Suggestions- new tank day 7

[Elitehunter1]

Ok first of all I acknowledge I have broken the cardinal rule and have been impatient . Also I believe I may have fell victim to a few pet store owners who although were very knowledgable, their advice may have been profit oriented (who woulda thunk). I jumped into this hobby completely green, and limited to the research I have done online. Now that the truth is on the table here's what I've got.

I have a 60 gallon aquarium with a 90 gallon filter. Apprx 20 lbs live sand and 35 lbs live rock(about 5 pounds came from san diego ocean). I have 3 mollies which were added two days after running the tank with live sand only. I also have a few crabs that were added a two days ago (from San Diego).

Based on my research it sounded like it was frowned upon to add items from the ocean. My twisted logic was it would cause an imbalance that would allow me to practice my troubleshooting techniques while there was minimal invested in the tank.

As of today my results are:

PH 8.2-8.4
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate about 5ppm
Gravity 1.025

Although I recognize I am due for the "listen here newbie" lecture, please limit any advice to constructive criticism so I dont have the urge to scrap the project and cry myself to sleep

Any advise would be much appreciated !

 

[austinsdad]

Read our articles section. Look for sw fishless cycling. Do some googling on it too. See what you think then. How long has the rock and livestock been in the tank?

 

[Greenmaster]

First advice from me would be to go out and buy about another 60lbs of dry or live rock. (If you didn't say you were impatient I might have suggested making your own cause it sounds like you are trying to save money) This hobby is expensive to get started and expensive to keep going (Although it's cheaper than smoking) Over time people will recommend a protein skimmer and sump but they are not a necessity (they just help to make things work better.)

 

[Elitehunter1]

The sand was day one, and the mollies and about 30 lbs of live rock and 15 more pounds of live sand were day two. I added another few pounds of rock pulled from San Diego bay along with a few crabs and a snail day five.

 

[Greenmaster]

Crabs may be a problem at some point.

 

[Elitehunter1]

I agree with the crab concern, and I expected to get rid of them for that reason. How do you make your own love rock? Also what do you guys think of the current levels? Normal?

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

Welcome! and pics!

I would also say get more rock, levels look normal, you should see a spike in ammonia for the cycle at some point.

 

[Greenmaster]

Making your own rock takes months for it to be ready for your tank... and being impatient makes it take longer... I learned that the hard way...
But here is how I made the rock... DIY ROCK VIDEO AND Q/A

 

[Elitehunter1]

Kudos to your rock process. Looks like it's well worth the work/wait. You allow the rock to just soak for a couple months or?

 

[Gti_Leo]

Making your own rock takes months for it to be ready for your tank... and being impatient makes it take longer... I learned that the hard way...
But here is how I made the rock... DIY ROCK VIDEO AND Q/A

how come you soaked your rock in the ocean? you may have picked up some un wanted hitchhicker that way, you would have become live simply by addign a shrimp or ammonia to start a cycle and wouldn't have to worry about anything bad in your system or just seeded with 20lbs of LR from a petstore

 

[imtcurveball]

I agree with the crab concern, and I expected to get rid of them for that reason. How do you make your own love rock? Also what do you guys think of the current levels? Normal?

Hes not talking about making your own rock...hes talking about making your own driftwood. Take a large saucepan and boil the driftwood to sterilize it before it goes int he aquarium.

 

[Elitehunter1]

I didn't, I got a few pound of rock from the ocean. I was told it was kosher and was done all the time by other customers ( from the fish store owner). I am finding more and more there is many different opinions. Either way I guess it will turn into a learning experience if I did put some hitchhikers in there. It will give me some much needed experience in trouble shooting the problem. It will be along time before I think about putting any delicate items in the tank anyway.

 

[Elitehunter1]

According to the video it looked like he was making rock. Unless it's called drift wood cause it's fake?

 

[Greenmaster]

Hes not talking about making your own rock...hes talking about making your own driftwood. Take a large saucepan and boil the driftwood to sterilize it before it goes int he aquarium.

It's rock... This is the SW section not FW...
Other names for it are oystercrete, cement rock, aragocrete, homade/DIY rock

how come you soaked your rock in the ocean? you may have picked up some un wanted hitchhicker that way, you would have become live simply by addign a shrimp or ammonia to start a cycle and wouldn't have to worry about anything bad in your system or just seeded with 20lbs of LR from a petstore

I soaked my rock in the ocean because I didn't want to be bothered with running that much water through it... I didn't use the ocean to cycle my rock... I used it to let the lime and other chemicals in the cement leach out.
After I took it out of the ocean I let it dry completely out and then soaked it in FW for a while... I then put it into my tank and ran water through it a few (10-20) times in order to finish (I rushed it a bit in the beginning).
To "seed" my tank I used bottled bacteria and I used aqua ammonia to cycle.

 

[Hinds04]

how come you soaked your rock in the ocean? you may have picked up some un wanted hitchhicker that way, you would have become live simply by addign a shrimp or ammonia to start a cycle and wouldn't have to worry about anything bad in your system or just seeded with 20lbs of LR from a petstore

you can just add ammonia and watch base rock become live. You still have to introduce the benefitial bacteria via a piece of live rock or "bacteria bottle from LFS".