new set up

david12

Member
i have started a new fish tank sait water and i have put sait and i have checked ph and sait its all good and i have also put live rock in and i have i put there drops things that get rip of the nirg or something like is there anything esle i need to do i dont have skimmer as my tank is to small any ideas what i have to do now thanks
 
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jc germ

Guest
Now you need to wait for some time for the water to cycle!!do you have ANY kind of filtration on your tank??
 

david12

Member
yeah i a wet and dry one i have bubble coming flowing out into the tank is this ok becuase i just read bubbles arnt any good how long will i need to wait intill its cycle i dont have skimmers tht all i am only letting the bubbles come out becuase of air for the fish to breath when i get it thanks for getting back to me
 
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jc germ

Guest
a bit of bubbles is fine you dont want your tank over run by bubbles give it at least a few weeks too cycle. Do you already have fish in??? i hope not!!!!
 

david12

Member
no i dont have any fish i want to get some sence demsal fish are hardy 3 weeks is a long time to wait i was told only a few days sen i have been putting ammovec bio cultures it breaks down bacteria ammonium and nirite one more thing is there anything esle i need to get for the sait water tank
 
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jc germ

Guest
with my experience rushing with this hobby can be a disaster!!!!! but it’s up to you what you feel is right I waited 4 months before I even added 1 fish
just make sure you have all the necessary things to go ahead all your power heads, heaters, tests kits, skimmer and so on so !good luck
at the end the wait is worth it
this is my tank after 2 years and its not close to complette
 

david12

Member
i dont have a skimmer as my tank is to small and i dont have a power head i have a wet and dry filter your tank looks really nice by the way
 

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by david12 http:///forum/post/3170314
i dont have a skimmer as my tank is to small and i dont have a power head i have a wet and dry filter your tank looks really nice by the way
What size tank are you talking about? Also what is the name of your wet/dry?
and read a lot of these topics
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/264597/a-list-of-extremely-helpful-threads-for-all-hobbyists
 

david12

Member
its a 10 gallon tank they to sed to me at the pet shop my tank wont be big eough so i have to get something that acts like it
 

meowzer

Moderator
They have nano skimmers....
What type of test kit do you have? How much live rock and live sand do you have?
Where did you get the rock from? and is it fully cured??
 

david12

Member
hye i have just a fin laver of sand and the rock has crabs inside it little ones i am not sure what u mean by that any ideas if any one could tell me what thats means
 
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jstdv8

Guest
David,
while the tank is cylcling its going to take some time for everything to get itself strightend out in there. sometimes a week, sometimes 6 weeks, ive even ehard of a number of months. You NEED a test kit that does ammonia, nitrites and nitrates at the very least. this will let you monitor how your cycle is going. it will start with high ammonia and probably little to no nitrites or nitrates and then the bacteria that eats ammonia will eventually get the job done and turn the ammonia into nitrites, then the same thing basically happens and the nitrites get turned into nitrates. once your ammonia is at 0 and your nitirites are at 0 and you have some nitrates left you can do a good sized water change of about 30% to reduce the ammount of nitrates in the water. There are bacterias you can add to the tank to speed up the cycle, but like the otehr poster said its better to just let it run its course. this is a thing of nature you are trying to recreate so its best to let nature run its course. ammonia and nitiriets are very toxic to fish, so don't get over anxiuos about adding anything untill they are gone. crabs and other inverts are harmed by nitrites and nitrates so you wont really be able to have a cleaning crew if you are going that direction until the cycle is done either. Once you get your nitrates to below 20 (you are shooting for as close to 0 as possible) then you can add the damsel or whatever you said you wanted to try.
The other poster asked if you live rock was cured meaning it sat in your tank or the local fish stores tank after getting seeded with the things that make live rock live. this takes a few weeks as well. once the rock is good to go then it goes in your tank and you will need a small power head to push water around in your tank to force water through the live rock. Live rock is one of the best filters you can get and you should probably have about 10 lbs of it in your tank. so the water pushes all the junk in your water into the live rock and the organisms in the rock eat it and break it down into other things that are less harmfull to your system.
Keep in mind that small tanks are harder to work with than large tanks because of the amount of water there. for example if you were to pour a can of pepsi into the ocean there is so much water there that it probably wouldnt hurt anyting except the plankton that it touched. if you poured a can of pepsi into a 500 gallon aquarium there is still a good amount of water there but not enough to jsut dispose of the bad stuff in the pepsi, that tank would need some emergeny help to keep things going, but if you poured a can of pepsi into your 10 gallon it would probably be over before you knew it and would kill everything in it quickly. Probably a poor analogy, but was the best i could come up with. so when something goes wrong in a small tank you need to be right on top of it and get it fixed quick before whatever is wrong kills your livestock.
Also with a smaller tank be sure and check your fish before you buy them as alot of fish need at least 55 gallons and some even need 100+ gallons to survive. You will probably be good with some smaller fish like clowns. and don't overfill your tank with fish.
Once your tank is cycled do a 10% water change with purified water every other week or at the very least once a month. If you dont have a water purifier (RO/DI reverse osmosis) system then you will need to either buy one or get your water from a fish store by the gallon. I would highly reccomend against using tap water as there are just to many things to go wrong
GL
 

david12

Member
thanks for that i have now been cycling my tank for about a week now so i dont have test kit to test for that i have to take my water down to the pet shop i have just put purigen into my wet and dry filter will that do any good because iwas told that it acts kinda like a skimmers thanks
 
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jstdv8

Guest
Im not sure about many chemicals, i was told to let mother nature do its thing so thats what I did. having the fish store do your tests is fine as long as you are willing to keep going there time after time until your ammonia and nitrites are gone and your nitrates are at a tollerable level.
personally Id get my own, gives you something to do while you wait :)
Be sure and get a powerhead to go in there to blow the water through the live rock or your live rock won't be usefull for anything but a decoration.
In a small tank i'd assume you wouldnt need anything crazy sized, I know koralia has a nano so thats robbaly what you might look at, the maxijets are cheaper yet and I hear they are pretty nice.
What are you using for lighting?
And are you planning on just keeping fsh in this tank or some corals too?
 
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