Hey Peeps

devon9832

Reefing newb
I'm Devon and i just purchased a 90g saltwater reef ready aquarium. I have put live sand, cured live rocks and some hermit crabs in the tank. I am going to put some uncured liverock in the tank on friday to help it cycle quicker so that i can add fish! I'm not sure if i want to get into the corals or not. I kno that its prettier but from what i understand my fish options are limited. I need some advice on how to make sure everything is running smoothly.

i am a complete noob when it comes to this. I have had a freshwater tank before, but from what i understand this is nothing like a freshwater. Any insight will be great. I will do my share of research as well.
 
Check out the articles section for basic tank settup. That would be probably the best info you can get

Welcome to the reef and ask any questions that you come across.
 
Welcome to the site Devon.
Since you already have cured rock,dont add any un-cured rock.The ammonia from the die off will kill all the good stuff in the cured rock right along with your hermits.
 
Welcome to the site Devon.
Since you already have cured rock,dont add any un-cured rock.The ammonia from the die off will kill all the good stuff in the cured rock right along with your hermits.

oh ok. Well i was told that i needed to have that un-cured rock in there to speed up the cyclin process. This was from a reputable saltwater fish store. I only have about 24lbs of liverock in there now. Under this one rock, there is a big ass hermit crab that came with the rock i got and he left his shell out and he things the rock is his new shell.lol. he refuses to come out. But I have two powerheads, one 400gph and one thats like 200gph. I have the bigger one at the top of the tank and the smaller one at the bottom of the tank in the back. Do i need anything else? I have the protein skimmer hooked up and running as well as the filtration system thats underneath the tank.
 
Now that you have cured live rock in the tank,I would go with Yote's suggestion-add more cured live rock.You can still get a cycle with cured or even skip it altogether.After you add the second batch of live rock,wait a couple of days and test for ammonia and nitrite.If the test reads zero for both,add a small amount of fish food and test ammonia,nitrite again the next day or two days later.If both ammonia and nitrite are still at zero,then there is a sufficient supply of the beneficial bacteria.Check nitrates and do a water change if needed and you should be ready for your first fish.

Welcome!
 
Now that you have cured live rock in the tank,I would go with Yote's suggestion-add more cured live rock.You can still get a cycle with cured or even skip it altogether.After you add the second batch of live rock,wait a couple of days and test for ammonia and nitrite.If the test reads zero for both,add a small amount of fish food and test ammonia,nitrite again the next day or two days later.If both ammonia and nitrite are still at zero,then there is a sufficient supply of the beneficial bacteria.Check nitrates and do a water change if needed and you should be ready for your first fish.

Welcome!


thanks for the information and the warm greeting. I brought like 24lbs of rock and shit! it was like 130 bucks! I have a lot more to go. I want to add fish but i kno patience is important.

I originally brought the tank from a guy that had like 50 different types of tanks n his basement. I brought the livesand from him and then i added another layer onto it. I brought some hermit crabs and now i think im ready for fish!!!! what should i start with? I would also like to introduce some starfish and possibly some horse fish too. let me kno what u guys think!
 
your gonna need atleast 1-2lbs. of live rock per gallon to have sufficient filtration, and starfish need a mature tank to live so i would wait on them. and whats a horse fish?
 
your gonna need atleast 1-2lbs. of live rock per gallon to have sufficient filtration, and starfish need a mature tank to live so i would wait on them. and whats a horse fish?


sorry, i mean sea horses. I was thinking about those. I only have 24lbs of rock in my tank now, so i have a lot more to get. I'm trying to take my time purchasing these rocks so i don't go broke... lol
 
You will save money if you go slow. You can take dry rock and add it to your live rock at a huge difference in price. It won't turn live overnight, but will eventually and you don't have to worry about the die-off like you do with uncured rock. Just scrub it real well to get any leftover debris off it.

Also, the seahorses I have seen take very particular care. There are a couple of people on the site that have kept them.

Last, and maybe most important, welcome to Living Reef!
 
welcome to the site. just research every thing before you buy. if you dont it could cause you to spend lots of money that you did not need to. or kill animals that did not need to die just take it slow. as for many sea horses they only eat live food many will not eat frozen food. and only feed frozen not flake or pellet food. mysis is much better than brine shrimp since brine is like junck food to them.
 
Welcome. Like ryang said you should definitely take a look at the articles section. You can find an enormous ammounts of useful information in there.
 
Seahorses have different needs than other types of fish. They need lower temps (lower than typical reef tanks), less flow, different feeding techniques, and cannot be mixed with certain other fish or animals. If you want to do seahorses, I recommend doing a seahorses only tank. They can be very hard to keep.
 
Thanks for all the knowledge guys. After careful consideration, im going to pass on the seahorse thing. Although yesterday i picked up this crab looking thing from the Aquarium Depot. He has really long legs and a pointed type body. Looks almost like a spider. I'm going to go and buy some live rock and lace rock tomorrow to build up my in my tank. I haven't decided if i wanted a reef tank because i kno that will limit my options for fish. Although i do have the lighting to do so, i haven't decided yet. Although i do see some coral looking stuff on the liverock, i don't kno if i want to add to it. I have been reading and re-reading the info in the articles sections which is giving me a lot of insight into a lot of things. So i will just take it slow for right now. I don't want to go broke to fast doing this. lol. Im still a college student.
 
It sounds like you picked up an arrow crab. They are not good for your tank. Arrow crabs will eat everything that lives in your sandbed (the things that keep your tank clean and water quality high). Arrow crabs also have been known to attack fish. I would never keep on in my tank. Here's a video of one catching and eating a jawfish :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYx4pcj06xw&feature=related

In the future, you should research the animal before you buy them. There are a lot of cool looking animals out there, but a lot of them are bad for your tank, and tons of them are not reef safe.
 
It sounds like you picked up an arrow crab. They are not good for your tank. Arrow crabs will eat everything that lives in your sandbed (the things that keep your tank clean and water quality high). Arrow crabs also have been known to attack fish. I would never keep on in my tank. Here's a video of one catching and eating a jawfish :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYx4pcj06xw&feature=related

In the future, you should research the animal before you buy them. There are a lot of cool looking animals out there, but a lot of them are bad for your tank, and tons of them are not reef safe.


yup. Thats what i have. So i guess i need to get rid of him...
 
They don't eat bacteria, but they do eat worms and pods and the critters that live in the sandbed and keep it clean.

thats what im worried about. Since i am just setting this up, I don't think i should have something eating at the stuff thats helping me get my tank set up. Ill just see if i can take him back to the LFS and get a credit towards the liverock that im going to be purchasing.
 
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