New Here, Have Qstn

[notaquaman]

After being a fresh water tank person for
many years and they going with out one, I decided to build a salt water tank recently.
Never done salt before...things are going well with my water quality in a 55gl tank with normal lighting and a Marineland Emperor 400 filter hangin off the back. Salt is at 1.021, pH is at 8.2, ammonia is at 1ppm after I added 5 four strip damsels to the tank to start the cycle process.
One damsel has a popeye after about 3 days in the tank which I have left alone since I saw it the day after Thanksgiving. I am feeding them frozen brine shimp and today when I got home I notice that another fish has a open and red mouth. there is one damsel in the tank who is bigger than everyone else, wondering if this open/red mouth thing that happened today is from fighting (I couldn't find a description on the mouth like I could the popeye)?
I don't want to treat the tank for fear of killing anything getting going as a prt of the new cycle and do not have a hospital tank. Comments?
Thanks!!! Its great having a place to come to for this stuff, thanks a lot to whoever is running this board.

 

[just_got_tanked]

Do you have any live rock in the tank? If not the damsels are going to take forever to cycle the tank. I cycled my 60 gallon with 50 pounds of uncycled live rock. Its been almost a month and I know have a maroon clown, yellow tang, and a lawnmower blennie. All are doing fine. If you dont want the live rock you should bring back all of the fish to your LFS. Unless you want to cycle for months. If you take out the fish you can drop in a few raw shrimp from a grocery store. This will cycle the tank faster than the damsels ever will. Then you dont have to worry about the fish dying.
[ December 03, 2001: Message edited by: just_got_tanked ]

 

[notaquaman]

No live rock in the tank, just the five fish and some hard decorative coral with fine aragonite. Thats a great trick with the shrimp -- but you say go with live rock regardless as a good method for getting things going??? Does this basically mean because the damsels aren't doing much for me that I am starting from strach on the cycling?
Thanks again, I appreciate the help.

 

[just_got_tanked]

You can do even better and do both live rock and the shrimp. I cant see having a salt water tank and not having live rock. There is alot of fish that eat the algea on the live rock. The rock is very cool also. You should buy around 50 pounds of it. The cost is well worth it.

 

[just_got_tanked]

I should also ask what kind of fish are you planning on getting. There are some fish that will ruin the rock.

 

[clownman]

Liverock can act as your Biological Filter. There's many organism that lives in liverock create this filtration system. Also, as mentioned earleir, it also can be used for aquascaping.

 

[predator]

Live rock is the way to go. Not that you could'nt hsve success with out it.But it truly something to look at.It helps maintain stubility and will sudstain many other life forms.I agree,well worth the cost.

 

[daluminum]

LR all the way. once you have it.. and you start groing all the cool purple stuff and lil algae's its just as cool to watch as the fish. It's frightening to think about what you pay for pound .. but you can get 40# for about $180. Its really not that huge of an expense. trust us you will end up putting in live rock. might as well do it now while you can save $3 a pound buying uncured. instead of when your tank is cycled. And get lots of substrate to. a good 4" even if its on the front really helps make the tank look healthier.

 

[notaquaman]

Thanks again to all. 'Tanked' you asked about the fish I plan on adding since they might harm the live rock. I am really interested in some angles, the emperor angle is possibly one of the prettiest fish I've seen (one at my LFS). But I realize that I have to take my time to get things going right. Either that or spend a bunch of money after killing fish after fish.
I was originally against the live rock b/c the tank has about five nice sized hard pipe decorative corals in it along with some SeaGarden silk plants. Its looks show piece right now. I would love to switch to a reef setup but are intiminated by the lighting upgrades and coral care, invert care and fish. I feel I'm too new to pull all that off.
I'll shop around for the live rock. Hear that sometimes you have to 'cure' the live rock. What is this 'cure' process?
--Eric

 

[just_got_tanked]

notaquaman:
Dont concider yourself too new to saltwater tanks. I have had my tank for almost a month. Before that I didnt know anything about saltwater tanks. Ive been reading alot and staying on this BB. Ive been passing along info that I read to others.