New to saltwater

[squeakymcmurdo]

Greetings, I said hello in the pinned post but thought I would introduce myself here too.

I've had freshwater since I was a little kid and started doing freshwater North American natives 12+ years ago. I've lurked as a non-member regularly for a few months now (been here a few times over the years).

My husband and I recently took over an electrical contractor business and booted 4 of our 5 kids to rooms in the basement so we could take over the girls' room for an office and move our 1 year old to her own room. Yay for an excuse to set up another tank! We've admired marine tanks for a while and I finally decided I was ready to pull the trigger and start a new adventure into saltwater. I homeschool and my 2 oldest daughters (9 and 7) have really been enjoying the marine biology and chemistry webinars put on by Aurora Lipper. I had a 30 gallon and stand sitting emoty downstairs, my kids are into testing things, and my husband wanted a fish tank in the new office for when he's stuck in there doing bids. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.

I ordered 20 pounds of Caribsea Ocean Direct live sand and a big bag of Instant Ocean and set the tank to cycling when those got here last weekend. I have a saltwater test kit on the way. There were little chucks of purple live rock, some shells, and some coral pieces in the sand. The black rock is basalt and plastic, the coral looking arch is probably manmade because it came with a 75 gallon tank full of very large goldfish. I don't know what the 3 "Wyoming corals" are made of but they never messed with my fresh water parameters and have since been boiled and sunned. The (conch?) shells haven't been in water for decades and also got a thorough cleaning. They'll have to do for now. I plan to get live rock eventually.

Does anyone know of any LPS other than Petco or Petsmart near Idaho Falls/Pocatello, or Salt Lake City, UT?

Anyway, this is my tank right now. Looks more like a tide pool than a reef at the moment.

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

So when it's done cycling, what would you add first? A pair of o. clowns...or should I get a small cleaning crew of blue leg hermits and nassarius, nerite, and cerith snails?

Are any marine snails problem breeders? Pond snails are horrible:eek2:

 

[daninflipflops]

i would order some either live rock or dry rock and swap it out. You want rock that will become live and be used as your biological filter. you need very porous rocks to have enough room to colonize bacteria. for a tank that size, no issues with a pair of clownfish once the tank is cycled...but you are going to need the live rock. Remove any filter material from that hang on back filter, you want the rock and sand to hold the bacteria, not filter material.

after you cycle, you get your clean up crew of crabs, snails,etc. after you wait for them, then you can get fish.

were those decorations ever in a tank that was treated with chemicals when freshwater??

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

Oh, I forgot to say, the little pieces of live rock and coral we found in the sand are in the bottom of the HOB. The plastic is translucent, so I may eventually add chaeto.

No chemicals, ever. My tap water comes directly from Periodic Spring and it's quality is comparable to RO.

Going to Utah this weekend and I'll look for some live or dry rock if I can find a lfs. I plan to make some too and throw it in a fast moving stream all summer to cure.

 

[j.falk]

That looks like a 29 gallon aquarium in your photo.

 

[daninflipflops]

Oh, I forgot to say, the little pieces of live rock and coral we found in the sand are in the bottom of the HOB. The plastic is translucent, so I may eventually add chaeto.

No chemicals, ever. My tap water comes directly from Periodic Spring and it's quality is comparable to RO.

Going to Utah this weekend and I'll look for some live or dry rock if I can find a lfs. I plan to make some too and throw it in a fast moving stream all summer to cure.

you want to soak dry rock in saltwater, not in a stream. You can probably find either dry rock or live rock locally for sale on craigslist pretty cheap. if you are worried about hitchhikers on the live rock you can always just bleach it and go from tehre. there is a sticky on curing live rock.

as far as your water goes, i understand you have good water...but unlike freshwater you want your water to completely pure, no minerals, etc. You might be able to get away with it if you only want a fish tank, but if you want to add corals, your going to need to use RO water. you can either make it at home with a unit, or buy it at a local fish store. You can get a handheld TDS meter for under $20 to test your water, i guarantee the TDS is not that low.