New to salt aquariums

[POLARBEAR0871]

Your gonna have to go with simpler terms idk any thing this is my first time doing this no one in my family has ever had a salt tank and my family is from Miami Florida lol

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

What's purple coralline I've never heard of it

 

[Bectan01]

What kind of plants? I don't have any experience with plants in salt water tanks. The rock provides your basic natural filtration, as said before and it provides hiding places for fish also - which is very important. Perhaps you should read some of the articles here on setting up a saltwater tank and what is involved maintenance wise before you go any further. I can tell you that salt water is not cheap to set up and requires a lot of time and maintenance than say freshwater tanks - it is, however much more rewarding!

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Yeah I've been doing freshwater predator tanks for almost a year and I finally got enough money to start a salt tank so I was like eh I'll try it out

 

[bmckee727]

Sorry, live rock won't grow plants, it will keep good bacteria and turn cool colors with a scale like growth. If you get plain dry base rock (rock that was once live but has been dried out) it's alot cheaper than the stuff that's been kept wet. Get 35#s of it and another 10#s or more of live rock

 

[bmckee727]

What kind of plants? I don't have any experience with plants in salt water tanks. The rock provides your basic natural filtration, as said before and it provides hiding places for fish also - which is very important. Perhaps you should read some of the articles here on setting up a saltwater tank and what is involved maintenance wise before you go any further. I can tell you that salt water is not cheap to set up and requires a lot of time and maintenance than say freshwater tanks - it is, however much more rewarding!

Couldn't agree more, RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH. $200+ worth of fish is not fun to lose in a blink of an eye. Your in the right place tho, I've found plenty of well experienced ppl always willing to give some good advice to someone in need.

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Thnx so the live rock tends to turn colors or lol its confusing

 

[bmckee727]

It's a growth, it can be different colors purple being my fav.

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Omg I want purple lol it's my fav color

 

[bmckee727]

Lol, mine too. Just research and then research some more. Every little thing can result in an expensive mistake so take your time. Nothing SW comes fast so enjoy it and make sure your ready for the next step at hand before taking it.

 

[Mebbid]

Plants in a saltwater aquarium generally refer to a type of macro algae. Things like Gracilaria, mermaid's fan, and pencil cap are some of the ones you can grow.

Most will attach and grow on live rock just fine.

The purple coralline algae seems to be the most common and popular. I have both the green and purple in my tank and honestly, I think they are both awesome. I hope they both continue to grow.

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Sweet that sounds so cool yeah I'm defiantly getting and pouring the sand tomorrow now for live rock I have to have special light or would a normal blue light work

 

[Bectan01]

You would normally go rock first, then sand. For the cycle you don't need lights on but you should have a heater and you water movement. Did you check out some saltwater articles on here? Pretty great info on setting up a tank...

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Oh ok rock then sand ok I gotta remember that and if I don't have a filter what do I use for water movement lol someone told me to get a skimmer what is that

 

[Bectan01]

If you are not using a filter then I recommend a protein skimmer for sure. It removes excess nutrients from the water. They usually don't create water movement so you will need a couple of powerheads (they are like fans) to create flow...

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Ok are they really noisy or are they really quite cuz I already have a filter that's super loins hooked up to a 55 gallon tank

 

[Bectan01]

Mine is quiet, some if the cheaper ones can be noisy. You really need a decent one tho, a cheap one will only cause you grief down the road...

 

[POLARBEAR0871]

Ok will do I finally got it its at exactly 1.025 so happy now I don't have to worry bout it that much

 

[Bectan01]

Cool, remember to top off with ro-di water to keep the salinity steady. As water evaporates the salt doesn't, so it increases your salinity

 

[Tkey3425]

For flow grab a cheap powerhead if you're not running a filter.