Help me please
- Thread starter dad & son
- Start date
coderad
Member
To cycle tank mix salt water to a sailenity of 1.022-1.026, add live sand if desired. Add live rock right away add as much as you can afford. Uncure is cheaper and will work well to start you cycle. I will help you in the long run with natural filtration. Watch amonia and nitrates and nitrites they will all spike, and then drop back to zero. when they are all at zero your tanks cycle is finished and you can add a fish and start a clean up crew..
Hope this will help get you going.
Hope this will help get you going.
danedodger
Member
1. Set up the tank, water (RO/DI) at the right salinity (about 1.023-1.025), temp (78-80), filters running, etc.
2. Toss in a raw shrimp from the grocery store, exactly like the ones you'd cook up and eat.
3. Set your liverock up to cure while the tank is cycling.
4. Test the water in your tank often. The ammonia will go up then back down while nitrites go up then back down as nitrates go up. When your tests show ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates at whatever do a partial water change to bring the nitrates down to at least 20 or less.
5. Add your cured liverock and start shopping for your first fish.
While all of that is going on you can also take a look around at what critters are available. Make a wish list of all the fish you like the most then study each animal and eliminate any that just aren't really going to work in your setup. You can post your wish list here and people are usually happy to give you a little more info on each, compatibility issues, etc.
ETA: Yes, uncured liverock can also cycle a tank for you
2. Toss in a raw shrimp from the grocery store, exactly like the ones you'd cook up and eat.
3. Set your liverock up to cure while the tank is cycling.
4. Test the water in your tank often. The ammonia will go up then back down while nitrites go up then back down as nitrates go up. When your tests show ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates at whatever do a partial water change to bring the nitrates down to at least 20 or less.
5. Add your cured liverock and start shopping for your first fish.
While all of that is going on you can also take a look around at what critters are available. Make a wish list of all the fish you like the most then study each animal and eliminate any that just aren't really going to work in your setup. You can post your wish list here and people are usually happy to give you a little more info on each, compatibility issues, etc.
ETA: Yes, uncured liverock can also cycle a tank for you
dad & son
Member
thank you for your help here is what I have...
Sea Life 75 wet/dry sytem
65 watt pump
drillled glass tank
I will send photos of mine and my dads new tank as we go through the prosses of setting the tank up we still need a scimmer, heater, and a light. Is it neccesary to buy the light when we get the live rock at our LFS (we plan to buy 20lbs of it on sale for $4.50 lbs). How much live rock do you recommend money is not a problem.Thanks again ). By the way how do i cure live rock to put in my fish tank? :notsure:
Sea Life 75 wet/dry sytem
65 watt pump
drillled glass tank
I will send photos of mine and my dads new tank as we go through the prosses of setting the tank up we still need a scimmer, heater, and a light. Is it neccesary to buy the light when we get the live rock at our LFS (we plan to buy 20lbs of it on sale for $4.50 lbs). How much live rock do you recommend money is not a problem.Thanks again ). By the way how do i cure live rock to put in my fish tank? :notsure:
turningtim
Active Member
Whats the GPH (gallon per hour) rating on the pump? Baseline for Live Rock is 1lb per gallon of water. What are you planning on keeping? This will effect the lights you choose. If you buy uncured rock online, There will be die off and needs to be scrubed and placed in a container with a powerhead to move the water. Its basically like cycleing a tank. You need to get rid of the bad stuff and promote growth of the good stuff. Are you using sand as a substrate?
HTH
Tim
HTH
Tim
danedodger
Member
For a 75 gallon tank you'll probably want a lot more liverock! Most recommend about 1-1.5 lbs per gallon of tank.
Better lighting will help the liverock grow corraline algae, the purplish stuff that you want growing instead of nuisance algaes, but it's not necessary. If you plan on having fish only you don't have to worry about lighting much except what looks good to you but if you want to eventually move on to photosynthetic creatures such as corals or anemones, and money's no object, get the lighting that those creatures will need to start with (depending on what you want at least power compacts, very high output, or metal halide)
You don't have to cure the liverock if you want to use it to cycle the tank. If you want to cure it though get a really big rubbermaid tub, fill it with the same saltwater you'd use in the tank, put in a powerhead, heater, and themometer. When you get the liverock scrub it really good paying special attention to any spots that look like something has died off, black spots, ucky mushy stuff, anything really smelly, etc then put it in your tub. Scrub it daily until there's no more die off, it should smell like clean saltwater. Then it's safe to add to a tank.
