Newbie

BLaw

Reefing newb
Greetings everyone, new to the saltwater arena but have had aquariums for years. Currently cycling a 20 gal high which will be a FOWLR for now, picture attached.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20140423_063422_399.jpg
    IMG_20140423_063422_399.jpg
    182.2 KB · Views: 242
Welcome and welcome to a great and rewarding hobby, costly but rewarding. You have decided to go with a Fish only tank, with the live rock your cycle time should not be very long. May I offer a suggestion? Test the water for ammonia and determine if you have any detectable levels now, if you do not have any add a few drops of unfrageranced household ammonia to the water and check to see if you have detectable levels, if you do, then check the next day, if the levels have dissappeared then your tanks has cycled. Live rock helps cycle a tank quickly, then monitor the nitrate and nitirte levels to be sure they not increasing with time say a week or so. Your tank has gone through the first cycle.

Salt water tanks go through may cycles as they age and as we add fish, this is something that many of us learn with time. Unlike fresh water fish salt water tanks can not have the fish density that is common in fresh water tanks, general rule of thumb, for every inch or two of fish you should have 7 to 10 gallons of usable water. I say usable water because again a 100 gallon tank will have the volume reduce by approximately 25 to 30% after all of the rock, sand and equipment is added making the usable water in the take about 70 to 75 gallons.

Again welcome and good luck in the hobby, just a side note, there are many fish that can tolerate larger densities than what I stated such as the damsels, just providing a general rule of thumb for fish density.
 
Welcome and welcome to a great and rewarding hobby, costly but rewarding. You have decided to go with a Fish only tank, with the live rock your cycle time should not be very long. May I offer a suggestion? Test the water for ammonia and determine if you have any detectable levels now, if you do not have any add a few drops of unfrageranced household ammonia to the water and check to see if you have detectable levels, if you do, then check the next day, if the levels have dissappeared then your tanks has cycled. Live rock helps cycle a tank quickly, then monitor the nitrate and nitirte levels to be sure they not increasing with time say a week or so. Your tank has gone through the first cycle.

Salt water tanks go through may cycles as they age and as we add fish, this is something that many of us learn with time. Unlike fresh water fish salt water tanks can not have the fish density that is common in fresh water tanks, general rule of thumb, for every inch or two of fish you should have 7 to 10 gallons of usable water. I say usable water because again a 100 gallon tank will have the volume reduce by approximately 25 to 30% after all of the rock, sand and equipment is added making the usable water in the take about 70 to 75 gallons.

Again welcome and good luck in the hobby, just a side note, there are many fish that can tolerate larger densities than what I stated such as the damsels, just providing a general rule of thumb for fish density.
Welcome and welcome to a great and rewarding hobby, costly but rewarding. You have decided to go with a Fish only tank, with the live rock your cycle time should not be very long. May I offer a suggestion? Test the water for ammonia and determine if you have any detectable levels now, if you do not have any add a few drops of unfrageranced household ammonia to the water and check to see if you have detectable levels, if you do, then check the next day, if the levels have dissappeared then your tanks has cycled. Live rock helps cycle a tank quickly, then monitor the nitrate and nitirte levels to be sure they not increasing with time say a week or so. Your tank has gone through the first cycle.

Salt water tanks go through may cycles as they age and as we add fish, this is something that many of us learn with time. Unlike fresh water fish salt water tanks can not have the fish density that is common in fresh water tanks, general rule of thumb, for every inch or two of fish you should have 7 to 10 gallons of usable water. I say usable water because again a 100 gallon tank will have the volume reduce by approximately 25 to 30% after all of the rock, sand and equipment is added making the usable water in the take about 70 to 75 gallons.

Again welcome and good luck in the hobby, just a side note, there are many fish that can tolerate larger densities than what I stated such as the damsels, just providing a general rule of thumb for fish density.

Thank you for the suggestion Old Tom, currently I have the following levels; Ammonia .50, Nitrite .25, Nitrate 0. The tank has been cycling for one week, no fish just live sand and live rock, so I do believe that I am on the right track since the cycling of saltwater and fresh are relatively the same, just a waiting game at this point.
 
Hello and welcome!

Sounds like you have a good base knowledge. Salt and fresh have some differences as far as stocking goes, but I'm sure you're aware of that already.

:)
 
Back
Top