Freshwater to Marine on a Budget

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Im going to save you a lot of time.......I made that mistake. They are easily the most aggressive. I had to remove all my rocks just to get the buggers out. They will attack anything they think is a threat. When I introduced my first cleaner shrimp the damsel tore him in half before he hit the rocks. They are a pain in the butt. If your looking to have just damsels then that's fine but they will kill the weakest ones. Incredibly hard to catch.
 
Holy cow that's rough, the kicker is that just the other day the lfs "salesman" told me that they were pretty docile! Sure glad I'm getting good info from people with real experience!
 
Some damsels can be aggressive like a neon damsel. But there are some less aggressive ones like scott/azure damsels, I have these along with a couple of blue devil Fijis in my 125 with no issues at all. Remember one persons bad experience might not be another's. However, just keep doing what your doing by asking these questions.
 
Right my marine setup cost about umm £50!! Buy a full setup cheap off ebay or someone then take the live stock the skimmer filter etc then go and sell the tank and stand spare cash then waaaaalaaa !!
 
Okay guys today is the day I actually set up the tank! I'm using RO water. Just wondering but what order should I do this? LR/LS/water? Or water/LR/LS?
 
Do LS LR water. When putting water in use a paper or plastic plate just above to sand so it wont disturb the sand. The reason I say LR next is because of water displacement. If you add it after water is in you could cause overflow. Make sure to make the saltwater before putting it in. Instead of mixing it in the tank
 
I would skip the sump and protein skimmer and buy dry rock and sand from an online source. Toss in a cocktail shrimp and the cycle begins. Weekly water changes and reasonable feeding/maintenance will keep you fine, providing you don't overstock.
 
Thanks guys! I'm planning on doing the shrimp trick, and also in relation to mixing the salt prior to putting it in the tank I do not have enough five gallon buckets so would it hurt the LR or LS if I mixed it once in the tank?
 
It might kill some things that are living on it. I would mix a little at a time then. It's been out of the water this long.
 
Good luck with it. Definitely make ire not to disturb the sand as it will be cloudy for weeks on end. I had my tank full and just dumped the sand into it and it was cloudy for way to long. I would do LR/LS/RO. You want live rock on the bottom glass of you tank or creatures will dig an eventually the rock will fall on them and maybe cause more rock to fall killing other things. Ask me how I know!!
 
Live rock, live sand, water. If you want to have things that dig in the sand, make sure that the rock is in the bottom. If not, they can get trapped under shifting sinking falling rock.
 
Hesselrode said:
Good luck with it. Definitely make ire not to disturb the sand as it will be cloudy for weeks on end. I had my tank full and just dumped the sand into it and it was cloudy for way to long. I would do LR/LS/RO. You want live rock on the bottom glass of you tank or creatures will dig an eventually the rock will fall on them and maybe cause more rock to fall killing other things. Ask me how I know!!
Click to expand...

Ahem.....oops, didn't see neither of your post in time. But the tank is set up :dance: my salt is within the proper parameters, and everything seems to be running fine. And my water actually cleared up real quick. I set it up at 2pm yesterday and this morning its already cleared. In relation to the LR being on the bottom it isn't unfortunately :( , however I do have about 4-5inches of LS underneath them so it could take alot for something to displace it enough. I'm going to throw in my cocktail shrimp today. I have a bag with ones already veined, and de-tailed i use for pasta. They're kind of small, but would one or two of those work? They are just frozen?

Oh and I forgot I got a hitchhiker crab of some sort with the LR.....wanted a starfish ha ha
 
I have as of yet to see the crab again but I'm kind of nervous because i think it could prove harmful to the tank. If I wanted to remove it how could I go about it without moving all the LR?

Thanks
 
Ou can just put a couple of the frozen raw shrimp in there. If there really small, might wanna do 3. What did the crab look like? Green? Red? Black? Brown? Hairy? Size?
 
It's Black with what looks to be small white stripes on its legs. I'd keep it if I didn't plan on getting a cleaner shrimp/peppermint shrimp. I have awhile to get it out but would prefer it not be in there.

Plus it is already the size of a 50 cent piece!!!
 
if your tank is drilled and you need a sump.. go to wallyworld or anywhere you can get a 35 gallon plastic tote. and 3 shoe box drawers.. drill a hole in the top to fit your overflow pipe. or hose.. and the top 2 shoebox drawers drill tiny holes in it to allow enough water to go thru it. put filter pad in the top.. carbon and or live rock rubble and leave the bottom drawer off. set inside tote put heater and all your stuff in the tote.. including pump and return hose. and bam.. cheap and easy sump.. cost me less than 20$ compared to 150-350$..

keep up on water changes each week and make sure to allow for a full cycle!
it can cost around 60$ but buy your salt in bulk.. 6 gallon buckets are cheaper in the long run for your salt.. and when its empty. you have a bucket for water changes.. the buckets are good for 200 gallons. so it will last a long time if you have a smaller tank
 
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