Better lighting will help the liverock grow corraline algae, the purplish stuff that you want growing instead of nuisance algaes, but it's not necessary. If you plan on having fish only you don't have to worry about lighting much except what looks good to you but if you want to eventually move on to photosynthetic creatures such as corals or anemones, and money's no object, get the lighting that those creatures will need to start with (depending on what you want at least power compacts, very high output, or metal halide)
You don't have to cure the liverock if you want to use it to cycle the tank. If you want to cure it though get a really big rubbermaid tub, fill it with the same saltwater you'd use in the tank, put in a powerhead, heater, and themometer. When you get the liverock scrub it really good paying special attention to any spots that look like something has died off, black spots, ucky mushy stuff, anything really smelly, etc then put it in your tub. Scrub it daily until there's no more die off, it should smell like clean saltwater. Then it's safe to add to a tank.
dad & son
Member
My pump does not say how many gph it does I will try to find that out and as soon as I do I will tell you Im going to call the fish store i bought it from and ask them. I do know we plan to get a lion fish of some sort and maybe a maroon and yellow clown I herd those two wont fight well the lion wont eat the clown. the rest is undetermined :thinking:
danedodger
Member
Do you mean a gold striped maroon clown or a maroon clown and yellow tang? I've never heard of a yellow clown?
A lion fish may decide to eat anything that will fit into it's mouth at some point! They should be fairly ok with any fish too large for them to eat though as long as the other fish aren't picking on him.
A lion fish may decide to eat anything that will fit into it's mouth at some point! They should be fairly ok with any fish too large for them to eat though as long as the other fish aren't picking on him.
danedodger
Member
Put your liverock on the bottom of the tank THEN put your sand in around it to help stablize your first layer. Place it far enough away from the back wall of the tank for you to fit a scrubber or something back there. For the other layers of liverock you might have to play with it a bit to feel out where the pieces will be stable, just think of it like stacking Lincoln Logs or something
It's not the end of the world if one falls sometime as long as no one gets squishied. I've accidently tumbled one particular piece of liverock with my leather coral on top of it a few times now!! The leather gets all hacked off for the next day or so but then all's right again! Or there's ways to secure it all together but unless you're planning to have something notorious for tumbling rock I wouldn't bother. Besides, if you're anything like most of us you'll want to rearrange it a bit from time to time till you find that PERFECT arrangement. Also make sure there's enough water flowing around, in back, and through the rocks to avoid dead spots that would accumulate detrious and stuff. In other words leave some spaces here and there, don't pack it all too tightly together.
danedodger
Member
Yup
Take a look at pictures of other people's set ups to get some ideas how you might like to stack the rock up.
(Pssst, gender bender...I'm a mom not a "man"
)
Take a look at pictures of other people's set ups to get some ideas how you might like to stack the rock up.
(Pssst, gender bender...I'm a mom not a "man"
danedodger
Member
I was only taking the opportunity to tease you a bit, poke a little fun, josh ya...you know
If I was actually offended I wouldn't have said anything at all!
danedodger
Member
I've often wished I started taking pictures of all the steps involved in doing my tanks and a journal and such to post online. It would be a fabulous learning tool for others!! Definitely do that and when you're some famous saltwater aquarium expert you can look back on how muddled everything was when you started out and just grin!
dad & son
Member
Originally Posted by DaneDodger
I've often wished I started taking pictures of all the steps involved in doing my tanks and a journal and such to post online. It would be a fabulous learning tool for others!! Definitely do that and when you're some famous saltwater aquarium expert you can look back on how muddled everything was when you started out and just grin!
thanks ill think about that
I've often wished I started taking pictures of all the steps involved in doing my tanks and a journal and such to post online. It would be a fabulous learning tool for others!! Definitely do that and when you're some famous saltwater aquarium expert you can look back on how muddled everything was when you started out and just grin!
thanks ill think about that
