new tank need tips or suggestions

[fishmania]

Went and bought a 45 gallon tank just started yesterday put in live from ocean direct and put my water in and checked it with the hydrometer and its running 1.022 water just cleared up and i put 25 pounds of a little bit live rock bought it from lfs he said it was just in there like a week so not to much purple on it just a little came from fiji just also wanting to know what else i sjould do or things i should look for in this process any help will be noted thank you very much. New to the saltwater world

 

[obscurereef]

Sounds cool...what's your filtration...are you eventually wanting to keep corals? 25 lbs of LR seems like not a lot for a 45 gallon since for LR usually people get 1-2 lbs per gallon. You could add base rock though (dry rock) and the LR would seed the dry rock. The salinity is a little low...usually 1.023-1.025 is ideal, but if you're going with a FOWLR (fish only w/ live rock) it should be fine. There's some good articles on here.

Important Information for Those New to the Aquarium Hobby - Aquarium Advice

To cycle it, I'd recommend putting in a shrimp from the grocery store. Put it in a bag and put in the tank until ammonia is at 4-5ppm. TEST KITS ARE VERY IMPORTANT...without them, you have no way to know if you're tank is thriving or dying until it's too late...
Cycle your salt tank - Aquarium Advice

Ammonia conversion to nitrate - Aquarium Advice

 

[fishmania]

For filtration i have the marineland 360 canister with filter pad ceramic rings boi balls carbon then sponge and since i have that little bit of sort of live rock i can still put the shrimp in there without hurting anything and also do you test until the ammonia is completly gone then it means its cycled

 

[fishmania]

I was also going to say i probably wont do corals just live rock

 

[obscurereef]

Yes you'll need another source of ammonia b/c the die-off from the live rock will be some ammonia, but most likely not enough. The shrimp method is the cheap and easy, but it stinks...I used pure ammonia (you can get some from a hardware store). The cycle is not done until you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, and your nitrates aren't off the charts. How I knew the cycle for my tank was complete was when I added the dosage of ammonia to the tank and if within 24 hours the ammonia and nitrite dropped to 0 then it was cycled. Don't add fish until nitrates are under control and as low as possible! I added chromis when I had 20 ppm of nitrate. Other fish (and def. inverts) will be more sensitive, but with a FOWLR it's okay to have higher nitrates and phosphates than it is in a reef setup. One other thing (kind of random), is when your water evaporates, add freshwater because when the water evaporates, salt is left behind ergo raising the salinity. If you kept adding saltwater every time water evaporated you would be raising the salinity too high and might even kill your fish if it gets too high. This does not apply for water changes.

 

[fishmania]

Ok i just went and got a pretty big shrimp and threw it in the tank so here we go i guess its just a waiting game now any other suggestions for me i appreciate all your help

 

[obscurereef]

Great! Now...for the slow process until the cycle ends. It's hard to have patience, but it's definitely very important! I know it was hard to wait until the cycle ended!

 

[Coel]

from what ive read make sure the shrimp is in a net or sock or something that way when it breaks apart it will be easier to remove.

 

[obscurereef]

Yes very true! It would be best to take it out when ammonia reaches 4-5 ppm.

 

[fishmania]

Wanted to know whenever i am doing the cycle method with the shrimp do i still need to do weekly water changes