HI im new to the saltwater. I got a used hand me down from my sister a 55 gal with 5 fish 4 dansels 1 clown was over run with alge. we saved as much water as possible when we moved it rinsed all old sand, put new sand on top. first thing i bought was a skimmer a red sea prizm and 20 pounds of new live sand all the decor soad in bleach for 24 hours. next on my list is live rock, snails, and fish.its been running for about 30 hours at this time. any pointers would be helpfull...... thanks lpitch1
New to salt
- Thread starter lpitch1
- Start date
jer77
Phish Lover
Do you have an RO/DI filter? If not you should get one. Also hold of on any new fish for a while. You should get some live rock in there and get an ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kit if you don't have them. Plus I'm sorry to say that prism skimmers aren't the best out there. My suggestion would be to, if at all possible, take back the skimmer and get a better one. But I'm sure you can get by with it for a while. Before you buy anything else be sure to do tons of research on it.
Since you are going to add new live rock the tank will cycle again. The filters will help if they were kept wet, otherwise most of the bacteria would have died.
Since you are going to add new live rock the tank will cycle again. The filters will help if they were kept wet, otherwise most of the bacteria would have died.
t5Nitro
New member
A decent skimmer for the price are the coralife superskimmers. Tanks don't need to run with a skimmer anyway, so if you have one I would say that's fine anyhow. I think by rinsing the live sand may cause some nitrates to go up because that would have helped the nitrates go down. I also think that it could have been the best way to go since if you move the sand around you may hit ammonia/nitrite pockets anyway and maybe give a bigger cycle.
Get the test kits like the others have said for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Watch those often since you just got it moved and set up. If there is livestock in it, seems like 5 fish, and you have ammonia go up, you will need to do maybe some 10% water changes until it hits 0. I think carbon is somewhat useful in getting ammonia down but I am not sure. The 10% water changes can help on all of the parameters, 20 ppm nitrates would probably be a good max and aim for 0. You may not have it turn 0 until the sand is live again.
Go slow on putting in more fish if you planned on it. For one, I don't think anymore peaceful fish could go in there after damsels are established, but I have never owned those fish. Otherwise, maybe get a fish in a month if everything is ok, then if you were going to put something else in, wait another 3 weeks or so and make sure the water levels are doing good.
Good luck and have fun. :thumbsup:
Get the test kits like the others have said for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Watch those often since you just got it moved and set up. If there is livestock in it, seems like 5 fish, and you have ammonia go up, you will need to do maybe some 10% water changes until it hits 0. I think carbon is somewhat useful in getting ammonia down but I am not sure. The 10% water changes can help on all of the parameters, 20 ppm nitrates would probably be a good max and aim for 0. You may not have it turn 0 until the sand is live again.
Go slow on putting in more fish if you planned on it. For one, I don't think anymore peaceful fish could go in there after damsels are established, but I have never owned those fish. Otherwise, maybe get a fish in a month if everything is ok, then if you were going to put something else in, wait another 3 weeks or so and make sure the water levels are doing good.
Good luck and have fun. :thumbsup:
