SW move

[maligne]

I'm thinking about putting a salt water tank together. Easy corals and easy fish. I'm strictly fresh water right now. Is there a book any one would recommend to teach me the ins and outs? There's a salt water for dummies book. Is it any good?

[Nandopsis]

When I started mine I just went with live rock as the filter and lots of water movement.

Other then that and a good light for the coral and testing water for more parameters for the coral….I thought it was very easy.

Of course mine was just soft coral, I didn’t have to get into a lot of equipment and dosing for the hard corals.

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

I did a small fish and live rock (FOWLR) setup with no corals for my first salt water but basically tried to research, search and read some salty forums. Was a fun experiment to test whether I would enjoy doing a larger SW tank. I didnt enjoy the salt creep and  I found myself having difficulties being on top of mixing water for water changes to the right salinity. If I were to do it again I would have a RO system specifically to fill up a storage barrel and a mixing barrel for water change H2O. Didnt have the cash to do anything like that at the time.

[maligne]

Interesting. Thanks for the reply. I talked to a guy that told me salt water wasn't any harder than fresh water once you get the hang of it. The more I research it seems that's maybe not the case

[Nandopsis]

Only once you get into hard corals, softies and most fish are easy.

[maligne]

If You had to choose the hardest aspect of a salt water tank management in a fish only tank. What would it be?

Don't you have to check salinity and petamiters daily? What do you do if you go on vacation for two weeks?

[Nandopsis]

If you will be gone for a couple weeks I would invest in a automatic food dispenser, and choose hardy fish that will cohabitate with each other.

I had a pistol shrimp and a yellow watchmen gobie…they were really cool to watch together….along with some clown fish for activity.

but there are many other choices.

[maligne]

That's basically exactly what I was thinking of setting up. I really like the watchmen gobies

[blink]

When we started out the hardest issue I had with salt water was the amount of maintenance, if you fall behind at all things start piling up.  And if your water quality falls behind the things that pile up are expensive dead things.

To avoid that one suggestion is to set up a mixing station.  Automate and regulate your salt mixing and water changing processes as much as possible, make it easy and consistent, do it the same every time and DO IT. 
For example, my goal was to have a water change done in half an hour on a 165 gallon tank and after a while, I got there. 
It involved a bunch of spare pumps and taking over half the laundry room, but it went as follows: The day before I'd put the water, a power head and heater into a 40 gallon rubbermaid brute can, pour in my premeasured salt and wait 24 hours to let it mix and warm up.  I had a pump set up in the mixing bin with a hose that ran to the sump, and another in the sump that drained to the laundry room drain.  I'd start the sump pump up and let it drain the sump, swirling any mung towards the pump outlet, once it was drained then I'd put it pump in the display and drain down to a mark on the side of the glass.
As soon as I moved the pump into the display I'd turn on the pump in the mixing bucket and start filling the sump.
A quick glass clean, pick up any debris or detritus in the display and once the mixing bin was empty, start the main return pump back up.  Fill up the ATO bin and feed the starving buttheads and that was Sunday maintenance done.

Also, get a heater controller, Inkbird makes a large variety of options but regardless of what you choose, IMHO they're critical. 
The one I'm currently using links to my wifi and will alert if the heater fails in addition to preventing it from heating the tank up too much... For the $50 I spent it's well worth it for peace of mind.

If you want to dip into salt water I don't have any current resources to suggest but hit up the big forums and search out beginners guides, the experienced people will naysay any poor advice as opposed to a book or independent DIY site where there will be no dissenting voices.

I do have two last pieces of advice:
1) Keep your hands out of the tank.  The temptation is great to fuss and fiddle and change things.  Do not.  Try your very hardest to do your maintenance on a strict schedule, and get it all done at once whenever possible.
2) Go as big as you can reasonably afford.  This doesn't actually make it "easier" but it gives you a buffer if anything does start to go wrong.  A 25 gallon will crash very rapidly if your water quality slips whereas a 125 gallon can absorb a slip up and give you time to correct.

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

I agree with Blink about falling behind and things piling up. I believe that was ultimately the downfall of my tank as it was a small system and also not conducive to easy cleaning and maintenance. Sure was fun to watch the life in it grow though.

[jvision]

I use a few tricks to keep the nutrient load down

1) Feed only every-other-day

2) Run a refugium with fast-growing macroalgae, run its lights opposite your display

3) Use a protein skimmer rated for more than your total volume

[maligne]

Thanks for all the info on this post every one. I read through it all. Sounds like some really solid advice!!