newbie

[napydred]

i have been looking for a guide on how to raise and lower salinity of the water. right now my tank is at about .120 and i want to raise it to .122, so do i take out some water, mix some salt and put it back to raise salinity? and if so, about how much do i mix in how much water or how much do i raise the water i take out in order to raise the overall water when i put it back in? i guess i could just trial and error this but i thought there would be a conversion chart or something somewhere. any help with this would be appreciated.

k that is all for now, this is my first post so i guess i should at least introduce myself, i'm 27 from georgia and a senior art student, www.valdosta.edu/~blmills [/quote]

 

[Hara]

ok, not sure about your readings. SG should be between 1.023 and 1.025. How much would depend on the size of the tank. Do you have anything else in the tank now? Are you letting the water premix and aerate well for a day before testing?

 

[roka64]

WELCOME TO AA!!!

damsels to cycle the tank.

Please do not cycle your tank with a live critter.
As for the LFS, IME, most people talk to them and end up getting partial or bad advice. I would say, ask them then come here for real life experiences and go with the majority. Here is a great arcitls on how to cycle your tank:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15

i feel like i still need some stuff. should i be adding calcium? testing for nitrates and stuff? ph testing?

Generally, when you do a PWC, this will replenish your depleted mineraly, unless you have a tank that needs more. Plus, I have read you do not want to dose your tank unless you can test for it.
As for testing, this is a nice little kit, compare the price with your LFS:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4452&N=2004+113074

he said the salt would buffer the ph of the water out to around 8.

This depends on the gas exchange or "water ripple". I found with my hood, the pH was low, I removed it and it stabilized at around 8.1 from 7.8ish...

right now my tank is at about .120 and i want to raise it to .122

Do you mean 1.20 or is it 1.020? That is the number I keep my tank at, BUT I am doing FOWLR. I don't believe this is high enough for corals.
I'm sure there is a mathmatical number of %PWC per Gallons, but I am not a math person.

What do you plan on doing with your tank?

 

[napydred]

i am not at home now but i probably mean 1.020 and want to raise the sg to 1.022, i was thinking of taking a gallon of water out, testing it, raising the sg by about a hundredth then putting it back into the tank and seeing how much this raises the overall sg of the tank.

i am an animal friend so i will definately use the raw shrimp method to cycle my tank.


i want to put some live rock in the tank and maybe two small fish and some little algae cleaners like snails or crabs or something, i am not picky about what kind of set up is in the tank as my number one concern is tank health and ease of care ( i know ten gallons is gonna be harder to maintain but that is why i am going for ease of care stuff to put in it) anywayz, i have been lookin at alot of different fish online, anyone got some easy to take care of, small fish that are really beautiful favorites for a tank with lr in it?

 

[roka64]

Here are some ideas....
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=2124

If you go hermit crabs, make sure you have larger shells for them to move into, when they grow, otherwise, they might kill the sanils for their shells.

my number one concern is tank health and ease of care

Ease of care, in this case, is less water to pre mix and change.
As for suggestion for a nano, you may want to check with the folks that have them. There is a sub forum for nanos. I bet they would love helping you through their own personal experiences....

 

[napydred]

thanx alot for the quick responses, i am thinking of cycling the tank with the raw shrimp then adding some lr and letting it cycle back to normal before adding any fish, anyway, i will mosey over to the nano forums now, thx and peace

 

[roka64]

i am thinking of cycling the tank with the raw shrimp then adding some lr and letting it cycle back to normal before adding any fish, anyway, i will mosey over to the nano forums now, thx and peace

Great! Keep us posted!

 

[napydred]

hey i cant find the nano subforum, where should i be looking? EDIT* nm i found it