Quick Start

[pph_2ppr]

Today was the only chance I had to get to a petstore and get fish, so i set up my tank pretty quick. One day to be exact i am acclimating the fish on 1 day old saltwater. is there anything i can do besides add the water very slowly?? what other acclimation advice do you have?

 

[Lecithin]

wait, you set up the entire tank, substrate, LR, skimmer, light, etc (or whatever you're using for equipment) in one day and put a fish in in the same day?

Is this your main tank or QT?

Whats in the tank?

Has it cycled?

 

[pph_2ppr]

this is the QT my main tank has been setup for quite some time. if they are only in there a couple days does it really need to have cycled?

i have everything in the tank( substrate, rock, heater, powerheads, hydrometer, just need lighting)

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

First... has your main tank been cycled? Not just "setup", but has it gone through the whole ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle? It needs to have a population of bacteria built up and the only way to do this is to supply it with an ammonia source to start things off. There used to be a bunch of good member written articles here about acclimation, cycling, etc... but I've lost track of where they went during the recent upgrade. If I can find them, I'll point you towards them.

OK... your other question has a couple issues. A 2-day quarantine is really not going to do anything for you. If you're going to quarantine, a minimum 4 weeks is recommended so that any diseases/parasites will become obvious and "show themselves" so you can treat them before infecting your main tank. Two days isn't long enough for the fish to really show you any symptoms.

In two days, you will start showing some ammonia if you haven't cycled the tank. Do you need to cycle it? No... just be prepared to do daily (or twice daily if need be) 30% water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. In the end, it really should've been cycled, but there's not much you can do about it now. Mix up a fair amount of salt water and be ready with the test kits.

Or take the fish back to the LFS until you're ready.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Strange... guess I can't edit my own post...

I tried to find those articles, but no luck. Here's a good one on Quarantine Tanks though...

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

[roka64]

I agree with Kurt. On a somewhat side note, the articles will be moved over soon.

 

[melosu58]

Remember that nothing ever happens fast in this hobby. Care planning and patience must be done.

 

[pph_2ppr]

i have realized how slow this process can be. I have had my 55 gallon tank se tup and running for over a year now, but just never had the time to fill with fish. Living in the boonies it is only a couple times a year i get to a petstore with marine fish. The 2 damsels I bought yesterday look fine and one is swimming around. The yellowtail found a place to hide and only comes out when the other fish swims by. How long should i wait to feed them(as soon as possible?) This is my first time with saltwater fish and would like to recieve all information on things i might not be aware of.

 

[Lecithin]

wait a day

 

[pph_2ppr]

i have plenty of rock in the tank, but i was wondering if i boil rock/shells i found at the ocean would they be able to go in the tank?

 

[roka64]

I wouldn't take anything from the beach. There is no telling what kind of pollutants are in the water, sand, shells, rocks.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

i have realized how slow this process can be. I have had my 55 gallon tank se tup and running for over a year now, but just never had the time to fill with fish.

From this comment, I'm assuming you do not have a cycled tank. Even if you did cycle it properly to start with, if it was fishless for a year with no supplemental source of ammonia for the bacteria, it's a new tank. It will cycle again now that you've put fish in it.

If you don't have test kits for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, get them now and start using them. Damsels are hardy fish and are often used to cycle a tank, but there are far nicer ways to do it that don't cause unnecessary stress/harm to the fish.

 

[pph_2ppr]

the shells have been out of water over 6 months i figure that would give time for everything to die, and with boiling them i am confused on why it wont work

 

[pph_2ppr]

i did my first ammonia test and it showed no color change in the water.....the fish have only been fed for 2 days, so should it take longer for the ammonia to spike?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I'm not sure if we're talking the 55g, or a smaller quarantine tank. If a small uncycled QT, I'd expect to see ammonia within 2-3 days. I know when I overloaded my cycled 10g QT with 3 small chromis, it took 3 days for the ammonia to show up with the test kit. But if you ended up just putting them in your 55g, then it seems like it will take a bit longer for it to show up. I don't have a feel for how long though.

