Totally new to this. Really long babbling post about my mistakes.

[rotarygeek]

Ok so i have had fish tanks my whole life, but all have been freshwater. About two months ago I was checking out some fish that i liked and they turned out to be saltwater. So i went home and did some research (not enough as you will soon see) and came across some stuff that seemed to point that running a saltwater tank is extremly difficult. Well im up for the challenge and i start collecting the stuff i need. I set up a different tank for the fish im moving out of the 30 gallon im going to use for my saltwater set up. Then I bought the substrate (agrigate iirc) and salt and a penguin 70 gallon biowheel filter and a testing kit. I set it all up by pouring the sand into the tank directly. No washing. (Mistake number 1). Then i put in water from my hose. (Mistake number 2). Then i added the salt. I bought a box of sea salt that said it was for a 25 gallon tank, so i dumped almost all of it in. The water was so cloudy it was like trying to look through milk. I figured the salt needed time to disolve all the way and the substrate to settle. So i left it alone for 3 days. It was still cloudy. I ended up thinking that i added entirely too much salt, so i started draining the water and refilling it. Again from the hose. Still cloudy. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point. Then a friend came over and happened to point out that my water was extremly cold, lower 60's (mistake number 3). He showed me in a cup how cold water will be cloudy, then he microwaved it and it was crystal clear. So i got a 150 watt heater and stuck it in there. Sure enough, it cleared right up. So i let it sit for 3 more days, checking all the ph levels and salt levels. Now that the tank is clear and the cycling process has begun (the one that spikes to like .4 or something like that is spiking right now, the rest are good) i bought about 4 pounds of live rock to help it cycle. I did add chlorine killing stuff to the tank so hopefully thats not going to be a problem. I was reading the list of 101 saltwater tips and realized i did almost everything wrong to some extent. But the cycling is already about half way through and i don't want to stop it, and it will have about a month and a half before any fish get put in it at all. Im not starting over now, but my question is, will time help smooth over all my mistakes? Pretty much just want to say hi and thanks for making me feel dumb lol. Hopefully even with all my starting mistakes it will be ok. If your interested in the tank, its a 30 gallon (i know i should have gone bigger but that was the biggest i could get my hands on right now) with 20 pound bag of agrigate and 4 pounds of live rock. a flourescent hood on it from the freshwater aquarium, and a penguin bio wheel 70 gallon filter (little overkill, but bigger is better when it comes to filter, or so i have heard). I know this is all a little jumbled and like a clusterf&*# but its late, i just got off of work (max security death row prison, kinda interesting lol) and im tired. So...... sorry, if your interested, ill post pics of the tank tomorrow. And for anybody who is about to tell me i need a powerhead and skimmer, those are coming at the first of the month, just don't have the money yet, and its still cycling so it will be ok.

 

[sepulatian]

Welcome to the boards!!! You did not mess up your tank at all. Buy two power heads, I use maxi jets myself, one for each end of the tank. I suggest a maxi 900 and a 600. That will aerate and mix the water that is in there and provide the needed oxygen for later inhabitants. You will need to go pick up a liquid master test kit, API sells one for about $25. You will also need a refractometer to measure the specific gravity of the saltwater in your tank. This reading is very important. You are on the right track! No question is dumb. You cannot learn if you do not ask. Feel free to ask us any and all questions that you may have

 

[sh00tist]

