Hey :-) Another Noobie

TBrewerton

TBrewerton

Reefing newb
Hey everyone,

I have just joined this site, I have been running my saltwater aquarium for about 3 weeks now.

Today I just installed an RO/DI Water filter. I had previously started my tank on tap water but my LFS found traces of Phosphates in the water - apparently its common with our water and even using tank water won't solve the issue because of all the farming fertilizing in my area.

So today I have installed the filter and did approx a 50% water change. I have now just done some water tests

PH = 8
Ammonium = 0
No2 = 0.5
No3 = 10

I haven't got around to checking my phosphate levels again yet but will do that tomorrow hopefully.

photo.jpg


My tank setup is a 60L "Brilux" brand oval front tank - it came with a 75w heater and a basic water filter that you can see in the tank.

So far I only have two chunks of Live rock and am waiting on some coral sand and more rock - hopefully I will have these by the weekend.

Also I added 3 "Mollys" the LFS said these were good starting fish cause they are hardy - good cheap test run before putting anything expensive in. They seem happy - one even gave birth to 3 fry within a few days of getting them so now I have 6 in there - the fry managed to survive by hiding in the live rock and now a week later seem fine swimming in front of the other fish.

Can anyone give me any advice on what I should be doing next (after adding my sand and more rock.) Whether it be advice on my choice of fish (see below) or what other hardware i should be adding to the tank.

My aim is to get at least one anemone some coral a clown and maybe a shrimp.

Love this forum so far, and look forward to getting to know you all more :-)

Cheers,

Tim
 
Welcome to the site Tim. Let the tank cycle, go ahead and add your sand and more rock if you like. When it is done with the cycle, pick your first fish. Acclimate it well, and add it. Pick out a clean up crew at the same time to add more life to the tank as well. Hold off on the anemone for at least a year to let that tank mature fully and give it a chance to live properly.
 
Hello and Welcome!

You should remove the fish, its needlessly cruel to cycle a tank with living creatures. Instead, toss in a piece of raw table shrimp. Also mollies are actually a brackish water fish and its not good for them to live in full strength saltwater.

Check out the articles section, lots of good info there!
 
little_fish said:
Hello and Welcome!

You should remove the fish, its needlessly cruel to cycle a tank with living creatures. Instead, toss in a piece of raw table shrimp. Also mollies are actually a brackish water fish and its not good for them to live in full strength saltwater.

Check out the articles section, lots of good info there!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad you have said this because I was just thinking exactly that. Was going to return them to the LFS if they will take them - Like you say after reading up about cycling I have no idea why anyone would suggest to have fish in there while thats happening! It seems theres been a few things the LFS has said that my research is saying otherwise - think I'm going to have to start sifting the info they give me as i have a feeling its just purely sale driven rather than whats best for the fish/tank. Sad really :-(

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes and advice!

Cheers,

Tim
 
Sadly, it is the rare LFS that actually give good advice. Most are out for their bottom line, or just have employees that dont know anything but are put into a position where they are suppose to give advice. Just because they work at a LFS, doesnt mean they even have a tank or run a successful one. So I always double and triple check anything the LFS says.

But the good thing is, on LivingReefs, we cant make any money off of you, and we dont want to see you fail or have continual issues that require you to keep spending money at the LFS and there are lots of people reading these post to check that any advice given is good and true.
 
So the Mollys are gone, I have added more rock and the sand and a table prawn.

I just found a new shop in town that i didn't even know existed - it looks like its just one guy running the whole shop, and his tanks look incredible - compared to the other lfs this guy looks far more onto it. This is where i got my new rock and sand - but he was real busy so didn't get a chance to talk to him.

I doubt Il ever go back to the other place.

One exciting thing is when the tank cleared from placing the sand in I found a tentacle sticking out of one of the new rocks - its stripped and very very thin but seems to be pretty long and so far I've seen up to 4 of them coming out from around the same piece of rock. Not sure it will survive the cycling but maybe a starfish? This morning it had moved about 5-6 cm across the tank - still hidden in the rock tho.

This is such a fun hobby so far and I'm only just getting started - loving the whole testing side of things etc too - Its just so involved
 
Ok Day 2 of the cycling, the prawn caused a huge Ammonium Spike so I pulled it out this morning - talk about a bad smell :S Sadly the star aint coping to well with it :( poor wee guy - can't seem to get to him either :(

If you look at that pic I posted in first post, you can see the rock to the right is covered in red algae - I was told this should clear up during/after cycling well its only day 2 and already the rock is starting to clear! I was shocked but then tonight i was looking closely and saw a tiny worm? Dart into a crevice, later on I saw it creep out and it looked to be eating the algae? Then i spotted a tiny tiny little guy maybe 5mm in size white/opaque from what i could see (pretty hard cause he was at the back and is so tiny) but the only way i could describe is he looked like a miniature cricket lol he also was pulling ferousiously at the algae - So whatever these 2 guys are they seem to be doing me a favor.

The real question is should I be trying to get them out - will they possibly be harmful to future species in the tank? I know its not much to go by but hopefully someone may have an idea what i might be dealing with.

Cheers,

Tim

P.s I may move my tank talk to the noobie tank section after these replies
 

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