Initial set up questions

[Chireaux]

Adding water to my tank for 1st time today and I have a few questions.
Here is what I have so far: 55 gal
Aquaclear job 110
30 lbs LR ( I know I need more)
60 pink Fiji sand
Fowlr tank ( adding corals later)

Here are my questions?
1)I'm adding tap water, from the hose and adding a primer to it. Any objections?
2)Can I immediately add salt, LR and sand? In what order?
3) when should I start running my filter? Immediately?
4) don't have power heads yet, is this a problem?
Thanks for the responses, this forum has been a great help

 

[mr_X]

1. you shouldn't due to not knowing what's in your water, but it's been done before with little to no adverse reaction.
2. add the salt, let it mix thoroughly, then add the rock, then the sand.
3. yes, immediately.
4. you are going to need some water movement to mix the salt into the water and then move the water to the rest of the tank. i would get at least one power head now and put it on the side without the HOB filter.

 

[Daisydoock19]

hello

 

[Rosenweiss]

hello

If you want to introduce yourself, you can do it on the member introduction category under forms. =]

 

[Henry405]

Some advice I wish I got when I first started:

Aquascape your rocks into what you want it to be before you add sand. Take a picture so you know what it looks like and remove all the rocks except the bottom rocks that will be surrounded by sand. After adding the sand, the water will become pretty cloudy and that is normal. Don't try to put the rest of your rocks in until your tank is pretty clear.

This will prevent your rocks from becoming covered with sand. For the past three days, every time my tank clears, I would blow some sand off my rocks until the water gets kinda cloudy and then wait until it clears again.

 

[kurtyboh]

Check this thread out to keep your tank from clouding.

 

[kurtyboh]

Check this thread out to keep your tank from clouding.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/easy-way-to-rinse-off-sand-143405.html

Forgot the link sorry!

 

[Chireaux]

I decided to clean my aquaclear hob filter today after a week of having the water in the tank, I figured it wouldn't hurt just because of all the Sand I poured in initially. After rinsing the filter out, I turned it back on and it immediately got the water extremely cloudy again. Am I doing something wrong possibly or is this normal for the first filter cleaning?

 

[Henry405]

It could had been that you had a lot of sand inside your aquaclear HOB filter BOX too. When I first started, I would dump the water in the box because there was a lot of sand and when you take out the filter pad, it would stir it up. Your water shouldn't take very long to clear up since not a lot of sand was mixed up

 

[Chireaux]

Ok I'll try that.
This doesn't happen during a normal filter cleaning right?

 

[Henry405]

It shouldn't. Its because your water was cloudy, when the filter sucked up the water, the sand got stuck behind the filter pad thus it stayed inside your filter box. When the water is clear, there wouldn't be sand floating around to get stuck inside your filter

 

[Chireaux]

I have a few questions about fish. I elected to go w a damsel for a few weeks to make sure I can keep him alive. But eventually I will prob return him bc
I would like to get 2 clown percula for sure. Any recommendations what else I could put with these. Also any recommendations on snail, shrimp etc. I have no idea about these or when I can even add them tithe tank?

 

[Henry405]

There are quite a lot of different fishes you can add to a 55g, just depends on preference. Link to compatibility chart at the end of the post.

CUC should be added before you add your fish and only after your tank is done cycling. If its still cycling, just wait. I personally don't really like snails, so the only kind I have are nassarius snails.

There are quite a few shrimps like fire shrimp, coral banded shrimp, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, etc. If you decide on the coral banded shrimp, its aggressive to other shrimps so keep that in mind. The other shrimps should be Ok with each other.

You can also add hermit crabs as part of your CUC.

 

[mr_X]

i would not go with a damsel at first because it's going to be a pain trying to catch him later. clown fish are just as hardy. as long as there is no detectable ammonia or nitrite and your nitrate levels are low you can add fish and inverts.

 

[Chireaux]

Henry. Did u post the compatability chart?

 

[Henry405]

sorry about that, it was late when I posted haha

Marine Compatability Chart

 

[Chireaux]

Awesome, thanks