Like what we do in life, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Out of all the potential problems that can occur in our aquariums, many can be avoided if we have plan ahead. Keeping a successful Marine tank require the same philosophy as well and knowledge is the key in the success in this hobby.

Always take your time when designing and building a new aquarium system.Before committing or buying your fish tank, firstly decide what kind of system do you want to keep? This would enable you to plan you tank setup with the equipments you need and your budget ect..

Using only high quality well-built equipment, starting with the aquarium itself. Buying your tank from a reputable tank builders who craft their aquariums with the proper glass/acrylic thickness suitable for your tank system will make alot of different with years to come.

Making sure all your slip PVC joints are glued correctly; use Teflon tape on all threaded connections. A small leak can become a big problem if it is not attended to ect. Check the volume of your sump to ensure it will hold excess water in case the power fails and your return pumps shut off as you do not want a flooded living room.

There are basically a few system in this hobby;

1) Fish Only tank are the simplest and easier to start a marine tank, but it can be upgraded to a more complex system if you decided to keep more dedicated species.

2) Reef Tank - Require more dedicated care and planing in the equipment and tank design setup in order to tackle the Ammonia, N02, P04 and N03 in the system.

3) Delicate SPS tank - Tank filled with delicate SPS hard corals which required higher maintenance and water parameter.

4) Mix reef - Keeping a mix of both LPS and SPS corals. This can be a challenge since some of the requirement for the LPS and SPS corals is very different in order to do well.

Do as much research as possible on this setting up a marine aquarium tank to determine what you want to keep and the basic need to sustain it. You can find many information on this hobby in Books, internet or here in SRC. Preparing a checklist will help you to determine the equipment you need and the budget you need for your first aquarium setup.<

The checklist should consist of some of the basic key reefing equipments as follows;

-Tank size
-Thickness of glass?
-Sump Tank 
-Types of aquarium glass? 
-Types of Aquarium stand? ( Wood / stainless steel ) 
-Placement of tank in the house ( Do consider factors such as; ease of access for tank maintaining, nature sun light, viewing angle, temperature, power point ect.. 
-Types of lighting
-Types of Skimmer ( In-sump / Out-sump )
- Chiller 
-Live rock 
-Sea water or Salt Mix? 
-Aquarium substrate ( Live Sand / fine sand / bare bottom / Deep sand bed or crushed coral chips )? 
-Filter media 
-Aquarium background 
- Pumps
-Power head - Wave maker
Protein skimmer ( The most important equipment in the hobby which you cannot miss )
Test kits 
- Algae scrubber
- Fish net
- Clean buckets for changing of water.
-Aquarium thermometer
-Quarantine Tank?
-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a refractometer to check water salinity?
- Piping and valves.
- Fluidized reactor
- Calcium reactor
- De-nitrator 
- Chemical filtration media ( Active carbon, P04 remover media, N03 remover media ect.. )
- Ozone 03
- Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water.
- Power Strip
-Power consumption of equipment?

Knowlede and patient is the key to success in this hobby, do more research on the fish and corals which you will be buy. You can look for more information on our discussion forum ( http://www.sgreefclub.com ) or join our fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/larryng21 to find out more information on your first reefing journey.

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