First Try At Saltwater

[Millz1273]

Hello all,
Well, after about 6 months of trying to gather knowledge by reading and buying equipment, I am finally close to starting my tank. I am not completely new to fish keeping as I spent about 9 years with African cichlids. After a year off from the hobby I started to get the itch again...so here I am. Please let me know if any part of my process in getting my aquarium started needs tweaking as I go along. I thought I had a plan but not so sure now. I think I am more interested in attempting a FOWLR setup. This weekend I will start to cycle my rock from Reef Cleaners(thanks John) with pure ammonia, I've always done it this way. I will do it in a brute trash can instead of the display tank. Can I cycle in RO/DI or must it be salt? Once the rock is cycled I can then fill the DT and move the rock into it. Ive been reading so much about quarantining that that kind of threw off my plans. Seems as if quarantine time is much longer than I thought. It also seems that ich is more prevalent in marine fish than freshwater. In my 9 years keeping cichlids I never had ich. I also really never quarantined new fish before, only setup hospital tanks when needed. Don't worry, I will quarantine all from now on while in the hobby. My issue is that I only have a 10 gallon and a 5 gallon tank to use. So where do I begin?

 

[JohnnyHildo]

when i started mine the advice i got was to set it up and maintain it as if you had fish in there. in my case this meant heat the water to a stable 79 deg, keep the salinity at 1.025 and while i didn't have the proper means to create flow in the tank when i started it's a good idea to get that all settled as well. lighting was the only facet of the hobby that you don't have to run while the cycle is taking place.
to me the idea behind this was an opportunity to basically train yourself so when the living creatures are added there is little guesswork to the basics.
best of luck with your new tank!

 

[Millz1273]

Makes sense, I can cycle in my DT to get used to a running tank. I assume I wouldn't run a skimmer until I had life in the tank? Are CUC a must before fish?

 

[JohnnyHildo]

i would skip the skimmer until your tank gets through everything.
as for cuc... i personally believe you should get them early but it also makes sense to me that you should buy each member according to what ailments they treat (algae feeders to treat algae and so on) instead of a lump sum of crabs, snails and stars.

 

[Millz1273]

I've also read not to buy a such a big crew either. Ok, so basically I will cycle rock and some HOB filter padding in my DT. Once I purchase a couple fish I can house them in my 5 and 10gal quarantine tanks for 4-6 weeks? Can I house them together in a 10gal? My DT isn't very big, Red Sea Reefer 250 at 36"Lx20"Dx21"H. It's a total of 65gal w/ a 54gal display. Wanted to get a pair of snowflake clown, small, peaceful wrasse, etc...nothing crazy.Is it safe to rinse my rock with tap water or must it be RO/DI?

 

[kmbyrnes]

Read this sticky about TTM for ich prevention
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2507836
and then do observatonal QT for 4-6 weeks, treating as needed.
Many folks do a Prazi Pro treatment on set 2 and 4 of TTM as well.
If your fish are small, you can do long term QT in a 10g but 20 would be better. Check the Petco $/gallon sales. I would do at most 2 fish at any given time.
When you say rinsing your rock, do you mean prior to cycling? If so, then tap water is fine. Once you start cycling, fresh water of any sort will kill of the bacteria you have worked so hard to build up.
Good luck and take it slow.

 

[Millz1273]

I just meant an initial rinse before cycling to remove shipping dust. I'll keep an eye out for the $1 per gallon sale at Petco. I much rather run 1 QT tank.