Questions about setting up Saltwater Tank.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Otherone said:
WooooWha...............

For starters just about every large aquarium across the country uses Sand filters ....... with that being said most rays enjoy a dsb so all this talk of marine sand being bad is just plain garbage. However they are very much correct about your tank size, your filtration size and type................. your biggest problem tho is complete lack of marine animal care.

I've seen 1st hand Dogfish living well in a 300gal tank w/ a 125 gal sump containing 100+ lbs of LR and a 4" deep sand bed - no skimmer - and he uses de-chlorinated tap water. He also has no lighting at all. Not all sharks grow to 14'.

Phosphate eating bacteria really??? Even if it exists it has no effects on an F/O tank - heck who has a po4 reactor on an fw tank? Who uses r/o di water in FW? Does anyone have a protein skimmer on their FW? My 12-24" FW's live in de- chlorinated tap water and my 16" Caribe is almost 10 years old. PO4 in a fish only tank is a non issue SW or FW. The issues with F/O are the same as FW - Nitrates 20ppm or less via large volume w/c's which also becomes a money issue with salinity. If you can afford to buy lottsa salt no worries.

Go back to the drawing board - rethink filtration and tank size - research research research - what you want to do is not impossible.
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No offence but bacteria are used to consume P04 and N03 in marine tanks, research carbon dosing and biopellets also skimmers don't work in FW. Sharks and rays actually need better water quality than most corals and nearly all marine fish do and certainly a lot more room. RO/DI is too pure for FW fish, your not even meant to drink it yourself and is used to mix with artificial salt that also contains all the necessary minerals and trace elements and also to replace pure evaporation. Good advice about going back to the drawing board though.
 
@Otherone haha good catch meant to say that the bacteria on the rock eats up nitrites and converts them to nitrates. And yeah fish fingers has it down... bac eats up little bits of phosphates and nitrates. But otherwise otherone, wasn't sure what you were getting at in your post. Did you mean; don't run SW on a fw setup? Because from what I hear OP is setting tearing down his/her fw to convert it to a sw setup. Anyways OP you have lots of good suggestions; but what I would advise is rethinking your tank plans in a long term plan.
 
So, I got a protein skimmer and 1 1/2 inch of crushed coral and like 30 lbs of Live Rock. How would I cycle my tank? and when should I put in the Live Rock?
 
That all depends on what kind of cycle you want to do, Fishless or start the cycle with fish. If you wanna do a non-fishless cycle just put the live rock in and get the aqua scape how you want it and then in about a week go get a hardy fish, some may say damsels but I wouldn't, you could get away with a clown fish. I would suggest doing a fishless cycle, just put the live rock in and then buy a test kit if you haven't, put a raw piece of shrimp in the tank for a day to kick start the cycle and then constantly watch your parameters. Also the most important part in all this is research, lots and lots and lots of research.
 
ckcdrummer said:
That all depends on what kind of cycle you want to do, Fishless or start the cycle with fish. If you wanna do a non-fishless cycle just put the live rock in and get the aqua scape how you want it and then in about a week go get a hardy fish, some may say damsels but I wouldn't, you could get away with a clown fish. I would suggest doing a fishless cycle, just put the live rock in and then buy a test kit if you haven't, put a raw piece of shrimp in the tank for a day to kick start the cycle and then constantly watch your parameters. Also the most important part in all this is research, lots and lots and lots of research.
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oh i put in damsels already and my rock , couldn't wait! lol
 
I would get more rock as soon as you can... I recommend at least 1.5lb per gallon to be safe, and some type of stability product, but at least you've listened to some of what's been said. Did you test your salinity and ph before putting the damsels in? Get a hydrometer and test kit if you don't have one


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MermaidMan said:
oh i put in damsels already and my rock , couldn't wait! lol
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Ok thats not really a problem, damsels are very hardy so they should be fine. I will warn you though they can be major a-holes to other fish you introduce after so you may want to think about removing them once you get another fish.
 
probassfisher010 said:
I would get more rock as soon as you can... I recommend at least 1.5lb per gallon to be safe, and some type of stability product, but at least you've listened to some of what's been said. Did you test your salinity and ph before putting the damsels in? Get a hydrometer and test kit if you don't have one


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Not exactly, you don't need to start off with all live rock. You have enough live rock to buy dry rock and the live will seed it over time turning it into live rock. But I would get some more dry rock and you should be good, also instead of a hydrometer I would suggest a refractometer. I've dealt with both and i have to say the refractometers are much more accurate and reliable.
 
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