Seeding and Setup Question

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sericinda

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 1, 2010
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sunkistbubbles.blogspot.com
I am a complete and total newbie to saltwater....please bear with me.

I have decided to convert my freshwater 29g biocube into a saltwater FISH ONLY setup...sorta.

I would like to add some liverock in there, but not much. I planned to do fish only without live rock, but now I'm rethinking that. However, with the decor I have in there, there is not much room for more than live rock rubble, and I would like to keep it that way.

How would I go about seeding this tank and adding SOME live rock to get the biological filter seeded and started? The lady at the pet store said to just put a few pounds of live rock in it, but I'm at loss beyound that.

Should I put liverock in the tank, in the chambers...say 5-6 pounds...and just leave it be? When would I be able to add a CUC and start adding fish if I do it this way?

I do not plan to have corals at this point in time. The live rock I have access too is in the tanks at the fish store so I'm assuming it is cured?
 
Well... firstly welcome to the salt side haha, second I'm curious about a few things before I can give any definative answers.

So converting, fine no probs people do it all the time, but what is your substrate? and what are you reffering to as "Decor" in the tank as many things tend not to transefer well from fresh to salt as salt is a harsh environment comparitively.

So if you aren't using live rock what is your plan for biofiltration? Canister filter?

As for seeding the tank thats pretty simple, just place live rock (any amount more is faster but less will work) from another system or new stuff w/e (so long as its live not "dry" or "dead" new rock) and then you start cycling as per normal.

As for cured, yes and no, often adding new rock results in a cycle anyway, both cured or uncured, which is a good thing, as it will seed the tank better, but I would still recomend starting the cycle properly so as to ensure your bio is ready for fish.
 
Thanks for the welcome!

Letsee...the substrate is marine sand...not live sand. It was packaged as safe for fresh or salt. The decor is just a bunch of fake reefs and corals...very realistic looking but fake nonetheless. The tank has been set up for 6ish months as a freshwater with some baby cichlids growing out in it.

The live rock is wet and has been in established tank for some time. I will add as much as necessary but prefer to not do entire tank in liverock and have some other filtration method as mentioned.

Filteration is built into the biocube. I will add whatever, if anything, is needed. Any suggestions?

I'm in no hurry to add fish so any advice on steps to getting it converted is appreciated.
 
Well if the decor is rated safe for both (which it should considering its fake reef haha), then it will be fine. The live sounds like a good seeding material since its in an established system, again as to quantity it depends on how fast you want to start it up.

The sand should function well as addition biofiltration in place of live, and since you say there is filtration built into the cube then you should be ok for bio (though the only way to tell is to test the ammonia levels regularily).

Filtration is rather hard to suggest, most people would suggest a skimmer, but they arent nessisary, sumps are good to have but again not nessisary. I would recomend a algea scrubber (as I recomend to everyone haha) as they help keep nitrates/phosphates and other disolved wastes at 0 which is best for your fish, but again not nessisary, as both skimmers/scrubbers can be replaced with large regular waterchanges (which can be costly with salt but not to bad in a smaller tank).

Have you read the sticky on cycling yet? If not I recomend that you do, its handy and has some good info as to the time frame/methods of preping a tank for fish.
 
You can also get a couple pounds of live sand and mix it in with the other sand you have to help seed it a little faster. As for the biocube, you can take out the bioballs from the filter and replace them with rubble rock to help out with your bio. Just remember to add fish slowly.
 
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