Hello! 1st saltwater tank ever!!!!!!!!!

[NORTHBAY(707)]

Just wanted to say Hi. Was wondering if any one local to Me (707) Santa Rosa area was on this forum.Looks like Northcoast Reefers aren't that active on this forum.


I don't have a reef tank,I guess it's going to be a predator tank hopefully if I can find fish that I can put in a tank with a 4 foot Mexican Moray Eel.

Later! Hope to see more active members on this forum.

[khrios]

I live in santa rosa. not many people from the reef club check this forum. I am pretty new to the hobby, but I tend to check here pretty often, so if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask

[NORTHBAY(707)]

wheres a good place around here to get live sand? been tring to get some GRAF'S Grunge,but I get no ansrew there when I'm tring to order it.

[khrios]

I'm not sure if Caesars or Northbay carry "LS" but you can get the prepackaged stuff with all of the bacteria, but not much other diversity at both of those places. I know northbay carries the AragAlive and the Ocean's Best stuff. It comes in a sealed bag with water in it. I would highly suggest buying it online if you're going to buy a lot, or if you want LS "activator" try ipsf.com I got my LS activator from them and it comes with some pretty good stuff, and the price is pretty good. OTherwise, LS can be bought online (I have seen it go for .99/LB) IMHO, for only one fish a small amount of activator or LS would seed your sand bed and should be adequate.

[cwegescheide]

Fill that puppy up with SPS and get it over with!!! Resistance is futile!!! :) OH btw... Be carefull with that Arag-Alive stuff. It turned to STONE in my tank. Seriously. If you do get it I'd make sure you had plenty of critters in there to stir the sand. Nassarius snails would help a lot I'd think.

Have fun

[NORTHBAY(707)]

Okay after about 36hrs of the tank cycling......I have a very cloudy tanish light brown tank, sort of the color of a watered down latte.
Is this normal?

I used RO water from the water mechine at longs drugs in Windsor the mechine was service 2-3 days before I got my water,mixed the salt in before adding it to the tank,added that LS from LFS the bag of sand with water in it. 40lbs of it and about 45lbs of sand that My buddie gave with the tank that was new.Added 75lbs of live rock,have a fluval 404 fliter runing, Seio 2600 power head is running, My skimmer is not running, temp. is between 78-80 degrees.

salt:1.022
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate:0ppm
Ammonia .50ppm
Ph: about 8.3

these where the numbers after the tank cycling for 24hrs.......

salt:1.022
nitrite:0 ppm
Nirtate:0-5.0 ppm
Ammonia:0 ppm
Ph:8.2

Are these numbers good, alright, what they should be? What about the color and cloudyness of the tank?

Thanks for the info on the sand I have 12lbs of GARF'S GRUNGE coming, and I'll be adding some hermitts and other things to turn the sand over in the tank.:smokin: later.

[khrios]

don't worry about the color. My tank was pretty cloudy for the first few days. I think the numbers look pretty good, they seem to show that your tank has "cycled", but that is probably because of the very small bioload. I would wait at least a day or two more, add some nassarius snails and hermit crabs and a small fish to create a higher bioload. If you don't want to get a fish, I have heard of people putting in frozen shrimp. Also, if the fluval is running biofiltration, I would pull the media, because it will produce lots of nitrates that your inverts won't like (hermits, shrimp, etc.) Lastly, I saw that you were looking for lighting. Since you probably don't need Metal Halide if you're not going to have coral, I would suggest T-5. I love my setup. It's 6-48" bulbs made by Sunlight Supply. Look for it on ebay~360 when you add all the bulbs. It's really nice because you can blend the light to whatever you want, and T-5 bulbs are very efficient and fairly inexpensive

[NORTHBAY(707)]

Hey,thanks for the info!I was able to use the search button last night or this morning. Read all about that coloring of the water (cloudiness) it's just hopefully a bloom of the bacteria that started in the tank.

I was thinking about adding some crabs and snail in the next day or two, and a couple of damsels (maybe the frozen shrimp instead of the damsel.This was list for the "clean up crew I was thinking of:
5 nass snails
5 bumblebee snails
5 cerith snails
2-4 Dwarf blue legged crabs
2-4 scarlet hermit crabs
Does that sound like a good clean up crew or should I get more of certain things?

Also I was looking into those lights that you where talking about may just have to wait a little while before I get them, My budget
went over with the tank set up.



:smokin: later.

[khrios]

sounds good. you could add more snails and hermits if you want. some suggest 1 cleaner/gal, but I think that's a little overkill. also, definitely think about getting some turbos. the damsels could become a problem later, due to aggression, but you can either take them out when you get the eel or I guess you could let it eat them. I'm not sure if that would be good for it, but I think it will be hard to catch them in such a big tank. Yeah, the lights can be expensive, but they are well worth it in the long run. Don't go real cheap on lights; you will end up buying better ones eventually, and it will be money wasted. Wait until you can afford them. Also, they're not a necessity, so as long as you can put up with the cheapos, keep on waitin. Get used to going over your budget; it happens much more frequently than you'd think, esp. if you get into coral. as long as i can enjoy the final product, it's money well spent, to me, but it would be nice if things didn't cost so much.

[NORTHBAY(707)]

vDidn't add any cleaners yet. Added 4 damels 2- 3 days ago there doing great.2 blue devil and 2 blue yellow tails. There funny one of the blue devils chases one of the blue yellow tails aroung,but then the 2 blue yellow tails chase 1 of the blue devils. They like to all stay in the den I made for My Eel.

Which with the help on a couple of people I found out what type it is UNDALTED MORAY EEL. The damsels are in for a big sirprize when the EEl comes home. That if it take to the den I made it.Theres nothing else in the tank right now.

It seems to being doing ok the numbers are good I think,but the tank has not cleared up all the way yet.Must still have a bloom going on due to being able to see a sort of white colored cloed that move around with the current.

At 9:00pm the Numbers where:

Salinity: 1.021
PH:8.2
Ammonia: .50ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

These are the numbers for the last 2.5 days with Me tested the water 5 X's.I test about every 12 hours.

:smokin: later.

[northbay-reefer]

Northbay, your Salinity might be a little low, you want to have it between 1.023 and 1.026. Depends on what hydrometer you are using, it might not be accurate so before raising it, I reccomend that you have it check by an accurate salinity reader. I have one if you want to bring over a sample of your water.

[NORTHBAY(707)]

I uped it before I put anything in the tank. It's at 1.024.Thanks for the offer,I'll bring back your bottle and cooler i didn't forget, just been busy.

[sulcata1619]

on the Garf Grunge, you need to leave a message and they will call you back. It took almost a week to get back to me. I think they are very busy. very nice people though. I ordered three pounds they sent me five. The grunge is awesome. Later.

[northbay-reefer]

Northbay707, no problem. When ever is fine, just put it in my front porch if am not home. As for salinity, last time I was using several different ones and set my salinity at 1.023 but my corals keep bleaching so I finaly use a a refractometer to double check and my actual salinity was over 1.030 so atleast get your hydrometer calibrated