New to the ocean

wolfsbettas

Reefing newb
Hello,

I am Shaz.. I am a 29yr female that love tropical fish. For several years I have only had freshwater tanks, breed bettas, and angelfish.. I still have tons of freshwater tanks. My friend is now giving me a 12gallon eclipse saltwater tank with a few snails, a few little hermit crabs and about 20 lbs of live rock and sand. It is already set up and still in the cycling stage..early stage. I am here to absorb as much information as I can. The tank is comming tomorrow!! I am excited since this is a first for me. Yes I am completly new at this so go easy on me.. Shaz
 
i would recomend you do a lot of reading i did a year of reading before i started and still have a whole lot to learn but its realy not that hard especially if you know about water perameters and have experience in fresh water but i dont think the snails and hermits will make it if its still cycling but if you have live rock it should already be cycled then agian im still new my self so i might be wrong
 
If I had a year before getting this tank I deffinatly would read more.. unfortunatly I am the only fish savy person he knows and the tank has to go he needs the room..Otherwise he was going to scrap it..so this is a little bit of a rescue mission as well I guess.. I will find out more about the tank today when I go get it.. Shaz
 
it is here...the tank was so full of algea I could hardely see anything inside. There are two little hermies in there.. and the live rock. From what I have been reading live rock that is purple and green is a good thing...well this thing is really purple and green, its beautiful. The tank has been running since April. Not sure about saltwater but with a fresh water tank it would be cycled by now. The crabs have been in there since April as well and are doing good. They are cute too. I now have it all set back up and the algea scraped off the sides of the tank some of it was really hard round circles... I am going to read up on algea types now.. Also I will get pictures for you as soon as i can.
 
Nope..although new to saltwater tanks I am not new to aquariums. I do know that certain alage is benificial to aquatic species.. like creating tiny organizms for the feather dusters to eat.. I didnt touch the filter either other then wipe off the top of the cover, had salt crystals all over it. He used instant ocean..for the water...the salinity was pretty high..he told me I could drop it slowly with declorinated fresh water... How fast should I drop the salinity? I mean like a fresh water tank you cant change the ph more then 2 points a day because to big of drop at once could hurt your fish. There are no fish in here but I love how the live rock looks..and the crabs, forgot to add there are no snails anymore, there was back in April when he first set up the tank. Shaz
 
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Shaz, this is a perfect time to try out your saltwater interests. Since there are more things to discuss with you than this post will allow at one time, I would recommend you visit the Helpful articles/saltwater articles forum and on the 1st page you will find a lot of information to bring you up to speed quickly Concentrate on the articles for newbies, new systems etc 1st then spread out from there. once done there you will be better able to get your system balanced and matured. of course we remain available here to help any way we can. so welcome to the site, congrats on the salt system and looking forward to your posts on progress.
 
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