- You've shelled out hundreds, (bossa nova music)
maybe even thousands of dollars
for your tank and for your gear.
You've aquascaped your tank beautifully,
you've followed proper cycling procedures,
and now you're ready for some fish.
We're almost ready for the fun part.
(bossa nova music intensifies)
Buenos dias, everybody.
Matthew here, your BRS beginner guru
bringing you episode 29 in "The Beginner How To Guide
for Saltwater Aquariums and Reef Tanks:
10 Things to Consider Before Adding Your First Fish."
Before I jump right into the heart of the video,
if you could do us a favor and put a comment below
answering this question.
If you're a beginner, what is the one thing
you really want to know before adding your first fish?
And if you are an experienced hobbyist,
if you could answer the question,
what is the one piece of advice
you would give a beginner
before adding their first fish?
I actually go through and read
the vast majority of comments.
And as I was making this video,
I just had the sinking feeling
that I was missing some pretty important things.
So, I'm hoping that your comments
will help me figure out what those were.
Here we go, in no particular order, mind you.
10 questions to consider
before adding your first fish.
Question number one,
is your tank ready?
Stability.
Is your tank stable?
And what I mean by that is
have you been doing frequent testing
for the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in your tank?
Have the ammonia and nitrite truly zeroed out
without any secondary spikes?
It's really good to make sure that your ammonia
and nitrate levels have truly spiked
and come back down to zero
before adding that first fish.
How about your water parameters?
Are there any things that are out of whack?
And if you just finished cycling your tank,
usually what that means is you are probably going to have
some high nitrates and maybe some high phosphates,
not that your fish can't handle
nitrates of 30, 40, 50 parts per million,
but you might as well bring it down now.
So, consider doing one more water change
to bring those water parameters down
before adding your first fish.
Question number two, what are your short-term
and long-term goals for fish in the tank?
Of course, we're gonna recommend
sticking with beginner fish only.
But what beginner fish are you interested in?
Start making a plan right now
and dream about what beginner fish
you absolutely have to have
and which ones you can push 'til later,
because some fish will play nicely together
and others just won't.
Have you considered fish aggressivity?
You may want a beautiful fish in your head.
Maybe it's some sort of trigger fish or a lionfish,
but do you know what?
Those fish are going to eat your other fish.
So, just spend a little bit of time
when you're writing down all of those dream fish
and figure out how aggressive they are
and how well will they live with the other tank mates.
Corals, do you plan on having corals?
I bet most of you probably do plan on
having some corals at some time.
Well, a lot of fish out there like to eat your corals.
So, you have to be careful when choosing the right fish
so they don't eat your beautiful Euphyllia
or go after your small polyp stony corals.
And lastly, what sort of inverts do you plan on adding?
I'm guessing for a cleanup crew,
you're going to add snails,
some hermit crabs, maybe a conch.
Well, there's just fish out there
that like to snack on your inverts.
So, take that into consideration
when planning out what fish you want.
Question number three, do you have a drip acclimation plan?
Don't worry if you don't, because in a future video,
we're going to spend an entire episode talking about that,
but a really good idea is before you go out
and buy your first fish,
know exactly what your acclimation plan is.
Do you have drip acclamation tools?
Do you have air line tubing?
What about buckets?
Do you have extra saltwater made up?
If you have everything in place
and just do a run through in your brain
of how you're going to drip acclimate those fish,
once they arrive, it's going to make your life a lot easier.
Question number four is actually a two-parter.
Do you understand the quarantine tank process?
And do you have your quarantine tank set up?
And again, if you're like, "I actually don't know
how to set up a quarantine tank," not to worry.
We spend two whole videos on
how to set up a quarantine tank
and how to quarantine new fish.
But that's something you want to consider.
If I'm going to recommend anything from this video,
it is don't be like the majority of the beginners.
Do yourself a favor and set up a quarantine tank.
It can be anywhere from 10 to 20 gallons
and it's relatively inexpensive to do
and can save every single fish in your tank
from dying in the future.
So, if you haven't thought about
setting up a quarantine tank
or how you're going to quarantine all new fish,
that's something to start considering.
And stick around and watch our future episodes
because we'll teach you how to do that.
Question number five, what are your emergency plans?
Unless you have a generator that automatically kicks on
when your house loses power,
you're probably going to lose power at some point.
Hopefully for a short amount of time,
possibly for a long amount of time.
The biggest issue with losing power
is that your fish can suffocate to death quite quickly,
let's say even in 12 hours because oxygen
gets into your tank only through the surface.
So, when that surface is no longer agitating,
there's no longer movement,
then your fish can suffocate to death.
So, you need to have a plan.
Oftentimes, that plan is as simple as
having a couple battery powered air stones,
but sometimes you can actually buy
some battery backup specifically for your pumps.
I know Ecotech has their own battery backup system
that will switch on and at least
keep your wave makers running during a power outage,
which means that your fish will still have oxygen.
But what are you going to do if the power goes out
and it's really cold outside,
or the power goes out and it's really hot outside?
How are you going to keep that tank relatively stable?
Well, if it gets really cold outside,
it's probably a good idea to have
all sorts of blankets on hand
because you can wrap blankets around the tank
and they will act as insulation,
at least keeping it warmer for longer.
But let's say it's really hot outside.
How are we gonna to keep that tank cool?
