hi im new

[captainnemo]

hi im totally new to setting up a marine tank. Ive done a bit of research on what i want to keep and want to set up a smallish tank of around 12 gallons or so. Ive been told that bigger tanks are better but i dont have the room. anyways i want to keep corals and saw this amazing blue starfish i desperately want! i want to provide the best for them and was told to keep some blood shrimp with them. i really only intend to keep things like the starfish, corals, shrimps, hermit crabs and maybe some neon gobies or no fish at all. can anyone advise me on the best way forward? ive been getting all sorts of advice and im no further forward in deciding what i need other than a tank, live rock, good lighting.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/kandisnaks/Blue_Starfish_042101.jpg

[Tangman]

Hi Captainnemo. Welcome to the site, if you are wanting to keep a star fish you will want a tank that is well matured and healthy with plenty of food for them ie plenty of live rock for them to scavenge on. As your tank is only going to be 12 galls i dont think it will be able to sustain a starfish sorry.HTH Eric

[Buster]

Hi captain Welcome to the board. I am affraid that I am with Eric on this one, you will need a lot larger tank for one of these animals to survive. :(

[captainnemo]

really?? i was told that an 18"x18" would be ok.i was a bit dubious about that. whats the best size for one starfish?

[Tangman]

Hi Captainnemo. I would say that you would want a tank some where in the region of 80 to 100 gallons with about 50 kg of live rock to give it a chance of surviving. HTH. Eric

[captainnemo]

ok i had an old tank which is 12g but will look to accomodate him to a bigger sized tank but what size is recommended? obviously ive been very ill informed.:mad:

[captainnemo]

really? it wouldnt survive in a slightly smaller tank then?im gutted. think it will be way too big for me to start with. how about if i set up a mini nano reef aquarium, whats your advice on those?

[Macca]

Gilly has a beutiful nano full of corals and lovely inverts. Give her a PM.

James

[captainnemo]

well ive seen her nano reef aquarium and i admit it is gorgeous, but there is absolutely no way a starfish of this kind would survive in a 60gallon tank at most?? ive seen on this link she has a 280L tank which is around 60g. what do you think? http://www.aquahobby.com/marine/e_bluelinckia.php sorry to have to ask but i really want to keep something like this but a 80-100g tank would be way too big to start with.

[swish_fish]

Hi mate,

I'm working on putting a ready built nano tank package together. Not the usual cheap stuff stuck in it though. That'll work for a while till it all blows cause of cheap Chinese gear, but pucker set up details below.

Via aqua LV418 tank
Tunze nano Skimmer
Tunze nano stream (when they arrive I have 10 of each size on order direct for Germany)
15kg of LR (correct for this size tank working on 1.35lbs per gallon)
Possibly red sea starter kit (includes salt, test set, Hydrometer etc) I might change this for seachem stuff its more expensive but seachems just awesome stuff
Tunze osmolator (most important addiction to any nano tank in my opinion used to top-up water evap which can easily destroy a reef of this size)
and of cause Livesand any flavour from the carib-sea range.

I'm hoping to do the lot for below £500 quid.

Whats the opinion on the set-up.

Still wont be able to house the star mind.

[Gillybaby]

Hi CaptainNemo and welcome to the board.

Nano's are great fun but they do have their limitations, as you've found.

Linckias are very very delicate stars and have a pretty poor survival rate even in a large tank with plenty of liverock. I do not in any way consider myself experienced enough to keep one of these lovely animals and think one would struggle in my 160g tank. Best left in the sea or with experienced reefers and big tanks imho.

However, I do like my starfish and have a black & tan banded serpent star in my nano. He's great and has loads of character. Comes out to be fed and wraps his arms (legs?) around my fingers to get his bit of mussel - very cute. But also eats detritus so is a valuable member of the clean up crew as well. Here's a link with some good info =http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=735

HTH

[captainnemo]

if it cant house the starfish i really dunno. its more than i expected to pay for the set up. i was told i can get cheaper. i really dunno. i never prepared for the cost of this. ive got 2 9" axyloctyls and they are a pain but the boyf wants to keep them. id rather sell them and just get a starfish and a massive aquarium. it looks like im not going to get away with keeping him in a smaller tank. im just a bit disappointed as the guy selling me them told me this would be fine and he has a shop!! now im not sure what to do.

