Ok well you guys have helped me a LOT over he last 14 hours (lol).
So i have decided to make a "EC's first saltwater tank" thread.I will be taking pics every day or so for the next few weeks to show you how its coming along !! =]

lets start with day 1.

As you can see tank very murky just got it eveyrthing running well but its snowing:eek:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/bio.jpg

day 2:

You should see in the pic its clearing up and running well looks cool :cool:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/bio2222.jpg

Pics arent showing up for me, have you posted them yet?

problem fixed =]

much better! What size/type tank is that? Biocube?

Welcome to this crazy hobby!

Hey, its looking better!

clearing up already! how much rock is that>?

errm only 14 lbs of LR.. i need a lil more..

and its completely cleared now...

its 14 gallon biocube

cool beans ... i love this part of setting up a tank! i'm jealous, I think I'll set up my spare nano cube

you may want to consider building a tube fuge TR episode 88, nitrates can be a problem in the nanos

ok photojohn

day 3 woke up to see this! completely clear. yay!

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7434/bio3xt7.th.jpg

does anyone know how many crabs/snails/shrimp ill need for my cleaning crew and about how much they cost?

i'm not a fan of rules of thumb generally, but people usually say 1 snail/hermit per gallon. but it really depends on the size of the critters. i like nerite snails. they're small and they eat continuously on the walls and rocks. i don't like hermits much so I've used way less than 1 per gallon in my DT. i like nassarius snails for the sand bed, but they come in lots of sizes, so you really have to alter that rule of thumb. no doubt, others have other opinions.

The tank is the same so there is no need of a pic is there?

i also will be getting my snails and crabs sunday so ill take some pics then and ill take some pics of the LFS i go to

In my 24g I have 5 hermits and 4 snails...i think. You can always feed your crabs with bits of silversides if there isnt enough food normally. I love sticking silversides in my SB and watching them come from all over the tank to feast in my 46g.

Hello EC and :welcome: to TR. The tank is looking good so far. You will need to wait till you finish your 1st initial cycle before adding your clean up crew. How long has the tank been set up? Just curious as I saw the date of 3/25/08 on one of your pics for start up.

tuesday im going to m lfs sunday there they will test the water to make sure it is done if its not they will tell me and i will have to wait

it probably will not be done that fast. it usually takes weeks for a SW tank to properly cycle. i would wait at least 3 weeks, but 4 would be even better, to add anything. i would also have them test the water every couple of days to see where the cycle is.

i would recommend listening to podcast episode #2 ... that one should be all about the nitrogen cycle.

thing is im under a 6 week training program at my lfs and if they die i get my $ back

oh and if i dont go by what they say i cant get a refund so id rather play it safe =/

6 week training program? that's interesting, what's that about?

you may get your money back but you are KILLING animals because you are not willing to be patient. In SW you need to take your time, go slow, research, and wait. Nothing good will happen fast in SW. Reguardless of what your LFS says your tank will not be ready for animals until atleast week 2, but a month would be better espically for fish.

EC, the training program at your LFS sounds interesting and I trust that you will become a responsible reefer by educating yourself and learning all you can. Nothing should die in your tank if you follow a few simple rules and use practical sense. Invertebrates can not tolerate a high level of nitrates or any other high levels of nutrients, all which are going to be in a tank that is cycling. A tank must cycle and complete that initial cycle in order to stabalize with the proper balance of bateria to handle the bio load being introduced into the tank. I hope that you learn a lot from your 6 weeks program and I encourage you also to do some reading of your own and question anything that they are saying when it comes in conflict to what you have read and/or from the advice given to you here from a majority voice on certain subjects that may arise.

I encourage you to purchase a few inexpensive test kits of your own so that you can start to keep a water quality journal which will help you see what is going on in your tank. It will also give you confidence in using those kits in the future. This journal will also help you understand the nitrogen cycle and down the road will give you information in how fast your water quality starts to degrade and when you must do water changes and other important things to keep your tank at optimum quality. What type of tank were you going to set up? A FOWLR (fish only with live rock) or a reef system? You have a very nice set up to do either and I look forward to seeing your tank mature and hope you get much satisfaction.

"Reefing, it's not just a hobby any more..... it's a life style!"

this is what ill be buying sunday =]


Week 2 Live Stock Purchase list: You may purchase some reef safe hermit crabs, which eat the green filamentous algae, and snails, which eat the brown flat algae. You may purchase one of each for every 2 gallons of water.



Week 2 Dry Good Purchase list: Aquarium Pharm Salt water master test kit, Seachem Reef Buffer (pH), Seachem Matrix Carbon, Mag Float Algae Magnet.

Hi EC,

This is Sunday night so these are really just musings for consideration. I think that is is really hard to say where a tank will be in the initial few weeks after set up because there are so many variables. Many tanks are not ready for animals within the first 2 weeks, others are.

A test kit is a necessity for a successful tank. In another instance, I would rather you had it from the get go because you could have monitored the cycle. You would have seen the ammonia spike and start going down, watched the nitrite come along and spike and seen the nitrate develop. Not only is it good to know exactly what is happening but you become familiar with the use of your kit. You would have know exactly when the ammonia and nitrite were both at zero and it was safe to add a critter or 2.

I hope that your LFS does not allow/encourage people to buy critters if their ammonia and nitrites are not at 0. These compounds are toxic and stress the animals. In the old days we thought it necessary to cycle tanks with fish and they often did live through the cycle and your hermits/snails may live even though conditions are not good for them. In some tanks the levels will fall to 0 in a couple of weeks, in others it may take a month.

The pH in a cycling tank is often all over the place. Once again I would rather you not rush things but give your tank time to follow the natural progression. Here is a great post Reef Central Online Community - Maturity Issues (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1828375#post1828375) by Eric Borneman about this very subject.

well ive been away for a while.
i havent got my cleaning crew yet.
see no worries they test the water and NO2 isnt right yet.

ill go back in a week

Hello EC! Glad to see that your LFS is keeping a close eye on your water for you. It may seem like things are taking a long time, but it will be worth the wait. I look forward to hearing about your tank progress.

i got my snails and crabs yesterday they still alive

Glad to hear your water parameters zeroed out. Give us the dibs on what you got! Any pics would be great too. :up:

PLEASe someone help my tank has been very clear but for the last few days i has been getting very very murky i dont know why....

and ideas?

It is probably a bacterial or algae bloom. Have you added anything to your tank? What color is the cloud? Has anything died?

Also, what are your parameters?

umm i added snails and crabs and hat parometers?


is parometer the ph no2 no3 emonia etc..?

Oops, sorry. Yes parameters are are the pH, etc that you mentioned. Have you done a water change?

just got my first 3 peices of coral!

got 2 frags and 1 big piece

frags are:zoanthid, and mushroom

the bigger piece is a zoanthid aswell

ill take some pics later, and the water is crystal clear again..

idk what heppen

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/zoa1.jpg

zoanthid =]

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/mushroom1.jpg

mushrrom =]=]

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/side1.jpg

side view of tank!

i has a little bit of sand in the water from me moving the coral around for pic =]

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff127/dragonacher/fulltank1.jpg

full tank shot of my tank =]

Looking good!

thanks =] .