New salt water tank help

[sehrhart]

I just received a 60-65 gallon hex tank with a stand, wet/dry filter, prtoien skimmer, pumps and heaters all for FREE

Now i don't know what to do??? looking for some advise.

The only thing I have worked out so far is i need the substrate to be 6" this way i can reach the bottom. Im going to use crushed coral considering i have tons of it when i over purchased for my cichlid tanks.

So here are my questions.

1. can I seed my tank with some crushed coral from my cichlid tank?

2. I suppose i will get some rock from the lfs do i have to buy live rock? I am not planning on corals at this time.

3. As far a stocking I have to get some clown fish my 6yr old insists. what else do you recommend? And do i have to get a anemone? If so then would i need live rock and special lighting?

I'm not afraid to spend some money with this but I do want to keep it to a minimum.

Thanks

 

[crister13]

I would not use the sand from you cichlid tank. As for LR, you dont HAVE to get it but it will help you ALOT. If you wasnt to keep cost at a minimum, buy base rock and one medium sized piece of LR to seed it. For anemones, they require VERY VERY VERY high lighting to survive. Some people reccomend over 5 watts per gallon, I personally dont think this is needed, but for a 20" deep tank go at least 200 watts. For what to do start your cycle! You can look up how to do this on google. You will need test kits and for this you SHOULD HAVE LR. It will make your cycle A LOT easier. Your specific gravity should be in between 1.020 and 1.025. Clownfish do not need anemones but they LIKE them. Definately not needed though. You could do a snowflake eel but the only issue is that he might eat your clownfish. They are AMAZING with AMAZING personalities though. I have one myself, and hes one of my favorits. You could do all sorts of fish. Gobies, basslets, blennys, wrasses (not all types. I have a bird wrasse and they require minimum of 125g. I have him in my 150g) and a lot more. Really just personal preference if the fish are compatible. You need to do A LOT of research before getting into saltwater, and I wish you luck. You may also be able to get small tangs. GL!

 

[puffballurchin]

I would suggest using a new bag of crushed coral and get mature live rocks(the rocks should be maturing for OVER a month any less get your live rocks from somewhere else)...after your tank has cycled you will have cheap live sand ^^ The reason why you need live rock is so you have a source to add bacteria to your tank...the reason why u can't take sand from your cichlid tank is that freshwater and saltwater have different types of bacteria in the system

I would suggest cycling your tank for a month before adding fish...don't add CUC right away since you will have little to no algae built up (I know some people wait about 2 weeks, but i always wait a month before adding anything)

Make sure your skimmer is working properly and it is the right size for the tank...many used skimmers create lots of air bubbles in the tank...which can kill your fish...if you are not sure if your skimmer is working properly bring it to your lfs...also your skimmer should be made for a tank that is 90 gallons+ ...fishies are dirty and you need a large skimmer to help keep them clean (my one tank is 200 gallons and i have a skimmer made for a 400 gallon tank)

Clowns are easy to take care of and should be paired with an anemone...you will have to have the special lighting made for corals in order to house an anemone in your tank (if it does not come with a timer to switch from night to day lights pick up a cheap outdoor timer from any hardware store)...but clowns do have symbiosis relationship with anemone so they belong together ... if you do get a pair with an anemone i would recommend putting them in together at the same time...clowns LOVE to eat so you will have to be carefully not to over feed (no matter how much they beg)...one last thing about clowns is that they can change their sex at will...which means if you get two males one will change to become female...so they may produce eggs, but unless you are adding special baby food the eggs will not develop...

 

[carey]

Hi, grats on the free tank and gear!!!

I wouldnt use any cichlid crushed coral, actually crused coral can result in nitrates from what I've read so i stuck with regular old argonite sand mostly, you can also use pool filter sand, about $5 for 50 lbs from home depot or a pool supply store.

Depending on your lights will dictate whether you should get an anenome or not. Personally I wouldnt get one for quite some time as they require intense lighting, an established tank and pristine stable water parameters. The one I had was more trouble than it was worth so I returned it after a few months. There is also no guarantee that clowns will host, its totally hit or miss. My clowns didnt host the nem but they did host an elegance coral until they almost killed it. Hosting is not always the best thing for clown or host.

As far as rock you can buy dead base rock for about $2.5 a lb and add a few lbs of live rock, it will seed the dead rock and voila all live rock after a few weeks.

Clowns are a great fish to start with, if you intend on having two though get them at the same time, can avoid aggression and then they will pair up.

Hope that helped a bit!

 

[sehrhart]

Thanks for all of the wonderful info.

 

[sehrhart]

Another question

Water. Do I need to get ro salt water from lfs? I really don't want to pay $ 60 for water

 

[carey]

You should be using ro/di water to avoid any issues, you can buy the water and mix your own salt in, or if they sell it, you can buy their premixed salt water.

Depending onhow big your tank is the $60 for a ro/di unit might be a good investment.

 

[CarpetAnenomes]

I have a green carpet and a 18 inch sebae anemone that all my clowns host my gold stripe maroons and ocellaris clowns host my sebae and my clarkii clown host my carpet which he willing shares with my gold stripe I wouldn't mix them together my are doing fine now but they will start getting terriotorial soi have a backup plan for that if u throw in an anemone first with ur clowns besides any other coral chances are they will host it just make sure u have ur tank up for at least 6 months as carpets whichare the main ones they host are difficult and demand perfect parameters and lights