My First Saltwater Tank

[chrishew09]

Box showed up on my door step with early x-mas presents. Got my light, koralia 2, and a float magnet. The fan on the light is really loud, I'll most likely swap that out for something I have at work thats quieter.

I don't really like the way the stands are for the light it seems flimsy, and since its a corner tank the feet dont sit on the edge of the tank like its supposed to, take a look at the pic and let me know what you guys think.

 

[Moonstream]

cant wait to see it with rock and coral!

 

[autoponicz]

if you see the water evap alot...then an ATO is a must...topping off evryday gets tiresome...and you cant leave the tank for more than a few days or the pump runs dry...look at a JBJ ato or autotopoff.com for a cheap and effective solution...
if you plan to do a reef when you gain more knowledge....then building your eqiuipment for a reef in the beginning will save you money and less things to change later on....also a custom sump to fit the stand would be a good idea if you got some extra $ you can shell out...should be less than 200 bucks for a 36g corner tank

 

[chrishew09]

Moonstream - Neither can I, I am trying to find some "used" LR around here and some other forums but its proving difficult, my LFS wants $8/lb.

autoponicz - I want to build an auto-top off right from my RO instead of a bucket and pump, but if it ever failed my system would get soaked with fresh water.
I just got back from homedepot I bought a "T" junction and valve for my RO system, now I have a spikit right under my tank so toping off is much easier now, just put the hose in the wet/dry and turn on the valve.

I have been think about build myself a custom sump out of acrylic and get rid off the wet/dry, havent made up my mind yet.


Update:
I got tired of looking at an empty tank, so I bought a Yellow Belly Damsel about three days ago, he's doing great. I can tell he does feel a little insecure since there's no rock but I moved the pump closer to the sand bed and he made himself a nice little hole to hide in.
This is my first SW fish ever!!!

 

[KathyC]

Have you tested the water yet to see where your parameters are at regarding your cycle?

If you have anyone near you that has a Hanna Meter, you might want to test your water for phosphates since your sand was previously used ina FW set up..sand will absorb phosphates and will continue to leech them back into your tank for a long time to come..likely causing algae issues for you over the long haul.
Do you have any way to hang that light fixture? Balanced on the edge of the tank it is a disaster wating to happen

 

[Thatguy96]

Welcome to MR.

 

[chrishew09]

Have you tested the water yet to see where your parameters are at regarding your cycle?

If you have anyone near you that has a Hanna Meter, you might want to test your water for phosphates since your sand was previously used ina FW set up..sand will absorb phosphates and will continue to leech them back into your tank for a long time to come..likely causing algae issues for you over the long haul.
Do you have any way to hang that light fixture? Balanced on the edge of the tank it is a disaster wating to happen

I've only be testing PH, so no I haven't tested my phosphates. I'll take some water to my LFS the guy there is real nice he said he'll do some test for me. I really dont want to hang the light since its in my kitchen and my wife wouldn't like the chain.
I noticed today that when I look up from the bottom into the light I can see that the water is a little cloudy. Going to do a small water change tomorrow.

 

[KathyC]

With a new tank, it's best to be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so that you know when the cycle is finished and it is then safe to add fish to the tank. You will also need the test kits to know when your future rock is safe to add to the tank (cycled properly), and whether it is causing any sort of a mini cycle.
With no live rock in the tank, no skimmer and now with a fish in the tank, you have nothing there to process any waste ( good bacteria) and you will be acculumating a ot from the fish and any uneaten food.
Any chance you can get at least some live rock in there asap?

Patience is key in this hobby

 

[chrishew09]

With a new tank, it's best to be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so that you know when the cycle is finished and it is then safe to add fish to the tank. You will also need the test kits to know when your future rock is safe to add to the tank (cycled properly), and whether it is causing any sort of a mini cycle.
With no live rock in the tank, no skimmer and now with a fish in the tank, you have nothing there to process any waste ( good bacteria) and you will be acculumating a ot from the fish and any uneaten food.
Any chance you can get at least some live rock in there asap?

Patience is key in this hobby

Thanks for the help Kathy.
I was thinking of buying some LR from my LFS store today, just a small piece. I'll also bring him some water to test.

 

[JJSBLM]

if you have time time to wait. & dont mind. Base rock, better known as reef rock/bones is a cheap alternative. You could get 50 lbs to your door for aproximatly $75. then all you would need is 1 medium (say 2-3 lb ) peice of real live rock to "seed" the rest of the rock.

the benefit of doing this is:

1. you dont need to cure your rock as it's dead.
2. much much cheaper
3. will give you plenty of time to "watch" your aquarium grow
4. Im sure there are other reasons, but i cant think of any right now.

if you went this route, in about 3 or 4 months you would have some nice colorfull rock. I did this, been dosing once a week with purple up.... lots of beatufull coloring on my rock thus far.

