Help me plz!

fishy_fishy

fishy_fishy

Member
Hi, my tank is 16 gallons. I started yesterday by creating the salt water and adding the live sand. Everything seems to be OK for now. I have a 15 watt Coral Sun Actinic blue light on it.
I was told i would have to wait a month before adding any fish. Is this true and also what kind of fish would u recommend starting with?
I was thinking of throwing in about 5 Turbo Snails, 1 scarlet crab and two Damsels.
Also i was interested in starting a reef tank, when can i do that and would i need any special kind of filters to keep them?
 
tangman99

tangman99

Active Member
You need to cycle your tank before adding any creaturs. Do a search and research cycling a tank. The cycle may take anywhere from a few days to a couple of months. You will need to add something that will add ammonia to your tank to build up the bacteria. A lot of people use a dead shrimp.
 
karenjo

karenjo

Member
Def. use grocery store shrimp to help cycle. Also with the size of tank, i wouldnt put more than a couple of clownfish in there. Damsels are very territorial fish. Live rock and a deep sand base with critters and clowns would be pretty. Dont put any creatures in until u r cycled.
 
killafins

killafins

Active Member
I disagree, mine is twenty and is fine. the only problem i have is a slight algae. I would consider the reef now if you are going to do anything. This way the tank can get used to the lr. U see, some people think its the lr that have to get used to the tank but its the tank that has to get used to the lr. I would wait a couple weeks and don't listen to anly lfs who tell uto add damsels at an early stage. it will add amonia but also kill the fish.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
IMO in my opinion
LFS local fish store
just so you know, there is a sticky at the top of the New Hobbiest forum by Beth called Bulletin Board Acronyms. it doesn't have all the ones we use here, but it has most of them. HTH ;) :D
 
saltyshark

saltyshark

Member
:D Welcome to the board future reefer! :D
LR- Live Rock
LS- Live Sand
DSB- Deep Sand Bed
I'm sure you can't wait to start a reef but maybe you should start off with a FO (fish only) or a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) just to gain experience. Reefs may be very challenging for beginners, not to mention expensive. You should first get to know the basics of a sw(saltwater) tank and water chemistry. I'd recommend a good book and of coarse, soak up all the info you can on the forums.
I'd have to agree with jt...a good sized tank for beginners is 55gal and up...I personally wouldn't do anything smaller. Why?...because with a tank that small there is very little room for error, which is why even those who have been in the hobby for many years may have trouble maintaining them. The bigger the tank, the more stable it is, the easier it will be to maintain.
Do yourself a favor and buy the biggest tank you can afford now. That will save you the money of upgrading to a bigger tank later on.
HTH
SaltyShark
 
mdhyde

mdhyde

Member
worthy of note, though many swear it off is "Cycle in a bottle" (not brand name generic term)
Most LocalFishStores carry it. It is a bottle of live nitrifying bacteria. It contains everything you need to seed the tank with bacteria that would normally take a month or more to establish.
If you get this, your tank will be instantly cycled.
If not, use Damsals. If they croak, they are cheap. If they don't, you can flush them (they are cheap). :)
haha Actually take them back to the LFS and they will sell them to someone else. Or better yet, get a clown grouper and watch him hunt down the damsals!
 
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