Do you have a whole bunch of ice packs
ready to go in the fridge?
Because believe it or not, that can help.
Just putting those ice packs in your tank
and rotating them through
can help keep your tank cooler.
And what about extra saltwater or RODI water?
Sometimes, accidents don't come with power outages.
Maybe your tank has a crack and it's leaking
and you have to move the inhabitants.
Well, you might need to have
an extra quarantine tank set up
that you can move everything to,
but you're also going to need some pre-made saltwater
and some pre-made RODI water.
I really recommend you always have
a batch of pre-made saltwater made up
and a batch of RODI water.
Just in case there's an emergency,
you're ready to go.
Question number six, what fish food do you need?
This one's usually pretty simple.
You're going to need some sort of frozen food,
maybe some sort of flake food
and maybe some sort of pellet food.
What you want to do is research your fish.
Most beginner fish out there are beginner fish in part
because they accept most kinds of food,
pellets, flakes, and frozen food.
We're going to spend an entire video later on
talking all about food because there are
pros and cons to each type of food,
but at least do your research to make sure
you have some food on hand
that every new inhabitant will like.
Question number seven, how do you react to failure?
I know you probably have no interest in
taking emotional advice from your BRS beginner guru,
but can I just share with you my experience
and experience with other beginners walking in this hobby?
You're going to fail.
Things are going to happen in this hobby
that you don't know what to do with.
You might have huge algae outbreaks.
You might have all your inverts die
because there's a dinoflagella problem.
And you could just have fish death,
and you don't know what's going on.
Things are going to go wrong
because this hobby's super complicated,
but go easy on yourself.
I have seen so many beginners spend thousands of dollars
and then experience failure in their first year and quit.
And I don't want that to be you.
Know that every single person at BRS
has failed in this hobby.
We've all failed and we all continue to fail.
Oftentimes, we just show you the good stuff
and we don't show you the bad stuff,
but we constantly fail.
I've broken down several tanks
out of frustration and started over.
And I just want you to know that all of us here at BRS
have probably been there before.
And if you have any questions or any concerns,
just give us a call.
We're always ready to offer advice.
So, when you experience failure,
take it as an opportunity to learn,
pull yourself back up and keep going in this hobby
because, I'm telling you, if you can survive the first year,
you're in this hobby for the long run and it is.
And it's such a good hobby.
Question number eight, have you created
a maintenance and a testing schedule?
The best time to start planning is
before you add your first fish
because things are going to go quickly.
So, if you're at all like me,
and I know some of you probably are,
you love making lists and you love making graphs
and you love playing around with Excel.
Maybe you don't, that's okay too.
But it's a really good time to set up
a maintenance schedule and a testing schedule
at least for the first couple months
so that you stick to it.
For your maintenance schedule,
there's gonna be daily tasks.
There's gonna be every three, four days.
There's gonna be weekly, monthly, and so on.
And for your testing, especially when those fish arrive,
test too much.
Don't test too little.
Test way more than you think you need to.
Keep testing your ammonia, your nitrite, your nitrate.
Not only is it going to tell you things about your tank,
but it's also going to give you hints about
when it's time for water changes.
But on top of that, learn to test your calcium.
Learn to test your alkalinity.
Just set up a schedule and follow that schedule
at least for the first couple months.
You'll get to know your tank
a lot better.
Question number nine, how many fish do you plan to add?
This is obviously going to depend on a lot of factors
and we're going to discuss those factors in future videos,
but it depends on how big your tank is,
how big the fish are, and how aggressive the fish are.
So, start making a plan.
But here's the thing.
Go slowly.
Don't add all the fish you want all at once.
It could cause a lot of problems in your tank.
You could have a secondary ammonia spike.
All of a sudden you could have phosphates and nitrates
and you don't know what to do with.
And as a beginner, it just over-complicates things.
So, go slowly, get a few fish at a time,
quarantine those fish, add them in,
follow your maintenance, follow your testing schedule,
and you'll be a lot better off for it.
And finally, question number 10,
are you ready? (laughs)
I mean, seriously have fun.
That's why we get into this hobby
because it's interesting
and it's gorgeous and it's fun.
So, go to your local LFS, walk around,
start dreaming about what you want to put in there.
If there's some sort of local frag swap or a show
like an Aquashella or Reef-A-Palooza or a MACNA,
go ahead and go to them.
They're really, really fun.
Reach out to your local aquarium club,
go to the forums, check out all these Instagram pages.
There's so much fun stuff to do.
If you're a coral geek,
start learning every single one
of those crazy zooa colorations.
I have no idea what they are,
but maybe that's your thing.
If you're a fish person,
why don't you learn all the Latin names of the fish?
I mean, there's just so much cool stuff to do in this hobby.
So, if you're ready, please don't forget,
nerd out, have fun.
Your in this hobby because it's
a wonderful place to be.
Okay, so what did I miss?
I know I missed something.
Beginners or professional hobbyists,
put that comment down below saying,
"Matthew, I cannot believe you didn't talk about that."
I'll read it, I'll add it to a note,
and we'll make a future video
to make sure we cover that.
Our next two videos are all about fish.
We're going to talk about fish characteristics,
how to choose healthy fish,
and then we'll do the ever popular top 10 beginner fish.
As always everybody thanks for watching.
Happy reefing, be well.
We'll see ya next time. (bossa nova music)