Salt Water Aquarium?

[iJay]

LOL! This is how its going to stay for a bit. To this point we are about $1250 into this tank.
The wallet needs a break for sure!

 

[TRINIBOY]

So its been 10 days the tank has been up and running.

We have a total of 5 fish in there, which seem to be happy and healthy.

1 Black Domino
1 sail fin Tang
3 damsels.


We added in the live rock and live sand.
Got a total of 8 snails. 4 are tiny but go thru the sand 99% of the time since we have put them in we have not seen them. The others are like any other snail, on the glass moving around. The water is crystal clear, seems as if the filter and skimmer are doing thier job.

I will attempt to post a couple pictures in coming days!

Just keep a eye out for the saliene content. Salt water can flip really easy causing fish to die. Your not going to be in the clear until a couple months has passed. When I did mines way back I only kept crustians like shrimps for a month or so before stocking it with fish and even then I added a few at a time. On the good side it's really calming just watching them for a bit. Now I only have fresh water fish but hopefully ill start another salt tank soon. Good luck bro.

 

[iJay]

Thanks man!

There's so man conflicting stories and approaches when setting up a tank.

In my mind my plan was relatively simple, start the water, Watch levels, add shrimp and crustaceans as the cleaners, then rocks and fish.

I get to one store, they are saying the shrimp and snails are hardest to keep alive, if they die they can ruin your tank. Used live rock can hold bacteria and kill your tank, live sand can kill your tank LOL

Out of frustration I decided to add 1 fish as the lab rat, that worked out, added another a couple days later , then 3 more. My cousin and his GF came over on Monday and gave Ashley a Clown fish and a yellow tail damsel, they all doing well. Salt levels are normal. I had to add about 5 gallons of RO water via the filer inlet tube last night. Salt is right where it should be and water is crystal clear.

We are keeping a close eye on it, morning and evening when we get home. I've lowered the temperature just a bit to 78 degrees from 81, the fish seem allot more active. I've also added a blower in the tank all of the fish take turns swimming in it. Seems like when they get tired the just swim to the bottom and "catch their breath" lol.

A question regarding the filter- I opened it up last night and saw that there is allot of the loose silt looking sand in it, the media bag still looks white, I added in some filter stones and the sponges @ both densities look clean. Should I change the media bag?

The black domino fish I have in there the longest and the Sail fin tang, both eat out of my hand when I hold a small piece of seaweed, coolest thing ever

 

[W_boughner]

You should join fishlore forum !! There is soo much info on that forum it will blow your mind !! Experienced aquarist to answer all your questions http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/

 

[TRINIBOY]

Thanks man!

There's so man conflicting stories and approaches when setting up a tank.

In my mind my plan was relatively simple, start the water, Watch levels, add shrimp and crustaceans as the cleaners, then rocks and fish.

I get to one store, they are saying the shrimp and snails are hardest to keep alive, if they die they can ruin your tank. Used live rock can hold bacteria and kill your tank, live sand can kill your tank LOL

Out of frustration I decided to add 1 fish as the lab rat, that worked out, added another a couple days later , then 3 more. My cousin and his GF came over on Monday and gave Ashley a Clown fish and a yellow tail damsel, they all doing well. Salt levels are normal. I had to add about 5 gallons of RO water via the filer inlet tube last night. Salt is right where it should be and water is crystal clear.

We are keeping a close eye on it, morning and evening when we get home. I've lowered the temperature just a bit to 78 degrees from 81, the fish seem allot more active. I've also added a blower in the tank all of the fish take turns swimming in it. Seems like when they get tired the just swim to the bottom and "catch their breath" lol.

A question regarding the filter- I opened it up last night and saw that there is allot of the loose silt looking sand in it, the media bag still looks white, I added in some filter stones and the sponges @ both densities look clean. Should I change the media bag?

The black domino fish I have in there the longest and the Sail fin tang, both eat out of my hand when I hold a small piece of seaweed, coolest thing ever

Nope it's all good. Some sand grains are way lighter and will get sucked up in the flirtation unit. Just keep checking to ensure the filter does not get clogged by to much sand.

 

[TRINIBOY]

You should join fishlore forum !! There is soo much info on that forum it will blow your mind !! Experienced aquarist to answer all your questions http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/

Great link thanks man could always learn more.

 

[Dozer]

Overwhelming amount of information with no real way of doing it ( at least that what I remember from 10 years ago ) without having the tank crash ( except for maybe FOWLR and a few others ). DSB's are on a path of crashing regardless how well you maintain it? Is that how it went? Have things changed?

 

[ALN]

Are you adding coral to the tank? Keep checking ammonia nirtrite and nitrates if you can in case of any die off since you put in the live rock and sand after livestock. When you start getting a cycle even if its a small one due to the live rocks you'll start seeing diatom.

Wherr are you located?

 

[ALN]

O yah. You should run some filter floss yo catch all that surface junk

 

[ALN]

Edit:double posted

 

[classic drifter]

Nice to see another datnoid keeper! Indo or NG?

Indo,

 

[Dozer]

Rockin' - had a NG with pretty clean bars. Was my favorite fish and lived with a monster pike cichlid, clown knife and a couple of synodontis. Damn I miss having big fish

 

[iJay]

I think last night I made my first mistake. I added RO water directly to the tank instead of thru the filter inlet.

My sailfin tang, went to the bottom of the tank and went pale. As bad as this sound, this morning I Was running late and didnt have a chance to look into the tank. I will this evening.

The sailfin's name is Sonny man, TRINIBOY you would get it. Hopefully he is still alive!

 

[W_boughner]

Were you topping up evaporation or doing a water change

 

[TRINIBOY]

Darn hope sonny man still kicking. Yeh i got it, good soca singer

 

[iJay]

Sonny man and the rest of them are all still alive and well! Thank goodness.

I was topping up the water that had evaporated.

 

[iJay]

We had our fist casualty this weekend. We adjusted the heater by 2 degrees and our black domino died.

We put the heater back down to 78 and the other fish appear healthy. Saline levels are normal, added more RO water thru the filter inlet.

 

[W_boughner]

Do you have corals ?

 

[iJay]

No corals as of yet.

 

[Shawarma]

Pictures man... Take some!