Free Saltwater Starter Guide
Box to Reef: The Complete Saltwater Starter Guide & Logbook — our free 49-page guide takes you from unboxing your kit to your first corals. Written by Elliot Moore, owner of Sea Cardinal.
What's inside
- Unboxing checklist — verify every item in your kit before you start
- Stand assembly — step-by-step instructions with panel photos
- Equipment install order — what goes in first, and why
- Rock, sand & mixing saltwater
- Cycling the tank — the patient, fishless method
- Water testing — target parameters for all 10 major tests, including calcium and magnesium
- Stocking order — who moves in first, plus quarantine
- Feeding basics and maintenance schedules
- Troubleshooting table — symptom, cause, fix
- Printable log pages — water tests, water changes, livestock, coral, equipment, and notes
About the author
Written by Elliot Moore, owner of Sea Cardinal. Elliot runs his own reef tanks and built Sea Cardinal to make saltwater simple — tank, stand, and gear in the box, with the know-how to match.
Free with every kit
Every Sea Cardinal kit includes this guide. Buying a kit? It's already coming in the box.
Coming soon
52-Week Reef Logbook — the full-year companion to this guide. One page per week: all 10 water tests, dosing log, and feeding log, plus livestock and coral records.
FAQ
Is it really free?
Yes. It's our way of making sure every reefer starts right.
Do I need a Sea Cardinal kit to use it?
No — the guide works for any saltwater setup.
Print or digital?
It's a digital PDF, formatted to print cleanly at home if you want a binder copy.