Regarding the shell/sand from the beach question, boiling them will only kill things off that may be on them and biologically sterilize them. Boiling water won't do anything for chemicals/heavy metals that may be in the stuff.

 

[pph_2ppr]

the damsels are still in the 10 gallon, my financial situation will not allow me to upgrade to the 55 unless I do a little tweaking, which i dont think i have the dicipline to do so. I am gonig to add a 10 gallon sump(already made) to double the volume of water. for a one inch bulkhead to I use plastic hose or pvc? I do not know what size hose the return pump needs. Need assistance and will continue to ask plenty of questions. Will the damsels be fine until the tank has cycled?

Would it be wise to add more rock or put a filter on the intake of the powerheads?

 

[pph_2ppr]

Ammonia is rising pretty rapidly(so far up to 1ppm), what in your opinion would be the minimum amount of water i need to change? How often would I do this until the cycle is over? Both fish appear to be fine still do alot of moving around, wish me luck that this doesnt change.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I'm still not clear on what exactly you have in the 10 QT for filtration, but I'm assuming you have something that bacteria can populate. If that's the case, honestly... you're looking at something around 4-6 weeks for a tank to cycle. It doesn't sound like you ever cycled your QT and that's how long it normally takes to go from start to finish. Luck isn't going to be on your side. Sorry.

You're probably going to need to do 20% water changes, twice a day, for several weeks. If your PWC water is EXACTLY the same pH/temp/salinity as your QT water, then I'd probably do 30% changes until your can get that ammonia number down. 1.0ppm is pretty high.

Are you testing for nitrites too? Those will most likely start showing up later this week if they haven't already. Those, I think, are actually worse for the fish.

It's a catch-22. Those things (ammonia and nitrites) and bad for the fish, and you need to do water changes to keep those levels down. But by doing water changes, you reduce the levels of ammonia and nitrites that you need to properly establish a bacterial population to deal with those compounds. So you end up making the cycle go longer and longer. That's why it's so important to cycle a tank when nothing is in it - so you don't have to worry about doing constant water changes to keep something alive.

You can always use a chemical product to detoxify the ammonia (Seachem's Prime, API's Ammo-Lock, Amquel, etc) but having never used those for that reason, I can't help you there. What I do know about those products though is that if you use them, you'll still read ammonia using a test kit, even though the product has converted the ammonia to something harmless. And again, without the ammonia, you're not going to progress at all with cycling the tank.

Think water changes are the easiest thing to do at this point. Think I read somewhere that you're a ways from the LFS, so returning the fish probably isn't going to happen.

 

[roka64]

I agree with Kurt. I would advise against the adding of the chemical products, because it would just put you back at the "catch-22". where you have your tank trying to build up the beneficial bacteria, but it will take longer if the ammonia, nitrItes and nitrAtes are not there....I do think your best bet, as stated above, would be the PWCs. This will also help you get a feel for how easy they can be done. My first two or three times, I seem to have ended up with more water everywhere then in the tank! Good luck and stay on top of those PWCs and keep us updated.

 

[MommaFishels]

I am a beginner to salt water aquariums as well. There is a great book that I found. The name is "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Fenner. It has alot about QT tanks and acclimation.

And anyone correct me if I'm wrong but I also set up a 20 gallon quarantine tank for my 75 gallon tank. I took my brand new QT biowheel filter and put it on my 75 gallon tank to get a good amount of bacteria on it, then placed it on the QT with heater and water and let it sit for a few weeks. What I understand is you want to keep the QT pretty bare. i.e. no rock, sand or anything of the like in case you have to administer medicine to the fish. Make sure you test your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity as well. If all is well acclimate your fish and keep them in QT for at least a few weeks. To acclimate, they suggest you create a drip (from your QT) to the plastic bag that you received at the store to double the amount of water. Then pour half of the water down the drain and drip again to fill the bag. This should take about 45 - 60 minutes. I have done this steps to my fish and they are perfectly well.

I hope this helps and please anyone correct me if I'm wrong. These are the exact same questions that I drilled my LFS about and found in the book so maybe I can pass on the help as well.