Hello from 45

[+brian.srock]

Hey everyone. Writing this from the house we got off 969/webberville/mlk road off the 45 toll. Got laid off in the beginning of November and with the holiday season I needed something to take my mind off being bored so I emptied my fish tank and put all the fresh water guppies I had into a big bucket along with some others and gave it to my dad.

Went to PetSmart to get doggie treats and wandered over to the fish isle where a very informative worker told me all about it. I walked out with a 50lb bag of salt and 2 bags of sand.

Let it sit for a week then I found a craiglist add for live rock for $2 lb. Couldn't pass it up so bought 58lbs of it. That was last week and the rock is starting to turn purple but my salt content has spiked so I know I need to do a water change but my main question is:

what's next?

Do I get crabs and shrimp now? Also the live rock has some hair algea. (I think thats what its called) Will the shrimp eat it or will I have to take everything out and clean it with a toothbrush? The live rock was in an established tank that was turned off

Can I have anything else in my tank like corals and stuff or do I need have a different setup. Sorry if these are newbie questions but I have read, and read, and read and I still haven't been able to answer everything so thank you for your help if you can.

Tank is 47g tall. Pics are in my gallery here:

http://www.austinreefclub.com/gallery/image/2725-tank-filled-with-saltwater-and-sand/

http://www.austinreefclub.com/gallery/image/2726-bought-fiji-live-rock-off-craigslist-user-for-2-lbs/

Brian S.

[Rgwiz11]

Hey Brian, Welcome to the hobby!

Never feel bad about asking "newbie" questions, everyone started out knowing nothing at some point

As far as "salt content spiking" I'm assuming that you mean that your salinity went up. If that's the case, it is more than likely caused by water evaporating from your tank. Something a lot of people don't think about or notice when they are starting out is how much water evaporates out of a tank on a daily basis. In my 75g, it's fairly normal to get about a gallon of water evaporating every 1 - 1 1/2 days. To top off the tank, make sure you are adding fresh water to it, and not more salt water. Salt doesn't evaporate, just the water does.

For adding livestock, most everyone will tell you to start from the bottom of the food chain and move up. It sounds like you have some algae growing in your tank, so it may be OK to add some snails and/or hermits to start feeding on your algae. They will help clean up your tank and you shouldn't need to move your rock out and clean it with a toothbrush. Just remember, add slowly. Start out with only a handful of critters and make sure that the bacteria in your tank can keep up with them before you add more. Your bacteria will break down the waste created by anything you add, and if you overwhelm it your tank could crash.

Do some research to see what critters eat the algae that you'd like to remove. Also, just because you find something that says a certain snail will eat x-type of algae, doesn't mean that it is always the case.

Anyway, best advice I've gotten with my tank so far is to start slow, and don't rush anything. That includes cycling, adding livestock, and anything else.

Hope that helps.

[muddybluewater]

Welcome to the addiction. +1 on go slow, nothing in this hobby happens fast. Their is a reefcleaners group buy going on that would be a way to add the clean up crew (cuc) cheap. Add some snails and hermits but I would wait on the shrimp. As for the salinity issue add Ro/Di water daily to account for the evaporation. What you can keep in the way of corals will be determined by the lighting on your tank. Ask as many questions as you can we will be happy to try to help.

[mFrame]

Welcome! Sorry to hear about the layoff, but I'm glad you found us. Now do lots of reading to come up to speed. There's a great amount of knowledge here (most of it learned painfully even when someone else has already recounted their own painful lessons), so the more informed you are up-front the better.

Since you are at an early stage, I can say you wouldn't regret clearing off as much of the hair algae by hand as you can now. The longer your tank runs and the more you add to it, the more difficult it will be to do these kinds of easy fixes. Basic clean up crews are good and will help, but they also start to make your ecosystem more complex (i.e. more waste, etc), so don't look at getting them as a "fix" but more as a graduation to the next step.

Go to some of our local fish stores (not Petco/Petsmart/Walmart/other chain store) and don't be afraid to ask questions. Take the information you get and go home and investigate more. While our stores are good, you'll almost always be better off not buying something on an employee's advice without doing a little more investigation yourself. Most of my regrets are from when I brought home something I knew nothing about and either ended up killing it or having it kill something else.

Start looking at what you like (types of corals, types of fish). Write down names. Take pics with your cell phone. Once you get an idea of what you like then you can start to plan how to build up your tank. A few examples:

• a fish only tank with no corals
• a fish tank with soft corals (things that flow in the current)
• a non-fish tank with hard corals
• a tank with an eel and a trigger or lion fish

We all have different tastes, and each of the above examples requires different flow, lighting, substrate, and level of expertise.

Above all, have fun! The more learning you do, the less regret you'll have and thereby keep the hobby fun.

