New Member to the forums setting up saltwater cycle with a fish!

[hralex]

Hi guess im new to the forums and this is gonna be my first time setting up a tank.
Before i had a brackish water aquarium with green spotted puffer fish for about 2 months.
After being bored with the setup ive decided to get into saltwater fishes.
Couple months ago i bought a 18-20 gallon tank came with heater, water pump and air pump. Bought this for a total of only $25 on craigslist!
I know that risking an animals life is wrong without a water cycle has been completed. but imma try risking it and doing a write up so ppl who want to start a tank can read this posts.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/Han/d2219ba6.jpg
DAY 1
So at Day 1 i bought a live rock, salt water, and live sand at my local private aquarium store. I had a conversation with the sales person about saltwater aquariums and came across with the saltwater cycling. Now im really impaitent so i wanted to boost up my water cycle faster. The sales person told me that i could put a fish to start up the tank and keep the cycle moving faster. He didnt recommend me to do it cuz the fish could die. The fish he recommended me was a damsel fish. very cheap not expensive. but the downside was that it can be very territorial. he also recommended me a engineer goby fish. so in the end i bought the engineer fish. So i went home tooking the risk of one fish and tried it out. good experience to try it out. After putting the live sand in trying my best not to make and clouds but failed and ended up with clouds. After i finished setting up the tank. The engineer goby was fine. very hardy fish.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/Han/9f982109.jpg
DAY 2
Now at day 2 everything seemed in order. my power head finally came in through the mail. I bought a 158 powerhead and damn its pretty strong. very surprised and only bought it for 12 bucks on ebay. very happy and satisfied with the item. Water is clearing up faster than i expected from the cloudy sand. powerhead seem to do its job. I took a water sample test and the ammonia was sitting at around ph 6.0. so we just started the cycle. In the beginning of the day the engineer goby was scared of the power head because i just introduced it that day. He wouldnt swim around he would just sit at his territory place. Now towards end of the night hes seems very comfortable and now swimming around the tank. Looks pretty healthy to me.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v442/Han/?action=view&current=7f375621.jpg
DAY 3 - to come!

 

[nano-newb1983]

hope the fish will make it through the cycle.. IMO best way to boost the cycle is add a raw uncooked shrimp to start it
Take is slow and read, read, read..
any questions, post here we more than happy to help

 

[flower]

We welcome you to the forum, there are lots of things and tips to learn. PLEASE come here for advice, not the LFS.
+1 one on cycling with raw shrimp, it moves MUCH "faster" with the shrimp because the dead causes an ammonia spike right away. Your one little fish' poo won't do any where near as quick, which is why it has a fighting chance to live. We spend most of our time telling folks to not listen to people who tell them to cycle with a fish. That kind of blows your day by day account of having any usefulness....sorry
I know back in the day, using fish was the way it was done. However...also back when SW tanks were a rich mans hobby the fish only lived about a month before they had to be replaced. The hobby has come a long way since then. We have power heads to mimic the wave of the ocean and test kits tell us what the cycle is doing instead of waiting to see if the fish will die.
You didn't even wait for the sand to settle and had the power head before you added a fish...

.Now I am getting on to you. I hope you stick around to learn, and if you want a really nice funtioning fish tank that has living things in it...learn to have some patients. Fast = death in this hobby 99% of the time and going slow will mean success.

 

[saxman]

I guess we won't even mention that an engineer "goby" (it's not a true goby, or even a blennie, BTW) will grow to over 12" long...

 

[meowzer]

LOl...I think Day 3 will be death to the goby if your ammonia is really at 6.....
SLOW DOWN....I can't even comment on this right now

 

[teresaq]

Greg, I am glad you posted that, lol my eng gobie is huge. not to mention they are diggers and like holes under your rocks.
T

 

[snakeblitz33]

Flower - As far as I am concerned, the live fish store in this case did a great job at trying to educate their customer. The LFS recommended a fishless cycle which is +1 for them. Then, they recommended two hardy fish probably without knowing what his intentions were or his tanks stats, which he probably didn't provide. +1 I think he has a pretty good live fish store, and should continue to get advice from them, with additional advice from this forum.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416385
PLEASE come here for advice, not the LFS.

