thinking of starting saltwater tank...

[sick_lids]

alright, im a freshwater guy, but got this eel that can live in salt water/ brackish water, G. Tile. i have him in a 55 gallon tank that i am slowly acclimating to brackish due to the fact that he has been raised in fresh. so here are my questions:

1. is there a special type of lighting needed?

2. if you have 1 piece of live rock, will it spread life to the other rocks in there with it?

3. why type of fish would do good with the eel, what would be some good stocking?

4. is live rock a must?

5. will regular play sand work as substrate?

 

[BIGgourami]

1. nope
2. yes but only if the salinity is high enough for that type of bacteria, if you put a marine bacteria into basically freshwater, it's just goin to die
3. chromies, archers, monos, scats, usually make good amtes when in brackish and basically anything too big to be eaten or not agressive enough to nip the eel (angels, puffers, triggers, etc) when in SW
4. unless you have high enough SG it's basically pointless
5. i dont see why not

 

[sick_lids]

eventually this tank will be full salt water. i gotta take it up to brackish first to acclimate the eel, then i will continue to add sea salt to make it full salt water. dont want to kill off bacteria, rather go slow so the SW beneficial bacteria can get established.

 

[sick_lids]

at what SG should i begin to add live rock? and if i am going to put in 1 peice than hope that the life on that one spreads to other rocks(sounds like science-fiction story) what type of rock should i use? will the micro-organisms live on any type of rock?

 

[BIGgourami]

i would say maybe like 1.015 would be pretty minimal.. people usually treat fish with hyposalinity at or around this level so i think the rock should be able to handle it..

im just saying dont add it at like 1.005 or something

 

[sick_lids]

hey, thanks for all your help, i honestly dont know the first thing about salt water tanks! as of now i am trying to learn all that i can.

 

[sweeTang21]

one way to avoid big problems with LR is to add it when the tank matures enough to become full SW. This way you would cure the LR in a vat of the same water then add to tank once cured. No harm done to tank and you'll get all the likings of LR, just at a later time in the tanks life.

 

[mmills007]

the base rock i used is lime stone.I got it at the natural stone yard cheap too.Then i added about 5 lbs. of live rock and about 3 months later it was full of color and coralline algae with the help of purple up.That purple up is some good sh*t man.