Im new and I just built a tank
- Thread starter MrMustang
- Start date
haha yes our family cat is fast, i had to use a huge net to catch the damsels in the 10 gallon tank and she caught them in no time wth no problem... i have taken everones advice and i switched the tanks i have around so now there are no worries of the tank leaking (i switched my 20 gallon fw and my acrylic tank sw so now the sw is the 20 gal glass and the fw is the acrylic tank). now if the tank does leak its just fw and is easy and cheap to fix unlike with the sw.
my original plan was to eventually get a yellow tang, these are my favorit and seem popular so i would have no problem getting one. everyone says they need room to swim and i hop to upgrade my tank to a 55 or 75 gal and get one. but for now i am going to stick with clown fish and some damsels and a crab. later on down the road i will get the yallow tang and bigger tank.
today i purchased black live sand (replaced the old fake sand). petco had a bag in stock so i got it!
i stole a piece of live rock from one of our other tanks and stuck it in mine. i hope to get more live rock soon like sometime this week. THERE ARE NO FISH IN THE TANK so i am not going to kill anything... my cat did that for me. i am also going tomorrow to the new store here in moore in hopes to get a few snails and maybe live rock if they have it.
thanks for all the advice, is there anything i have missed or need now? what about an airstone, from what i have read it seems like its not really needed but its no problem to put one in there.
my original plan was to eventually get a yellow tang, these are my favorit and seem popular so i would have no problem getting one. everyone says they need room to swim and i hop to upgrade my tank to a 55 or 75 gal and get one. but for now i am going to stick with clown fish and some damsels and a crab. later on down the road i will get the yallow tang and bigger tank.
today i purchased black live sand (replaced the old fake sand). petco had a bag in stock so i got it!
i stole a piece of live rock from one of our other tanks and stuck it in mine. i hope to get more live rock soon like sometime this week. THERE ARE NO FISH IN THE TANK so i am not going to kill anything... my cat did that for me. i am also going tomorrow to the new store here in moore in hopes to get a few snails and maybe live rock if they have it. thanks for all the advice, is there anything i have missed or need now? what about an airstone, from what i have read it seems like its not really needed but its no problem to put one in there.
ok cool. i am now on the right track i have an hob that i am using just as the primary filter. i am using a 160 gph (thats the pump rate at 2ft) pump right now for the water movement but i will get a small power head later on down the road. any specific fish i should get when the tank is ready?
i have an hob that i am using just as the primary filter. i am using a 160 gph (thats the pump rate at 2ft) pump right now for the water movement but i will get a small power head later on down the road. any specific fish i should get when the tank is ready?
Seriously, I would just slow down and look at your empty tank for now. You cannot "just throw" anything into a cycling saltwater tank, snails and crabs included. Inverts are some of the hardest critters to keep alive if your balances are out of whack.
Your tank needs time to cycle. You need to finish with aquascaping. One bag of sand is probably not enough for a healthy system. After you have set it all up, let it cycle, and had good measurements for a week or two, you can begin to add things, very slowly, and usually one at a time. If I'm following the thread, you have "moved" your SW into a 20g?
You are going to want to stick with smaller fish. You have to remember that with very few exceptions, everything you add to a SW system was very recently swimming in the huge ocean. Putting it into a 20g is going to be a culture shock to say the least.
Take some time, let things settle, do some homework on some small, compatible fish, and plan out what you want. Anything that eats will place a bioload on your system, even snails and crabs.
SW tanks are NOT like FW tanks, in that you can just up and move them around in an afternoon. Any disturbance is likely to set off some sort of cycle. And BTW, even a 55 or 75g may get the tang police after you.
Your tank needs time to cycle. You need to finish with aquascaping. One bag of sand is probably not enough for a healthy system. After you have set it all up, let it cycle, and had good measurements for a week or two, you can begin to add things, very slowly, and usually one at a time. If I'm following the thread, you have "moved" your SW into a 20g?
You are going to want to stick with smaller fish. You have to remember that with very few exceptions, everything you add to a SW system was very recently swimming in the huge ocean. Putting it into a 20g is going to be a culture shock to say the least.
Take some time, let things settle, do some homework on some small, compatible fish, and plan out what you want. Anything that eats will place a bioload on your system, even snails and crabs.
SW tanks are NOT like FW tanks, in that you can just up and move them around in an afternoon. Any disturbance is likely to set off some sort of cycle. And BTW, even a 55 or 75g may get the tang police after you.
Yes the tanks are all switched around and I am starting the sw off right this time. Idk why I tried to cheat the system last time. So why no snails? I have a friend who started out and put just snails in there. When my mom and I did a tank we put snails in the same day we set the tank up with lr and ls and it had no problem. and I did not mean throw in I know it all takes time. And I had just wondered about the crab.
The short of it is that a cycling tank will have high amounts of nitrates, nitrites and ammonia. Those mean death to most inverts.
Also, almost without exception, snails either eat detritus or algae, neither of which will be present in a brand new system. If the high cycle readings don't kill it, it is likely to starve to death.
Also, almost without exception, snails either eat detritus or algae, neither of which will be present in a brand new system. If the high cycle readings don't kill it, it is likely to starve to death.
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