New 55g/ 1st Marine tank!!!Pics

[spivey911]

Its been up almost a week! I know should have waited on Damsels but its what the lfs recommended & I didnt know better at the time

I have the Marineland C220 canister filter, power filter on back & Prizm Skimmer....
Question??? I have live sand in there now can I add a bag of Carib Sea Arogonite?

 

[brewski4u1]

hope your ready to get

for the damsels !!!! considering you only have one rock in there i would recomend remove the rock catch the damsels and return them to your LFS!!! and do some reading on this site about proper cycling !

 

[jpc763]

Yes, you can add more sand. You might also want to get more live rock before cycling. I have a 55g and I have 70lbs of live rock. I put it all in and then cycled the tank with a raw shrimp.
If you can return the damsel, you might want to do it. I am not going to flame you.
Piece of advise. LFS will try to sell you stuff you A) don't need and B) are not ready for. Research will save you cash and frustration.
Welcome to the boards and good luck.

 

[lexluethar]

Looks good man. Ya don't worry about the damsel thing, stores tell people to cycle with them all the time - while i don't agree with cycling with a damsel you can't do a whole lot about someone giving you bad advice. Just live and learn. Take the damsel back then cycle with a raw shrimp. Welcome to the boards, congrats on the new tank!
Some pointers:
I would start out by adding more LR, although you can get away with less than 1lb per gallon of water it is not recommended. This is your best source of filtration (b/c bacteria that breaks down ammonia lives on the surface), so for a beginning tank make it easier on yourself and put about 60 lb of LR in the tank.
Cycle with a raw shrimp, not live animals. Place a raw shrimp in tank and measure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates daily. Once your ammonia reaches near 1.0 take out the shrimp and your tank will cycle over the next few days.
After the cycle you are ready for a few fishies and a few snails / crabs. Add everything slowly so that the bacteria can repopulate and handle the increase bioload.
Hope this helps.

 

[spivey911]

Thanks for all the help! & thanks everyone else too....I have got so much good info frm this forum!

 

[fishy feet]

I have been to so many forums and post threads and no one answers. This place is great and it has people from every where. Even here in little ole Indiana. The best thing I recommmend on starting a tank is to find a fish store that you feel comfy with. I lucked out, a guy that I worked with in the factory opened his own saltwater store, and he helped me setup my first tank ( my sons tank) thats after I took him over to see Jims 330 gal. tank. Then my son had to have one and now we are both addicted. I do all the maintenance, but my son, who by the way is only 10 can tell you everything about everything in it. I hate to call Jim all the time that is why I use forums as well, and thei is the best

 

[spivey911]

Ok so I dont have any live rock yet but I do have 40 lbs livesand?? I dont have the $ to spend on live rock now but Im afraid if I wait I will have to go through that long process of curing the rock & live in apartment anyone have any suggestions?

 

[jpc763]

I don't know since I bought all of my rock up front and cycled with it in there.
I do see cured live rock at the LFS. I have bought coral frags on live rock and been able to put them in the tank without a cycle. You might be able to buy it at the LFS as you get the $$$ and just put it in.
Another good place to find cheap LR is craigslist. I actually got some for free on there, delivered!

 

[lexluethar]

I would buy maybe 10 lbs of LR, then have the rest be base rock. Then you really won't have to worry about curring it. If you can afford it buy it all at once, but if you can't, then definately buy the 10 lb of LR, then add base rock as you get more money. Definately do this BEFORE purchasing more fish. Base rock tends to be cheap - although it may provide no benefit at first, once you start adding a bioload then the bacteria will have a place to populate.

 

[jessica47421]

i bought most of mine in base rock for my 55 and i let it sit in container with water for a few weeks while my tank was cycling and then when i added the rock i just bought a peice of lr here and there and added it to the top of my base rock to seed and now all my rock is covered in corline and looks great, here are a few pics.....
all the rock was white base rock when i got it except a few peices at the top. dont take long to seed it......

 

[nordy]

Good advice about the base rock-my LFS has some fully cured LR, which I gat a few pieces of when I decided to add some to my 55gal tank, but it's hideously expensive. Got some real nice looking base rock, pink and white, full of shells and holes and all kinds of nooks and crannies for bacteria etc to colonize. It's changing color already after a few weeks, helping me to get the tank ready for some corals scheduled to arrive today.

 

[sh00tist]

Just keep buying a little bit of rock here and there you cant ever have enough. A great place to look is in the buy/sell boards,all the forums have them and sometimes you can find someone local tearing down a tank. When you do start adding creatures you will want to go very slow,with so little rock and new sand there will be minimum bacteria present so very little filtration. Do you have a sump or overflow situation? You will really be wanting one with that size tank,have you thought about a skimmer?Dont buy a cheap one keep saving until you can get a good name,again check the buy/sell boards there are always people upgrading tanks selling their old skimmers. Looks like you have normal lighting so Im guessing you be going for fish only for now? I didnt notice powerheads but the tank is dark so they may be there. Koralias are a good deal for the money,they come with magnets and pretty good flow. You are starting down a long expensive road,its still not too late to go freshwater? Please get those damsels out asap they are the devil in fish incarnate.

 

[jeffreyyy]

I here you on not having the money to buy LR all at once but it's one of, if not the most important thing you'll need. Like everyone else is saying buy some base rock from your LFS then buy some LR and put it on top or next to the base rock. You can get some good/cheap LR on a site where you can bid on things to win that sound like Greenbay.

 

[dsbdude]

Originally Posted by jessica47421
http:///forum/post/2505015
i bought most of mine in base rock for my 55 and i let it sit in container with water for a few weeks while my tank was cycling and then when i added the rock i just bought a peice of lr here and there and added it to the top of my base rock to seed and now all my rock is covered in corline and looks great, here are a few pics.....
all the rock was white base rock when i got it except a few peices at the top. dont take long to seed it......
I wonder how do people get their lr pinkish like that? Additive?