 

[chrishew09]

if you have time time to wait. & dont mind. Base rock, better known as reef rock/bones is a cheap alternative. You could get 50 lbs to your door for aproximatly $75. then all you would need is 1 medium (say 2-3 lb ) peice of real live rock to "seed" the rest of the rock.

the benefit of doing this is:

1. you dont need to cure your rock as it's dead.
2. much much cheaper
3. will give you plenty of time to "watch" your aquarium grow
4. Im sure there are other reasons, but i cant think of any right now.

if you went this route, in about 3 or 4 months you would have some nice colorfull rock. I did this, been dosing once a week with purple up.... lots of beatufull coloring on my rock thus far.

Thats a pretty good suggestion, where did you get the base rock from?

 

[KathyC]

You shouldn't do this with the damsel in the tank IMO. You will be running the tank through a complete cycle and the fish will definitely suffer from the ammonia & nitrite if it doesn't flat out kill him. Please return or re-home the fish is you plan to do this. It is much more humane to cycle a tank by adding the rock/sand and then adding a very small amount of flake food to 'feed' the bacteria as the cycle progresses.
No living creatures should be added until the cycling process is complete.

Not sure why JBM is saying this:

1. you dont need to cure your rock as it's dead.

Dead rock does need to be cured (cycled).

 

[chrishew09]

I really appreciate everyone help.

I got home late last night and I noticed that my water has cleared up, not sure why I did about a 4 gallon water change on Sunday, and replace my active carbon. Still haven't got LR in there yet I didn't get a change to go to my LFS over the weekend.
I think I am just going to slowly buy LR to offset the up front cost and keep my eye out for good deals here and on other forums.

I might do a large water change in the up coming days just to be sure, and have my friend take care of my damsel for a while.

Like a dummy my initial fill was with my tap water (PA well water), I know I should have used my RO to fill it up but I didn't. So I might replace a large portion of the water with RO.

 

[chrishew09]

Live Rock Update

Well yesterday I pick-up about 20lb's of LR from a local guy from another forum. He's breaking down a 180 full of great LR with lots of coraline, paid $3.50/lb, he also had two Humbug Damsels that he was going to destroy, so I had to take them. I know they are a little aggressive but so far so good, with the other Damsel.

Anyway what do you guys think, there's even a couple corals attached, not sure what they are.

 

[aznt1217]

More Rock

 

[chrishew09]

More Rock

in due time

 

[jerl77]

more rock +1 looks great take your time

 

[tosiek]

Try to stay away from damsels unless they are very timid. They will cause problems with other fish down the line and once you start filling the tank up with LR your going to have a really hard time getting them out.

Some are really great, most will pick on fish and sometimes coral if underfed. It really hurts to see a 2$ damsel beat a 50-100$ fish to death.

Also, if your "planning" on adding rock later, remember that the tank might very well have a short cycle as all the junk on the rock dies and regrows depending on how cured the new rock was. Most times you will kill a good portion bringing it home in a bucket dry if it was cured. Those short cycles will cause your parameters to spike or read high. So if you see a No3 high reading you know what it came from.

By the way, my PA well water was reading at 5 TDS. =0) So your water might have not been that bad. what fish store do you go to? i got a house about 20 mins from strouds.

 

[chrishew09]

Try to stay away from damsels unless they are very timid. They will cause problems with other fish down the line and once you start filling the tank up with LR your going to have a really hard time getting them out.

Some are really great, most will pick on fish and sometimes coral if underfed. It really hurts to see a 2$ damsel beat a 50-100$ fish to death.

Also, if your "planning" on adding rock later, remember that the tank might very well have a short cycle as all the junk on the rock dies and regrows depending on how cured the new rock was. Most times you will kill a good portion bringing it home in a bucket dry if it was cured. Those short cycles will cause your parameters to spike or read high. So if you see a No3 high reading you know what it came from.

By the way, my PA well water was reading at 5 TDS. =0) So your water might have not been that bad. what fish store do you go to? i got a house about 20 mins from strouds.

Thanks for the advice.
I want to give the two humbug damsels away, but no takers yet. I go to Donovan's Reef in E.Burg., I also go to Hackettstown Pet b/c I work in H'town.

 

[tosiek]

I gotto check the one in E stroud next time im up.