Hello!

J

jzettler001

Reefing newb
Hi Everyone,

I just recently began to delve into the extremely frusterating, yet enjoyable, project of the saltwater aquarium. I have already made a few learning errors, which are to be expected. I recently inherited a 45 gallon tank from my parents. They hadn't used it in years and it was just sitting around calling my name.

I have a Tetra Wisper EX45 and a EHEIM Classic 2213 running in my tank now. I just added 40 pounds of live sand and started with about 13lbs of live rock. I realize that I need more live rock, but money is tight right now. Yesterday, I added 3 damsels.

The guy that I bought the fish from said to get rid of the damsels after the tank cycled. What should I do with them? Can I put them in a smaller tank? Also, how necessary is the protein skimmer? Am I missing anything else that's a must at this point? Thanks for any help that you can give. :sfish:
 
Hi and welcome to the site. You'll want to build up to 1-2 lbs of rock and with a skimmer that will be your best filtration. Do you have a sump? Also if you are using a canister filter be sure to keep it well cleaned or it can cause nitrate problems for you.

As for the Damsels I'd trade them back to the LFS or give them away to another hobbyist.
 
well after your tank has cycled you can uselly give your damsels back to you LFS and they will give you half credit or you can trade it in for another fish. do u have a heater? that is a must what kind of tank would u like to have ? ex reef, FOWLF. and how big is your filter? and also this sounds dumb but do u have any lights? and do u have a uest kit and if so what kind? your friend kennedy98
 
Hello and welcome.

I would not listen to these damsel haters. I have one of my original 2 damsels from 5 years ago. They are super easy to keep and mine never has had any issues. If you’re just getting into the Hobby Keep the Damsel IMO, if you screw something up it is a lot more forgiving and you can fool your friends into thinking you know what you are doing because you have a very active fish in the tank. Plus when you get other fish in the future, the damsel makes sure it’s a tough fish for you or it will float.
Think of it like your tanks own drill sergeant.

EDIT:
Oops, You have 3 damsels! Get rid of Two But i would keep one.
 
First off,Welcome to the site.
Now ditch the power and canister filters.:D
Get yourself a good skimmer and 3 or 4 good powerheads for water flow.
Take the damsels back to the guy you got em from.They'll probably survive the cycle and kill anything else you try to add later.Plus theres no need to mis-treat a fish just to cycle the tank when I piece of raw table shrimp will do the same thing.
 
Everyone so far is right -- cycling using fish is a bad idea. It's unnecessary. Take the fish back, and be wary of the advice that the guy gives you from now on -- his advice so far has been backwards.

Your tank will cycle just fine without fish. All you need to do is put some fish food in the tank to rot. This way you won't risk the lives of the fish. Damsels can be awful -- they can kill every fish that you try to add afterwards. Not a good fish to start off with because of how aggressive they are. But still, it's a cruel practice to cycle using fish.

Next, a protein skimmer will be infinitely better than any other type of filtration. Hang on back, power filters, trickle filters, canister filters, all those things usually lead to poor water quality in saltwater aquariums. Using those types of filters is a freshwater technique. Protein skimmers are for saltwater. If you have a protein skimmer and live rock, that's all the filtration you need. You don't need any of that other stuff.

Hi and welcome to the site :)
 
The kind you make yourself, so you can save hundreds of dollars!

You can make your own sump out of a rubbermade tub or a spare fish tank that you've got hanging around. It's super easy, and super cheap. And you can customize it exactly the way you want.
 
To answer some questions posed, yes I do have a heater and I'm running my tank at 75 degrees, eventually I want to have a reef tank, but for right now I'm just trying to get used to a saltwater tank, as for lights, I just bought a standard hood for now because the old one was shot. I do not have powerheads, but intend to get those very soon. Thanks for everyone's help.
 

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