[captainnemo]

hi gillybaby im bit disappointed to say the least. its just aswell i didnt rush into this and killed the thing before i got a chance to enjoy him. i mean i got told an 18"x 18" would be fine. i was a bit concerned about him dying during transit too. your link dont seem to work. tell me about the starfish you have and your serpent star. i would love a big tank im just not sure i can look after it. i want to be absolutely sure. please post pics of your fish id love to see. i want something blue and the blue starfish looks absolutely tranquil. any recommendations?

[captainnemo]

hi gillybaby

i gotta say your tank looks amazing! can you tell me a bit more about your starfish? are these the ones you are talking about? i cant see a serpent like creature in your gallery. would appreciate any advice you have. Now i know that i cant get a huge tank but i might be persuaded!! should i start off small? i really dont know....
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/kandisnaks/sandsifter.jpg
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/kandisnaks/fromia.jpg
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/kandisnaks/pit1.jpg

[Gillybaby]

Oops, sorry about the link. Here's another go, I'm sure this'll work: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=735 (have a good look round this site actually, its a US one but has some good info on fish, corals and inverts and is a useful reference guide).

James (aka Reef Critters) can get serpent stars for a pretty reasonable price and they do well in smaller aquariums cause you can easily feed them, even though they get quite big spanwise they stay fairly skinny. They are also very hardy and good for a beginner.

The sandsifting star is the one in the first pic which, as you can probably guess by the name, needs a fair amount of sand to hunt in. They actually feed on the tiny inverts that inhabit the sand so need a fairly mature and extensive (though not necessarily deep) sand bed to survive. We were given some bad advice when setting up our first tank and got this star quite early on, not sure how he survived tbh but we've had him 2 years now and he has tripled in size. Most people wouldn't recommend one for a new tank.

The second star is my orange fromia. When I got this star I thought that after a couple of years my tank would be mature enough to sustain it but, unfortunately, I don't think its turning out that way. I noticed recently that the tips have come off a couple of his legs and am worried that this is the beginning of the end. Will keep my fingers crossed that he survives. Maybe not a good starter star either.

As to tank size, the general consensus is the bigger the better when starting out as it is much easier to cope with fluctuations in water conditions in a large system. In a small nano, for example, a fluctuation is very bad news which is why most would advise that you should have some experience of reefkeeping before attempting to keep a nano. I wouldn't have been able to keep my nano in as good a condition as it is without the benefit of my prior experience, even though it was only 6 months.

The 55g tank (our first tank) was a good starter but we did so many things wrong, like not having a sump. I think if we'd given it a bit more thought we'd have gone straight for the 6x2x2 with sump but hindsight is a wonderful thing ;)

The best thing you can do is read, read and read some more. Ask as many questions as you can think of (some of the guys on here have years of experience to tap into) and consider what route you want to take very carefully before buying anything. The one thing this hobby is not is cheap and with the amount of investment required, you really want to be sure you are doing the right thing, not only for youself but the animals you wish to keep. Swish Fish's offer is actually pretty reasonable when you consider you are getting pretty much everything you'll need included (wished there were offers like this around when I set up my nano).

I hope I don't put you off cause this is the best hobby you can have, I just don't want you to make the same mistakes I did when starting out. :D

HTH

[Buster]

some exellent advise from Gillybaby. :) nothing at all to add:o

H.T.H. Ian.:)

[liquidlogic]

welcome to RC mate . tell me if im wrong but dont sand sifting stars climb when theres not enough food on the substrate ? ;)

[Gillybaby]

welcome to RC mate . tell me if im wrong but dont sand sifting stars climb when theres not enough food on the substrate ? ;)

Your probably right, it does appear to be the general consensus. The pic was taken when we first got the sandsifter and he was tiny (about 2-3" in diameter) and would climb the glass regularly. Probably cause there was little or no food in the sand. We hardly ever see it now and when we do its about 9" across so he must be pretty happy and finding lots of stuff to eat.