Hello all. My fiancee and I are new to saltwater. We have been letting a store guide us and have decided we should probably be doing our own research. We started cycling our tank on 1/7. The store we were dealing with recommended we use damsels… after loosing a bunch we realized we DEFINITELY should have done the research on our own. We are at the point where we are getting red algae and the store tested our water and said we are on target. We are doing a fish only tank. Our tank is 75 gallons. We have filter (marine land pro series bio wheel power filter emperor 400), a light (not sure of the brand… it is a 120 v, 40w, 60 hertz, aquamarine 48 deluxe florescent aquarium reflector) and a heater. We are using crushed coral (another thing I wish we would have researched). We also have a large base rock and a peice of skeleton coral as decoration. We were visiting another store, The Fish Bowl, and started chatting with a gentleman who gave us the info for this site. So I have a few questions and hope you all can help us
1.) Any sites or book you recommend for beginners to check out? There are so many sites it an be overwhelming. Is there any advice you usually give to a beginner?
2.) What other items should we purchase? We are looking into getting a uv steralizer per a recommendation. Someone also told us we should have a protein skimmer… is that necessary with a fish only tank or is it just something good to have? We were told we didn’t need anything to clean with (a vacuum), does that sound accurate?
3.)No one ever mentioned a quarentine tank. We were told to acclimate our fish by letting the bags sit in the tank for 15 minutes, then mixing some of our tank water with the bag water in a bowl and letting the fish sit in there for a few, then using the net and placing the fish in our tank. I read something today that said a quarentine tank is necesary. is this something we should look into getting? If so… how can we go about doing that on a budget.
4.) Talking to one of the fish stores they said we can have other things in our fish only tank without having to purchase any extra lights or doing extra matience. They said some starfish, snails, feather dusters, and hermit crabs.Are there any other non-fish animals that can go into a fish only tank without having to buy extra lights or a better filter?
5.)We want to start doing our own water tests soon. What tests do we need to buy and how often should we test?
Hi Angela and welcome to the DRC. Glad you found us - for a plethora of reasons.
I’ll try to address each of your questions / comments to the best of my ability. The first think I will say is the main piece of advice we ALWAYS give beginners is TAKE YOUR TIME!!! Nothing good comes quickly in this hobby.
There is nothing wrong with crushed coral - it’s a great way to easily keep your PH where you need it to be. It just requires more maintenance then sand does. Which brings me to the vacuum - with CC (crushed coral) you will need a vacuum - otherwise detritus (fish poop and decaying food) will get trapped in it and make keeping your tank EXTREMELY difficult.
Most people you will find here will tell you to put a raw cocktail shrimp in the tank for a couple days to start your cycle. Adding fish is frowned upon by most these days -the spikes in ammonia and nitrite can be really detrimental to a fishes gills and respiratory system.
With that being said EVERYONE will tell you to never add damsels to your tank -they are truly Satan fish!!! If you add them you will likely end up tearing your tank down in order to get them out in a year.
OK - now on to your questions:
I don’t recommend any specific books but there are others who will chime in that have read them all and can tell you which are the best to have. As far as web sites go I would recommend ALL of them. You can never do enough reading, research, or preparation in this hobby. The more you read the more you can determine which will be the best course for you to take. Obviously this site should already be book marked and your firsts top on your search for information ;D Another forum I would suggest would be www.reef-geeks.com. There are many of the same people over there but there are others that aren’t here and it’s always good to get multiple opinions.
Honestly though the club will be your best source of information, advice, equipment, and support. We’ve all been new and are all very eager to help.
UV sterilizers (in my opinion) are overrated. There has been much debate for years as to whether or not they’re worth it. I personally have run my tank for 5-6 years without one. A skimmer on the other hand is very important (again in my opinion). A skimmer provides a mechanical means to remove proteins (read fish poop) from your tank. Don’t skimp here. Determine how much you have to spend on a skimmer and buy the best you can afford (this is true for ALL of your equipment). Many people say this hobby is expensive, one of the reasons is that they buy cheap equipment the first time around and have to replace it a year or two down the road.
There are some that SWEAR by a QT tank. Others that have never used one. Personally I don’t use one, I don’t have the space in my house to set one up. I also don’t add fish and coral to my tank often ebough to warrant having a separate tank set up and running at all times just in case I decide to buy a new fish. -again just my opinion - I’ve been known to be wrong.
I recommend snails -hermit crabs are mean -but snails are a good means to clean your glass.
Your main tests should include Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and PH. You don’t need to worry about calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium yet. They come more for a reef tank. When you start adding corals we’ll go over the rest of the test kits.
Not sure where you’re located but our next meeting is January 24th at William Penn HS in New Castle (7pm) it would be great if you could make it. It’s always nice to be able to put a name to a face. Besides, we’ve got a lot of great advice to share and we’re even raffling off an RODI unit (water filter which you will want to0) this month.
