Confused about filtering options

[boricuamed]

Hello to all:

I am a MEGA NEWBIE to anything related to fishkeeping. I have a 2 month old 55gal FW tank, and am now setting up a 30 gal SW tank. My question is: Can I just run the SW tank with just a protein skimmer and a power head (daily water change of course until cycled)? Or do I "absolutely" need some sort of additional filtering system (HOB, canister, etc.)?

My tank specs are:

30g "show" tank
Penguin Bio-Wheel 350
Berlin Air-Lift 60 protein skimmer
air pump
20 lbs of live sand
20 lbs of crushed coral (undeneath the live sand)
2 lbs of live rock
1 Damsel

Tank is 1 week old, and water parameters are: Ammonia 0.25 (after 15% w/c this morning), Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, SG 1.023, pH 8.0 (low) 8.4 (high).

Any additional advice would be most appreciated.

p.s. Damsel and live rock are doing fine (just my point of view).

Thanks in advance...

[squibley2]

Well bori I hate to be the one that brings some bad news but here we go.

1)You should not have added the damsel until the tank is cycled.
2)Doing daily water changes will be both expensive and also increase the time it takes for your tank to cycle.
3)If you are trying to do a reef tank you need a lot more live rock if your typing was correct and you have 2lbs of live rock you should have between 1 and 1.5lbs per gallon of water in the tank.
4)Why did you mix the Crushed Coral with the sand? Are you going for a sand bed or a crushed coral bed?
5)I would add a filter to the tank the type is up to you but you should have some sort of filter but don't run a filter pad all the time 1 week in 2 weeks out or so should be fine. If you leave it in you will get a huge biological filter problem and your nitrates will just go sky high.

I don't want to sound too negative but you are going to have to do some work to make this tank work it is a lot less forgiving then FW (yes I keep both as well) you need to be very very very patient with a SW tank even more so if you are making it into a reef and plan on having corals in the tank (in my opinion the reason to start a SW tank) You will also have to address lighting and several other things if you plan on having a reef.

I would plan on changing a lot of water in the next coming weeks to months that is takes the tank to cycle completely (this will sometimes happen sooner but plan on at least a few weeks) another option you might have is to take the damsel back to the store and have them hold it for you until your tank has cycled and you can get more LR in the tank. I would spend a lot of time in the helpful articles section and read everything marked for newbies or beginners then read everything else but start with the beginner stuff. I hope this helps.

Post back if you have specific questions and keep us posted on what the tests are coming back at and how things are going so we can all help you enjoy this wonderful hobby.

Kevin

[boricuamed]

Thank you squibbley. I thought that i could "jump start" the tank without having a filter running. Your info was most correct and expected. With that said, I did the following:

-Moved 30g setup to a 55g tank (original water and substrate used intact).
-Bought a 40w "power glo" and a 40w "sun glow" bulbs.
-Bought a Hagen 500/110 filter
-Bought a Berlin 60 protein skimmer
-Bought a power head for water movement

Damsel is out of tank (it last night), but live rock is ok. My water params are:

Ammonia: 0.50
Nitrite: 0.00
Nitrate: 0.00
pH: 8.0 (low) and 8.4 (high)
S.G.: 1.022

I do havae a question regarding the protein skimmer. I have read many articles suggesting holding off on using it until the tank cycles, and others saying it is ok to use it from the beginning. Should I use it now or not?

p.s. I have read most of the newbie articles on this site and others, I know it may seem contradictory to my original posting, but i wanted to experiment with trying to make a "faster cycle period" . As for the live rock, I will try to get some more this weekend, but want to wait until tomorrow for the water to clear up a bit from moving it.

Thanks for the input, any more suggestions would be appreciated.

[squibley2]

Well if it were my tank I would add the live rock soon like you said this weekend would be good. If you get good cured live rock from a good store you will have very little die off which will help to keep the tank from having a hugh cycle. This would be step number 1. Your tank will cycle the same way your FW did but it will probably take considerably longer. I have had people say that if you really want to jump start your cycle then to purchase a product called biospera. It actually has the bacteria you need in the tank in the product, other products claim the same thing but have never had any luck with those. If you are hell bent of speeding it up you could try some but even if it does work you need to add things to the tank very very slowly. First a snail or 2 then wait a couple weeks and add a couple more until your tank is stable and the cycle is long behind you and your clean up crew is keeping the tank nice and pretty. Then you can start adding fish and corals again very slowly. I know this seems like it will take forever but if you are aiming for long term results it is the best way to go you can rush things and it might work for a while but usually something will go wrong or you tank will start its cycle all over again and this could be a lot worse for you then just 1 damsel.

I would also reconsider your fish selection unless you really want that damsel in the tank I would not replace him! He would be almost impossible to remove once he has claimed the tank as his and he will be to aggressive to keep most other fish.

I hope this helps
Kevin

[rarecoral21]

u can run a tank just with a skimmer i did for three years but it has to be a really good one and its a lot of work and also you can cycle a tank using damsels but most will die its better to just wait for cycle do not do not do not do water changes like that u will never cycle your tank that way let mother nature tank its corse good luck keep us posted and also bio wheels cause nitrates down the line cause they hold on to waste there for causeing nitrates

[rarecoral21]

Originally Posted by rarecoral21

u can run a tank just with a skimmer i did for three years but it has to be a really good one and its a lot of work and also you can cycle a tank using damsels but most will die its better to just wait for cycle do not do not do not do water changes like that u will never cycle your tank that way let mother nature tank its corse good luck keep us posted and also bio wheels cause nitrates down the line cause they hold on to waste there for causeing nitrates

use live bacteria this will really speed up things

[boricuamed]

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I do not know the "quality" of the LFS's around here, and would prefer to not buy from places like Petco and the like. Any suggestions on what to look for tomorrow when I purchase the live rock?


BTW, the "little" live rock that I bought has a total of 8 "worms" (I think that is what they are called). Is that considered a good yield?

Thanks again for the help.

[squibley2]

When you go into a store look around see how healthy the fish are see how everything looks the cleaner the better.

What do you mean worms? If you are talking about bristleworms those are bad not good. A picture would help immensely!

[rarecoral21]

six line wrasse will take care or worms

[boricuamed]

Hello Squibley2:

Here are some photos of my tank. The water is a little bit cloudy still from the moving maneuver of last night. I honestly have no clue what these organisms are, but look like some kind of "worm" to me. They come out for a few minutes and dissapear for a coucle mor, then come out again. If these are bad things to have, then I know not to buy from that place again, because I explained to them that I was starting a sw tank for the first time and if they could recommend something good to cycle the tank with.


thx again for your help.