Hello everyone, New to saltwater tanks

budbreak96

P-Town
I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to everyone and let you know what i have and what i should do...Thanks

I am new to the saltwater thing and i have a 75 gallon tank. I got the tank and stand from a friend and it has about a 100 lbs of fiji live rock in it with some shrooms on it. I put new sand in it and all new water. Its cycling and the sand is turning brown and the rock is goldish brown. I hear this is good.


Well my questions are how many hermit crabs should i put in it to start out?

The tank had a 30 gallon tank under it with a nautaluis (spelled wrong) protien skimmer and the pumps and stuff. Well i did not use that stuff and instead put a Bio wheel Size 400 on it with two 1200 power heads and a heater in it. Is this set up ok? I am going to get a protien skimmer that hangs on the tank later on when i can. Someone told me that the bio wheels are no good and the lfs said its fine.

Any information at all on what i should do starting this tank up is greatly appericated.

Its been going for 2 weeks yesterday.

Thanks everyone, JOe

ps. i can take some pictures if ne one needs to see what all i have.
 
I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to everyone and let you know what i have and what i should do...Thanks

I am new to the saltwater thing and i have a 75 gallon tank. I got the tank and stand from a friend and it has about a 100 lbs of fiji live rock in it with some shrooms on it. I put new sand in it and all new water. Its cycling and the sand is turning brown and the rock is goldish brown. I hear this is good.


Well my questions are how many hermit crabs should i put in it to start out?

The tank had a 30 gallon tank under it with a nautaluis (spelled wrong) protien skimmer and the pumps and stuff. Well i did not use that stuff and instead put a Bio wheel Size 400 on it with two 1200 power heads and a heater in it. Is this set up ok? I am going to get a protien skimmer that hangs on the tank later on when i can. Someone told me that the bio wheels are no good and the lfs said its fine.

Any information at all on what i should do starting this tank up is greatly appericated.

Its been going for 2 weeks yesterday.

Thanks everyone, JOe

ps. i can take some pictures if ne one needs to see what all i have.

Hi Joe and Welcome!

I would not put any inverts in the tank until the cycle is complete. They will not do well during the cycle.

About the sump, since you already have all the equipment for it, why dont you want to use the sump? Having a sump is great as you can hide all your equipment in there instead of using it on the DT. Also, with a sump you will have more total water volume which is also beneficial. But having said that, you dont need to have one to keep a successful aquarium, it just makes it easy.

Pics are always welcome!
 
Welcome to the reef Joe.
Like Cthe said,you'd like having the sump better.More total water,not having to take up space in the display with equipment.With the bio-wheels you'll have to really keep up the maintance or it'll cause high nitrates.
And we require pics.j/k,but its always fun to see other members systems.
 
ReefTank.jpg


Reef5.jpg


ReefFront.jpg


Reef5.jpg
 
The brown stuff is diatoms, which is normal for a cycling tank.

Do not put inverts like crabs in yet, they'll only die if your tank is still cycling (which usually takes longer than 2 weeks). Buy yourself some test kits. During the cycle, ammonia will rise, then drop. Nitrites will rise, then drop. In the meantime, nitrates will rise and continue to rise. Once ammonia and nitrites are at zero, your cycle is complete, but you will need to do water changes to get nitrates down. Both ammonia and nitrites are very harmful to inverts and will probably just kill any crabs you put in.

I answered your other post, so I won't repeat it in detail, but why are you not using the sump and protein skimmer? That would be far much better than the biowheel you bought, which do not work well for saltwater tanks and tend to lead to water quality problems and algae problems. A sump and protein skimmer are the best type of filtration you can have, in combination with 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon (in your case, that'd be 75 to 150 lbs, more than what you have now).
 
I took a water sample to my lfs and she said it looked good. How ever the cycle goes nitrates then nitrites or what ever it is one had 0 so she said its pretty good. What you think?
 
They cycle goes ammonia -> nitrites -> nitrates. If ammonia and nitrites BOTH equal zero, then your cycle is complete. If I were you, I'd buy your own test kits and test it yourself, because if the LFS says "what ever one it is had 0", you don't know which one had 0, and you need BOTH ammonia and nitrite to be 0.
 
Im going to take a water sample to my lfs today and see what it says, i checked it last night and to me it looks to be perfect. I want to add some more rock bad, shits just so expensive. Wonder if someone around here sells it on the side? Would it matter if i bought from someone working out of their house? Thanks everyone for all the wonderful HELP. Joe
 
Check the papers or your local Craiglist for people shutting down their system.Nothing wrong with buying live rock from a local reefer working out of there home.You can also get good deals at online vendors like Livequaria,Salty Critter or better yet Tampa Bay Saltwater which isn't to far from your location.

You have plenty of LIVE rock,you could also use base rocks and the live will eventually seed the base rocks.Check your LFS,maybe they have some.In general,dry base rock is usually half the cost of live or more.
 
I finally got to put a couple fish in the tank yesterday.

Yea!!! I bought two damsles, a blue and a blue fin damsel. they are doing fine and im ready to get some different kinds of fish..But im happy with these for now
 
Thanks, I need alot more LR. I have added one more piece since pic was taken. Im trying to find some cured lr with coraline already on it thats been in a tank for a while. My rock is a little more than 5years old and i want some aged rock to add to it. Trying to find someone that is taking down a tank and im going to buy it from them im hoping..Any ideas on what to do about getting some rock?
 
If there's a local reef club in your area, go to one of their meetings or post on their forums. There will probably be someone willing to part with a nice rock for a small price, trade, or favor.
 
Back
Top