wow so much to learn.

[ricksconnected]

hey folks

im very new to the hobie and have been reading over the forum here. great stuff. my hats off to whomever runs this forum and to all who contribute to it. you should be proud.

ok my girlfriend bout me a killer setup used from a LFS.
its a 50gal. from what ive read about the different parts, together it should work out as a first system. (i will give you a parts list this evening)
so we agreed to keep it empty until i learned my about the hobby and was comfortable with getting started.
so here we are one night watching tv and a good friend calls and asks if i want his aquarium. just finished paying my monthly bills i told him i was broke and didnt have a penny to my name. he said that didnt matter and i need to come get it in the next hour or two as we was moving and the new apt wouldnt allow aquariums. i got there and he failed to tell me that there was livestock coming with it. wow. so that very night i was forced to use everything i had been learning, comfortable or not. lol
this stuff was in a complete mess. i had to clean everything before i used it. the aquarium is a 30gal bow front.
the light is a T5 setup. came with a super skimmer, 3 power heads
and a over the back filter and biowheel combo.
he only had about 10lbs of live rock at best.
the live stock is as follows:
1 clown
1 cortez damsel
1 blue devil damsel
2 humbug damsels,
1 engineer goby.
the banded shrimp died before i could get air to him in the transport bucket.
since ive added about 15lbs of live rock,10 crabs, and about 10 snails. the bigger aquarium still remains empty until i get my act together and have a good feel for things.

ok lets start with feeding. i have been giving them flake food as thats what they came with and seem to like it enough.
every so often i drop them a cube of brine shrimp. they go crazy over this. im wondering if thats what i should be feeding them?
the crabs: scarlets,hermit,3 emerald's, and a sally, plus one that has a black claw and a white band around it. dont know what he is. they seem to be happy enough with the algae. oh and a porcelin crab. whats a good food to feed these guys as im not sure they are getting a complete nutrition? i do have a rock of mushrooms as well in the aquarium. there is also about 15 bottles of chemicals too. more on them later. i guess im doing ok so far as everybody seems happy and have picked out their own spots and no fighting. ok the two humbugs like to give the blue devil a bit of trouble by chasing him.

 

[Whys]

I've been here a year and still have a ways to go, IMHO. Research and learning is the larger part of this hobby. Great fun tho.

 

[ricksconnected]

yes but if you read a lot then its hard to tell the difference between fact and opinion, then things start conflicting eachother.
its crazy. i figured joining a forum i might be able get to the bottom of things and maybe someday help newbies in return.

 

[thegrun]

I use frozen mantis shrimp or a frozen mantis shrimp/kelp combo 3 times a week, frozen cyclopses 2 times a week and various dry flake foods twice a week. It is best to give the fish a variety of foods.

 

[ricksconnected]

thats what ive read. i gave my fish reef food in a light blue pak. its like white shrimp. they didnt even give it a second thought. now i have no use for it and its still in my freezer. i guess its time to experiment.

 

[Juruense]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14990724#post14990724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ricksconnected
yes but if you read a lot then its hard to tell the difference between fact and opinion, then things start conflicting eachother.
its crazy. i figured joining a forum i might be able get to the bottom of things and maybe someday help newbies in return.

Initially that is true but if you stick with it and keep reading you will develop the ability to separate fact from opinion.

Also, sometimes "fact" can be subjective. For example people here, including chemists and such, will swear that adding vodka is good but the fact is that I would never even consider doing that.

Just keep things as simple as possible and read as much as you can. The animals will either die or they won't.

 

[Fizz71]

The best part about this forum is also the worst. Since we are hobbyists like you we don't have a financial stake in your success or failure so nothing I say to you will ever benefit me! Unlike an LFS. But it will also never hurt me either since even if I give you BAD advice, I don't lose anything except maybe a reputation on here. And this of course leads to something you should read in front of every post yourself whether they say it or not: IMO

Another issue here is for many of us our experience is based only on what we've done personally on our systems so if you ask for something like a skimmer recommendation you'll get 100 of them. You'll also get some people that swear by something other people d*mn. Just take it all in and make your best guess. That's what we're all doing.
On to the questions...

IMO... ...I personally feed brine shrimp to my tank solely as an appetite enhancer since most people will agree on here that brine shrimp is like candy...sure they eat it, but it's not all that great for them. I also feed mysis and EVERYBODY eats it..even the herbivores...even my algae blenny!

For flakes I love the Ocean Nutrition label. I feed Formula One, Two and Prime Reef in rotation just to see who likes what and they all seem to go for most of it. Then I back it up with frozen brine and mysis daily.

As long as you feed enough for your fish, all the crabs and such will be fine dealing with what they missed. Just keep an eye on your Nitrate levels since that's a good indicator of over feeding.

Oh...and IMO don't ever add a chemical to your tank you can't test for FIRST to see if you need it! But hey..that's just my opinion....right?

Good luck!

 

[KarlBob]

You're right, there's a tremendous amount to learn. The good news is that you've found a great place to ask questions. There are several people posting in this forum who will give you expert advice.

Brine shrimp cubes are not a bad thing to feed the tank, but they don't provide much nutrition. Think of them as junk food for fishes. There are several other frozen foods, like Cyclop-Eeze and mysis shrimp, that provide better nutritional value.

