Have a question about live rock

[Scubasteve612]

Ok so ive started my saltwater tank and I have some questions. I have a brackish water tank now and im gonna slowly go over to salt water tank. And please people im here to learn so please tell me if im doing something wrong or if what im doing is compleatly wrong. Now in my tank I.have regular sand not live. I was wondering once I slowly bring my water to salt is it ok to put live rock In and if so how much can I get alot or just do a piece at a time? Like I said im hear to learn im not doing this now just seeing if I can go from brackish to salt with the fish slowley. Oh fish lol so I have silver tipped sharks they whent from fresh to.brackish and there doing good and from what ive learned after that they go to compleatly salt

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Ok so ive started my saltwater tank and I have some questions. I have a brackish water tank now and im gonna slowly go over to salt water tank. And please people im here to learn so please tell me if im doing something wrong or if what im doing is compleatly wrong. Now in my tank I.have regular sand not live. I was wondering once I slowly bring my water to salt is it ok to put live rock In and if so how much can I get alot or just do a piece at a time? Like I said im hear to learn im not doing this now just seeing if I can go from brackish to salt with the fish slowley. Oh fish lol so I have silver tipped sharks they whent from fresh to.brackish and there doing good and from what ive learned after that they go to compleatly salt

I've only used "live sand" once and with live rock (cured) and found it to be overrated. It typically has a lot of die off in the bag so unless you want your tank to have a mini cycle then don't use it. As far as sand goes, ideally (IMO) you would want aragonite sand however I'm not sure that applies for your silver tips. It's supposed to help buffer the pH.

Once you bring your water to salt, go with some base rock (dry rock that is acceptable for saltwater and can be ordered online or usually found at your local LFS) and some "cured" live rock. Once the base rock has been in your tank for a while it will eventually turn into live rock just as your sand will (this is another reason I find live sand to be overrated...IMO). The rock and sand will be most of your biological source.

As far as your silver tipped shark goes, I have no experience first hand however I did read that they need slow acclimation (as you stated) and lower water flow but I'm unsure as to what water flow they are comparing it to so I would ask your LFS about that. I'm probably not a lot of help to you but I saw your post and am curious as to how it will go! Post updates if you don't mind!

 

[Scubasteve612]

Thanks for the reply and no you were a great help I was waiting for a NO YOU CANT DO THAT lol, ill leave them in the brackish until I find out when its best for the fish to go salt and that sounds perfect with the live rock thats what ill do, thanks

 

[Wy Renegade]

One thing you need to look at, is what you are looking for in your LR and LS. As Nikki pointed out, the bagged LS you purchase at an LFS is basically a bag of sand with bacteria that can survie the hostile conditions of sitting on a shelf for a long period of time. Base rock exposed only the LS of this nature will aquire bacteria, but little else. If you want a thriving LR/LS community, you need to introduce a source for that into your aquarium. I always recommend aquiring some LS and pieces of LR for a long term established system if you can find some. It doesn't take much, but the difference in your biodiversity is well worth the effort.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

One thing you need to look at, is what you are looking for in your LR and LS. As Nikki pointed out, the bagged LS you purchase at an LFS is basically a bag of sand with bacteria that can survie the hostile conditions of sitting on a shelf for a long period of time. Base rock exposed only the LS of this nature will aquire bacteria, but little else. If you want a thriving LR/LS community, you need to introduce a source for that into your aquarium. I always recommend aquiring some LS and pieces of LR for a long term established system if you can find some. It doesn't take much, but the difference in your biodiversity is well worth the effort.

+1. I agree. Some will say you don't need any live rock because the base will acquire the bacteria but I would seed it with some.

As far as acclimation for your fish, SLOW is the key. If you aren't in a hurry, I would take my time just to know that they are stable and well acclimated. Are they the only fish you plan to keep in the tank?

 

[Scubasteve612]

Im soaking all this information up lol I do love the fish and ive heard they get verry large I have 4 of them in a 75 gallon so Idk if there gonna get too big for the tank but yes there gonna be the only fish in there

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Im soaking all this information up lol I do love the fish and ive heard they get verry large I have 4 of them in a 75 gallon so Idk if there gonna get too big for the tank but yes there gonna be the only fish in there

Oh my! LOL! So I found this thread because I was curious about your fish. You should read this! You are going to need a BIG tank if you have 4!!! Hehe!

http://animal-world.com/Pet-Talk/Aquarium+Tropical+Fish/Catfish/Silver-tipped+Shark/

 

[Scubasteve612]

Omg that guy has 1 and he says its too much lol idk if they get too big I might have to take some back to the pet store lol im gonna go read some more stories..

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Omg that guy has 1 and he says its too much lol idk if they get too big I might have to take some back to the pet store lol im gonna go read some more stories..

Read down because I think he had one that was 2 feet! LOL! I'm also wondering if they are aggressive towards each other as they get bigger. That's something you may want to look into. Apparently they take quite a bit of care though if you want them to live long...and one person has had theirs 15 years...lol!

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Read down because I think he had one that was 2 feet! LOL! I'm also wondering if they are aggressive towards each other as they get bigger. That's something you may want to look into. Apparently they take quite a bit of care though if you want them to live long...and one person has had theirs 15 years...lol!

Correction...18 years! LOL!

 

[Scubasteve612]

One person said they have 4 of them for about 3 years and they are a foot long each. Who knows ill see how everything goes if I have them for years and dont wanna get rid of them I might buy a bigger tank lol, I love catfish pictus, ive had a 4 lined catfish that got a foot long before too but I def like these fish