 

[snakeblitz33]

With that being said, I've never heard of anyone adding a fish the same day the tank is set up, before the sand has even settled.
Did you buy completely cured live rock and add it to your tank immediately when you got home from the fish store? Get some more saltwater as soon as you can and test the Ammonia level every day. When ammonia gets too high, do a 25% water change. 25% of 20 gallons is 5 gallons. A water change should keep your goby alive for a little longer.
I don't understand what a 158 powerhead is, do you mean it pushes water at a rate of 158 gallons per hour? If that is the case, you still don't have enough water flow. Look into a Koralia nano 420 powerhead. It's well worth the investment.
You are on the right track and you have good intentions, but you need to slow it down a bit and start reading and researching before you start adding anything new. There is a very helpful stickied thread in the New Hobbyists section called "101 tips for new saltwater hobbyists" (or something like that) that I highly recommend you reading. Also, get a good book, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner is a very good beginner book, and costs around $7 used. It's well worth the investment to start reading as much as you can on the subject now.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416493
Flower - As far as I am concerned, the live fish store in this case did a great job at trying to educate their customer. The LFS recommended a fishless cycle which is +1 for them. Then, they recommended two hardy fish probably without knowing what his intentions were or his tanks stats, which he probably didn't provide. +1 I think he has a pretty good live fish store, and should continue to get advice from them, with additional advice from this forum.
Well, I'm going to disagree. The store sold him the tank, the sand and the fish all on the same day...a fish by the way too large for the tank they sold him....according to Saxman.
They told him he could buy a fish, not recommend, it but sold him the fish anyway. So no..I don't think the fish store did him any favors. They figure this person was going to kill everything anyway, so why not.
So I'm going to stick to what I said...shame on the both of them. He didn't even wait for the sand to settle, so you know he purchased them at the same time.

 

[meowzer]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416519
Well, I'm going to disagree. The store sold him the tank, the sand and the fish all on the same day...a fish by the way too large for the tank they sold him....according to Saxman.
They told him he could buy a fish, not recommend, it but sold him the fish anyway. So no..I don't think the fish store did him any favors. They figure this person was going to kill everything anyway, so why not.
So I'm going to stick to what I said...shame on the both of them. He didn't even wait for the sand to settle, so you know he purchased them at the same time.
I agree with Flower

 

[hralex]

obviously we hav two trollers here.
HEY KID...I'd be careful who you call a troll....I deleted most of your post because we do not allow that type of talk here...cryptic or not...
NOW you can either take the criticism of some experienced members or not....
MEOWZER

 

[hralex]

thats just basically asking for it. its lik saying i hope ur dogs die tonight... -_- u obviously dont kno how to make friends thats y ur here.
good luck with that. i dont care if u kick me off this forums. ill just go to some other forums that dont act lik trolls. TROLLS! LOL

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by HrAlex http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416336
Hi guess im new to the forums and this is gonna be my first time setting up a tank.
Before i had a brackish water aquarium with green spotted puffer fish for about 2 months.
After being bored with the setup ive decided to get into saltwater fishes.
Couple months ago i bought a 18-20 gallon tank came with heater, water pump and air pump. Bought this for a total of only $25 on craigslist! He did not purchase the tank from a LFS.
I know that risking an animals life is wrong without a water cycle has been completed. but imma try risking it and doing a write up so ppl who want to start a tank can read this posts.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/Han/d2219ba6.jpg
DAY 1
So at Day 1 i bought a live rock, salt water, and live sand at my local private aquarium store. I had a conversation with the sales person about saltwater aquariums and came across with the saltwater cycling. Now im really impaitent so i wanted to boost up my water cycle faster. The sales person told me that i could put a fish to start up the tank and keep the cycle moving faster. He didnt recommend me to do it cuz the fish could die. The LFS said don't do it, but the OP did it anyway, against the LFS advice. The fish he recommended me was a damsel fish. very cheap not expensive. but the downside was that it can be very territorial. he also recommended me a engineer goby fish. so in the end i bought the engineer fish. So i went home tooking the risk of one fish and tried it out. good experience to try it out. After putting the live sand in trying my best not to make and clouds but failed and ended up with clouds. After i finished setting up the tank. The engineer goby was fine. very hardy fish.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416519
Well, I'm going to disagree. The store sold him the tank, the sand and the fish all on the same day...You read it wrong. a fish by the way too large for the tank they sold him....according to Saxman.
They told him he could buy a fish, not recommend, it but sold him the fish anyway. Because he wanted it, against LFS advice not to use a fish. So no..I don't think the fish store did him any favors. They figure this person was going to kill everything anyway, so why not.
So I'm going to stick to what I said...shame on the both of them. He didn't even wait for the sand to settle, so you know he purchased them at the same time.
An engineer goby can grow up to 12" long, however it takes a long time. It's ultimately up to the aquarist to make the best decisions for their tank. If the OP didn't research the fish he bought, it's his fault, not the LFS. I'm just sayin'.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by HrAlex http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416587
thats just basically asking for it. its lik saying i hope ur dogs die tonight... -_- u obviously dont kno how to make friends thats y ur here.
good luck with that. i dont care if u kick me off this forums. ill just go to some other forums that dont act lik trolls. TROLLS! LOL
Naw, don't go to another forum! We love to have you here. We want you to be able to get your questions answered here to the best of our knowledge and we will try to help you out as much as we can! Stick around! You might learn something! I hope your fish lives and will if proper care is taken. Engineers are hardy fish, just like your LFS said. However, they grow big over time and you would need to upgrade your aquarium.

