New to Salt Water - Greetings

[johndodd]

Hello everyone,
I just found this list and wanted to introduce myself. My wife Lynda and I (John) just bought a 90 gallon tank and decided to try salt water. We've both done fresh water tanks in the past. We are just over 3 weeks into it and so far so good. We are attempting a FOWLR. We have 12 lbs of lr and 11 Damsels. All are doing well and our water tests are showing what all the books say they should. So we're pretty happy about that. We had been told by the lfs that we would lose half of our damsels, but that hasn't been the case.
I've been reading through the "extremely helpful threads" and that's great. I think I understand about half of what I read so far. LOL I do see I'll be getting a refractometer this week.
I do have 2 questions that I haven't found the answers to yet in the archives,. Maybe I just haven;t read far enough yet, but I will.
Shipping. Do y'all have good experiences with this? My first instinct would be not to try this but I'm starting to get the idea it is fairly common. We live in the country and it's a good hour drive 1 way to lfs.
Water changes. Our lfs suggested we get in a schedule changing about 10% on a regular basis. (every month I think?). But we also read not to do the first change until the first cycle was finished and that seems to make sense. When doing a water change, do you replace fresh water and then add salt, or do you add the salt to the replacement water before adding it to the tank.
All help will be greatly appreciated.
jdd

 

[isistius]

welcome to the boards. congrats on your purchase. i'll just let you know that you will find more helpful information here then you will ever find at a lfs. remember, they are always trying to sell you something, and they don't care if it lives or dies. especially when you cycle a tank. the most common method now is by using frozen shrimp, and not live animals.
a lot of people get stuff online. shop around, lots of prices and varieties. also, you might want to buy from vendors that offer guarantees. this one is good, and i've had no problems with it. there are others too (just can't name them).
as far as water changes, you will hear varying things. but people will tell you that you need to mix the water first, then add it to the tank.
don't be afraid to ask questions, and take everyones advice with a little grain of salt (haha) what works for one, may not necessarily work for you.
hth

 

[emporer angel]

11 damsels??? to cycle a 90 gallon tank? first of all, most people dont use live fish to cycle their tank. its just a good way to sell fish. 10 % water change seems right, but you should do it every week. or at least 20% bi weekly. your lfs probably told you 10% month to make the work seem smaller so you would buy the tank.
here is my method to 10% weekly water changes:
i have a 75 gallon tank so i use 7.5 gallon bucket to mix water. i fill the bucket with freshwater and then place 2 powerheads (one at the top, and one at the bottom of the bucket. you could do just one powerhead they are cheap around $20) in the tank. then i add the amount of salt i need. the first time doing it you should slowly add salt until you get to the desired salinity. After adding amounts of salt you should test salinity about 20 min after. (good idea on refractometer) then let it mix overnight with a small heater. you should match the water's temperature to the maintank's temperature. then remove water from the tank using the same powerhead with tubing that fits it. you should fill up the same size bucket you mixed the water in with old water. then put the new water in the tank using the powerhead again.

 

[lion_crazz]

Welcome to SWF.com, John!!! I am glad to see you have found the list of helpful threads!!! Congrats on your new tank and on finding this place before you had any issues or problems. We can surely be of some help whenever you need it.
Great job on planning to get a refractometer, and I agree with everyone above about using damsels to cycle a tank. I would recommend taking the damsels back, and picking up some more live rock. You will need it.
As for ordering online, it is very safe, secure, and easy. I have ordered from here a bunch of times and I have always been very pleased with everything I have ordered. It was always shipped in great condition and in the time when they said it would be.
I would recommend doing water changes every week to every two weeks. Here is my process for doing a water change:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/259634/how-exactly-do-i-perform-water-changes

 

[petjunkie]

Welcome to SWF! It sounds like you got started off the old way. Not too many people cycle with damsels anymore for a few different reasons, it's cruel to the fish to go through the ammonia, you're going to want to remove them all anyways because damsels can be very aggressive and hard to add anything else with them and you can cycle just as easily by adding a raw shrimp to the tank or massively overfeeding an empty tank. What kind of filtration are you using? Most people use a pound of live rock per gallon plus a high quality skimmer would be good for a fowlr, most large fish produce large amounts of waste so filtration is very important.
As for your questions, I order almost everything live and dry goods online, a little bit of searching on the internet will give you an idea on who's good to order from and I do weekly 10% water changes on all my tanks but 20% every other week is good too. You will need a separate mixing bucket for mixing saltwater, I use 5 gallon buckets and let mix overnight with a powerhead and heater, adding salt straight to the tank would burn everything the salt touched so don't do that.

 

[johndodd]

Thanks to everyones answers. The lfs probably told us 10% per week and that's what I types first, but it looked wrong so I changed it. I have notes at home with what we were told.
Someone else mentioned using shrimp and I thought they were pulling my leg. Guess not. I am so glad I asked about how to change the water, it makes a lot of sense. I would have done it wrong for sure.
My wife and I own and operate a ranch here in TX so we know well that proper management makes life a LOT easier. We just gotta learn what is proper first and then start some good habits.
I was planning on going out and buying some more equipment for a quarantine tank so I guess I'll add a couple buckets and a couplke power heads to the list.
I saw a discussion on another thread about the different brands of salt you can buy. Any suggestions?
Thanks again
jdd

 

[emporer angel]

i use kent sea salt. i think it works great. there is also instant ocean and red sea.