I need to know everything about saltwater right away.

[fredholstien]

Okay not everything, but enough to keep me from killing my livestock.
I was helping a friend get ready to move out of country yesterday and he offered to give me his 55g marine aquarium. How could I resist?
The problem is I don't know anything about saltwater and the aquarium had to be moved yesterday.
With the help of two brothers, I got it home and upright and saved about thirty gallons of water.
I was told to feed the clowns brineshrimp. I have some brineshrimp eggs that I was given with my first aquarium. They are still sealed but very old. Shelf life?
What do I need to know about anemone?
What is all the equipment this aquarium has in and around it?
I need more water for the aquarium. My house water is very hard. Do I need very soft water? Ro?
The aquarium has alot of algae and filth. Is there a good way to clean the bottom? Is it just like cleaning gravel?

 

[crister13]

Not a good idea to take it without knowing anything. How are we supposed to know what equipment you have??? Lol. We need a pic or description. You don't need an anemone for clowns. If you already have one they require good water quality and string light, similar to sps IMO. You need to use Rodi water. You can buy it at Walmart by the gallon or something like that. Specific gravity of 1.024-1.026 should be maintained for corals and fish, fish can tolerate lower though. 1.026 is natural ocean water. You need to do top offs with fresh water as salt does not evaporate. You need good flow also, about 20x overturn for fish only and 50x is good for reef. Do joy disturb the sand if it's deep. It will stir up a ton of crap and buck the tank. You can stir the tip inch though. Any other questions??

 

[fredholstien]

oops.

sorry. Yeah I knew I was getting myself into trouble but, I am going to excuse myself, even if I don't deserve it. The thing had to be moved and I was the only one with aquarium experience at all. If I had known sooner I was going to take it I would have tried to get info first. Oh well.
ROdi water = Reverse Osmosis distilled?
Okay I will try to post pictures of the equipment tonight.
It has two clowns and two anemones and a snail.
The light hood has some bulbs burned out. How much of a hurry should I be in to replace them? Right, right now or in a couple days?

 

[crister13]

Replace all the bulbs. Even the ones that still work. Reverse osmosis de ionized actually.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

RO/DI = reverse osmosis deionized water. Right now there are a ton of Labor Day sales on the units. While they seem expensive, you need one because it purifies the water. I use to buy mine from the store and had algae issues arise so I tested it and sure enough it wasn't as pure as the claim. You could try to buy from your local fish store (LFS) however in a year you would probably of paid for your own unit.

What all is in the tank as far as livestock? In addition, what equipment (as asked above) is on the system? Did your friend give you salt, testing kits etc? It's a lot to take in but you will need to get up to speed pretty fast. I'm guessing he had good lighting for the anemone?

As far as your food goes, ask him where he bought his (brand etc.). You can buy frozen brine shrimp at Petsmart as well. You will need to feed your fish first and then the anemone so the fish don't try to steal its food.

 

[Beengirl]

Welcome to AA!!
You can vacuum the very top of the sand, but don't go deep- you'll release ammonia, nitrates and bunch of other nasties into water. RO/DI water is best, but RO water will do in a pinch. NEVER tap water though.
Is there a canister filter? HOB filter? Sump? What filter you have?
Saw on your profile that the tank has a strong odor. If you have a canister or HOB filter I would rinse all sponges, etc in RO water, return sponge to filter and replace the carbon. Carbon helps remove odor, Current carbon could be too old.
One snail is not enough for a 55g. You're gonna need a lot more. Banded turban snails are quick, turbo snails eat a lot of algae but get pretty big, Nassarius snails will bury themselves in sand during day (will help keep very top layer of sand stirred) and come out to eat leftover food in evening, conch will clean the sandbed, Astraea snails clean walls and rock. Hermit crabs will also eat algae, but get some extra shells for them to move into when they grow or they'll kill a snail and take the shell.
Also, feeding brine once in a while is ok, but not all that nutritious. Rotate foods like blood worms, mysis, cyclopeeze, chopped silversides- all of these can be found at LFS. Theres a lot more to learn, but thats a start. Good luck and let us know about any more questions!

 

[fredholstien]

Update

Thanks so much for all the advice.
So I got some water and have the aquarium cycling and I have a light over the aquarium. I got my selenity back down to ideal levels, it was really high. I actually stole the light from my freshwater tank, which will be fine without for now.
I am from a town of 1600 people and we don't have any wal-marts or petcos. The nearest aquarium stores are about 30 minutes and the nearest big cities are at least an hour. I went to a small quasi-local shop but they didn't have the bulbs I needed.
I went to Boise, Idaho this afternoon to try to get lights, but all the shops were closed by the time I got off work and drove over there.
It has a sump tank.
I have a five stage ro, but not a di.
The only test equipment I have is the hydrometer.
I got some frozen shrimp and marine flakes from the small shop today to get me by.
Oh and earlier I said the substrata was sand, it is actually crushed coral and only an inch or a little more thick.
Actually, my friend only fed the fish. Someone else came in and did the cleaning and testing and so on. Apparently, this fellow had not been by for at least a couple months. So the aquarium has been rather neglected.

