My First Tank

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TeamTrash

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 9, 2011
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219
Well, my daughter has specifically asked Santa for two clownfish for Christmas. This has given me the perfect excuse to start an aquarium, something I have wanted to do for years. Of course, with my husband deployed it is always good to keep busy :) After looking around (and having many a sales person try to convince me to do FW to no avail) I finally purchased a 28 gallon tank, got the sand, filter, circulation pump, water treatment something or other, salt, and some ghastly looking "jewels" in pink and purple that my 4-year-old princess insisted on since she couldn't get the pink gravel (went with live sand instead).

Of course, I had initially wanted a 10 gallon tank and even had the perfect place for it. Now I came home with a much bigger tank and nowhere to put it :eek: I decided to go to Wall-Mart to see what they had... I got a nifty looking writing desk thingy that would look okay in my living room. Anyhow, I got it home, tore open the box and sat back looking at it. I suddenly remembered that, well, the tank was a little heavy... water is definitely heavy (remembering from school that 1 liter = 1 kilo and there is about 4 liters in one gallon, not to mention the, what, 40-ish pounds of rocks... some quick guesstimation math quickly led me to realize that I would end up with a broken writing desk, shattered tank, and a flooded living room:banghead:). So, I went back online and found a pretty decent looking stand at Petsmart (of all places). It kind of looks like wood, would do okay in my living room (yes, I care about the aesthetics - especially when I have to look at it all the time). So, that's how far I've gotten. I need to put the doors on the cabinet and THEN I can finally proceed.

I have a couple of questions, actually, I have a ton, but let's start with what's relevant right now. Do I need to rinse the live sand before I put it in the tank? Should I assume that the rocks at my local salt-water dealership are cured, if not, can I just put base rock in and wait for them to become alive? I'm going to try the dead shrimp cycle (somebody posted a link to it) - has anybody used this method and found that it works? I hate to put the little fish through more stress than necessary. Also, what in the world do people put as a back scene on their tanks? I don't really want to have a clear view to the filtration unit and whatnot. When I'm done with the shrimp cycle (the actual technical terminology per me), I'll probably put a couple of crabs, snails and maybe a goby. I'm not counting on putting anything delicate in the tank until after Christmas (two clown fish and a shrimp). Of course, I have big plans to upgrade it to a reef tank once I have everything established, so anything going in has to be reef "safe".

Thanks in advance for any comments and ideas!
 
You are going to need a SW test kit so that you know when your tank has cycled. The key to SW tanks is to go slow. As for the water i would use RO/DI water. But deff get a test kit so that once you start you can keep an eye on ammo, nit, nitrate, and ph. Cycling your tank could take some time. It's possible it could be ready for fish by the end of Dec. but deff dont add anything until the tank has cycled.
 
Oh, this is going to be a fun build. :) But first, let me say thanks. Lots of people these days care enough to thank our soldier but I bet many forget what sacrifices the families are going through. So, I want you to know I appreciate it. :)

Sounds like you have done some research but if you have not read it yet, read this article. Cycle your salt tank It is very helpful.

The shrimp method works well but I used pure ammonia which also works well. Just make sure it is pure (Ace Hardware brand works great). Many people paint the back of the tank or places like PetSmart and PetCo sell backgrounds. They will cut what you need off a roll they keep in the fish department.

Do lots of reading on this forum and don't be afraid to ask questions.
 
Quick answers to ur questions :)

No you usually don't have to rinse live sand

Your pet store will have cured live rock but it's pretty expensive. Look at craigslist, I got a lot of my live rock off there for half the cost. Also you can get majority of base rock and add some live rock and eventually it will become live and beautiful ( buy live rock with lots of Coraline)

I used the shrimp method and it worked well for me. The live rock you get will also help cycle your tank. Make sure you get a Sw test kit.

As far as backgrounds, you have a million options, you can let your child pick one :)

Let us know if u need more help. Cheers :)
 
You don't want to rinse the live sand. If you do it could wash off the beneficial bacteria off of it. Also if you do base rock, you'll need a bit of LR to seed it. And yes Craigslist is a great place for LR.
 
I did 2/3 live rock and 1/3 base rock so I could hide the base under and behind the live. I like the way it turned out. If you are patient, you can use more base and only a little live but that may slow down your cycle a bit and you would have to be very patient about increasing bio-load (more fish) to allow the BB to catch up.
 
Thanks for all the advice!!! :D The tank is up and running, pH is great and so is the salt content. Now, I went to get a couple of live rocks so the tank can begin the cycle. When I got the rocks home I was checking them out and I noticed that I had a hitch hiker :eek: My question is, is my hitch hiking crab a good or a bad one? Any ideas? I'll probably play it safe and get rid of it, but I'm really curious.
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Thanks for all the great advice!! I got my live rock today and there was a crab included. I'm assuming it is a bad one and will get rid of it. I'm curious if anybody knows what kind it is tho.
 

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A general rule of thumb with crabs is: if they have hairy claws, they are bad. This dude doesn't look hairy, so I assume he is safe.

(Someone should be able to accuratley ID this fella though)
 
Post that pic in the "Saltwater Reef - Identification" forum and I bet some experienced people will chime in.
 
To me it looks like a cousin of the emerald crab. First thing it doesn't have hair or black pinchers that is my first clue it isn't bad. Crab Hitch Hikers
 
Another thought IF you catch something like that and have one of those little hamster balls laying around stick it in there until it can be identified. That way it is in the tank and easy to get out. I don't have any luck catching stuff out of my tank I have a coral banded shrimp that came with a tank I really really want out of my tank so I can put other shrimp in and can't catch it.
 
Well, the best guess so far has been something in the emerald crab family. Anywho, the poor bugger went out with the trash today. I'm playing this one safe!

So, went to buy my one shrimp today to start the cycle (the lady at the store was nice enough to give it to me for free :D - I think she thought it was kind of funny so I did explain what it was needed for), and this poor bugger is cozily situated at the bottom of my tank. The game has begun!! Now I just need to re-read the article to see how long I wait before I test the water.

Oh, and I did a quick test today and it showed that the alkalinity and pH was a little low for a saltwater tank. Should I worry about this yet or not??
 
I wouldn't worry about the Alkalinity and PH for the time being. It will be all over the place while the tank cycles. As for testing, now and then would be good mostly so you get used to how to do it but you most likely don't need to watch it too close until you see the Diatom bloom. Diatom is a brown algae that will start to cover the rocks, substrate and glass. Don't worry about it when you see it and just let it be. I feeds off of the silicates that are in you tank and will die off on it's own once it has finished consuming it all. When it hits, it is a sign that you are nearing the end of the cycle.
 
10-4. Thanks :) My shrimp is covered in a thick layer of... fuzz, I guess. I know you can do this by adding ammonia, but I just think it is super fascinating to see what is happening to the shrimp! Ammonia was 0.5 after two days so I guess the shrimp is doing its job ;)
 
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