Sweetden25
Member
Great! Thanks for the feedback! I will continue! Thanks so much!
Starting a saltwater aquarium
- Thread starter Sweetden25
- Start date
deejeff0442
Active Member
Alot of good info here.almost could be a sticky.carry on
Sweetden25
Member
I'm not rushing it or anything like that. Just curious to know because my water has been reading .25 for the last few days. How long does it take to go down to 0?
Sweetden25
Member
Thank you!
bang guy
Moderator
Yes. It could be short but you should expect a cycle.
Sweetden25
Member
I do have live sand. and a few days later i put my dry rock in after soaking it for a few days. Is ok to put a piece of live rock in? Someone told me to that as well.
Sweetden25
Member
Can I put plants in before the fish?
Sweetden25
Member
I guess any saltwater plant. I don't know what else to do with my tank other than to wait for it to cycle. I was thinking maybe I can put plants in while it cycled. but maybe thats not a good idea. What is your suggestion?
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
In saltwater there are very few actual rooted plants with circulation system Like the turtle grass mentioned by Guy. But there is a great variety of macro algaes some of which look like FW plants (will kinda sorta anyway).
IMHO you should start your tank with macro algaes just like setting up a fw planted tank only to best it use some kind of refugium to protect the macros from the livestock.
In my old 55g I just crammed in a 1/4 square plastic grid (egg crate) 3" in front of the back glass and added a couple of shop light utility fixtures behind the tank pointing forward to light up that area. Nitrates which had been 40-160ppm form almost a year dropped to unmeasureable in 3 weeks.
my .02
IMHO you should start your tank with macro algaes just like setting up a fw planted tank only to best it use some kind of refugium to protect the macros from the livestock.
In my old 55g I just crammed in a 1/4 square plastic grid (egg crate) 3" in front of the back glass and added a couple of shop light utility fixtures behind the tank pointing forward to light up that area. Nitrates which had been 40-160ppm form almost a year dropped to unmeasureable in 3 weeks.
my .02
bang guy
Moderator
I would definitely wait until after the tank is fully cycled and stable before adding macro algae (I think that's what you mean by plants). Otherwise you risk having unstable bacteria colonies. If the live rock already has some macro algae sprouts then that's fine, just keep it closely trimmed.
I asked about plants because there are a few saltwater plants. These require a very mature system with nutrients in the substrate. Other than photosynthesis making sugar Macro algae gets all of its nutrition from the water while plants get most of their nutrients from their root system.
Adding some live rock is an excellent suggestion. Then you can have something to do when you try to identify all of the fun little critters that come on and in the rock.
Will this be a reef tank with coral?
Sweetden25
Member
Hi guys...so my aquarium has been cycling for a month now. I've been doing the ammonia & nitrate test everyday & the numbers seem to be staying in the same place. I took pics of the results if you guys can tell me if its at 00 ppm cause I cant really tell. And also my water levels are depleting now. How do I replenish the water? Thanks for everyone's help.
Sweetden25
Member
Hi guys...so the testing continues. I think Ive got it down to 0 ppm. For both ammonia and nitrate. Please tell me what you think and also how can I get the salinity down?
