Started My 1ST Tank - TODAY!!

mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
Oh - my - gosh.
SOOOOOOOOOOOO Excited!!!
Ok, How long have I been waiting/scrimping/saving/price comparing/lurking 'round forums??? FOREVER!! And today I FINALLY started!!
Oh Frabjous day! Callou! Callaeigh!
:jumping: :jumping: :jumping:
Ok, anyhow, here's how I started:
I bought a 12gallon Marineland Eclipse acrylic tank
Sat it, sad and empty, on a bookshelf while I waited a week 'till I could afford a stand.
Painted the back in the meantime so it would stop looking so pitiful.
Then I waited 2 weeks until I could afford anything else and bought:
15lbs of pink fiji Aragonite substrate
14.5 lbs of lace rock
6.5 lbs of live rock
25 gallons worth of Instant Ocean
Mardel test strips for amonia, ph, alkalinity, nitrates, nitrites & hardness
I can't afford an RO/DI unit, and my Walmart is busy having theirs installed this week, so I couldn't get any RO water - I filtered about 11 gallons of tap water through my brita pitcher...

(Oh My G_D did that take FOREVER!!!) using a brand new filter, of course, and then also put some treatment in it (I live in Jersey - can't be too careful!).
Mixed in my salt and allowed that to fully dissolve. Then I added the bag of aragonite - got a nice thick layer...2-2&1/2in in places.
Next came the lace rock, 'cuz the 2 pieces I got were pretty big - much bigger than the live rock I got, and I wanted them to settle in first. Mushed 'em around a bit and found a good place for both of them, then I added my live rock.
I'm pretty happy with the way it looks, only needed a tad bit of tweaking - not bad for a first try! I think I'll tweak some more when the water clears...
After all was added, I turned on my filters and have now been watching the water sloooooowly clear for about three hours. LoL

I'll keep posting as things clear up - hopefully I'll see something interesting on my live rock tonight, but I doubt it.
The pix are in chronological order - enjoy, thank you all for your advice...wouldn't have gotten to this point without you.... and if anyone's got any suggestions, they would be GREATLY appreciated!! :happyfish




 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
and now a pic of the water as it clears.... u can KINDA see my rockwork, and KINDA see my background.... looong ways to go though....

 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
Yup! There's activated black diamond carbon in one of the filters the system came with - built into the hood. Good stuff!! ...That's the stuff that's in Brita filters.
 
E

exile415

Guest
great. it should clear. Is that the eclipse that came with the mini compact ? you can keep corals in there with that light
 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
This is my very first try at salt water, and I don't want to get ahead of myself... but I'd like to keep a couple zoos and some shrooms. The lighting the tank came with isn't spectacular (13watt 5000k, tank is 12 gallons), so I'm not gonna go for anything more complicated than that in terms of corals.
I'd like to keep a Percula or 2 - and a cleanup crew, of course. Here's my anticipated stocklist (for now...got a long wait for the cycle to finish and things 2 stabilize)
shrooms & zoos
1 featherduster
2 Perculas
1 fire shrimp
1-2 sexy shrimp
5 bumble bee snails
2 blue legged hermits
suggestions/comments welcome! :happy:
 
E

exile415

Guest
heres a few pics of here and those eggs !!! not sure if you can see them but they're kind of visible

 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
... I had read that fire shrimp ARE cleaner shrimp..... :notsure:
oh well, more reading for me... good thing I've got a while! :joy:
congrats on ur future shrimpy mommy-hood! :happy:
 
E

exile415

Guest
Originally Posted by Mimzy
... I had read that fire shrimp ARE cleaner shrimp..... :notsure:
oh well, more reading for me... good thing I've got a while! :joy:
congrats on ur future shrimpy mommy-hood! :happy:
oh. fire shrimp are much more expensive and they don't do much either. at least cleaner shrimp clean parasites off fish. they practically jump on the fish.
thanks ! i hope they dont turn into fish food.
any plans for a clean up crew. snails ?
 
swfishfan

swfishfan

Member
fire shrimp suck imo, they are very beautiful to see after a few times but cleaner shrimp are the best, when you feed your tank flakes, they do this dance and attack the food its great, they also hitch hike on the fish while they eat the gunk off there scales there awesome :happy:
 
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exile415

Guest
yep tottaly agree. AWESOME i have 2 i think they one got the other pregnant !
 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
I'll def. think about the cleaner shrimp...
but in the meantime... There a bajillions of tiiiiiiiiiny little bubbles on the front glass of my tank. The water itself is nice and clear this morning, but the bubbles on the acrylic make it look kinda cloudy.
How can I get rid of the bubbles?
Do they mean anything good or bad? :notsure:
took my first set of parametrs this morning too;
amonia 3.0
nitrate 20
nitrite 1.o
hardness 425
ph 8.4
and for the alkalinity I got a color that wasn't even on the chart. LoL. I figure I must have held it in the water too long...my first testing EVER, after all. Don't want to waste another strip, I'll test again tommorrow. :jumping: :jumping: :jumping:
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
What is your specific gravity and temp?
Don't worry about the bubbles, they are part of the nitrogen cycle and will go away. If you still have bubbles after your cycle, you can wipe them off with a mag float.
 
mimzy

mimzy

Active Member
Thermometer and hydrometer are on the shopping list for today... I'll post measurements soon as I get 'em.
Thanx 4 the info about the bubbles, I was afraid it might have been current related.
How long did it take for you all to find your first critters on your live rock?
Here's a pic of the clearing tank as it stands this morning:
 
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