Thinking of trying my hand at Saltwater.

[Jess1ca]

Checked out the tank today. It is a total mess. It hasn't had any maintenance in weeks. The water is sooo cloudy... There is Aptasia (sp?) EVERYWHERE. There are I think 3 fish and a BIG starfish, I seen a bunch of hermits. The corals are all dead and dying. . She said she has lost some fish because she wasn't able to care for them. Idk what I can do with this because honestly, I don't know what I'm doing... Do I dive into this and try to bring this tank back to life?? Can I? Totally not what the pictures looked like lol...

 

[Annakhil]

Did you take pics of it when you got there? I would like to see how bad it was

And what they advertised it to look like

 

[Jess1ca]

Did you take pics of it when you got there? I would like to see how bad it was

And what they advertised it to look like

I didn't, I left my phone in the car.. I will tho, supposed to meet back up Saturday @ 10am... I guess really I'd be getting what I paid for maybe for just $90?!

 

[Annakhil]

If anything it's free live sand and live rock, so not a bad deal, plus you could probAbly sell the fish to a LFS and get some credit

 

[Mrc8858]

I agree... If its that bad you should just do what I was saying earlier. Ask her if you could bag up the livestock before moving the tank if possible and take it to a lfs/lps for credit or even donation. Cut that as a loss cause your still getting a killer deal on equipment and rock.

 

[Jess1ca]

Would it be a bad idea to try to move the tank without taking out the sandbed?

 

[DanS180]

Would it be a bad idea to try to move the tank without taking out the sandbed?

You could but you're gonna wanna rinse it out before using it, by traveling with it in the tank(and I'm assuming in a lil bit of water) you're gonna stir it up and release all sorts of crap lol

 

[Mrc8858]

Would it be a bad idea to try to move the tank without taking out the sandbed?

I left my sand bed in my tank when I moved along with a ton of hermits and snails but I also did a massive water change after I moved it. I'm battling hair algae where the rocks met the old sand line since I rescaped. Here's what I mean.

 

[Jess1ca]

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I was out picking up supplies for this. Here's what I got.

2 32g garbage cans
3 5g buckets (is that enough?!)
Hydrometer (didnt have a refractometer)
2 portable battery operated air pumps
Tubing & airstones
Bag of salt, enough for 50g
Tote to put fish & rock in while I set up.
30g of water from Walmart (haha the checkout lady was NOT impressed lol)

I still need styro to transport the fish & a test kit because my petsmart was conveniently out of sw kits ... Can I use my fw kit to get a roundabout on the readings till mine gets here? ( gonna have to order it dang it) my plan is to start mixing sw now and throw a powerhead and maybe an airstone in it and in the morning ill borrow a heater from one of the other tanks to get the water the right temp. Do I have to drip acclimate the fish to the new water? Can I make one out of tubing? I've decided on bringing only 40g of the water back with me.

Dang idk how I will rinse this sand because I have pretty much no water to waste really... Maybe after I syphon out the 40g I'm keeping I will just rinse it with that? Then put it in buckets? This is quite the production

How does the plan sound?? Good? Do I put the rock in with the fish or seperately? How the heck do I move the giant star? If any corals are alive can they be exposed to air to get them out? HELP!

 

[DanS180]

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I was out picking up supplies for this. Here's what I got.

2 32g garbage cans
3 5g buckets (is that enough?!)
Hydrometer (didnt have a refractometer)
2 portable battery operated air pumps
Tubing & airstones
Bag of salt, enough for 50g
Tote to put fish & rock in while I set up.
30g of water from Walmart (haha the checkout lady was NOT impressed lol)

I still need styro to transport the fish & a test kit because my petsmart was conveniently out of sw kits ... Can I use my fw kit to get a roundabout on the readings till mine gets here? ( gonna have to order it dang it) my plan is to start mixing sw now and throw a powerhead and maybe an airstone in it and in the morning ill borrow a heater from one of the other tanks to get the water the right temp. Do I have to drip acclimate the fish to the new water? Can I make one out of tubing? I've decided on bringing only 40g of the water back with me.

Dang idk how I will rinse this sand because I have pretty much no water to waste really... Maybe after I syphon out the 40g I'm keeping I will just rinse it with that? Then put it in buckets? This is quite the production

How does the plan sound?? Good? Do I put the rock in with the fish or seperately? How the heck do I move the giant star? If any corals are alive can they be exposed to air to get them out? HELP!

You can use the FW kit for the time being.. obviously only testing ammo nitrite and nitrates. Id acclimate them just to be on the safe side, and yeah u can make a drip hose out of air line, just tie a couple loose knots in it to slow down/speed up the drip

I'm not sure about rinsing the sand, um id put the rock and fish in separate containers just to avoid any accidents.

If any corals are alive then id expose them to as little air as possible.. if you feel they r getting too much air then just splash some water on them. That's what I do when I do WC's and my corals pop outta the water..

Other than this, not too sure on the other stuff lol hopefully I helped a little bit

 

[Jess1ca]

You can use the FW kit for the time being.. obviously only testing ammo nitrite and nitrates. Id acclimate them just to be on the safe side, and yeah u can make a drip hose out of air line, just tie a couple loose knots in it to slow down/speed up the drip

I'm not sure about rinsing the sand, um id put the rock and fish in separate containers just to avoid any accidents.

If any corals are alive then id expose them to as little air as possible.. if you feel they r getting too much air then just splash some water on them. That's what I do when I do WC's and my corals pop outta the water..

Other than this, not too sure on the other stuff lol hopefully I helped a little bit

Helps a TON! Thank you!! Ok, one more question haha... What about this stuff? Bought it when I was cycling my African tank not knowing it was for sw... Should I use it?

 

[Jess1ca]

I also need to know how to move this star fish, I'm really worried about it! I think it's one that can't be exposed to air....

 

[Jess1ca]

Here we go!

 

[Mrc8858]

Did you get it home already or is that at the sellers house?

 

[Jess1ca]

Did you get it home already or is that at the sellers house?

At their house, water cleared up nice but the fish are sick, cloudy eyes and one has a white fungus on it :/ packing it up now.

 

[Mrc8858]

At their house, water cleared up nice but the fish are sick, cloudy eyes and one has a white fungus on it :/ packing it up now.

Sorry to hear about the fish but hey, atleast if they make it they will be getting much better care from now on goodluck with the rest of the move and ill leave you be unless you have any more questions lol

 

[Jess1ca]

Sorry to hear about the fish but hey, atleast if they make it they will be getting much better care from now on goodluck with the rest of the move and ill leave you be unless you have any more questions lol

Yea dont leave me yet haha! Bout to leave the house then ill be home in about 1/2 hour their temp is only 67* cannot believe they are alive!!

 

[Mrc8858]

Ya that's getting pretty cold. Can't wait to see the first pics after setting up

 

[Annakhil]

What kind of fish are there? I'm shocked they didn't freeze.

Good luck ill be praying for a safe trip

 

[Jess1ca]

What kind of fish are there? I'm shocked they didn't freeze.

Good luck ill be praying for a safe trip

Thank you! So far everyone is still alive, there is some kind of Foxface, a damsel and a black & white fish, idk what that is. I'm not sure the star is gonna make it :/ I put a heater in the tote and they are all huddled up to it I got most of the water in and am putting in rock now, the water is super cloudy... I hope I didn't have to acclimate the rock, I got 1/2 of it in already!!!

Ya that's getting pretty cold. Can't wait to see the first pics after setting up

Soon! Very soon