Kdcarey;1392159; said:
I have a tank but i bought it setup and have maintance every few weeks
i am getting a new tank and plan to mantain it myself
IT is 135gal, (2) Emperor 400 HOB Filters, Glass Tops, real malaysian drift wood, plants rocks, sand and light.
ya so how do i start??
What water do i add im guessing not tap
do i need a protein filter?
I want to put minnows in from the bay.
how long do i have to wait?
ohh and how muh salt do i need?
and be specific im not the best with abbreviations and explain where i get this stuff if needed
You don't want to put drift wood in a saltwater tank because it releases acids which lower the pH of water. It may also start to rot. In saltwater it is important to keep your water buffered to a pH of about 8.0 or above. Any addition of stuff that lowers pH won't help you maintain the correct pH.
Plants - Real or fake? There are only certain plants you can keep in a saltwater aquarium. All of them are types of algae as far as I know (besides some mangrove species).
The amount of salt you need depends on what you are going to keep in the tank. Hardy saltwater fish can be optionally kept in a pretty low salinity, some species prefer higher, and if you want to keep corals the salinity normally has to be kept in a higher range. A 5g bucket of instant ocean salt for 35$ or so on drsfosterandsmith.com provides around 150g of water at a salinity of around 1.025 (this will depend a lot on the water you use with it).
If you want to keep minnows from a body of water near your house, you'd best test the salinity in that water and try to keep the salinity at your home similar.
You can use tap water on a fish only tank but you may end up with pretty bad algae. If your water has nitrates in it I wouldn't suggest using it even for that. If you want to keep corals I'd suggest RO or else you will likely be constantly fighting against the tapwter to keep your tank healthy and looking good.
You don't need a protein skimmer but it will make it easier on you (less water changes to keep your tank healthy). I don't use a protein skimmer on my reef tank but I have a large sump with a deep sand bed and macroalgae. My husband runs a protein skimmer on his FOWLR tank.
You will need some powerheads for circulation. Two emperor 400's aren't going to provide too much turnover.
How long you have to wait will depend on how you cycle your tank. A normal cycle takes 4-6 weeks a lot like on a FW tank. You add an ammonia source and wait until ammonia and nitrites are 0. If you set it up with cured live rock (cycled...things on the rock have already died and it has built up plenty of bacteria along with some visible life) it won't take nearly as long and may be ready immediately.
You can also cycle a tank by adding uncured (uncycled) live rock which will have die off causing an ammonia spike. Once ammonia and nitrites are at 0 you will be ready to add fish.
If you do a FOWLR tank (fish only with live rock) you will need about 1 lb per gallon of live rock or more. If you're just looking at doing fish and using water changes to keep nitrates in check you can decorate the tank however you want (no driftwood though!
), but you will likely have to do more maintenance than if you use live rock since live rock helps to keep nitrates in check.
