Seeking Advice For First Time Saltwater Hobbyist

[JeremyHJ]

Hello everyone!

My name is Jeremy! I am glad to be a part of this forum and learn some great best practices from some of the professionals on this forum. I recently purchased a Aqueon Starter Kit from *****. I purchased Arag-Alive Reefs and Instant Ocean Sand. I mixed it with the correct contents of water from the tap in the kitchen when also utilizing a conditioner that removes the chlorine and chloramine. The water seems a little cloudy but after adding the filter it seems like it has cleared up a bit. I am not using natural rock but just some nice ornaments that I felt would go nice with the tank setup. I want to make sure I have completed the correct preparation in order for me to add certain fish to the saltwater environment. Is there anything else I should add? Should I leave the fluorescent light on while I'm in the cycling stages? What's better to use fluorescent or LED? It all depends on the fish I have in the aquarium? All feedback received would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your support with this as I am in the beginning stage of preparing my tank for saltwater fish!

 

[jay0705]

Hi welcome to the forum. Now to the bad part lol. Take out the wood decoration. You want actual rock in a sw tank. Live or dry rock. Do an internet search there are a ton of places to get it. Yes its that important to a sw tank. What r u using to measure your salinty?
Tap water is not reccomended. If you do use it don't treat it. Let it sit over night and the chlorine dissipates. R o water is far better tho.
Lighting is personal preference unless u go reef. Leds are cheaper to run tho

 

[JeremyHJ]

Hi welcome to the forum. Now to the bad part lol. Take out the wood decoration. You want actual rock in a sw tank. Live or dry rock. Do an internet search there are a ton of places to get it. Yes its that important to a sw tank. What r u using to measure your salinty?
Tap water is not reccomended. If you do use it don't treat it. Let it sit over night and the chlorine dissipates. R o water is far better tho.
Lighting is personal preference unless u go reef. Leds are cheaper to run tho

So it's not recommended to use artificial rocks at all. Should i return them back to the store. Not using anything right now to measure salinity yet. I was told I could use tap water as long as I'm using the conditioner. Will i have to start all over again? I have already applied the conditioners to the tap water and it's inside the the tank as we speak. I was informed that during the cycling process it will take approximately several weeks. Associates from the store mentioned that it will 2-3 months what's your opinion on that. I'm a beginner so take it easy on me. Thanks

 

[lmforbis]

It will take a while to cycle, two to three months maybe but more likely around 6 weeks. You need salt water. Purchase a bucket of instant ocean. I get mine at either Amazon or fosters and smith. They have the best price. You will need a refractometer to measure the salinity and RO water to mix the salt water with.
You can't cycle with fresh water the bacteria is different.
Return the decor and purchase some dry rock. It needs to be rock for a salt water aquarium made out of calcium carbonate. Look at bulk reef supply under pukani dry rock. It isn't very expensive and shipping is free. It doesn't look like a very big tank so you won't need very much. The rock surface is where the majority of your filtration will happen so you need a lot of surface area, that is why I like pukani it has a huge surface area for its size.

 

[geridoc]

Wow - your experience is like a guide for how a new fishkeeper should fail while the fish store makes a nice profit! Imforbis is right - get rid of the ornaments, buy some pukani dry rock online (about one pound per gallon of water). Then go to a store that specializes in saltwater fish and buy one piece of live rock and put it into your tank. That rock will contain the bacteria you need to establish competent filtration, and if you are lucky, some interesting hitchhikers. You need a refractometer and a source of reverse osmosis-deionized (RODI) water to mix your saltwater with, and to replace evaporation. You can buy a unit that will make it, or Walmart sells it fairly inexpensively. After this is all set up begin to feed the tank with small amounts of food daily (just a pinch), and using a kit you can purchase measure the ammonia levels. They will rise, then fall. This could take several weeks. When the ammonia levels begin to fall begin to measure nitrite with another kit. When the nitrite and ammonia levels fall to zero you are ready to add your first fish. In the meantime continue to ask questions here and plan your stock. Good luck!

 

[Jesterrace]

It sounds like he is trying to approach setting up a saltwater tank from a freshwater perspective. Where to begin with this one.

1) DO NOT EVER USE TAP WATER in a saltwater tank WITHOUT FIRST Running it through an RO/RODI purification system. Saltwater Fish are much more sensitive to the harmful chemicals in tap water. Tap water will also give you uncontrolable algae issues due to the aforementioned chemicals. You cannot simply dechloronate and purify tap water with chemicals and expect to have any sustainable success with your saltwater tank.

