Tank Questions-Copper, Ich, Live Rock

[chris a h]

My wife and I just bought a 75 Gallon Saltwater aquarium from one of my wife's friends. It is an "old style" SW tank with a UG filter, Dolomite, a fluval 300 canister filter, etc. The tank has been up and running well for five years with no problems. I want to switch it over slowly to a live rock tank that is mostly FO but with a small "cleanup crew" of inverts. Right now I have one giant Orbiculate Batfish and a Banghi Cardinal.
My questions are;
1. Previous owner used CU three years ago to cure Ich. Cured the Ich, but can I safely add live rock to this tank without CU contamination? Is a standard hobbyist test for CU adaquate or do I need something more advanced? Would I be better off pulling all of the dolomite out and replacing it with coral sand right away? I'd like to eventually go to coral sand, but right now I'd like to keep the UG running until I can get enough live rock to carry the tank.
2. Since the tank is cycled, can I slowly add live rock, then pull out the UG one side at a time? Say maybe a couple of months after I add the live rock?
3. If I only have enough money for either live rock or a skimmer at first, which should I add first? From what I can tell a cheap skimmer seems like a waste of money, and I should get enough overtime to buy a nice one next month. Also, I'd like to make one change at a time and monitor the changes.
4. What else besides brine shrimp should I feed the Banghi? He doesn't eat flake food.
5. Will fresh garden cucumber work as a food for my Batfish? I feed him mostly cut up pieces of various fish now, but I read somehwere that a batfish needs veggies in his diet.
6. What other fish (besides Damsels and clowns) are small, Hardy, and easy to keep-What have YOU had the most luck with?
7. If I add really nice Live rock, will the Batfish eat off all of the nice alagae?
8. Will ten gallons every Saturday be too much or too little for a water change in a 75 gallon tank?
9. Are once or twice a day too few feedings for my fish?
10. We had a really mild case of Ich. Two doses of Kent RX-P were added and all visible signs of Ich are gone and fish are acting normally. Do I need to do a hyposalinity to make sure the tank is clear of Ich before adding live rock, etc?
11. Any other advice for a family converting from FW to Saltwater fishkeeping?
Chris

 

[daj0424]

IMO, I would truely consider puting LR and Inverts in my aquarium again. I have had a 55 gallon SW tank set up for 2 yrs now and if I had to do it all over again I would not do LR.
If the tank has been running fine without LR I would try to keep it that way at first. That way if you run into fish getting sick you can treat the main tank and not have to buy a QT tank. Both effective treatments of this common disease are not invert and LR safe.
However, if you do decide that LR and inverts are a must have, then go a purchase a QT tank. This past weekend I finally had to break down and set up a QT tank becuase I had a bad case of ich in my tank and need to treat it.
I had to move all of my LR from my display into a QT tank and treat the main display. All could have been avoided if I would have purchased the QT tank before and had any newcomers in there to begin with or if I did not have any LR and inverts I could just treat the main tank.
Bottom line, for any new hobbiests out there I strongly reccomend a FO set up until you get the hang of it.

 

[fishieness]

1. Get a test for copper. make sure there is none in there. remove the undergravle filter!! It is a storage place for junk/gunk/you name it to build up and be a problem to your system. You might as well do it now before you put 150 pounds of live rock on there. It would make things so much easier
2. see #1.
3.add live rock first i would say. add as much as you can, but make sure you can also get a skimmer soon. It is a good thing to have.
4. Feed the bangaii any frozen foods suh as formula one. Does he only eat live brine? if so, you might want to feed him mysin shrimp. They are much more healthy. Brine is like junk food, there is no nutritional value, esspecialy frozen brine.
5. I have heard of people feeding cucumber to batfish. However, i know basicaly nothing about the needs of this fish, so i would wait on someone with much more knowlege than i to awnser.
6. Gobys are awsome. But this depends on what type of setup are you going for. would you like to eventualy like to make a reef?
7. Many types of fish will graze on live rock if there is the right food present. This is a natural way for them to get the foods they need.
8. 10 gallons is good you could even do a bit less. 10% a week is what is most commonly practiced.
9. Many do once, many others even do twice a day. This will also depend on the fish some fish need to be fed much more commonly than others. reserch your type of fish to find out.
10. Hypo is good. The life cycle of ick is 5-6 weeks, so just because your fish dont have it, doesnt mean that it is not in your tank. There are organic/reefsafe/ect ick treatments taht you can use. Hypo is good, but that would require a QT. It is, IMO, the best way, but it is a lot of work. There is also a product called prevent ick which is entirely organic and reef safe. It cures mild cases of ick and prevents them form returning.
11. A BATFISH GETS WAAAAAAAAY TOO BIG TO BE IN A 75 GALLON TANK!!!! Just reserch your fish!

 

[lion_crazz]

fishieness put everything pretty well. I however wanted to offer you some expertise on the batfish.
As far as a diet, I would definitely recommend one or two types of meat, such as frozen mysis and brine shrimp, one or two types of greenery, such as formula one or freeze-dried seaweed/nori, and then once per week, give him small bits of broken up banana. This may seem a bit odd, but I know for a fact that it is good practice. They need the potassium in their diet and this is the best way to supply them it. My bat enjoys it very much when I scatter little pieces of banana in the tank for him. Just do not do it too frequently because it can dirty up your water if he does not eat it all.
As far as frequence of feeding, I would not feed your fish anymore than once a day.
Also, the recommendation to your research your fish could not have been a better one. It is always a very good practice to know everything you possibly can about a particular fish before you buy the fish. This would have saved you the trouble with having to move the batfish soon when he gets to be too big for your 75.