[+brian.srock]

Thank you for the help Rgwiz11,muddybluewater, and vwmike. I ended up rearranging my live rocks because it just didn't have the height I wanted and picked up 3 snails and 3 hermit crabs and turned off my light because I was under the impression the live rock grew the coraline better with the light on. It is very addicting seeing all the fish and stuff you need.

So for my new critters I picked them up at aquatek and they gave me some advice but I'm still stumped on a couple things. I tried to get a book at the university the other day but this thing was dated 1965, no joke! It was explaining how people would have to get salt from the sea and they just advanced to the engineered salt and gave no mention of any live rock for filtration.

So here are my new questions:

Salinity: I know if it evaporates I just put in fresh water but if I vacuum it out then that means it lost the salt and I need to have a bucket of pre-mixed salt to replace it right?

Protein Skimmer: The guy showed me a behind the tank skimmer for $140. Is that the going price for them or can I get them cheaper online?

When do I need to get it? Before fish or after?

Soft Corals: I want them! Was checking out the tank and they looked so colorful and even my fiancee oohh and ahhh'd.

So without changing my light to a gigantic $100 bulb with a custom enclosure would I be able to find soft corals that can thrive in lighted but not the brightest aquarium?

The advise on going slow is working well so far b/c i'm strapped until I find a job but when I land one hopefully I can control myself and not try to buy everything!

[Laura]

WELCOME!!!!!!! There is no better therapy than reefing:) My seahorses would LOVE that tank setup.....

[Rgwiz11]

As far as siphoning water out of your tank, yes, replace it with pre-mixed saltwater. If you don't have critters in the tank you can add salt directly to the tank, but I found out it just wastes time waiting for the water to clear up again...

When you mix up the saltwater, I was told to do it at least one day in advance. Not only does this ensure that all of the salt dissolves into the water, but it helps control the pH of water as well.

For protein skimmers, $140 could be a good price, could be a bad price. It all depends on the skimmer that he showed you. Different types of skimmers, and different qualities will cost more or less. For the HOB (Hang on Back) skimmer that I run in my 75g tank (My Skimmer), I payed $200 for it. It retails for anywhere between $225-$250. One piece of advice I will give you is try not to skimp on this. A lot of people will tell you, if you try to cut corners and save money now, it's a big regret down the road when the "bargain skimmer" isn't performing the way you want it. So, it all depends on the skimmer you want. I've seen skimmer prices range from $100 to the one listed on our forums for $2300 (Pricey Skimmer). Check the hardware section of these forums, people are usually parting out tanks and you can get a used skimmer that is still in good working order for cheaper than you can get anywhere else.

For your corals, I don't know what kind of lights you have at the moment. Are they metal halide, T5, an incandescent light bulb? If you know what type of lights they are, and the wattage they are, it will be easier to get some advice.

Edited January 6, 2010 by Rgwiz11

[+dapettit]

A couple of books I would recommend:

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists

ISBN-10: 1890087025

A PocketExpert Guide to Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species

ISBN-10: 1890087386

Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms

ISBN-10: 1890087009

Book of Coral Propagation, Volume 1 Edition 2: Reef Gardening for Aquarists

ISBN-10: 0980236509

Oh and welcome to the addiction I mean hobby!

Dave-

[mFrame]

Salinity: I know if it evaporates I just put in fresh water but if I vacuum it out then that means it lost the salt and I need to have a bucket of pre-mixed salt to replace it right?

-- Correct, for replacing evaporated water use RO/DI, not salt water. For water changes where u remove the water yourself, replace it with salt water that is the same temp and salinity as your existing tank.

Protein Skimmer: The guy showed me a behind the tank skimmer for $140. Is that the going price for them or can I get them cheaper online?

When do I need to get it? Before fish or after?

-- On my 29g tank I was using a CPR BakPak 2, you can usually pick up one used in the $50-100 range and it should work fine for what you're doing.

Soft Corals: I want them! Was checking out the tank and they looked so colorful and even my fiancee oohh and ahhh'd.

So without changing my light to a gigantic $100 bulb with a custom enclosure would I be able to find soft corals that can thrive in lighted but not the brightest aquarium?

-- My main concern with your tank is how tall it is, a standard 47g tall is about 31" high. T5s and PC lighting will work on the upper half of the tank but you would need something very strong like a high wattage Metal Halide to penetrate all the way to the bottom. With most softies this shouldn't be an issue. Mushrooms, for example, will be happy with lower light. Things like Dendros and Sun Polyps would also be fine since they prefer shade. You'll want to target your tank to non-photosynthetic or low-light critters for the bottom half at least, but that means you'll want to be sure to feed them properly.

[+brian.srock]

Thanks vwmike for all the answers you guys are awesome. I'll research the cpr type skimmer and see if I can find a good deal.

As for the softies , mushrooms, Dendros and Sun Polyps since their ok with low light a typical aquarium type hood bulb should be good right?

i have a 18" natural daylighy hg bulb. Or if not do they have an 18" t5 that'll fit my fixture?