New with Fresh, doing a SW

[chimmike]

I'm a to the whole Aquarist thing.

Picked up a cheap 10gal at Wally world and put in a couple live plants, fire gouramis and small angel, added an albino pleco (i think it's a pleco) and some snails. Almost bought a blue lobster tonight though, haha. It's running an aqua-tech filter and doing very, very well. Small heater on it, I think a 50w...temperature changes are about 3* daily because it's small, gets to about 80* max during the day and 78* at night when the a/c kicks in.

We've got a 30gal we're setting up this weekend for SW, going to pick up the live sand and Live rock this weekend with some RO water. Plan on doing a nice reef setup with maybe 5 fish and a good cleaning crew of hermits, snails, maybe a regular crab or so.....and eventually I think my friends will help me build a refugium.

Eventually I'd like to go bigger, but we essentially got the tank, stand, and lights for $50.

All my other hobbies have been motor-related.

[mom2reds]

Welcome to AA, It sounds as though you are jumping in with both feet. One concern is that it does not sound like you have cycled your fresh water tank, read the stickies at the top of each of the forums that should help give you lots of really good info.
Good Luck on both of your tanks

[chimmike]

I let the water in the fresh cycle for about 24hrs before acclimating 2 fish to it and a couple of the plants....probably not enough but the fish are doing well now, active but not nervous.

As for the SW I've been doing a ton of research on it and the live sand and LR is how I'm gonna start for a little while before adding a fish or two.

[mom2reds]

Go to the top of the forum page and click on articles and then freshwater then look for the article on nitrogen cycle, your fish may do ok if you are up for a lot of partial water chages and have a good liquid test kit like API fresh water master test kit don't use the strips they are not very accurate. Post any ? you have in the freshwater getting started forum you will have a lot of very knowledgeable people there to answer anything you may have.
As for saltwater I will have to leave that to some of the Salties.
Good luck

[chimmike]

Thanks

[roka64]

Welcome to the site! I agree you should also invest in some liquid test kits to watch your cycle. If you have enough LR, you might see a small one or none at all. I wouldn't waste money on the "live sand". I have trouble believing it is really live after transport with changing temps and then setting on the shelf of a LFS. Go with dry and rinse it well.

[Zagz]

Welcome to AA! You will find tons of helpful info here.

[chimmike]

Originally Posted by Zagz

Welcome to AA! You will find tons of helpful info here.

thanks, and believe me, I already have!

[JustOneMore20]

Originally Posted by chimmike

I'm a to the whole Aquarist thing.

Picked up a cheap 10gal at Wally world and put in a couple live plants, fire gouramis and small angel, added an albino pleco (i think it's a pleco) and some snails. Almost bought a blue lobster tonight though, haha. It's running an aqua-tech filter and doing very, very well. Small heater on it, I think a 50w...temperature changes are about 3* daily because it's small, gets to about 80* max during the day and 78* at night when the a/c kicks in.

You have way too many fish in that 10g. You should have done more research on FW before setting up a tank. Angels cannot live in a 10g. Take it back. Take the pleco back too. Its probably a common pleco and will be stunted and die in a 10g. The lobster is going to kill your other fish.....take it back as well. The only fish that can live in a 10g out of what you have is the gourami. If you have more than 1 male, you should get rid of the others. Males will eventually kill each other.

Sorry to bring you the truth right here in your intro post, but no one else said anything. I think you have more research to do.

Welcome to AA!

[melosu58]

Glad you are aboard.