Just don't do what I did, about 12 years ago, when I set up my first salt water aquarium.
I was careful about everything. Studied a lot. But I added fish too fast. The filtration system was able to keep up ok, but one of them had a bad case of "ick" or what ever you call it. On fresh water fish it is the small white bumps caused by parasites. I would treat them with a mixture of quinine that I used to be able to get from a pharmacist.
I treated them with something I bought from the pet store. It didn't work, so I tried something else. Oops.
I haven't looked at products in 12 years either. I remember for filtration, I had 2 systems. The undergravel system with something made of ground up coral for gravel (I think), and a box filter that hung on the back of the tank made for salt water tanks that had a filter that spun when the water passed over it. It was all about getting the most surface area for bacteria to grow on.
Last edited by CatBrat; 12/15/11 10:27 PM.