Welcome to the sickness. Since you allready have fish tanks you sort of understand. Freshwater becomes routine and quite boring in very short order whereas salt becomes more and more interesting as time goes by and the sickness deepens within you. To compound the problem salt is also WAY more expensive than freshwater and requires a lot more thinking,time,research and effort. You really arent in very deep at all at this point and you really may be a lot better off just draining the thing and writing it off to experience.
If on the other hand you really think you have what it takes to delve deeper into this hobby then there are several things you will need to do if you dont want to waste a lot of money and kill a lot of innocent creatures that really didnt sign on for any of this when most if not all of them were yanked from their wonderful ocean homes.
First off you need to wrap your brain around the whole concept of marine filtration. The majority of the task relies not on a filter but instead is accomplished naturally by utilizing bacteria found within the rock and sand. This first critical part can only be accomplished by having enough bacteria present to do the job. In short,four pounds of liverock is nowhere near enough,the bare minimun is 1 pound per gallon. You can save some money by buying half liverock and half baserock(dried liverock),the true liverock will seed the other rock over time. You indicate that you are cycling your tank,this simply cannot be accomplished until you have most if not all of your liverock present. Until this first critical step is accomplished I would not advise adding anything living to the tank.
The second thing is equipment. I know you want to save a few bucks here and there wherever you can,who doesnt? Do not under any circumstances by anything because your fish store says 'you need it',always research and find out what you really truly do need and when you buy it get a good brand or you will be sorry without fail,there are a lot of top-notch brands but sadly there are vastly more cheap junk and unnecessary things that people will do anything to sell you,always research everything before you buy it be it equipment,fish, inverts....There is a wealth of information easily found on the net use it.
Above all else do not get in a big hurry good things always take time and bad things can happen very quickly. When you think you have a basic understanding of reef chemistry,lighting,filtration,biology then you may be ready to add a fish,but research the fish first dont buy it because it looks cool,98% of the fish in the sea will not work in an aquarium and there are even less that will work in a small tank,but there are plenty of people and places that will line up to sell you anything regardless of how it will fare once you take it home.
If I havent convinced you to drain the tank and throw in the towel I hope I have at least persuaded you to do it properly and maybe I have spared a few creatures their very lives. So put on your thinking cap and get out your wallet because you are going to be using them both and good luck.

 

[heavyroller]

I must say you sound like I did when I first started my first tank 4 years ago. I had it set up as a freshwater tank, drained it and added about 15# of live rock and used petsmart salt and tap water. I never ran a skimmer, used the basic lights for my freshwater and a hang on back penguin filter.
I let my tank cycle for about 6 weeks before adding anything, and everything turned out well. I did all of this before reading anything and listening to my LFS staff. I personally dont think you need to "scrap" your set up, just read up everything you can and get to know what you need and what fish will work with what. It is a crazy expensive habit, but hey all the fun hobbies are expensive. So enjoy it and I hope your tank does well.

 

[rotarygeek]

Originally Posted by heavyroller
http:///forum/post/2463632
I must say you sound like I did when I first started my first tank 4 years ago. I had it set up as a freshwater tank, drained it and added about 15# of live rock and used petsmart salt and tap water. I never ran a skimmer, used the basic lights for my freshwater and a hang on back penguin filter.
I let my tank cycle for about 6 weeks before adding anything, and everything turned out well. I did all of this before reading anything and listening to my LFS staff. I personally dont think you need to "scrap" your set up, just read up everything you can and get to know what you need and what fish will work with what. It is a crazy expensive habit, but hey all the fun hobbies are expensive. So enjoy it and I hope your tank does well.
Well thats a little more encouraging. Im not going to just give this up, so instead, i plan on buying fish that can deal with my setup. I still haven't even got the slightest idea on what i want yet. I didn't know about the having that much live rock though, so thats a bit of a set back. As for the base rock, i don't even know where to get this. Is it just rocks? Or are they special? Heres some pics. Sorry i can't figure out how to get them directly onto this page so a link will have to do for now. The tank looks a little crooked....
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2...s001tl5nn7.jpg
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9...s002sk1ns4.jpg
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4...s003ka5ru5.jpg

 

[dinki]

You've come to the right place. The folks here have been extremely helpful to me in setting up my tank. I would encourage you to continue to read through the posts here and learn as much as you can.
I know that I am/was definitely on a budget and found that you can find some really good deals buying online rather than paying the overpriced LFS. Here's an example, I bought two maxijet 1200s shipped to my front door for $45. The same powerhead was $50+8% sales tax at my LFS. That's for ONE powerhead not two! I can PM the name of the website if you're interested (can't post links to competitors).
Base rock is rock that was formally live rock that has lost all the beneficial bacteria and other living organisms. In some cases it's called dead rock.
At any rate, best of luck and don't be afraid to ask questions.

 

[rotarygeek]

yeah pm me that info. I think i already know what site your talking about, but we will see. I bought another 4 pounds of live rock today, slowly getting to 30 pounds lol. I guess its a good thing im broke otherwise my patients would run out and i would be putting fish in it now. But i am so ill slowly be adding rocks till im ready. I checked today, and the ammonia was at about 4.0, and all the others were very close to 0. So does that mean the spike in ammonia is about to drop? And when it drops, it is finished cycling right? Also, these live rocks i bought don't look like the other one does, it has green algea growing on it. Any problems with that?