 

[Beengirl]

Thanks so much for all the advice.
So I got some water and have the aquarium cycling and I have a light over the aquarium. I got my selenity back down to ideal levels, it was really high. I actually stole the light from my freshwater tank, which will be fine without for now.
I am from a town of 1600 people and we don't have any wal-marts or petcos. The nearest aquarium stores are about 30 minutes and the nearest big cities are at least an hour. I went to a small quasi-local shop but they didn't have the bulbs I needed.
I went to Boise, Idaho this afternoon to try to get lights, but all the shops were closed by the time I got off work and drove over there.
It has a sump tank.
I have a five stage ro, but not a di.
The only test equipment I have is the hydrometer.
I got some frozen shrimp and marine flakes from the small shop today to get me by.
Oh and earlier I said the substrata was sand, it is actually crushed coral and only an inch or a little more thick.
Actually, my friend only fed the fish. Someone else came in and did the cleaning and testing and so on. Apparently, this fellow had not been by for at least a couple months. So the aquarium has been rather neglected.

Good job!! Crushed coral is fine for substrate, and an inch should be fine cuz you don't have anything right now that needs to dig in the substrate.
RO water is fine, that's what I use and I haven't had any problems with algae or fish dying.
Specific gravity should be kept between 1.023-1.025 since you have the anemones in there. Fish can tolerate lower, but not the nem.

Wow! Your friend didn't leave you with much to take care of the tank, huh? It's great that you're willing to go through all this trouble and be basically thrown into SW to help these fish!!

You'll need to get some liquid test kits soon. You'll need tests for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and pH to start. Later on you might wanna get a phosphate and alkalinity test, but let's get everything stable first. you'll need to check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate daily for a couple weeks to make sure there's not a spike in those levels after moving the tank. Since you have fish in there, you'll need to keep ammonia 0.25 or less and nitrite 0.25 or less. Those two, if too high will kill the fish. Nitrates wont hurt the fish if they are below 40, but below 20 is better when the tank is stable. Hopefully you wont have a mini cycle from the move and the levels will be zero, but if not under the levels I stated, you'll need to do a partial water change to keep them below those numbers. Once the tank is stabilized, the ammonia and nitrite should always be zero and nitrates as close to zero as possible.
Good job getting the frozen shrimp and marine flakes to feed them.
Sorry, I can't help out with the sump, never had one. I'm Sure someone who does will help you out with that.
Good luck and let us know if you have any questions at all!!

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Do you have live rock in the aquarium? Here is something to think about and its my opinion only however I've had experience with both: once you get the tank cleaned up and some additional things that you need, and the tank stabilizes after a bit, I would consider changing out the substrate for aragonite sand. When I started out (not telling how long ago because that confirms I'm old! LOL!) everyone used crushed coral but old food and gunk stick to it and it's not as easy to keep clean. That being said, you are more likely to have water issues. It's not something you have to do now but maybe something to consider later with more research and knowledge! . Once you get the hang of it you'll love it! We all had to start somewhere as well so you aren't alone!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

At this point a good book on saltwater tanks would be an excellent thing to have on hand. Try to find one next time you pass a book store. You'll be glad to have it even if it's just to get familiar with all the specialized equipment used on these systems.

 

[fredholstien]

Some unexpected guests

So the middle of last night my wife noticed some little bugs crawling on the rocks in the aquarium. We saw maybe two tiny grey bugs.
While we were looking one of the shells got up and started crawling across the bottom. It turns out we have an hermit crab that somehow got overlooked and forgotten.

 

[crister13]

They're Copepods amphipod or Isopods. All beneficial. Unless you have parasitic Isopods but they're rare.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

They're Copepods amphipod or Isopods. All beneficial. Unless you have parasitic Isopods but they're rare.

Yep. They're a good thing. Some people pay to have those guys shipped to their house.

 

[fredholstien]

how do you feed an anemone

One of you said to feed them after the fish, but exactly how do I feed them?

 

[Beengirl]

One of you said to feed them after the fish, but exactly how do I feed them?

Feed who? The hermit crab? You don't need to feed him. He'll eat whatever left over food he finds on the bottom and he'll eat algae. Don't need to feed the Copepods.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

LOL! The anemone! You can suck up some food in a turkey baster or a larger syringe and gently shoot the food towards the mouth (center) if it. Hmm...I can look on YouTube to see if there is someone feeding one. You can find everything on there! LOL!

 

[fredholstien]

Sorry the anemone, I don't know how or what to feed them.

 

[Beengirl]

One of you said to feed them after the fish, but exactly how do I feed them?

Sorry, just noticed you had asked about the anemone. Lol. I'm dense today. you can feed the anemone small bits of shrimp, oyster, scallop or silversides (no bigger than 1/4" pieces) three times a week. These foods should hopefully all be at your LFS in their freezer. You can use raw table shrimp that has been shelled and cut up. Just drop it by the mouth and it should grab it.

 

[crister13]

If you want to feed, do it once a week. And what lighting do you have?

 

[fredholstien]

Lights. I have two 48" 40 watt bulbs aqua-glo whatever those are. That is the fixture that I had on my freshwater. The fixture that came with the aquarium I not been able to get bulbs for. There are four bulbs in the fixture or eight bulbs in sets of two. I am going to go to Boise for new bulbs tomorrow. The writing on the different bulbs says: IRIDIUS 65W 10,000k; Model #2082 ft65w dual actinic; 55w blue; model #2080 ft65w dual daylight.
And by the way I have two hermit crabs. Kinda cool.