .
Food for thought.
Jim

[Sugar Magnolia]

riice,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/icereef/tosugar.png

We have some great articles in our Knowledge Base that will help you. http://www.coralforum.com/kb.php

[Doctor_Reef]

Ditto's with all...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/RLeversee/Site%20Stuff/WelcomeDoc.png

[chickachickamow]

This is just my opinion... but I would go pick up a copy of THE CONSCIENTIOUS MARINE AQUARIST by Robert Fenner and read it front to back. That will give you a better idea of things. I remember I didn't have a clue about ANYTHING saltwater... and his book really sent me in the right direction. I would also check out wetwebmedia.com and garf.org for information, and like they said... research research research. Keeping a reef will inevitably cost you a grip of money over time, even if you cut costs. But it is completely possible to do because you can add things as slowly as you like, and spread the cost out. It is MORE than worth it!!! :)

[marshalrckman]

Not all corals are gonna drain your wallet.I would start a begginer off with a soft coral of some kind.Polyps are about the best begginer corals you can buy b/c they will grow lke crazy given the right conditions,and they are easy to frag.
Ditto with Chicka I to bought this book and it is my aquarium bible.hahaha.

[TranZ]

i agree with marshalrckman that "not all corals are gonna drain your wallet." most of your expenses will be in the equipment to keep anytype of corals alive.

[marshalrckman]

Here is a list of about everything your will need.
For hard coral such as montis and acros your will need metal halide bulbs.The ligting is going to be what runs up most of your bill.
For soft corals polyps xenia etc. you can have regular flouresent lighting but i wouldnt reccomend any of the flouresent to be under 24 watts.
OK heres the set-up i would start with a small tank(if you can manage a small tank you can take care of anything when you decide to upgrade)Make it a 10 15 gal.Dont buy a regular aquarium filter like one that comes in a FW kit.Buy one that uses different types of bio media like a canster filter or better a skilter filter.
A good submersible heater is always handy.
For substrate i would reccomend crushed coral or even better crushed corl mixed with sand.
LR i personally prefer fiji and marshall because of it being to porous it acts like a natural filter.
A coral i would start off with would be some shrooms or zoo's easy to take care of and frag.
And before buying any of this stuff i would highy reccomend a good book and cant stress enough to learn all you can before you do setup.
If you make out a budget of this you wont be in shock when you go to the LFS and buy.Oh yea and dont tell your mom,gf,wife how much it cost hahahah

[whateverwrx]

:banana: :banana: READ LOTS OF BOOKS :banana: :banana: