If you're thinking you are cycled cause your water parameters are good right now, you're not, lol. I made that mistake with my first setup. My poor fish survived, but I put them thru hell before I learned what not to do. Unless you took that live rock out of someone else's tank, it's nowhere near ready to handle a bio load yet, at the moment it probably can't even handle it's own bio load from all the die off it encountered during transport (not to mention the stuff that's going to die off on it while your tank cycles). Wait a week at least (i know it's hard, but your fish will appreciate it), then check your water parameters, just bare in mind, a full cycle for a tank usually takes between 3 and 6 weeks, variable dependent. You can buy inert bacterias to help cycle the tank faster, but they don't work as fast as they claim to, they just make the water more tolerable for the fish faster. I may get flamed for what I am about to say, but if you absolutely MUST put a fish in it, only put one, and do something like a damsel fish of some sort (just keep in mind they can get territorial if they are the first ones added in a tank that small) or my personal recommendation would be a firefish (fun and not at all territorial in my experience). These guys are relatively inexpensive as far as saltwater fish go, and are very hardy. I've also cycled my tank with Mollies before too, as they are cheap, hardy, and easily acclimated to saltwater, when I'm done I just throw them back in my freshwater tank, lol. Anyway, just some info, hope it helps!
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If you're thinking you are cycled cause your water parameters are good right now, you're not, lol. I made that mistake with my first setup. My poor fish survived, but I put them thru hell before I learned what not to do. Unless you took that live rock out of someone else's tank, it's nowhere near ready to handle a bio load yet, at the moment it probably can't even handle it's own bio load from all the die off it encountered during transport (not to mention the stuff that's going to die off on it while your tank cycles). Wait a week at least (i know it's hard, but your fish will appreciate it), then check your water parameters, just bare in mind, a full cycle for a tank usually takes between 3 and 6 weeks, variable dependent. You can buy inert bacterias to help cycle the tank faster, but they don't work as fast as they claim to, they just make the water more tolerable for the fish faster. I may get flamed for what I am about to say, but if you absolutely MUST put a fish in it, only put one, and do something like a damsel fish of some sort (just keep in mind they can get territorial if they are the first ones added in a tank that small) or my personal recommendation would be a firefish (fun and not at all territorial in my experience). These guys are relatively inexpensive as far as saltwater fish go, and are very hardy. I've also cycled my tank with Mollies before too, as they are cheap, hardy, and easily acclimated to saltwater, when I'm done I just throw them back in my freshwater tank, lol. Anyway, just some info, hope it helps!
At least you didnt do what Donnie did
SteelHorseRider
New member
Mollies?
Mollies?
hello new to salt water tanks, haven't had a freshwater tank in over 20 years.
So you can put mollies in saltwater tank? what other freshwater fish will survive the saltwater?
Mollies?
hello new to salt water tanks, haven't had a freshwater tank in over 20 years.
So you can put mollies in saltwater tank? what other freshwater fish will survive the saltwater?
Hmm,
Well, there are only a few I have tried, that I can tell you about. Many "reefer's" will absolutely flip when they hear about "freshies" as I call them being in salt water, but I like to be different, and freshwater fish are how I ended up in saltwater anyway if you read my previous posts.
So a break down. Any brackish fish can survive salt for a while (we're talking months here)if acclimated right. But there are some species that are far more suited to it.
Columbian sharks. These poor guys are quite often mislabled as freshwater fish by most pet stores. What they don't mention is that once this little guy reaches maturity, their internal organs begin to swell and they die well before their time if not moved to salt water. The actual name of this little fellow is the Tete Sea Catfish, he's a member of the cat shark family and only comes to freshwater to spawn. I've killed far more than I would like to admit because I didn't know all that :-( these guys are cool because they school together and love to play in your tanks current, they also augment your cleaning crew quite well (there's no such thing as over feeding in a tank with a couple of these guys)
Mollies, I've tried every true mollie from from lyretails to balloons, they could care less what type of water they are in as long as it's not cold. They acclimate super fast, and once they have become accustomed to saltwater, I have literally scooped them up and thrown them straight into fresh water, and then right back into salt the next day. The damn things are indestructible. What makes these guys nice is that they eat diatoms and bad algae, and they eat ALOT of it.. My tank was out of control, I put these guys in my sump as an experiment in acclimation, the diatom eating was a fluke, I pulled them out, it came back, I threw them in my display and it was diatom free in a week. Little guys are awesome. I don't care what any saltwater enthusiast say, once a month or so, I pull my mollies out of my freshwater tank, put them in my saltwater tank for a couple of days, and let them chow down, though occasionally my anemone eats one, lol.
Figure 8/spotted puffer, I have had both, they both do just as well, as long as you acclimate slowly. They don't get big, and they love to people watch. I would still have them both except that one like to roll in my anemone, so he had to go, and the other one liked to nip at my soft corals. also not cool. But still, very fun fish.
Fancy Guppies, though they originate from brackish fish, the ones in pet stores have been seriously over bred, to the point being too weak to survive. So far I have had a success rate of about 1 in 10, however, ones I have acquired from breeders have done well, and fry that are born in saltwater seem to do well also.
Feeder guppies are not overbred, and often survive in saltwater tanks with no acclimation at all assuming they aren't eaten by whatever they were thrown in the tank to feed.
Wow that was a long post sorry about that. Just check out wikipedia, and type in "brackish fish". Anything on that list stands a strong possibility of surviving in salt water if it is done right, this list is just the ones I've tried. I like to experiment, so... anyway, if you have any questions let me know
Well, there are only a few I have tried, that I can tell you about. Many "reefer's" will absolutely flip when they hear about "freshies" as I call them being in salt water, but I like to be different, and freshwater fish are how I ended up in saltwater anyway if you read my previous posts.
So a break down. Any brackish fish can survive salt for a while (we're talking months here)if acclimated right. But there are some species that are far more suited to it.
Columbian sharks. These poor guys are quite often mislabled as freshwater fish by most pet stores. What they don't mention is that once this little guy reaches maturity, their internal organs begin to swell and they die well before their time if not moved to salt water. The actual name of this little fellow is the Tete Sea Catfish, he's a member of the cat shark family and only comes to freshwater to spawn. I've killed far more than I would like to admit because I didn't know all that :-( these guys are cool because they school together and love to play in your tanks current, they also augment your cleaning crew quite well (there's no such thing as over feeding in a tank with a couple of these guys)
Mollies, I've tried every true mollie from from lyretails to balloons, they could care less what type of water they are in as long as it's not cold. They acclimate super fast, and once they have become accustomed to saltwater, I have literally scooped them up and thrown them straight into fresh water, and then right back into salt the next day. The damn things are indestructible. What makes these guys nice is that they eat diatoms and bad algae, and they eat ALOT of it.. My tank was out of control, I put these guys in my sump as an experiment in acclimation, the diatom eating was a fluke, I pulled them out, it came back, I threw them in my display and it was diatom free in a week. Little guys are awesome. I don't care what any saltwater enthusiast say, once a month or so, I pull my mollies out of my freshwater tank, put them in my saltwater tank for a couple of days, and let them chow down, though occasionally my anemone eats one, lol.
Figure 8/spotted puffer, I have had both, they both do just as well, as long as you acclimate slowly. They don't get big, and they love to people watch. I would still have them both except that one like to roll in my anemone, so he had to go, and the other one liked to nip at my soft corals. also not cool. But still, very fun fish.
Fancy Guppies, though they originate from brackish fish, the ones in pet stores have been seriously over bred, to the point being too weak to survive. So far I have had a success rate of about 1 in 10, however, ones I have acquired from breeders have done well, and fry that are born in saltwater seem to do well also.
Feeder guppies are not overbred, and often survive in saltwater tanks with no acclimation at all assuming they aren't eaten by whatever they were thrown in the tank to feed.
Wow that was a long post sorry about that. Just check out wikipedia, and type in "brackish fish". Anything on that list stands a strong possibility of surviving in salt water if it is done right, this list is just the ones I've tried. I like to experiment, so... anyway, if you have any questions let me know
Hello everyone, my name is Eddie and I too am an addict. This is my first saltwater tank, I have had many FW tanks before but this is much better. Currently I have a 55 g with about 70-80lbs of LR, sand, and 8 fish. I'll post some pictures soon. First I heed to figure out why my water looks yellow, any tips and suggestions would be great thanks.
dlamontt3j
New member
Whats up RC, my name is Donnie but everyone calls me DT. This will be my first saltwater tank and i want to do a reef tank with maybe 2 or 3 fish. I am in the process of buying the equipment. Tank size is 75 gal. I plum it thru the wall and maintain my sump in my wife's craft room I built for her in the garage. She gave me permission and gave me a space about 5' wide and 3' deep and as high as the ceiling so i can fit a huge sump in there. this is an awesome site and I will not as to many questions at first because i have a lot of reading to do on the forum. when i get confused I will definitely be asking for advice. Looking forward to this adventure.
SmellsFishy123
New member
We're NEW!!!
We're NEW!!!
Hi Everyone!!
I'd like to start by introducing myself, I'm Vicki and my boyfriend (Eddie) and I just recently started our first saltwater fish tank. We have a 75 gallon reef tank that's been established for about 4 months now and we LOVE it. But wait, we don't only have a saltwater tank.. We've been into freshwater tanks all of our lives so currently we have 4 other tanks in our home BEFORE we started the saltwater reef tank. We also have a 35 gallon, 30 gallon, 20 gallon, and 2 gallon (guppy breeder) freshwater tanks set up for a long time now. We obviously LOVE the hobby and fish so we started our 75 gallon saltwater, which we already have been planning on upgrading to a 250 gallon once we move into a larger house. Yeah, our home looks like the maritime aquarium and we love it.
Our 75 gallon tank includes: 5 damsels, a psuedochromosis, a sailfin tang, 2 cleaner shrimp, a camel shrimp, red corris wrasse (that has been missing for 2 weeks), a purple firefish goby, a redfire goby, a valentini puffer, a sandsifter goby, and a hawkfish. along with blue-leg hermit crabs and a feather duster.
Now we want a few big, colorful fish but all of the fish we like, aren't reef safe. I LOVE seahorses, octopus', eels, lionfish, and we can't get any!? Right!? What about the dwarf lion fishes? We know we may need to get rid of our damsels in order to get larger fish so that they won't get eaten. Is there any larger fish that we can add to our tank?
We're NEW!!!
Hi Everyone!!
I'd like to start by introducing myself, I'm Vicki and my boyfriend (Eddie) and I just recently started our first saltwater fish tank. We have a 75 gallon reef tank that's been established for about 4 months now and we LOVE it. But wait, we don't only have a saltwater tank.. We've been into freshwater tanks all of our lives so currently we have 4 other tanks in our home BEFORE we started the saltwater reef tank. We also have a 35 gallon, 30 gallon, 20 gallon, and 2 gallon (guppy breeder) freshwater tanks set up for a long time now. We obviously LOVE the hobby and fish so we started our 75 gallon saltwater, which we already have been planning on upgrading to a 250 gallon once we move into a larger house. Yeah, our home looks like the maritime aquarium and we love it.
Our 75 gallon tank includes: 5 damsels, a psuedochromosis, a sailfin tang, 2 cleaner shrimp, a camel shrimp, red corris wrasse (that has been missing for 2 weeks), a purple firefish goby, a redfire goby, a valentini puffer, a sandsifter goby, and a hawkfish. along with blue-leg hermit crabs and a feather duster.
Now we want a few big, colorful fish but all of the fish we like, aren't reef safe. I LOVE seahorses, octopus', eels, lionfish, and we can't get any!? Right!? What about the dwarf lion fishes? We know we may need to get rid of our damsels in order to get larger fish so that they won't get eaten. Is there any larger fish that we can add to our tank?
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clevelandfish
New member
Welcom rc my name is clevelandfish and if i had marew caracters it would be cleveland fishkeeping. So any way i got a 30g biocube which is doing good but im seting up a 90g on the 15 any qs just ask
Greetings from NC
Greetings from NC
Hello all, Very new to the hobby 2 days and counting .. set my tank up last night, patiently waiting for my tank to cycle and clear up ! My name is Christopher and I'm from NC... I purchased this tank used about 8 months ago. the guy I purchased it from told me it was a 50 gal show tank but I have found that it's actually 45gal.. 36x12x24 I plan on it just being a reef tank with a few fish.. I have already got bad advice from the local pet store. so hopefully this site will be more help..
Greetings from NC
Hello all, Very new to the hobby 2 days and counting .. set my tank up last night, patiently waiting for my tank to cycle and clear up ! My name is Christopher and I'm from NC... I purchased this tank used about 8 months ago. the guy I purchased it from told me it was a 50 gal show tank but I have found that it's actually 45gal.. 36x12x24 I plan on it just being a reef tank with a few fish.. I have already got bad advice from the local pet store. so hopefully this site will be more help..
kramer3380
New member
beginner here.. just an introduction as of now
beginner here.. just an introduction as of now
Hey everyone,
I recently decided to turn to a tropical saltwater aquarium. Im very excited and I already have the ball rolling. Ive done my fair share of research (which felt like 100 hours) so now my next step is to find a good forum with experienced people putting their two sense in to help me in my process with as little trouble as possible.
I have a 75 gallon tank and I'm looking to do a mix of coral and fish. I wont have all that much coral so I wouldn't necessarily call it a reef tank but nonetheless I still have all the required equipment to run a reef tank. I have about 60-70 pounds of baserock and 30 pounds of some nice fiji live rock. Its still in the cycling process. I set everything up a few days ago. I found out the hard way never to listen to when a bag of sand says "no need to rinse." My tank looked like milk for a few days but its nice and clear now. I did my first 50% water change today. I may do one more if my NH3 goes above 3ppm, otherwise I'll let the bacteria do its thing. All of my research points to one main virtue to have.. patients. I dont have much of it but I know that if you rush or cut corners it will show up in the long run. I'll take some pics and upload them so everyone can see.
As of now I don't have too many questions, but being a newbie I'm sure I will have tons of questions for you guys in the future. I just thought I'd take the time out and introduce myself.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
-Joe
beginner here.. just an introduction as of now
Hey everyone,
I recently decided to turn to a tropical saltwater aquarium. Im very excited and I already have the ball rolling. Ive done my fair share of research (which felt like 100 hours) so now my next step is to find a good forum with experienced people putting their two sense in to help me in my process with as little trouble as possible.
I have a 75 gallon tank and I'm looking to do a mix of coral and fish. I wont have all that much coral so I wouldn't necessarily call it a reef tank but nonetheless I still have all the required equipment to run a reef tank. I have about 60-70 pounds of baserock and 30 pounds of some nice fiji live rock. Its still in the cycling process. I set everything up a few days ago. I found out the hard way never to listen to when a bag of sand says "no need to rinse." My tank looked like milk for a few days but its nice and clear now. I did my first 50% water change today. I may do one more if my NH3 goes above 3ppm, otherwise I'll let the bacteria do its thing. All of my research points to one main virtue to have.. patients. I dont have much of it but I know that if you rush or cut corners it will show up in the long run. I'll take some pics and upload them so everyone can see.
As of now I don't have too many questions, but being a newbie I'm sure I will have tons of questions for you guys in the future. I just thought I'd take the time out and introduce myself.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
-Joe
Hi. I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I'm a scuba diver and recently got back from the Cayman Islands. I saw some pretty amazing things diving there. I've thought so much about it that I decided to get a salt water aquarium and try and mimic what I see diving, at home.
I have a lot of reading and research to do and know I will be spending quite a lot of time here. I look forward to seeing what everyone else has and eventually post some pictures of what I end up with.
I have a lot of reading and research to do and know I will be spending quite a lot of time here. I look forward to seeing what everyone else has and eventually post some pictures of what I end up with.
Back to a reef tank
Back to a reef tank
Hey everyone. I had a reef tank for about 2 years before, then started an addition on my house and didn't have time to work with it so i sold my rock and fish and let the tank sit empty. Missed the hobby but now 2 years later the addition is done and I just finished plumbing in my 75 gallon tank. One bonus, my wife let me build in a tank with its own utility room. Looking forward to getting it going.....Here are a few picts.
View attachment 177872
View attachment 177873
View attachment 177874
Back to a reef tank
Hey everyone. I had a reef tank for about 2 years before, then started an addition on my house and didn't have time to work with it so i sold my rock and fish and let the tank sit empty. Missed the hobby but now 2 years later the addition is done and I just finished plumbing in my 75 gallon tank. One bonus, my wife let me build in a tank with its own utility room. Looking forward to getting it going.....Here are a few picts.
View attachment 177872
View attachment 177873
View attachment 177874
xandrew245x
New member
Hi, my name is andrew, I have a 75 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump and a 20 gallon display refuge. I am about a month and a half into this hobby, and i'm loving every part of it!
New tank troubles
New tank troubles
Here's the deal. I had a 55g sitting gathering dust, deep blue high out put lights with actinics and led moonlights. I always wanted a reef tank but decided to go fresh to save on cost, time, etc. I went to a local fish dealer told him the situation and he said that i could have a saltwater tank up in a day or two! Within my budget!
I bought an emperor 400 w/bio-wheels, inert sand, marine salt, 150w heater, thermometer, a bottle of bacteria, and a hydrometer. I was told to set it up that night with salinity at 1.022 and the next day bring back some water to test. If I got the water right I would get a few starter fish.
I was sold 4 blue damsels and told they like structure, so off to petco went me and my wife. We went to get temporary artificial structures but saw they sold fiji live rock and bought 8 nice sized pieces along with two camel shrimp.
Put those in the tank and everything looked nice, but hey what did I know? I gleaned more from this website just last night than I was told in five or six trips to various petstores.
So, the damsels started looking out of breath and one died. Went and got apiece of live rock with nice corraline algea on it, a bag of live packaged aragonite and put those in, then did a 5g water change.
My daughter and her boyfriend upon seeing that the tank was now filled brought home two small common clownfishes.
Now, I understand that this is not necessarily a good thing considering I know next to nothing about keeping live rock or marine fish!
So here is where I am now. One clown, one blue damsel left, two shrimp, and a fair amount of rock. I also got an ammonia test kit and a six panel test kit the other day and put a power head into the tank.
Am I spitting into the wind? I realize that i started this with not enough knowledge or patience, but is the situation salvageable?
Any and all advice would be appreciated. I dont like seeing these fish stress and die.
New tank troubles
Here's the deal. I had a 55g sitting gathering dust, deep blue high out put lights with actinics and led moonlights. I always wanted a reef tank but decided to go fresh to save on cost, time, etc. I went to a local fish dealer told him the situation and he said that i could have a saltwater tank up in a day or two! Within my budget!
I bought an emperor 400 w/bio-wheels, inert sand, marine salt, 150w heater, thermometer, a bottle of bacteria, and a hydrometer. I was told to set it up that night with salinity at 1.022 and the next day bring back some water to test. If I got the water right I would get a few starter fish.
I was sold 4 blue damsels and told they like structure, so off to petco went me and my wife. We went to get temporary artificial structures but saw they sold fiji live rock and bought 8 nice sized pieces along with two camel shrimp.
Put those in the tank and everything looked nice, but hey what did I know? I gleaned more from this website just last night than I was told in five or six trips to various petstores.
So, the damsels started looking out of breath and one died. Went and got apiece of live rock with nice corraline algea on it, a bag of live packaged aragonite and put those in, then did a 5g water change.
My daughter and her boyfriend upon seeing that the tank was now filled brought home two small common clownfishes.
Now, I understand that this is not necessarily a good thing considering I know next to nothing about keeping live rock or marine fish!
So here is where I am now. One clown, one blue damsel left, two shrimp, and a fair amount of rock. I also got an ammonia test kit and a six panel test kit the other day and put a power head into the tank.
Am I spitting into the wind? I realize that i started this with not enough knowledge or patience, but is the situation salvageable?
Any and all advice would be appreciated. I dont like seeing these fish stress and die.
FreakingReefing
New member
Hey everyone!
I recently decided my fw tanks were getting too boring so I am taking the plunge into sw. Been keeping fw for 5+ years plan on building a 75reef been doing a lot of research and purchased a lot towards it so far just been put on hold for a few weeks for more funding but at least by tax return time I will be set-up and running. Glad I found the forum member of others but not sw specific.
Glad to be aboard!
I recently decided my fw tanks were getting too boring so I am taking the plunge into sw. Been keeping fw for 5+ years plan on building a 75reef been doing a lot of research and purchased a lot towards it so far just been put on hold for a few weeks for more funding but at least by tax return time I will be set-up and running. Glad I found the forum member of others but not sw specific.
Glad to be aboard!
Hi!
Hi!
My name is Lu and my husband and I are on our way to creating our first saltwater fish and eventually coral aquarium! We need light fixtures and found 2 36" led reef capable fixtures from Beamswork that are 1/2 the price of others. Does anyone have any feedback about this brand? I have read a few good reviews but want to be sure.
Lu
Hi!
My name is Lu and my husband and I are on our way to creating our first saltwater fish and eventually coral aquarium! We need light fixtures and found 2 36" led reef capable fixtures from Beamswork that are 1/2 the price of others. Does anyone have any feedback about this brand? I have read a few good reviews but want to be sure.
Lu
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