Again - welcome to the club - feel free to ask as many questions as you need to to be comfortable.
:Welcome)
while i would love to disagree with craig any time i can, he is spot on on all his recommendations and advice, except that damsels are worse than he could explain to you. territorial and vicious, like crips and bloods, maybe democrats and republicans. and even if you wanted a tank of them only, it’d still be cruel to cycle a tank with them.
come to the meeting. a few times newbies won a prize.
uv’s depend mostly on the rate of flow across the bulb–too slow, and you kill everything, too fast, nothing dies. unnecessary, especially for beginners.
a bit more info on your lighting is needed. how many bulbs and what kind are they? thin flourescent called t-5 or something else?
protein skimmer yes!!
you wrote:We are at the point where we are getting red algae and the store tested our water and said we are on target. did they say what your numbers actually were?
the method you were told of acclimating fish is absolutely guaranteed to be wrong! some fish will catch their fins in a net. floating and mixing a small amount of tank water in just is NOT enough time for equalizing the differences between your and the store’s tanks.
were you told to acclimate at night? how about adding smaller fish first, then rearranging the rocks so that there isn’t as much bullying?
really, just ask people who have no $$ interest in your tanks, not stores who will be glad to sell you stuff that is either not needed at first or is simply not quite really appropriate, like a uv.
anyway, again :Welcome)
You’ll find alot of great info right here and through the club meetings. Local fish stores can help and give advice but always do your research cause most are trying to sell ya something.
Your 75 gallon tank is a great tank ,I would rethink the crushed coral due to what it traps and needs to be vacuumed out. The filter and light will work but will need to be up-graded once the tank gets more along and also with more live animals added. If your just gonna be adding fish only the bio load will go up and a skimmer will be a good addition, if your thinking of doing corals the light will need to be a good up-grade.
Again welcome to the site hope to see ya both at the up-coming meeting.
I could retype in my own words what has already been said, but I agree with them all, except I like the look of crushed coral, so I would say keep it and vacuume it when you do a water change.
Craig mentioned www.reef-geeks.com and I second him in that being a great resource, but we are “local” here, so someone may be able to stop by and help diagnose or fix a problem you are having.
What area of De are you from, I have some books that I could loan you if you would like.
Were you in the Fish Bowl on last Friday?
good luck with your new system and FO (fish only) is a good way to start your adventure into saltwater. Be patient, have fun, and enjoy the ride!! And never be hesitant to ask a ?, mo matter how dumb you may think it is. The dumb thing would be never to ask it.
John
:Welcome) to DRC Angela and also your husband. I’m A Johnson, I’m the person you talk to at the FB and by all means I’m not representing or involve with the FB by any means, I’m just one of their regular customer, since it is near my house.
I think the things that I had mentioned to you is also being said here on the forum. Most of us have gone through that initial phase of aquarium keeeping and could give a decent opinionated advice. Like I’d told you being patient, reading, doing lots of research and talking to other people and learn from it, is the best thing a beginer can do. By the way it’s a very addictive hobby and you will find challenges from it as well.
Once again welcome and please don’t hasitate to ask questions here. If you guys need help from me just PM me.
Thank you all so much! The group seems like a very friendly and helpful source. We do not live in DE… we live in Kent County, MD. Unfortunately there isn’t much around us so we travel to DE for most of our needs. Are the meetings family and kid friendly or is it just adults?
The damsels are what made me realize the first store we had been visiting wasn’t guiding us very well. They are EVIL. Both stores we have been too luckily said we could bring them back to them so as soon as we can we will be getting rid of them and never ever looking at them again. Out of the 6 we initially bought 4 were killed by 1 especially evil one. As evil as they are I feel bad for using them this way, they look miserable. I had no idea this is what cycling did to them, which is exactly why we are now doing our own research.
moliken- The bulb we have- it is one bulb that goes the entire length of the tank. Besides the info I posted already the only other thing I can find on it is “Aqueon rapid start 8.000k”. Also, no additional info was given to us by the store to acclimate. They didn’t say anything about doing it at night or the order of fish or anything.
billrob71- When will we know it is time to upgrade our filter and light?? We are not thinking of doing corals anytime soon.
Thank you all for all of your advice! We are looking forward to getting more involved in our new hobby and learning as much as we can. Thanks again!
Well lucky for you we don’t discriminate against Marylanders.
Your current light is a NO (normal output) T12 flourecent light. It’s designed to light up the tank so you can see your fish. TYhis light will serve you well until you’re ready to move in to corals - we’ll discuss more then. With a fish only system you will want to put as big a filter on it as possible (unless you decide to drill the main tank and add a sump and fuge - but we can discuss that in more detail elsewhere). My personal opinion is your next 3 purchases should (in order) your own test kit. Skimmer. RODI (Reverse Osmosis DeIonization) water filter. You will have significantly less issues with algae if you’re starting with water with no impurities in it.
