Starting a new tank..

[Xathos]

Hello, I'm new to salt water aquariums and I bought some of the setup tonight and I'm excited to get started. I had some freshwater cichlids around 5 years ago so i'm not a complete novice, but I know saltwater is a lot more difficult to take care of.. Anyway, I plan on doing a FOWLR setup, so i have sufficient lighting for that, but not for coral. I bought a the following so far:

38 gallon tank
40 pounds of ocean direct live sand
Emperor 280 power filter
API Saltwater master test kit.
Hydrometer
Prime
Stability
50 Gallons Instant Ocean Reef Crystals..
A couple 5 gallon buckets.

So, yea, tons of research here I come.. though I am very excited to start everything, I know it won't be a few weeks or even a month until I can get fish for it..

I was told to wait until the tank is setup for a few days with everything running before I buy the 38 pounds of Live Rock and heater. so i will do that in a couple days.. Do you still think I need a powerhead for this small of a tank that isn't going to have coral?

Anything else you think I need that i might be missing? Just want to add I haven't started adding anything into to the tank yet, everything is still packed, I want to read as much as I can before I start.. I know about cycling from doing freshwater setups.. but I need to read if anything is different for saltwater setups. Thanks for your time.

 

[joy13]

If you can trade the hydrometer in for a refractometer t iis much more accurate and easy to use. I have noticed that water movement helps keep algae away so you might want to get a power head.

Take is slow and be patient is probably the best advice I have ever taken. Read up on problems people have with their tanks before you set yours up so you will know when stuff is going wrong or right for it.

Cycling is basically the same for both.

 

[melosu58]

We have some great SW articles in our article section. Esp the one on cycling.

 

[abdhalim2]

weLcOme to AA~~

 

[Xathos]

Thank you everyone for all your help so far, I appreciate it. So I woke up this morning and the tank is still super cloudy after 7 hours.. How long should I wait before I run my filter with the media at the back?

Tank.jpg picture by Wade_Stephens - Photobucket

 

[ronk]

You are going to want to get some water movement in there. Cloudiness will last a couple days.

 

[Xathos]

So i'm curious about Live Rock now, I found a bunch of ads for used live rock for half the price that the LFS has it for.. They are private sellers and local.. Actually even less than half the price.. Is there such a thing a 'bad' live rock?

 

[ronk]

You are always going to pay more for something at lfs. If you don't know your source for the lr it could carry with it more then just beneficial bacteria. Also if the lr was sitting out of water for a period of time it will have to be cured in your tank. But lr is expensive and if you are comfortable buying used lr then I would do it.

 

[ronk]

I know a guy local in nj that makes his own lr. And it is very nice clean, quality lr. So there are people out there that can get you good deals just be careful who you buy from.

 

[Xathos]

Just out of curiosity, in my above picture with the murky tank, what is all that gunk on the top layer? Sand? Salt?

 

[Xathos]

Update

So just a little update, my tank has cleared up quite a lot, but my salinity is a little too low. 1.016.. I just added some salt to raise it.. i'll check it again in 30 minutes or so.. I was planning on adding my live rock today/tomorrow so I can begin the cycling process, is there any reason I should wait for this? Does the Salinity have to be perfect for live rock ? Or can it be 1.020?

 

[ronk]

Your salinity should change almost instantly once you add more salt. If you added more salt you should be ok now. Get that rock in there. Try and add it all in one shot if you could.

 

[ronk]

What method are you going to use for your cycle?

 

[Xathos]

I was just gonna use 40 pounds of the live rock to cycle, from what I read I thought that was all I needed, I could be wrong though. Do I still need to do a fishless cycle even with the live rock in there? I thought it made it easier so I didn't have to do that.

 

[ronk]

That is good for your live rock. But you have to add a source of ammonia to the tank. You can add pure ammonia. Some use raw shrimp. Get a good liquid test kit to monitor your levels.

 

[ronk]

The population would recomend a fishless cycle. Your live rock will help speed up the cycle but your levels will still spike and fish will suffer.

 

[Xathos]

Yea, I definitely don't want to add fish for at least 3 weeks until all my levels are normalized. But I didn't think I wanted to add shrimp or anything at all cept the live rock.

 

[ronk]

You need to add the ammonia for your bacteria to feed on. this is when you will start seeing nitrite levels raise and then turned into nitrate. Eventually ammonia and nitrite will go to 0. And then your good

 

[kurtyboh]

I believe the shrimp ronk was reffering to comes from a grocer, get some as unprocessed as you can meaning uncooked unflavored frozen is ok.
Good luck!

kurtyboh

 

[ronk]

Yes good catch. Raw shrimp