Hey guys, I was given my first tank by a teacher i had in high school. Its a 30 gallon tank that ive began to make into a saltwater aquarium. I have two powerheads along with the undergravel filter. Also, i have a conch shell, barnacle decoration, and coral decoration in the tank. To cycle, i have two striped damsels and a sea anemone. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for a beginner. I really enjoy keeping the tank up.
Advice on first tank?
- Thread starter CGold4
- Start date
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Hello and welcome. You shouldn't be using the undergravel filter -- those are for freshwater and in saltwater, they just lead to poor water quality (because crap gets trapped beneath the grate). Also, you should take the fish and anemone back to the store immediately. It's not a good idea to cycle with any live animals -- the toxins that build up in the water are often fatal to the fish, and if they survive, damsels are some of the meanest fish in the hobby and will usually bully anything else you try to add to the tank to death. You can cycle the tank using live rock or a bit of food left to rot in the tank. That way you are not killing any fish in the process.
Anemones are some of the most difficult animals to keep in the hobby. They require very specialized and high amounts of lighting, so I'm guessing you don't have the proper lighting for it. Also, they are extremely sensitive to water parameters so I highly doubt it would survive a cycle. It is not recommended that you put an anemone in a tank that has been set up for less than a year because they are so difficult to keep. If that isn't enough to convince you, when they die or get sick, they have the potential to release their toxins which will wipe out and kill everything else in the tank.
You do not want an anemone in your tank at this point (or those damsels).
The powerheads you have are fine, but the main way to keep water quality good in saltwater is through live rock. It doesn't sound like you have any live rock in your tank. You should have 1 to 2 lbs per gallon (so 30 to 60 lbs). The beneficial bacteria that break down wastes and toxins in your tank live in and on the rock. Without rock, there is nowhere for them to colonize and you will be battling poor water quality constantly.
Read the articles in the first section here for some more help:
Reefkeeping Articles
I think to see success in this hobby, you will have to make some changes to your setup. The most important thing in this hobby (to save your money and save your animals' lives) is to research EVERYTHING before you buy or use it -- equipment and livestock.
Anemones are some of the most difficult animals to keep in the hobby. They require very specialized and high amounts of lighting, so I'm guessing you don't have the proper lighting for it. Also, they are extremely sensitive to water parameters so I highly doubt it would survive a cycle. It is not recommended that you put an anemone in a tank that has been set up for less than a year because they are so difficult to keep. If that isn't enough to convince you, when they die or get sick, they have the potential to release their toxins which will wipe out and kill everything else in the tank.
You do not want an anemone in your tank at this point (or those damsels).
The powerheads you have are fine, but the main way to keep water quality good in saltwater is through live rock. It doesn't sound like you have any live rock in your tank. You should have 1 to 2 lbs per gallon (so 30 to 60 lbs). The beneficial bacteria that break down wastes and toxins in your tank live in and on the rock. Without rock, there is nowhere for them to colonize and you will be battling poor water quality constantly.
Read the articles in the first section here for some more help:
Reefkeeping Articles
I think to see success in this hobby, you will have to make some changes to your setup. The most important thing in this hobby (to save your money and save your animals' lives) is to research EVERYTHING before you buy or use it -- equipment and livestock.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Also, are you testing your water while you cycle? You will have to keep track of your water parameters to know what is going on with your tank. The basics that you need to test for are:
salinity
pH
alkalinity
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
temperature
salinity
pH
alkalinity
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
temperature
Thank you for the advice, i really appreciate it! but as for the equipment, the teacher who gave me it all is a marine aquatics teacher who works in a marine research lab here on the coast. he said the undergravel filter would help keep the water clean. as for the damsels and anemone, i had no idea what to put in the tank first. The lady at the store reccomended damsels for the first 6 weeks and said that an anemone wouldnt hurt it. as for the lighting, the guy who gave it to me said its the lower quality and i might should consider getting a t5 fixture for it.
if i get the chance, ill upload a picture for you to see what i have
if i get the chance, ill upload a picture for you to see what i have
Bifferwine
I am a girl
I don't think you got very good advice, I'll be frank about that. :)
Undergravel filters went out of favor for saltwater aquariums in the 80s/90s. And you never see reef tanks with fake and plastic decorations.
The lady at the store just gave you really bad advice too. She is looking to sell you something; we are not. The anemone will definitely hurt your tank.
Getting a T5 fixture for your tank would be great, and you will need to upgrade lights to keep any sort of photosynthetic animals (corals, anemones, clams).
Undergravel filters went out of favor for saltwater aquariums in the 80s/90s. And you never see reef tanks with fake and plastic decorations.
The lady at the store just gave you really bad advice too. She is looking to sell you something; we are not. The anemone will definitely hurt your tank.
Getting a T5 fixture for your tank would be great, and you will need to upgrade lights to keep any sort of photosynthetic animals (corals, anemones, clams).
Bifferwine
I am a girl
You really have to buy test kits to test everything else. If something goes bad in your tank, how will you know what's wrong if you are not testing your parameters?
