My new tank

[shimmy yaz]

Yeah get "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" it is a great book. I am reading it right now and it goes thru and explains every aspect of the hobby that u will need to know. Well worth the money for the book versus spending a couple hundred on fish that keep dying!!!!

 

[coral]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was gone for the weekend so I didn't get a chance to do anything with my new tank until this morning. I'm not sure what you mean when you ask what kind of water do I have. I have saltwater that I made with bags of salt and tap water. I do not keep my lights on for 10 hours. That seems like it will cause algae to grow in the tank. I will look into buying those books. Thank you for the suggestions. This morning, my mushrooms do not look as big as they did onFriday but they still look ok to me.
I will keep ya posted. Thanks again.

 

[overanalyzer]

if they are shrinking that is not a good thing.
If you used tap water and salt and made up your own water then I would highly suggest taking the mushrooms out and starting a brand new cycle.
Basically remove everything except the live rock/ base rock and the sand/substrate in your tank. Toss in an uncooked shrimp from the grocery store and sit down and read the book mentioned in all of hte posts above.
IN a month go back to LFS and start SLOWLY stocking your aquarium!
Good luck!

 

[coral]

Ok, if I take the mushrooms out of the tank, won't they die? What do I do? Put them in a bucket with a heater or something? Whats the difference between that and just leaving them in the tank. Maybe I should just try to take them back to the store? What do you think?

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by Coral
Ok, if I take the mushrooms out of the tank, won't they die? What do I do? Put them in a bucket with a heater or something?
Put them in a bag or bucket and return them to the LFS where you bought them. Ask them to hold them or demand your money back. At worst get store credit to spend once your tank is completely cycled.

 

[mrmaroon]

take them back to the store and GET A BOOK!

 

[aileena]

1) take back all animals to the store if you can.
2) Buy 1 lbs of live rock for every gallon of water in your fish tank
3) get a protein skimmer like a cpr, remora, or seaclone...all are hang on the back of the tank skimmers and are easy to use.
4) make sure you have 3 inches of either sand, crushed coral, or arragonite.
5) temp about 78-80 and salinity 1.024-1.026
6) Never use tap water...go to the grocery store and get either distilled water or whats called reverse osmosis water. Sometimes the pet store will have pre-mixed water, this is even better. Since you already used tap water just leave what you have, but from now on keep the latter in mind.
7) Get test kits for amonia, nitrite, nitrate, and KH. Ask the pet store what these tests are for...its all about the cycle everyone talked about.
8) get a powerhead or two to blow water around so there is circulation.
9) wait two weeks and test water conditions...if good add fish!
I think thats everything...be prepared to spend some $$$..just do the best you can.

 

[coral]

Ok, I took back my mushrooms but they do not look so good out of the water. They got really small and shrivelled up on the rock. I took them back to the store and they are keeping them for me for two weeks.
Do I really need all of that stuff? It sounds like I need more than my undergravel filter for this salt tank. I have heaters and I have salt level at 1.026 but that other stuff sounds like to much to do. I will wait the two weeks but thats all. Then I get all of my stuff back and I can add other stuff right?
I heard that the bottom of the tank should not have anything on it. Mine is bare and I do not have any sand. Can I use playsand or is this sand stuff really not needed?
Travis

 

[birdy]

All I can say is you have gotten a lot of good information, you really need to read a good book before you get yourself into keeping a saltwater tank. This is a very expensive hobby, you should not keep a tank if you cannot afford to do it right, you will only kill helpless fish and corals.
Follow everyones advise, get rid of the undergavel filter they are useless on a salt tank, put a DSB, 60 lbs of LR, and a skimmer, get your test kits, put in some grocery store shrimp and let your tank cycle. Then you can start adding some livestock.

 

[robn70]

You should start with a good book and follow the advice from everyone on this board. I would find a new LFS if this is the information that they have given you in the begining. This hobby isn't cheap so be prepaired to spend close to a $1,000.00 to get started. Also you shoud start with a FO system and work your way up to a reef with corals and inverts, this way you can see if you will have the time and money to put into maintaing a sw setup. Remember baby steps.... And yes to Maintain a sucessful sw setup you will need the equiptment listed abve in your post. There are no cheap short cuts in this hobby.
Remeber READ, READ and listen to the advice from the members on this board.

 

[poiboy]

In the simplest way. When you have a brand new tank there is no form of bacteria (good or bad). When you add some form of life it will create waste (fish/corals/inverts)which in turn becomes toxic. You must give your tank time to build an army of fighting bacteria to battle the toxins. When you add (fish or inverts) you must wait at least a week for your army to build up.
Filter and sand bed. Your filter and sand bed will be a home for your army. The deeper the sand bed the better. Now for the filter, many many options so do your homework, and get rid of that undergravel.
Test kit. You need to have one to see what stage your tank is in, during the cycle (war) and the continuing battle (the life of your tank). Be sure to get a kit that test for everything NITRATE, NITRITE, AMMONIA, PH, CALCIUM, ALK, I know I missed something but you will get alot more replys on this matter.
The bottom line is be patient.
GOOOOOD LUCK!

 

[coral]

I am starting to get some algea growing in the tank. I think I need some snails or hemit crabs to eat it. One more question I have is how long do I leave the lights on? Right now they are on 24/7. Should the lights be turned off for a while at night during the cycle?

 

[robn70]

lights shouldn't be on 24/7 most people would say 8 to 12 hrs. You should really get a good book fist before you waist any more money and do find a new LFS as all the are doing is giving you bad advice and taking all the $$ from you.
Try to follow every ones advice and be more patiant...
You can Lead a Horse to water but you can't make him drink.

 

[mrmaroon]

I am certainly glad that you are hear asking questions and I do not mean to be negative, but think about it. Is the ocean lit 24 hours a day?
Please do yourself and any future fish casualties you will have a favorand take some of the advice you are getting hear AND GET A BOOK AND READ IT.
None of the stuff that has mentioned for you is excessive. So far mostly just beginner stuff has been mentioned.
The undergrvel filter is worthless. Do you have any other kind of filtration?

 

[overanalyzer]

Hey coral - do this Post EVERYTHING about your tank - right down to what you use to measure your specific gravity/salinity ......

 

[blueface]

I wouldn't go to that lfs ever again. Find a new lfs that will assist you the correct way.

 

[sebae0]

hey fellow reefers plz do not respond to this guy anymore its a hoax ,troll, idiot trying to rile everyone up!
look at his post about everthing crashed and you will know why.
in the mean time save yourself the trouble.