Live Rock will also provide a significant amount of biological filtration. You don’t need 100lbs of it, but adding 50-60 pounds will provide plenty of surface area for bacteria to grow on, as well as provide plenty of hising places for small tank critters and obstavles for fish to swim through.
I hope you’re local enough to make the meeting on the 24th - we have several people that come up from down state, and 1 that hauls in from deep within Md.
Meetings are family friendly, kids are more then welcome - afterall - who else is going to clean up when we’re done? YahoO
You will find a 100 different ways to run a sucsessful tank. And a 100 people who will disagree with what is working.
A little bit of advice: Take all the info in thats available and make the best decision that fits your particular need and future of your tank. Nothing is more expensive then upgrading.
My first tank was a 55 gallon crushed coral with a bio wheel filter (and an undergravel filter). It was easy and sucsessful. I did not have it overloaded with fish and it ran with little maintenance. This worked out well since I really didn’t have a clue for what I was doing.
I have had a freshwater tank that I gave as a gift that they returned to me because it was too much work. I ran the tank without a filter and never any maintenance.
Tanks are about balance. Ask KaptKen he is the king of low tech great results. Stuff goes in and stuff has to go out. If you can not keep a balance with the nutrients you will have issues.
I have cycled tanks with fish food, a dead shrimp (only once it was disgusting), and damsels. Any thing that will decompose will work. Normal output lights are fine for a fish only setup. Snails are a good idea but add slowly or look for a group buy to tag along on.
Acclimation is about temp and salinity. I had a container that hung on the side of the tank to acclimate. Slowly add water till the temp and salinity in the bag are the same. There is not an exact time I use but I used to add water every 5 minutes and depending on the type of fish and the amount of water in the bag dictates how long. I made a drip acclimator that added a few drops of water at a time. As for netting fish to place them into the tank; it is stressful and can cause damange. If you dump the water from the store into the tank you risk adding additional problems from the store into your tank. Since I usually emptied most of the water out of the acclimation container and added the fish. (Future) Some stores dose copper in fish only systems. If you add this water to a coral tank it will be detrimental to corals.
IMO a UV sterilizer is not a good idea on a non-sumped system.
To Buy:
One thing I didn’t see mentioned was water source. I would recomend a Ro unit or if you are going to go corals later an ro/di unit. They are not to expensive but will make things easier (129-149). One of the vendors has some good deals Aquarium Reefkeeper RODI Drinking Water Systems - Air, Water & Ice call and mention DRC and they were offering a 10% discount.
Also they are giving the club one to chance off at the January meeting.
A proteen skimmer is a great tool. Most put the skimmer in a sump. I have not used HOB units but some have and can chime in on a good unit. When buying a skimmer never rely on the volume recomendations on the web sites they are trying to sell stuff. Research the item. Post on multiple forums ask what HOB skimmer they would use for a 75g FO. Once you get a concensus research the top 3 and post a follow up to get people to pick which they would use of the 3.
Another thing not mentioned was live rock. I would invest in live rock. The best deals can be found when someone sells extra or closes down a tank. Choice peices can be picked up at Dr Macs http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/
Congrats on the new tank Angela! I also started a new 75 gallon. Its a great tank! I love the depth the length, its just all around a great tank.
For a protein skimmer, I recommend the ASM g-1x. Its rated well for a 75 gallon tank, not to much, not too little. Its pricey, but as everyone else has said, everything in salt water is expensive. Im sure this is the only place in the world you can easily spend 200 dollars in sand. The place I have found my skimmer at was at Delaware’s Premium Aquatics up in Newark. Hes got good prices and hes a local dealer which is always nice.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give you (and I will eat my words on this one I just know it) is to take your time. Be slow and methodical. My brother always tell me to check your list 3 times before you buy something. Write it up, look for prices… set that list aside… write it up again, check for prices again… anything and everything you can do that you can slow down… slow down. haha. Wait for your water to mature, wait to put fish in, wait to add new fish. Its one thing that everyone will tell you, if they tell you you can do something that seems to quick, chances are they are probably trying to sell you something because your new to the trade.
I dont think i saw anyone mention what test kits to use. The check salinity i would recommend a refractometer. They are accurate and easy to use. You want to shoot for a salinity of 1.026. I would also get an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits.You will use these to track the nitrogen cycle. For a fish only tank you dont need much more but if your going to move to corals later then i would suggest getting a calcium, magnesium and alkalinity tests and get used to using them. You want Ca between 400ppm and 450ppm, Mg between 1250ppm and 1350ppm , Alk should be kept between 8dkh and 12dkh