Bifferwine
I am a girl
BTW -- high school marine aquatics teacher doesn't mean much... Neither does working in a research lab. I have a bachelor's degree in biology, a master's degree in biology, a master's degree in environmental science and was accepted into the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for a PhD in marine biology, and I worked in labs all through college and taught biology and environmental science at the university level for two years. That is not what makes me good at this hobby though, and it's not what makes me love this hobby. That guy may be a researcher and a teacher, but he is not a saltwater aquarium hobbyist if he is using plastic decorations and undergravel filters. There are plenty of people on this site that will tell you that an education in biology or science means nothing when it comes to being "good" at saltwater aquariums. Hell, we have a half dozen so-called "redneck reefers" on here that can barely speak English!!! (Haha -- that's a jab at my fellow redneck moderator from Tennessee, Yote). :mrgreen: But boy are they good at keeping beautiful tanks, and they know the ins and outs of this hobby like it's no one else's businesses.
Here are some pictures of my 90 gallon tank, and I tell you that I could never have kept this type of tank with undergravel filters and plastic decorations. We try to mimic nature as closely as possible -- with lighting, water flow, rock, livestock selection, filtration methods, etc. Your tank isn't going to look "real" or "natural" if you are using things that don't belong in the ocean.
Here are some pictures of my 90 gallon tank, and I tell you that I could never have kept this type of tank with undergravel filters and plastic decorations. We try to mimic nature as closely as possible -- with lighting, water flow, rock, livestock selection, filtration methods, etc. Your tank isn't going to look "real" or "natural" if you are using things that don't belong in the ocean.
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well as far as the decorations, that was just something my girlfriend wanted to do haha but yeah, your tank looks amazing. thats really what i want mine to look like. i just dont know where to start really and have gotten so much different advice from everybody. but yours does seem like itd be the most reliable of all so far..
Bifferwine
I am a girl
If I were you, I'd start by taking the fish and anemone back to the store and removing the undergravel filter. You have the basics in place -- you need to add rock. You can save money and buy base (dry) rock, and a few pieces of live rock. Eventually it will all turn live.
Then buy some test kits, and cycle the tank. Cycling usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. After the tank is done cycling, then you can add your first fish. Upgrade lights eventually, when you can afford it. The lights you have are perfectly fine for keeping fish and cycling the tank.
I also recommend that you try to find a saltwater specialty store. General pet stores usually don't carry stuff specific for saltwater and the associates that work there are probably not familiar with saltwater stuff. If you find a saltwater store, you can buy your rock, livestock, equipment, etc there. But you will still have to buy stuff online -- much of the equipment in this hobby is only available online (unless you want to pay double the price at a store).
Then buy some test kits, and cycle the tank. Cycling usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. After the tank is done cycling, then you can add your first fish. Upgrade lights eventually, when you can afford it. The lights you have are perfectly fine for keeping fish and cycling the tank.
I also recommend that you try to find a saltwater specialty store. General pet stores usually don't carry stuff specific for saltwater and the associates that work there are probably not familiar with saltwater stuff. If you find a saltwater store, you can buy your rock, livestock, equipment, etc there. But you will still have to buy stuff online -- much of the equipment in this hobby is only available online (unless you want to pay double the price at a store).
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Well that's another thing. Go with sand, not crushed coral. Crushed coral will lead to high nitrates over time. The particles are large enough to trap food and waste, and too large to keep clean, so things just get stuck in between them and rot. The animals that you would normally have to keep your substrate clean cannot live in crushed coral, so that adds to the mess. You should use an aragonite sand substrate. It's more natural, easy to keep clean, looks nice, and animals prefer to live in it. 1 to 2 inches of sand is perfect.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
It's okay. It's not your fault. My first tank (back in 2000) was a 55-gallon. I started out with crushed coral, an undergravel filter, a hang-on-back power filter, a bunch of damsels, tap water and plastic decorations (no rock). You learn as you go, you and your tanks evolve, and you get where you want to be eventually, but never without making any mistakes along the way. There's a huge learning curve in this hobby; it's very different from freshwater and there are so many things to know about equipment and livestock. It doesn't come overnight, and the point is no matter how you start, you get better as you go along.
chuck78
The Reefanatic
Jeeezzz Biff...Looks like you'll be upgrading when those corals start growing. Otherwise everybody will be stinging each other. LOL. Still that is 1 beatiful tank. My 220 used to have all that color variation before I moved all my fish to the qtanks. I tried dosing amino acid to to compensate for lack of fish presence, but it's like my corals know something is off & their slight loss of color shows it. I still dose Cal.Mag.Stro.& Iodine so lack of fish has to be thee problem :(
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Bifferwine
I am a girl
I actually took my tank down about 3 or 4 weeks ago! It's all gone now! You know, with me working full time, in school full time for my MBA, two dogs, six cats, two guinea pigs and a baby that's going to be here in less than two months, something had to give. Sadly the aquarium was the one to get the axe -- it was the most expensive and time consuming of all my "pets" and I couldn't take care of it anymore with the complications from the pregnancy and still keeping up with everything else in my life I had to keep up with. The tank started to suffer and go downhill when I wasn't able to give it the attention it needed, and I knew it wasn't going to get any easier once the baby arrives, so I ditched it. First time in 12 years that I've been tankless...
chuck78
The Reefanatic
WOW!!! Sounds like you have a full plate. I now have a 3 week old daughter to go with my 2 year old son. I hope my tank does'nt get "The Axe" next!!
little_fish
Moderator
Hello and Welcome!!
Biffy has you covered!!! We will get you back on track!
Biffy has you covered!!! We will get you back on track!
