|  |  | 
October 26th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| Hai Guys, first post here.
I got 2 55 gallon tanks for the price of one and I think I would like to turn my unused tank into a saltwater.
After doing a ton of research I calculated that saltwater in this size might overstress the steel stand I got free with the tanks, so I reinforced the stand and set the tank back up.
I decided that I really like the sump as a way of hiding my cleaning and put a 30 gallon tank in the base of the stand and filled it up to see if it would stress the stand, now I need to empty the tank and partition it with Plexiglas.
As it stands I get about $60 a month of play money from odd jobs so I am financially forced to move slow. This week I got a 20 lb bag of live argonite sand and put a 1 inch deep bed in the tank.
At this point, I am pricing live rock and see this as a hurdle financially as it seems to be my most expensive purchase.
Where should I proceed from here? How can I get up and running within the next few months?
Now the kind of tank I would like to end up with is a reef tank, but I wonder if it would be possible to be up and running with very little live rock, and slowly build up to being ready to add coral someday, after I have learned quite a bit.
Can I get this thing wet and with something small before I add live rock, using just a HOB filter?
Last edited by aquarist48; October 27th, 2009 at 05:08 AM.
Reason: Back to back posts | 
| | |
October 27th, 2009
|
| | Moderator
| Hello Michaelb and Welcome  to Fish Lore. Best of luck with your first salt water tank. I'm sure some salt members will help you out before too long.  I've merged your posts to save some space. There is an "Edit" key at the bottom of every post for corrections and addition thoughts. It's good to use to prevent back to back posts when there have been no responses. (again saving space).
We're glad to have you on board. Enjoy the site!
Ken | |
| | |
October 27th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323  Hai Guys, first post here.
Where should I proceed from here? How can I get up and running within the next few months? | Well you can get the tank started with just the argonite and cycle it that way. Well if you are going to use a sump, I would suggest you start there. Finish the sump and test it for leaks before plumbing. If it does not leak than plumb it to the tank. Is the tank drilled or are you giong to use an overflow box os some sort? Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 Now the kind of tank I would like to end up with is a reef tank, but I wonder if it would be possible to be up and running with very little live rock, and slowly build up to being ready to add coral someday, after I have learned quite a bit. | YTou could be up and running without any live rock and added it later. You could add rock later in two ways. You could add base rock or you could add cured live rock. Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 Can I get this thing wet and with something small before I add live rock, using just a hob filter? | When you say something small youmean fish, invertibrate or coral? | |
| | |
October 28th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| Quote:
Originally Posted by locoyo386 Well you can get the tank started with just the argonite and cycle it that way. Well if you are going to use a sump, I would suggest you start there. Finish the sump and test it for leaks before plumbing. If it does not leak than plumb it to the tank. Is the tank drilled or are you giong to use an overflow box os some sort?
| Tank is not drilled,I plan to make my own overflow box since everything else up to this point is DIY.
So base rock can be made into live rock when it is seeded by live sand? Quote:
Originally Posted by locoyo386 I would plan to start with my cleanup crew once the tank has finished cycling | I would plan to start with my cleanup crew once the tank has finished cycling. I might be interested in adding a hearty coral or fish if it would survive. | |
| | |
October 28th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 Tank is not drilled,I plan to make my own overflow box since everything else up to this point is DIY. | Awsome, I have one done with PVC and containers from walmart. Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 So base rock can be made into live rock when it is seeded by live sand? | Yeah, it should over time. Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 I would plan to start with my cleanup crew once the tank has finished cycling. I might be interested in adding a hearty coral or fish if it would survive. | Well from what I know about corals, nitrates need to be low if not zero. Deal with them before you put any expensive or sensative coral in. As for fish, they should be fine (once the tank has cyled) just make sure they are going to be reef safe and that you are not going to want to take them out later (aggressive nature).
Last edited by locoyo386; October 28th, 2009 at 04:44 PM.
| |
| | |
October 30th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| As far as water goes I do not have a reverse osmosis setup. Should I pay to get RO water from the store or can I use tap water for now? Also, would tap water cause problems later on? | |
| | |
October 30th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Hi there, Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 As far as water goes I do not have a reverse osmosis setup. Should I pay to get RO water from the store or can I use tap water for now? Also, would tap water cause problems later on? | Well you could use tap water if it is not bad. You could use a TDS tester to check the quality of the water. Some places actually have good tap water. Tap water can contain substances like phosphate, silicate, nitrate, chlorine and others that you don't want in the tank. Most saltwater fis stores have RO water, where I live the price ranges from $0.25 to $0.33 cents per gallon. If you have a big system or bad tap water, amn RO system mught not be a bad investment in the long run. | |
| | |
October 30th, 2009
|
| | Fish Addict
| For a reef, I would never use tap water. I know lots of people that uses them and end up having red slime algae and they will have to restart their tank. I would save money for a RO unit because it will save you money in the long run. Even if you have a skimmer it would not be advisable to use tap water.
ATP   | |
| | |
October 30th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will wait to fill my saltwater tank until I can make a few trips to the store to grab my 55 gallons of RO water. I believe that I should be able to fill the tank in 10 gallon stages as it cycles, then buy 10 gallons of RO water every week when I get to the city. | |
| | |
November 1st, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will wait to fill my saltwater tank until I can make a few trips to the store to grab my 55 gallons of RO water. I believe that I should be able to fill the tank in 10 gallon stages as it cycles, then buy 10 gallons of RO water every week when I get to the city. | That should work just fine. It is ging to take a little longer but not a bad approach if you can't get all the water at one time. As far as having RO think of two things;
1.) you are going to use for top-off and the amount will depend on how fast the water will be evaporate.
