New to Saltwater :)

[snowmaker]

a scoop of sand from an established tank somes times helps speed up the denultrifying bacteria growth

Absolutely agree. See if you can get a cup or so of sand from a few different established tanks. Just lay it atop your sand, no need to mix it in. It'll go a long ways in getting your new tank stabilized, and ready to handle a bio load.

 

[walzy444]

hmm.. anyone live near Woonsocket, RI (its next to bellingham, ma) that has a cup of sand to spare? It will be saving my lil clown fishy's life.

This fish is lazier than me, I thought I slept in late lol he's still sleeping in his lil sand hole he made, I feel bad to turn the light on and wake him up lol

 

[wsonner]

Man, I REALLY like your aquascaping!! Great job!

Wes

 

[walzy444]

Thanks! Took me about 3-4 hours setting rocks lol Due to the fact I stirred up some sand and could barely see anything, the hermit crabs were running in all directions (untill I decided to take them all out) and my fish kept attacking my hand lol

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

yeah i have to agree with wsonner that aquascape is awsome taking your time pays off... and ur clown is in my prayers judging on the sound of things your in for a bumpy next couple of weeks dont mean to startle you at all but keep your fingers crossed and if you can find someone to foster that clown i think it would be in its best intrest to spend a couple weeks in someone elses tank while urs cycles just hope it dosnt host any anonomes lol

 

[walzy444]

So far so good. All the water levels are in the safe zone. Ive been testing every day to see any changes. So far none... I have the Mardel 5 in 1 Strips (well 4 in 1 for saltwater) The guy at the aquarium store said it was a good one.. not as good as the test tube kit obviously.

I dono I fell like everything is going good.The tank was established for a few years when i bought it from this guy on craigslist. It had about 5-10 gallons of water in it of original water and day by day I added 6-9 gallons at a time. after about 5 days of having it, I scouped out the crush coral/shells and put the new sand in, and the next day added all the rock.. and i Kept 2 peices of rock that came with the tank... and i kept all the hermit crab shells.

well I just hope for the best. I dont know anyone who has a saltwater tank.. so my fish is kinda out of luck

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

well as i can see from the pic that heater is sitting a little high those eliete heaters can be verry picky with the ammount of water they are sitting in i would push it down a little if you havnt added more water yet and upgrade ur filter and such as soon as possable but that will do for now are you planning on running a fuge? or just a sump with an OP skimmer i had one of those heaters fail on me bc it was sitting where urs is right now imo push the blue bulb into the water they are submersable

 

[walzy444]

Ok, just pushed the heater in further (I have a glass thermometer in the tank too to moniter the temp.) Thanks.
The filter I have on there is for a 70 Gallon tank(AquaClear) I just replaced all the inserts.(foam, carbon bag, bag of ammonia stones, and a bag of white things (they look like packing noodles)

all i need is a hang on the back protein skimmer

 

[walzy444]

My clown fish is yelling "Don't let me go belly up!!!" lol

 

[leemik]

You should probably remove the bag of noodle things from your filter. Over time it will just be a nitrate magnet and be detrimental to the tank..

One of the signs you'll see that the tank is starting to cycle is the sand will turn brown for a little bit, don't worry it's just diatoms and it will go away once the silica and/or excess nutrients are eaten up.

What kind of water are you using? If you are using tap water you may have to battle constant algae problems for the life of the tank..

I assume you know that when the water evaporates and you have to top it off, you do so with unsalted water

--mike

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

well what i would do if you plan to have corals is upgrade your filter when you can because, the AC 200 or AC 50 (depending on when it was made it will have 2 diff numbers) is a good filter, however IMO you cant beat a fuge with some live sand and cheato and other vairous live filtration. Having a big skimmer in that sump wouldnt hurt also, you could even run the powerfilter that you hav right now and run a fuge at the same time. BTW im not calling down your equipment, im just making a suggestion on upgrading. I dont suggest skimping out on equipment to save money, that would just hurt you in the end. Buying better equipment and being patient to save the money for the better equipment will help your tank thrive in the long run. theres a thead in the introductions forum, and its called mistakes not to make or somthing along those lines. You could read that and see what ppl have to say... keep up the good work and keep an eye on that clown...

 

[walzy444]

Yeah Im not trying to skip on equipment. Im just using what I got with it. Im researching a bunch of skimmers to start then will get that. I dont even know where to start with a sump? I dont have a reef ready tank so I dont have that overflow thing.. and I have no idea how that whole sump system works.. gotta read about that too

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

you can get a hang on tank overflow box or mod ur tank to hav an over flow but its kindof late for that now so ur best bet is to get a hang on tank overflow box. the sump is fairly simple after being read about or about an hour or so

 

[molsen187]

i didn't see if anyone said this but you want to make sure you're using ro/di water. you can buy it at a local fish store or get your own unit(recomended). if you use tap water you are going to have to deal with a algae problems and you don't know what kind of stuff is in your tap water. just a suggestion.looks like you off to a good start

 

[ReefGrlGLH]

very nice tank. nice rock work. Rock work makes the tank look good. ...
Everything will turn out good. Keep doing what your doing...

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

walzy give us a status report!!!! whats going on water perameter wise???

 

[walzy444]

Sorry I haven't been on here in about a week or so. My nitrate as of today and all this week has been about 20ppm, nitrite is about 0. I have no ammonia and the alkalinity and ph are normal. I also had the fish store check it and the guy said my tank was cycling. They know the guy I got the live rock from and they said my fish should be ok. And I should wait till the nitrates go to 0 til I get fish.
I currently have diatoms all over my rocks gross! I got it off the glass but what can I do about the rocks? I'm deft not taking them out of there. Should I get an army of snails, crabs and shrimp? LOL

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

yeah cleaner crew when ur tank becomes stable

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

walzy guess what... Im starting my tank up and ive got the same equip as you but smaller!!!! ac 20 with a eliete 50w lol what do you use for a light i think im picking up a 5 bulb fixture from somone this weekend possably im not quite sure yet...

 

[walzy444]

I just got an octo hob skimmer and a 24" 65w current light (thanks medic)with a moonlight. I just gotta buy the 50/50 daylight/actinic double bulb and I'll be good for now. My tank is done cycling and the diatoms have drastically gone away. I guess cutting down on the light helped. Since the new light is bigger than my 18" I got some plexi and am going to make a new top and mount the light up above it.
O and I think one of my hermit crabs died during the cycle. I only see 5 now rip little buddy