So first I just wanted to thank everyone for the warm welcome...it was much appreciated! Now I think I have completed the set-up of my first saltwater tank...I have filled my 20 gal. high tank with 20 gal. of salted and heated R.O. water, added 12 pounds of live rock and covered the bottom with 20 pounds of the CaribSea "Arag-alive!" live aragonite sand. Now, the bag of sand says that since it is "alive" I should be able to add fish right away...but I thought maybe it meant this only if you already had an established tank. I should still let my tank cycle probably, right? I know the normal course is 6 weeks, but I did end up going to Eddie's and purchasing a bottle of "turbo-start" which I added today, so apparently I should be able to add things to the tank in a week. Now about the live rock...I know the weight of live rock (in pounds) is supposed to equal the gallon size of your tank...but I have 12 lbs. of rock in my tank right now, and the bottom of my tank is COVERED! It seems that I don't have any room left on the bottom of my tank....I've already been stacking the rock and it covers at least 5 inches on the bottom of the tank...should I still add more, or is 12 pounds enough for a 20 gal. high aquarium? Also, when I read the label on the turbo-start, it says not to run the protein skimmer for 4-7 days...any opinions on this? Thanks guys! -Dustin
Starting my first tank
- Thread starter Dustin P.
- Start date
scorp1on
New member
Let the cycle go b4 adding the fish. With the turbo start it prob. will go faster than 6 weeks but give the bacteria a chance to happen. As far as the rock is it all base rock? If it is you will prob be better off with a few pieces on the bottom so some sand is exposed (for inverts, gobies, etc. depending on what you put in) and some small , branching tonga rock for the rest to create caves and arches. I'm sure others will chime in.
Brian
Brian
Please dont hold the HPC thing against me...heh. Yes, it's mostly base rock. I have stacked a lot of it. I'm going to try stacking more bc as of right now there is little open sand space. Right now I have a bigger concern though...when I went to turn on my aquarium light this morning it gave me one heck of a shock, so Im replacing the aquarium light now. It was an older strip light handed down to me from a friend of the family, so it's my fault that I was being cheap and didn't buy a new one to start with. Any suggestions on the kind of light I should use? It's a 20 gal high tank and I plan on putting both fish and corals into it, but not an overabundance of either.
I ended up swinging by the Pet Center on my day off to pick up a new glass canopy and a coralife mini-compact light...it only cost me about $50 for both. It has 2 bulbs (9 watts each)...it says that 1 bulb is a "true actinic 03 blue bulb" and the other is a 10,000K daylight bulb. Seems ok to me...I set it up and it seems to be working pretty well. I did stack most of the live rock and now have some open sand space in the front of the tank...seems to be going well. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Thanks for the help!
