The reason I got rid of my hydrometer,a TMC model with a claimed accuracy of 0.002, was that it was giving me a reading of 1.023 and when I checked with a friends refractometer it was actualy 1.032 it nearly gave me a heart attack. I would say that it has been the best investment that I have made in marine fishkeeping.

ooooh my toy here it come again. yes i too threw out my hydrometer and got a refractometer and got it from ebay brand new for £17 including postage from Hong Kong and it genuine. I think it still there to buy and it took 3 days to come.ooooooh leave me alone........

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lol, not atall, im thankful really for ANY and ALL information regarding marines, at the moment i just feel quite out of my depth.
I am however brimming with enthusiasm lol, which im not sure is a good or bad thing? :P

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me :)

I ordered a refractometer from ebay, i actrually bought a dearer one from the UK because i saw the HK ones but got scared, i thought ooo what if it doesn't work? Or what if i think it does but it's because i have no way of benchmarking it , mostly a panic buy, i should have perhaps gone with the one from Hong Kong, either way it's done now lol.

I also bought a Hydor Koralia 1 (i think it's 1, the least powerful one anyway) On the basis that im sure the tank will need more movement, esp with the corals and the Hydor Koralia looks damn cool lol.

lol, i think i'll continue buying the RO for the moment, i do have a large 5 gallon vessel i bought at the shop so i can use their refil service, luckily they are only about 10 mins drive away! Which is really handy!

Perhaps when im a little more knowledgeable on such matters i will think about doing the whole RO thing, but i think ill try and get a few marine successes under my belt first before i try anything so mightily daunting.

i know this is a bit of a hi-jak, but i figure it's my thread i'll hi-jack if i want to :P

Im thinking of devoting the tank to corals, and preferably inverts.
First things first, would this be a happy coupling or would the inverts all try and eat the coral? lol

I'm sure it is all on a case by case/specie by specie thing but i figured i'd ask :P

PS> i fell in love with arrow crabs on the weekend! WOW what amazing animals.

Enthusiasm is brilliant :D! I'm glad you're excited already, be carefull though... its very easy to get scarily addicted to this hobby!!!

I think that was probably a good move on the refractometer, from what everyone has been saying here you won't regret it :). You know you have all just made me consider one too.

And yes you'll have absolutely no problem having a tank set up for invertebrates and coral only, just choose the inhabitants wisely and everyone will be combatible and you'll have a splendid little reef.

Do you not want to have any fish at all in the tank? If you don't and only want to keep corals/invertebrates then you'll probably end up decreasing maintenance a lot! (Although I'm not sure if I could resist putting atleast a tiny little clownfish in there!!)

There are many invertebrates you could keep with the coral. Snails, hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp, blood shrimp, pistol shrimp, dancing shrimp, peppermint shrimp, harlequin shrimp. You have many many options there and all would make a great display and none of those should bother your corals. The only ones I could think of right now that you wouldn't want are camel shrimp or any large, hairy hitchiker crabs that could most likely cause havoc - both of these could eat coral and the crab will also try to harm other inhabitants.

And about the arrow crabs, I know where you get the fascination from, they're stunning. The jury appears to be still out on them though, some people have no problem at all ever but a lot of people find they'll eat whatever they can catch. Thats small fish, snails, hermits, shrimp, just about anything really. But this doesn't always happen, if you keep him well fed then you might not have a problem, some people do have success with them, but just be careful. If you've really got your heart set on one you could have him as the only specimen and just fill the tank with corals. (As far as I know, they don't bother corals, but I could be very very wrong on that one).

Anyway, hope this helps some and good luck with your decision :)

lol so it seems in many ways they are more of an agro crab.

I think to be honest with you im going to start with a simple reef, perhaps some easy inverts, would love anenomes but i've been reading how difficult/unsuitable they are for aquarium life so i shall leave those to the sea!

I will just spend time learning the marine way, i think at the moment as beautiful as they are the arrow crab certainly doesn't sound like a beginners animal, and i certainly don't want anything that i can't guarentee my skill level to look after.
One day though! lol :D

Thanks again for all the Info, im now bogged down reading about corals! Isn'[t it great to learn new things?

cya :)

You seem to be on just the right track :) doing lots of research is the key, if you do that then you should have a very successful reef :).

You're right about the anenome's, they are very nice creatures but they're just not for beginners, I think you'll have a lot more luck with one later on down the line :). Besides there are many stunning looking corals which will do brilliant in your tank, and you don't have to worry about them eating your other inhabitants or causing trouble if they should die :). Stick to the simple things for now and you'll be a lot happier.

If you have absolutely anymore questions at all don't hesitate to ask, we're all here to help :).

Good luck with your research aswell :)
Casey.