2) Completely Gut the tank and dry it out and let it air dry for 24 hours to make sure any residual chlorine gas has evaporated. Only use the following to clean the tank (Water/White distilled vinegar mix, for adhesive/tough spots use salt that has been slightly dampened. DO NOT USE SOAP, CLEANER OR ANY OIL BASED PRODUCT!!!!!!! Sorry to say it but you have Freshwater on the brain and everything about your current config is totally wrong. Get some live sand and either dry rock and a piece of live rock or get all live rock (it will cycle faster but will be much more expensive).

3) For simplicity get a bunch of new 5 gallon water safe jugs with caps, find a local fish store that has saltwater setups and buy a saltwater/RO or saltwater/RODI mix. This will get you started with the right mix of saltwater and the purification already done for you. You can always get an RO/RODI system later.

4) Get some form of seed bacteria from your local fish store (ie Aquavitro). This will jump start the cycling process for you. After a week, Get a Marine Test Kit (ie Red Sea) and begin testing Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates. Once everything reads 0 YOU STILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR YOUR BROWN ALGAE BLOOM before it is done cycling. I made the mistake of not waiting for this and it restarted the whole cycling process all over again.

5) Get an LED light setup for your tank. Aqueon makes modular LED light setups (where you can add different kinds of LED light bulbs). I am running a white Aqueon LED bulb with an Aqueon Blue Max LED bulb in my modular setup and it seems to work fine for all my fish and my tentacled corals. The good news is that for the first couple of weeks of the cycle, you run with the lights off, so you can start cycling while waiting for the new light fixture Fluorescent fixtures in general are garbage for saltwater tanks. I am still trying to get rid of the one that came with my Aqueon 36 Gallon Bowfront kit.

6) Make sure you get a powerhead (underwater mini fan that simulates ocean currents) as well. You will want more power if you plan on doing corals.

As for the boneheads that told you, you could use tap water plus conditioner, they are idiots who have 0 experience with saltwater setups

 

[geridoc]

As for the boneheads that told you, you could use tap water plus conditioner, they are idiots who have 0 experience with saltwater setups

I wouldn't call them "boneheads", but the language police wouldn't permit the words I would use for these thieves to be posted.

 

[jay0705]

Money hungry ass hats

 

[2quills]

If i didn't otherwise agree i would have you all arrested and deported from the website for language violations.

Welcome Jeremy,

Since all you are starting out with is a simple Hang On The Back filter there won't be much in the way of biological filtration to help keep the system balanced and safe. Rock typically used for saltwater tanks would be a wise investment vs fake rock or decorations.

That being said some folks can get away with tap water and conditioner. But water sources can differ greatly from one city, state or region to the next. Any chlorine or chloromines that aren't properly neutralized before hand can play havoc on your biological filtration (good bacteria). Most products are generally not as effective at neutralizing chloromines as they claim and that's what most cities use these days.

You should also be concerned about the potential for heavy metal concentrations to build up.

A reverse osmosis filtration unit is highly recommended in the hobby.

 

[jay0705]

I know walmart was mentioned but most sw fish stores also sell ro water usually 40- 50 cents a gallon

 

[Jesterrace]

I know walmart was mentioned but most sw fish stores also sell ro water usually 40- 50 cents a gallon

I have two stores in my area that do RO Water for free or Saltwater/RO Premix for 75 cents a gallon and one that will do 50 cents a gallon for the premix when you first start up your tank. Both keep their salinity at 1.025. One of them is only 1 light down from my house. So unless the OP really lives out in the boonies, they should be able to find something comparable.

 

[jay0705]

You'd be surprised. Alot of folks on here go an hr or more for a lfs

 

[Jesterrace]

You'd be surprised. Alot of folks on here go an hr or more for a lfs

I can believe it. My primary LFS has customers that live about 3 hours away.

 

[geridoc]

I can believe it. My primary LFS has customers that live about 3 hours away.

Many years ago I lived in Utica, New York and traveled to Martin's Aquarium in Philadelphia for livestock. We carried a tank of oxygen, and would inflate the bags ourselves for the long ride back to upstate New York. One day we arrived at Martin's after a half-day drive just as the store burned to the ground.

 

[jay0705]

Wow

 

[Jesterrace]

Many years ago I lived in Utica, New York and traveled to Martin's Aquarium in Philadelphia for livestock. We carried a tank of oxygen, and would inflate the bags ourselves for the long ride back to upstate New York. One day we arrived at Martin's after a half-day drive just as the store burned to the ground.

Life's little ironies. A store loaded with saltwater burns to the ground. With all the lighting, electrical pumps, heaters, etc. it's actually not surprising though.