 

[hralex]

Thank you SnakeBlitz obviously u kno how to read.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by HrAlex http:///t/387883/new-member-to-the-forums-setting-up-saltwater-cycle-with-a-fish#post_3416607
Thank you SnakeBlitz obviously u kno how to read.
We really are not as mean as it may appear.
I admit I missed the ..got a tank on craigs list. part.
So instead of jumping to conclusions
Did you not purchase sand, a live rock and a fish all at the same store on the same day? If you answer yes...I stand on my, Don't go back to that store for advice.
Did you ask the same LFS fellow how to cycle faster...and against even his own better judgement...did he sell you said fish? If you answer yes...I stand on my, Don't go back to that store for advice.
Not asking for advice is not the same as not shopping there. Snake used to be a pet shop owner and has a tender spot. By all means purchase what you need, but ask advice here, we don't want to sell you anything...and if one person gives bad advice, someone will chime in and prevent a problem. So you have lots of help from more than one person. That's quite a safety net.
I'm not getting on to you...I'm mostly blaming the LFS guy. HE knew better, you did not, YOU just need some patients, I'm sorry but even my 12 year old grandchild has enough patients so she can wait for the sand to settle before adding a fish to a tank.
Also.... and this is advice, not getting on to anyone about anything. Just moving forward
You need more already cured live rock. One rock is not enough. Live rock is your natural filter. Do you have power heads? An Air pump is not what you need for a SW tank. You need a Koralia type...look it up on the internet so you can see what they look like and check if that is what you have. You must mave a wave current in the tank...your mini ocean, like the big one God made, it lives because of the waves.
Do you have a hydrometer? You need this so you can test how salty the water is. 1.023 to 1.025 is a good number. To keep the tank at the right salty level...water evaporates but salt does not, so you take some fresh (RO) water and keep the tank water at the same level as when you first filled it.
You need lab type test kits, a master kit is cheaper than buying them all seperate. In the beginning check ammonia...if it starts to climb and shows any reading at all. Do a water change...because you have a fish in there. That means you make new saltwater up using RO (reverse osmoses) water. Put a utility pump (maxi jet power head) in the tub and let the salt mix 24 hours before you use it (so make it up ahead of time before you need it)...make sure the SG (saltiness on the hydrometer) is the same as what is in the fish tank. Then remove about 1/4 of the water and put the new water in to replace what you removed.
Having a live fish means you must soft cycle the tank by doing water changes if the ammonia spikes up...More work.
Read the 101 tips at the top of the new hobbyist forum to get an idea of what you should have done, it will still help you understand and give you some pointers to keep you on track. We are here to answer questions as you go along.
I do apologize for the harsh start. You do need to stick around and learn as much as you can. I have been in the hobby for many years and I learn new stuff all the time, folks on this site are friendly and very helpful.

 

[btldreef]

Welcome to the board!
No one is trying to be a troll, but you're not off to a good start with your tank. Please take the time to read through the "New Hobbyist" section of this forum where there are some great recommended threads. The biggest suggestion anyone can make to a new hobbyist is to take things s l o w l y !!!!
The best piece of advice I can provide to you is to remove ALL the livestock from your tank, return them to the LFS or try to find someone locally that has as proper tank for the animals. Let your tank cycle properly and go from there, otherwise you're going to have nothing but issues with this tank that are going to be both time and money consuming.
Good luck.