Very first saltwater tank

[staffen13]

What do you guys think. It's in my dinning room. It's a 55 gallon saltwater tank. My very first saltwater tank. I had many freshwater tanks before. What do you guys think a good stock would be?

 

[dingusplease]

View attachment 235977
What do you guys think. It's in my dinning room. It's a 55 gallon saltwater tank. My very first saltwater tank. I had many freshwater tanks before. What do you guys think a good stock would be?

Rockscape looks good! Is it going to be a reef?

 

[staffen13]

Yes for now. I was to switch it over after I get more experience with saltwater.

 

[Bectan01]

Looking good, I keep a 55 too - what's your set up like? I would say an air bubbler is not such a good idea for saltwater and you may need more flow for a reef tank. Just out of curiosity did you use tap water for this set up? Check out liveaquaria.com for fish selections. You can select tank size and compatibility.

 

[staffen13]

I didn't know you didn't need an air filter in the tank. And yes I did use tap water. I have been testing it weekly and it has been running 3 weeks with no fish and a week and half with 2 damsels still testing the water and it's doing great so far. I just bought my clean up crew from them they have pretty good prices. I will probably be stocking my tank with a lot of there fish.

 

[bribo12]

Yes I'd definitely remove the bubbler. What are your plans for stocking?

 

[Mebbid]

Looks like you're off to a good start!

 

[uh.oh...]

I swear I'm not intentionally raining on your parade, and I think its great that you're excited about this set up. But I want to be honest, so you know what you're getting into. Filling your tank with tap water has done you in for a lot of headaches in the future, and its going to take a lot of patience before the end of it. Tap water is typically full of phosphate (to preserve the pipes) chloride, silicates, fluoride, ect... these things are the reason why people suggest you buy and RODI unit. All of this translates into some nasty algae and a truly scary cycle. But don't become disheartened, once your done you'll realize it was worth it, and you'll have a tank that is completely 100% your own.

Look at these: Ro/Di and read some of this: Reef keeping 101

 

[Mebbid]

I swear I'm not intentionally raining on your parade, and I think its great that you're excited about this set up. But I want to be honest, so you know what you're getting into. Filling your tank with tap water has done you in for a lot of headaches in the future, and its going to take a lot of patience before the end of it. Tap water is typically full of phosphate (to preserve the pipes) chloride, silicates, fluoride, ect... these things are the reason why people suggest you buy and RODI unit. All of this translates into some nasty algae and a truly scary cycle. But don't become disheartened, once your done you'll realize it was worth it, and you'll have a tank that is completely 100% your own.

Look at these: Ro/Di and read some of this: Reef keeping 101

This depends entirely on your source water. Me personally, I have great tap water and use it in my reef. It's been up and running for over a year now without any problems at all minus the ones I created through the learning process. I've also never had any algae problems minus a ting diatom outbreak at the beginning.

This is definitely not typical but its not the end of the world with you using tap and indeed many people say that its fine to fill with tap as long as subsequent water changes are done with ro / Di.

 

[bond300]

Looking good! But I would get rid of the Damsels!!!!! Add 2 percula clowns a very hardy fish....the Nemo's

 

[Oscarr19]

This depends entirely on your source water. Me personally, I have great tap water and use it in my reef. It's been up and running for over a year now without any problems at all minus the ones I created through the learning process. I've also never had any algae problems minus a ting diatom outbreak at the beginning.

This is definitely not typical but its not the end of the world with you using tap and indeed many people say that its fine to fill with tap as long as subsequent water changes are done with ro / Di.

+1

I've seen many reefs successfully run of tap water. Some people even swear by it.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

I would never use tap because you don't know what's in it. A lot of tap water has things added that are good for us, but harmful to fish and especially inverts.

 

[bribo12]

I'm with bigred, while some tap water is very good much of it is not. I used it to start my first tank and was hit with massive algae blooms. Needless to say I've bought an rodi and it was close to the best investment I made for my tank.

 

[Mebbid]

I'm with bigred, while some tap water is very good much of it is not. I used it to start my first tank and was hit with massive algae blooms. Needless to say I've bought an rodi and it was close to the best investment I made for my tank.

Part of me wonders how much of an algae bloom is caused by tap water and how much is caused by a tank's natural aging. People commonly start a salt water tank, get an algae bloom, panic, and then buy an RO/DI system. After the ro/di system is in use the algae goes away. It's common knowledge however that all tanks will go through algae cycles.

I'm not saying to skip the ro/di but rather just thinking out loud.

 

[bribo12]

That's a good point. I feel that gets overlooked, I know I just did but I do feel that tap still causes a much bigger bloom than starting with rodi would. It will also continuously fuel it if you have exceptionally cruddy tap water.

 

[Ravden]

Guess it all depends on where you live. I use tap in my fw but will be getting ro from lfs to start my salty till I can get a unit going in house.

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[alyxandria]

Why don't you take a sample of the water and bring it to a water testing facility? I'm pretty sure they tell you exactly what's in the sample.

Sorry just a thought

Sent from my iPhone.

 

[camaroerik21]

Was wondering could you use water from the water mill.. You know like Those places where you can refill your 5 gallon bottles of water?

 

[Cichlid-dude]

I wouldnt use any other water than ro/di in a saltwater tank. Maybe distilled. Saltwater is way different than freshwater. I learned this the hard way starting my saltwater tank with tap water. I had huge amounts of algae growing and was a long long battle getting rid of it. In my opinion a ro/di system is one of the most important things you can have for this hobby.


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[CNew66]

Use distilled until you have access to RO/DI. You will spend a hefty amount on it doing top offs and water changes. But its much better than tap water.

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