Hello,
I've spent the last 5 odd months trying to start a marine tank with no luck. I've kept freshwater tanks for some time, and I'm fairly used to that - I new that a marine tank would be a huge challenge, but the conflicting information I keep finding on the net (and getting told by people at my two local aquarium stores) has simply resulted in me being more confused than ever. In fact, I'm no longer even vaguely sure what I'm doing wrong.
I hesitated posting on a forum about this for some time, instead doing lots of googling and waiting, but it's reached the point where I'm only confusing myself by reading more advice from people that isn't about my specific situation, so I figured I'd see what people had to say.
The tank is 3' - so, fairly small, but still many times bigger than the freshwater tanks I keep. The substrate is Aragonite, at the suggestion of someone at the LFS. (I've no idea whether this is a good choice or not - most of the things I later read indicated that if I wanted to keep a reef tank, which was the long-term goal, sand was required)
The filter is a canister filter rated at 700 litres/hr - based on what I've read, that's fine for up to a 180 litre tank. This one (by my maths) is around 125 litres, give or take.
Now for some of the conflicting information I was given that I'm really not sure about:
1) I was told, at first, that I shouldn't replace water until it had finished cycling and had fish in it.
2) I was told that keeping a Molly or two in the tank would help provide ammonia that would break down by the bacteria once the tank was working.
3) I was told to use a saltwater biostarter one per day.
4) I was told that (and read that) starting this way could take a number of months.
5) I was told not to bother with a protein skimmer at first - wait until I'd finished cycling the tank.
By three months, the ammonia levels had reached the point where even the Mollies (which I've found to be quite hardy in freshwater tanks) weren't likely to be happy (4.0+ ppm). The nitrite and nitrate levels hadn't changed at all in all this time.
The next thing I was told was that I did, in fact, need to replace about a third of the tank's volume in water every week.
I started doing this... and a month later, there's not only no changes, but the water's getting hazy.
My thoughts (after hours of reading and searching) are that keeping Mollies in there might actually be causing a problem. Either that, or a protein skimmer IS required at this stage.
Oh... and the two mollies in the tank really loved the saltwater. The female became pregnant, so I moved to her another tank - there, she has spawned nearly 20 fry, and another 3 back in the saltwater tank. (I'm running out of tank space for that many mollies)
So that's my situation. Sorry for the overly long post, but I hope that I can get some advice on my specific situation, rather than more conflicting web pages.
A few details (in case they're important):
The filter is an AquaOne CF-700 and the biostarter is Sera Ammovec Biostarter. Based on the printing on the side of the bottle, I've been adding about 10mls of the stuff each morning.
Thanks again,
Bryll
I've spent the last 5 odd months trying to start a marine tank with no luck. I've kept freshwater tanks for some time, and I'm fairly used to that - I new that a marine tank would be a huge challenge, but the conflicting information I keep finding on the net (and getting told by people at my two local aquarium stores) has simply resulted in me being more confused than ever. In fact, I'm no longer even vaguely sure what I'm doing wrong.
I hesitated posting on a forum about this for some time, instead doing lots of googling and waiting, but it's reached the point where I'm only confusing myself by reading more advice from people that isn't about my specific situation, so I figured I'd see what people had to say.
The tank is 3' - so, fairly small, but still many times bigger than the freshwater tanks I keep. The substrate is Aragonite, at the suggestion of someone at the LFS. (I've no idea whether this is a good choice or not - most of the things I later read indicated that if I wanted to keep a reef tank, which was the long-term goal, sand was required)
The filter is a canister filter rated at 700 litres/hr - based on what I've read, that's fine for up to a 180 litre tank. This one (by my maths) is around 125 litres, give or take.
Now for some of the conflicting information I was given that I'm really not sure about:
1) I was told, at first, that I shouldn't replace water until it had finished cycling and had fish in it.
2) I was told that keeping a Molly or two in the tank would help provide ammonia that would break down by the bacteria once the tank was working.
3) I was told to use a saltwater biostarter one per day.
4) I was told that (and read that) starting this way could take a number of months.
5) I was told not to bother with a protein skimmer at first - wait until I'd finished cycling the tank.
By three months, the ammonia levels had reached the point where even the Mollies (which I've found to be quite hardy in freshwater tanks) weren't likely to be happy (4.0+ ppm). The nitrite and nitrate levels hadn't changed at all in all this time.
The next thing I was told was that I did, in fact, need to replace about a third of the tank's volume in water every week.
I started doing this... and a month later, there's not only no changes, but the water's getting hazy.
My thoughts (after hours of reading and searching) are that keeping Mollies in there might actually be causing a problem. Either that, or a protein skimmer IS required at this stage.
Oh... and the two mollies in the tank really loved the saltwater. The female became pregnant, so I moved to her another tank - there, she has spawned nearly 20 fry, and another 3 back in the saltwater tank. (I'm running out of tank space for that many mollies)
So that's my situation. Sorry for the overly long post, but I hope that I can get some advice on my specific situation, rather than more conflicting web pages.
A few details (in case they're important):
The filter is an AquaOne CF-700 and the biostarter is Sera Ammovec Biostarter. Based on the printing on the side of the bottle, I've been adding about 10mls of the stuff each morning.
Thanks again,
Bryll
