New to the site and saltwater

[Jason]

Hello all. I've been lurking around the site for about a week, and I started My first salt water aquarium 2 weeks ago. I don't really know a lot in the ways of the technical aspect but I'm still learning.

For my first tank I chose a 20gal. When I started I put 35-40 lbs of live figi and tonga in it along with 25lbs of live sand. On day two I put 5 damsels (a domino, a zebra, a yellow tail, and 2 blue) and close to 20 small hermits in to speed up the cycle. I am happy to say that all but 1 damsel survived the cycle...... my cycle only took 6 days!

The Local fish store is only 8 miles away from my house and it's only 3 weeks old. Everything In my aquarium came from the same place. The staff at the store is very helpful and knowledgeable. They even test my water for me, and help me make educated decisions about my aquarium.

After my tank cycled and I was going to take the damsels back My wife made me start another tank for them so she could keep them. It's a small 10 gal. It will be fish only with live rock. This tank is two days old and doing well because I used water from the 20 gal's water change to help fill it up.

I got my first coral 2 days ago, A shroom, and It is doing quite well. The local store owner also gave me a star polyp frag to help see where we were in terms of what coral I could possibly get and when I could get it. Next week I will be getting my new lights and purchasing a green and black goniporia and 2 percula clowns.

If things work out with this one, I will be getting a much bigger tank in the years to come.


Nice to be here!

 

[fishfreek]

Welcome jason. It looks like you have some real enthusasium about fish keeping.

Usually i dont offer advice in a members welcome post but I feel the need to help you out.


I really suggest you not get the goniporia. These corals have an awful track record for surviviblity in aquariums. The specifics about what this coral needs to survive are still somewhat of a mystery. Some feel they need dirty water quality where as almost everything else we keep needs very clean water quality.

From you post it sounds like you have four damsels in a 10 gal tank. I wish you luck in keeping them from killling eachother. A 10 gal tank is to small for four fish to begin with and then to have some of the most agressive SW fish around in there is going to ulimatly compound the issue I fear.

Do you have photos? We love to see others setups.

 

[Bearfan]

WELCOME TO AA.COM
The choice of a Newbie
Generation

 

[lmw80]

I don't know anything about saltwater tanks, but welcome to the site!

 

[austinsdad]

Gotta do some reading before you buy too much. This book is highly recommended around here for starters - "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist
Robert M. Fenner". Take your time. The rewards are great.

And of course, welcome to AA!

 

[Fluff]

Welcome

 

[Jason]

fishfreek,

Thanks for the advice about the goniporia!!

It's to bad that I already had it on hold when I started the thread. That is the coral that put me over the top and made me get a SW tank anyways. I know I'm going to have a hard time keeping it healthy and making sure that it gets what it needs, but the guy who I bought all of my gear from has 1 that is over 2 years old in his tank and he's not at all stingy with his advice. Hopefully all will work out with it and if it's the only thing in the whole tank along with some live rock I'll be happy......I can always stick another aquarium in the living room .

As far as the damsels go, they already had a pecking order before I even got them. Basically, no one goes anywhere near the domino and no body gets hurt. The 10 gal is just a temporary tank and they are still really small ....... I have to slowly talk the wife into the 125gal at the store that matches the hardwood in our house. When they start to get to big I'll have to have the big "honey if we don't get a bigger aquarium for those fish they will die" talk

 

[Psyhampster]

Welcome to AA!

 

[oscarbreeder]

Welcome to A.A. Jason