Adding live rock was a great idea. The typical recommendation is 1 to 1.5 pounds per gallon of tank size. So the total of about 25 lbs that you have now is almost enough. It's certainly a lot better than 10 lbs.

The biowheel is probably doing more good than harm right now, but once you're established with plenty of live rock, you won't need it. A biowheel provides aerobic (oxygen-using) bacteria with a place to live. These bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite, then nitrate. Nitrate is less toxic than ammonia or nitrite, but you still don't want it building up in the tank water.

Live rock goes one step farther. Aerobic bacteria grow on the surface, but that's not the end of the process. Small pores throughout the rock provide anaerobic (oxygen-depleted) environments. Anaerobic bacteria convert nitrate to nitrogen gas. The nitrogen gas is free to bubble out of your tank. The whole process is called the nitrogen cycle. When people say they're "cycling" a tank, they're getting the nitrogen cycle started.

 

[ricksconnected]

wow the replies came in faster than i expected. thank you all so much. ok im off to go get some mysis shrimp.
given the setup that i have, what should i be testing for? im running tests already but want to make sure im running the right ones.

 

[KarlBob]

The basics:
Salinity (a hydrometer is okay, but a refractometer is better)
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
pH

Things that will become important later:
Calcium
Alkalinity

 

[drparker]

The parameters you should track are: pH, Salinity, Nitrate, Phosphate, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium. Three of these may require dosing depending on the corals you maintain: Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium. All the trace elements will be taken care of with regular water changes.

Read these articles:

How to - Chemistry for beginners - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

These and other great chemistry related articles are located here Reef Chemistry Articles

 

[KarlBob]

In the first few weeks, I wouldn't worry about testing calcium, alkalinity, phosphate, and magnesium. Once you get comfortable with the basic tests and start adding corals, then these will become more important. Right now I don't see any corals in your livestock list, so there's nothing in the tank to consume calcium and magnesium.

 

[ricksconnected]

kbob

the tank has been up and running since i took it over 2 plus months ago. the only coral in it is some typr of greenish dre mushroom. ok isnt PH and alkalinity the same thing?
please be warned, im gonna ask some crazy questions in the very begining. i do have 3 hydrometers and all 3 read totally different too. all bought brand new.

 

[Crustman]

The humbug damsels are very agressive so watch them carefully. I had to get a Golden damsel out of my system and these are considered reef safe.

 

[RoRo1387]

I'm new to this too and have just started setting up my tank. I had a Bio-Wheel too but was told to take it out because eventually all of the Nitrite will dump back into the tank.

 

[ricksconnected]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14993431#post14993431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RoRo1387
I'm new to this too and have just started setting up my tank. I had a Bio-Wheel too but was told to take it out because eventually all of the Nitrite will dump back into the tank.

hum.... wonder how true this is? ive always heard great things about the biowheel. im new to salt but not new to freshwater

 

[RoRo1387]

It's just what I've heard from all the people who replied to me on another forum. I'm interested what other people have to say about it too because if it's not dangerous I would like to put mine back in

 

[drparker]

I've done cichlids for years and yes Bio-wheel are great for them. The wet/dry filter is an oxygen rich environment and is where the bacteria live that turn ammonia into nitrate. These bacteria live on the live rock and in the sand also, so the bio-wheel or even bio-balls are not needed. These wet/dry bio-media are such good hosts for these bacteria that they will eventually start producing and excess of nitrate and because the will convert all the ammonia you will not have a healthy colony in your sand or your rocks.

Once a reef is going with a sufficient amount of live rocks you never need to worry about ammonia and nitrite again unless your add live stock to often and to fast. But you will see a hundred post asking how to lower nitrate.

Bio-wheels are great for your QT tank so keep it around. Throw the wheel in the sump a week before you need the QT and it will be seeded with bacteria.

pH and alkalinity are not the same when talking about saltwater systems. Alkalinity is really carbon hardness.

IMO: While you might not have corals that use a heavy amount of calcium, alkalinity or magnesium. It's still a good idea to keep these levels in the recommended range. your coraline algae, growing snails etc. will appreciate it. Plus it's better to get used to keeping these levels in range now instead of making mistakes adjusting them when you have coral that need consistency in these readings. It will also help stabilize pH.

It was 6 months before I read the articles I referenced above. My Calcium and magnesium where very low. Once I got them to the correct levels my tank looked a lot better.

 

[ricksconnected]

ok for those that are still keeping up with this post i mention earlier that i would list the chemicals i have. what do i need and what is garbage?

from kent:
essential elements
strontium$molybdenum
coral vite
iodine
purple tech
liquid calcium

from brightwell:
code A
code B
iodion
alkaline 8.3
phytogreens.

ok are these of any use to me with this tank?

 

[drparker]

from kent:
essential elements --------- Dump -- Water changes all you need
strontium$molybdenum ------Dump --- water changes all you need
coral vite -------- ??????
iodine ---------dump --- To hard to measure - water changes all you need
purple tech ---------dump --- Use a two part or the liquid calcium
liquid calcium ------keep --- good to help get your calcium in range

from brightwell:
code A --------??????
code B ---------????
iodion ------Dump -To hard to measure - water changes all you need
alkaline 8.3 -------Dump ---- Don't us a pH buffer use a Two part solution
phytogreens. -----???????