Travisjohn
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello all. Well I have had great results with my 70 gallon bowfront fresh water tank and have decided to try my hand at salt water. I am starting a 20 and a 30 gallon tank. I would go with just one big one but the wife is dead against another big tank so I squeezed in 2 smaller one's. Still got a lot of grief but hey. I am going to post the step by step results as I go, so hopefully I will attain some good advice through this forum by some experienced salt water keepers. Both tanks started just with the water and salt, mixing the salt to the recommended levels of salinity. The 20 gallon is long and against a window ( curtains low sunlight) and it gets cold here in the winter so i have to small heaters at either corner. I have 2 Koralia nano's 425 gph at either end of the tank and light it with Aqua Life T5 HO Marine 1 -10,000 k lamp and 1 - 420 / 460nm lamp. The 30 gallon has one heater as it is in the living room and a Koralia 750 gph pump, with a marine land LED day / night light setup. I may have to get different lights for the 30 gallon we will see. Both tanks had salt added with the jets on for 3 days. I then added sand, 20 and 30 lbs respectivley. I pre washed the sand but still got a cloudy water base. I checked the salinity again and 2 days later added 21 lbs and 25 lbs of live rock to either tank. I will be adding a skimmer into each tank in a few weeks after the Nitrate and Ammonia levels are at thier proper lvls. Should I get a clean up crew in the tanks before adding fish? What type of fish should I use to get the tanks going, I can always buy them and then give them back to the store I purchased them from when ready to add fish I want in there. Is a 30 g tank too small for a spiny puffer?