2.) if you have problems with the tank down the road and you need to make salt water (and do not have any saltwater pre-made), you might need to have some RO water to mix saltwater.
These two will determine how much RO you will need to have at any one time. | |
| | |
November 1st, 2009
|
| | Fish Addict
| I agree. I would buy more RO water. You'll probably have to add water (RO) every day or two. | |
| | |
November 10th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| So I went to my LFS today and got 10 lbs of live rock in two chunks. I now have 15 gallons of saltwater in the 55 gallon tank. My lfs sells saltwater off the show tanks for $1 a gallon. My plan it to grab 10 gallons of saltwater every week I go into town and have 5 gallons of RO water with a small bag of salt ready to be used in case of something catastrophic happening. | |
| | |
November 10th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 So I went to my LFS today and got 10 lbs of live rock in two chunks. I now have 15 gallons of saltwater in the 55 gallon tank. My lfs sells saltwater off the show tanks for $1 a gallon. My plan it to grab 10 gallons of saltwater every week I go into town and have 5 gallons of RO water with a small bag of salt ready to be used in case of something catastrophic happening. | Sounds good, one comment though. You might double think about buying saltwater off their show tanks as it might not be of good quality (it could have things like nitrates or phosphates and it might lack calcium, magnesium or iodine), basically it is used water. Normally the saltwater is more expensive than RO, here it costs $1 per galon (which is on the cheaper side) and the RO is $0.25 per gallon. The saltwater premixed should not cost more than $1.75 and RO no more than $0.75. Also check to see if it is an option to mix your own, unless you don't want to deal with the hasle of mixing it. | |
| | |
November 11th, 2009
|
| | Fish Addict
| I would just mix my own. If you don't want to stir it, Just put a big power head in there. I put a K3 in a 5 gal. bucket when I mix my water. If you decide to mix your own, buy quality salt mixes. They usually have more CA, KH, MG in them. | |
| | |
November 13th, 2009
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 Hai Guys, first post here.
I got 2 55 gallon tanks for the price of one and I think I would like to turn my unused tank into a saltwater.
After doing a ton of research I calculated that saltwater in this size might overstress the steel stand I got free with the tanks, so I reinforced the stand and set the tank back up.
I decided that I really like the sump as a way of hiding my cleaning and put a 30 gallon tank in the base of the stand and filled it up to see if it would stress the stand, now I need to empty the tank and partition it with Plexiglas.
As it stands I get about $60 a month of play money from odd jobs so I am financially forced to move slow. This week I got a 20 lb bag of live argonite sand and put a 1 inch deep bed in the tank.
At this point, I am pricing live rock and see this as a hurdle financially as it seems to be my most expensive purchase.
Where should I proceed from here? How can I get up and running within the next few months?
Now the kind of tank I would like to end up with is a reef tank, but I wonder if it would be possible to be up and running with very little live rock, and slowly build up to being ready to add coral someday, after I have learned quite a bit.
Can I get this thing wet and with something small before I add live rock, using just a hob filter? |
Check out www.justliverock.com their prices are very reasonable, with free shipping to boot! | |
| | |
November 16th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| Quote:
Originally Posted by locoyo386 Sounds good, one comment though. You might double think about buying saltwater off their show tanks as it might not be of good quality (it could have things like nitrates or phosphates and it might lack calcium, magnesium or iodine), basically it is used water. Normally the saltwater is more expensive than RO, here it costs $1 per galon (which is on the cheaper side) and the RO is $0.25 per gallon. The saltwater premixed should not cost more than $1.75 and RO no more than $0.75. Also check to see if it is an option to mix your own, unless you don't want to deal with the hasle of mixing it. | the cheapest "RO" water around here is $0.50, but I think they are selling carbon filtered city water. At $0.75 a gallon for decent RO water, the cost effectiveness gallon per gallon of mixing my own or buying premixed is that premixed is currently cheaper. The petstore just sold me 20 more gallons of freshly mixed saltwater at the same price. When we get our RO units after Christmas, I will get a 5 gallon bucket and mix everything myself. Right now I plan to grab a refractometer with my next batch of water.
Also, I see some soft coral starting to grow on my live rock, and a cute little anemone is starting to bloom. I also found a bristleworm on the underside of a rock and removed it with tweezers.
Upon googling it I see that the anemone is most likely aiptasia, though it doesn't look like the pictures yet as far as color. I also found a sponge starting to grow on the backside of one of my rocks.
Last edited by michaelb323; November 16th, 2009 at 09:38 AM.
| |
| | |
November 16th, 2009
|
| | Fish Addict
| I would kill that little anemone. They can quickly take over your tank | |
| | |
November 17th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Hi there, Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb323 I also found a bristleworm on the underside of a rock and removed it with tweezers.
Upon googling it I see that the anemone is most likely Aiptasia, though it doesn't look like the pictures yet as far as color. I also found a sponge starting to grow on the backside of one of my rocks. | It sounds like your off to a great start. The bristleworms are actually benificial to your tank unless they grow really huge like 12" or so. Most don't as other critters or fish will eat them. In regards to the Aiptasia, the have pros and cons, most will favor the cons and kill them.
Pros; the Aiptasia are filter as well and it can remove nitrates from your tank.
Cons; they grow very fast and reproduce even faster. They are know to kill some fish here and there.
Thus most people kill them. | |
| | | |
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
