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[Newbie2269]

I am considering setting up a salt water tank but have no experience in this area, I thought this might be a good forum to subscribe to whilst doing research into what it entails. I am possibly looking to have a FOWLR and put a couple of clown fish in there. I still have a lot of research to do around the water testing and keeping the right balance and filtration and have a lot of unanswered questions so far. One of my first was can I put the clown fish in a FOWLR tank or will they be happier in a reef?

Thanks

 

[Newbie2269]

Or am I being over ambitious and should start with a different fish?

 

[trackfast]

I don't know if they would be happier in one rather than the other. Clowns are good starter fish; they're very hardy. But I'm hoping you're not planning to cycle with fish. You can cycle with raw shrimp and add fish later.

 

[Newbie2269]

I don't know if they would be happier in one rather than the other. Clowns are good starter fish; they're very hardy. But I'm hoping you're not planning to cycle with fish. You can cycle with raw shrimp and add fish later.

Thank you for the reply, will use the shrimp first, if you have any other hints and tips before I put fish in that would be great, only decided I wanted to Start SW on fri so am still researching tanks, water, testing, equipment and such at the moment so have a while to go before putting them in. Any help offered at the mo is fantastic.

Thanks

 

[Smitty]

Clown fish are a good hardy fish. They would be fine in a FOWLR as well. Just because you see them in reef setups does not mean they have to be in one. Clown fish are named so for a reason, they can be just as happy hosting a power head or the heater, they don't need anything special.

I think the big thing is research. What people will tell you is that nothing with a salt water tank happens fast. EXPECT it to take 2 months before you can even get fish and if it happens faster then great! Just don't rush it and you'll do fine!

 

[Keylo901]

I started my tank with four damsels and added a pair of clown fish a cpl weeks later.also recommend buying live sand also to speed up the process. Then just buy a kit that tests all your levels and your ammonia and nitrate will spike and then they will go back to a normal level then you can pretty much add whatever you want

 

[Keylo901]

You def don't have to wait to put fish in there if that's what you want to do,I laid down black and white live sand and mixed it,added the saltwater and as soon as the cloudiness went away immediately added the damsels,def the quickest way to cycle your tank

 

[uscamaro]

You def don't have to wait to put fish in there if that's what you want to do,I laid down black and white live sand and mixed it,added the saltwater and as soon as the cloudiness went away immediately added the damsels,def the quickest way to cycle your tank

...You ... I mean ... Usually you don't ... nevermind, I'll let someone else take this one.

 

[Smitty]

There are different ways to cycle your tank. Having live rock does help. You can cycle with fish but many prefer to try and cycle without fish using either pure ammonia or shrimp.

I myself would prefer to cycle without because I don't want to put in fish that I will later have to or want to take out because they don't fit in with my design.

 

[Keylo901]

...You ... I mean ... Usually you don't ... nevermind, I'll let someone else take this one.

I simply stated what I did with my personal Setup,damsels are very inexpensive and they are great to cycle your tank.. I guess it does depend on what type of setup you're going for but since I have an aggressive community tank they worked perfectly and all four lived for over a year in the tank until the larger predators ate them LOL... To each his own just was stating if he would rather have actual FISH swimming around rather than shrimp then there was an option.. I thought that's what this site was for.. To help other ppl with your own experience not to bash what others do. I have helped over 10 of my friends setup new tanks over the last 5 yrs or so and damsels were always used effectively to cycle the tank. Maybe YOU don't usually do that but as others have said there's more than one way to Do something.

 

[trackfast]

I prefer cycling with raw shrimp bc it doesn't expose to fish to high ammonia levels. I also like using LR and LS for cycling. I know that some believe LS is a waste of $; all sand becomes live over time. The LS packaging says you can add fish right away but I always checked the levels first. I do believe the LS quickens the cycle. Having said that I will also say that patience is a key to a successful tank. The bioload of the fish may take a while for the bacteria to be able to handle/catch up to it. You'll find many opinions on here; that's a good thing.

 

[Newbie2269]

Thanks for all the comments, this is what I have in mind so far. I was going to set up the tank with live sand and live rock, then let the tank settle for a few weeks, I was going to keep a log every couple days to see when the levels were settled. I was then gonna add the shrimp as suggested earlier and see how that effects the tank, once everything looked ok with the levels I then wanted to add a diamond goby and the clown fish. Not up to looking into if they should be added at the same time or I should add a particular one first? Also have a little bit more to understand around the set up and timings for cycling each part, or whether I can just put the sand, LR and shrimp all in at once and cycle from there? Does this seem to be the right track so far?

Thanks

 

[Newbie2269]

I simply stated what I did with my personal Setup,damsels are very inexpensive and they are great to cycle your tank.. I guess it does depend on what type of setup you're going for but since I have an aggressive community tank they worked perfectly and all four lived for over a year in the tank until the larger predators ate them LOL... To each his own just was stating if he would rather have actual FISH swimming around rather than shrimp then there was an option.. I thought that's what this site was for.. To help other ppl with your own experience not to bash what others do. I have helped over 10 of my friends setup new tanks over the last 5 yrs or so and damsels were always used effectively to cycle the tank. Maybe YOU don't usually do that but as others have said there's more than one way to Do something.

I def don't want the fish to eat each other, would like to have a nice friendly community, Lol. Although did get over excited at one point and considered a ray also love the black and white lions but will stick with the clowns and a goby for now ha ha.

 

[uscamaro]

I simply stated what I did with my personal Setup,damsels are very inexpensive and they are great to cycle your tank.. I guess it does depend on what type of setup you're going for but since I have an aggressive community tank they worked perfectly and all four lived for over a year in the tank until the larger predators ate them LOL... To each his own just was stating if he would rather have actual FISH swimming around rather than shrimp then there was an option.. I thought that's what this site was for.. To help other ppl with your own experience not to bash what others do. I have helped over 10 of my friends setup new tanks over the last 5 yrs or so and damsels were always used effectively to cycle the tank. Maybe YOU don't usually do that but as others have said there's more than one way to Do something.

Calm down, it was a joke. Stay on this forum for a little bit, you'll understand eventually.