Hello my name is Stacye and I am new to saltwater

[Stacye]

I have several freshwater tanks and have recently acquired a 125 setup that had about 40 lbs of live rock and about 50 lbs of base rock. The fish that came with it died within 24 hours because of the massive water change and faulty information (I knew it was wrong but they had more "experience." Won't do that again.) I am reading almost constantly about keeping different things in the tank.

I am a high school chemistry, physics, and biology teacher. My little family consists of my daughter, my hubby and me, along with a Sun Conure (Skittles) and a green wing macaw (Dora), three little very much loved annoying dogs, and 6 tanks ranging from a 5 gallon with a goldfish that will apparently never die up to two 125 gallon tanks.

This forum seems to be a great resource.

[maddmaxx]

Lots of knowledge on this forum...read as much as possible and dont hesitate to ask questions...

[gone fishin]

Welcome. The stickies at the top of the page are a great source of info for starting a tank. Also there are some stickies in the fish disease forum that should be mandatory reading.

Good luck in your reefing endeavors.

[maddmaxx]

To Reef Central

[Stacye]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I am reading up a storm and yes I have LOTS of newbie questions. I figure between here and my fish store I can get this right.

[JMorris271]

Welcome Stacye
Enjoy your journey. That's what counts.

[Vilas]

Welcome! Your best investment is a few hours and this forum. It is a bit like making someone else live through mistakes, then getting the bonus of what they learned.

[Gandolfe]

I'd trust the advice on here more than from the fishstore...they are out to make money and will tell you what you want to here to buy something from them. Very few LFS are totally truthful, and a lot have staff that don't really know what they are talking about. Especially stores like petco or petsmart.

[mmark]

You found a great place for knowledge here. Agree with above about the LFS. I have one LFS guy locally I can trust and another local reefer that sells frags and equipment that I can go to. But I come here first and use the search tab and can normally get the info I need by looking at old threads. I try to spend some time in the morning having coffee or on my lunch break looking at new threads even if they don't apply to me at the moment. This site has helped me tremendously and hope it does the same for you. Good luck

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Gandolfe

I'd trust the advice on here more than from the fishstore...they are out to make money and will tell you what you want to here to buy something from them. Very few LFS are totally truthful, and a lot have staff that don't really know what they are talking about. Especially stores like petco or petsmart.

Sadly, I have to agree. Especially when LFS advice involves purchasing something, it is always a good idea to ask here first.

[stacerbean]

Welcome Stacye! Many good things are found here. With lots of well-educated answers.

One quick question - how come your name is spelled wrong?

Stacey

[Ryanrttu]

I highly recommend this book, 250 pages, very easy to read and will give you a strong base to work from while reading on reef central and other places as well. Also its fairly new (2009).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...=used&sr=&qid=

[Stacye]

Originally Posted by stacerbean

Welcome Stacye! Many good things are found here. With lots of well-educated answers.

One quick question - how come your name is spelled wrong?

Stacey

My Mom is one of those creative artsy craftsy types. She did it on purpose I am sure. Took me until 2nd grade to learn to spell my middle name!

[Ryanrttu]

Originally Posted by Vilas

It is a bit like making someone else live through mistakes, then getting the bonus of what they learned.

This...I dont know how anyone did this hobby before the internet. I haven't even started yet and I feel like i've read over 100 peoples mistakes and how they fixed them.

One thing I like to do when i'm figuring out equipment or technique is search it on the reef central search bar, find an older thread, see how they did it then go to their profile and see if they had any problems with that approach/equipment. Its an interesting approach because you can see the initial idea or strategy and then see if it worked or didn't.

[Stacye]

That is what I have been doing! There is sooo much good information on here from many people. And the thing I like about going through old threads is that the people who posted them have no vested interest in selling me anything or swaying my opinions.