Originally Posted by
2damsels
Why put live raw shrimpin the tank to decay?
I have always had a freshwater set up changed to salt water. Local operator @ fish store said add water, add salt, wait three weeks. I have salt rocks on bottom with a small filter pump. 35 gallon. I put two damsels in about a week ago they are ding fine. added some live rock today. I would like diversity in the tank. I found this site a few days ago. need t learn alot it seems. I used tap water with stress coat. but damsels are hardy they like the live rock.
1) LFS guy is full of crap
2) get the damsels out... if they aren't damaged soon, you'll have a major hassle getting anything else into the tank.
3) I hate to say it but start over... Tap water has stuff that can kill if not shorten the lifespan of your fish.
For a 35 gallon tank, you're gonna need about 35lbs of LR and the same of LS.
I'd first off put in good RO/DI water pre-mixed with marine salt mix... If you follow the manufacturers directions on how much to put in per gallon of water, you should be fairly safe. The way to test how much is with either a hydrometer, or better yet, a refractometer. Once you have the water moving in the tank and at a safe temp (I go for 77F), add your LR. If you put in the sand before, digging creatures can topple and/or get trapped when they go underneath.
This is a great time to test a marine water test kit and see how they work. And this will also be the beginning of your cycle. there are many ways to cycle a tank (building the benefitial bacteria that keeps your fish alive) and most on this board will advise tossing a couple of cocktail shrimp into the water at this point. The decaying matter creates amonia, the first building block of the cycle. It will reach a peak of about 8 on your test kit and then start to drop... As it is dropping, nitrites will start to increase... they too will spike as bacteria converts the amonia to nitrite. Once a toxic level is reached, other bacteria will start converning the nitrite to nitrate, which is much less toxic to the fish and can be reduced by various means including water changes (partial mind you.)
Now... Add in some clean-up crew to, well, clean up the place before your fish arrive. All forms of algae may have sprouted during this time and this crew will love you for the buffet. for your size tank, about 6 mexican turbo snails (or similiar) and about 6 hermit crabs will work nicely.
finally, you get to add your fish. Start with the least agressive... this would be something along the lines of chromis or percula... After that... it's maintenance, water testing, and enjoying the times in-between. I'm still new to this myself, but have a new tank with what appear to be very happy fish... My LR is starting to get all shades of coraline & the brown diatom bloom I experienced is being consumed by my cleanup crew.
I would strongly advise picking up a book about all of this and reading it cover to cover. I did this and it prepared me a bit more than just walking into a store and saying "help me spend my money." (those people are fun to watch)
And most importantly, keep asking questions... There is also a great archive of questions and answers here... I found an answer yesterday to a question concering a power outage and my sump back-flowing from the tank... simple fix... drill a small hole just below the waterline in your return jet... Once the air breaks through that, your siphon effect stops.
good luck...
