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I am new to fish, and this thread has me very interested in turning my 50 gal into a saltwater tank. I have one question before I get my hopes up though. Are fish affected by stress from outside the tank? My concern is that I had to get rid of an Iguana because my cat will not stay off the top of the tank. He was stressing the lizard out way too much to keep it. My first instinct is to assume that fish wouldn't get nearly as stressed out by the cat being on top of or around the tank, but I want to make sure. I don't really want to keep an animal that is constantly stressed out, and my fluffy kitty isn't going anywhere.
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Mar 7, 2009 20:24
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ludnix posted:Everything I've read suggests you shouldn't run the skimmer during the cycle otherwise it will slow the process down. Ultimately it won't make a difference in the long run of your tank, but it might help the cycle speed up by turning it off. See I've heard exactly the opposite. v  v
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Mar 7, 2009 22:13
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Psimitry posted:See I've heard exactly the opposite. v That doesn't surprise me, it kinda seems like a non-issue all things considered, so it's probably easiest to just keep doing whatever you're doing and wait it out.
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Mar 7, 2009 23:54
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rally posted:I am new to fish, and this thread has me very interested in turning my 50 gal into a saltwater tank. I have one question before I get my hopes up though. Are fish affected by stress from outside the tank? My concern is that I had to get rid of an Iguana because my cat will not stay off the top of the tank. He was stressing the lizard out way too much to keep it. My first instinct is to assume that fish wouldn't get nearly as stressed out by the cat being on top of or around the tank, but I want to make sure. I don't really want to keep an animal that is constantly stressed out, and my fluffy kitty isn't going anywhere. Is this tank the former home of the iguana? If so, I would do a little research before using that tank for fish. Everything I've seen suggests that no matter how well you clean the tank, there will always be traces of urine and feces from the iguana, and will likely cause problems. I could be talking out of my rear end, but it is something that I'd look into before dropping a ton of money into a saltwater setup.
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Mar 8, 2009 15:46
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Yeah, just sell the tank on Craigslist for 20 bucks and pick up a new one at petsmart for 80. Net will be around $60 and it's 60 bucks well spent knowing that the (potentially) thousands you put into a SW tank won't be wasted because you have a contaminated tank.
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Mar 8, 2009 17:49
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rally posted:I am new to fish, and this thread has me very interested in turning my 50 gal into a saltwater tank. I have one question before I get my hopes up though. Are fish affected by stress from outside the tank? My concern is that I had to get rid of an Iguana because my cat will not stay off the top of the tank. He was stressing the lizard out way too much to keep it. My first instinct is to assume that fish wouldn't get nearly as stressed out by the cat being on top of or around the tank, but I want to make sure. I don't really want to keep an animal that is constantly stressed out, and my fluffy kitty isn't going anywhere. I don't know how much it impacted my fish, but my cat was the reason I took down my old bigger tank. She wouldn't stop loving with it. I just set up a new rig and I had to do serious planning to get it so that she cannot get on or near it. The iguana might have freaked your cat out just enough that it wouldn't try to get it. Fish won't have that going for them.
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Mar 9, 2009 14:26
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Bah, my 10g is crashing and I'm not sure why. Over the past week both of my zoa frags have curled up and died, my mushrooms are looking pretty unhappy as well, and the water surface has developed an extremely noticeable film that a pair of Koralias aren't breaking up enough to be skimmed out. Water parameters are nominal except for slightly elevated nitrate that I've been combating with weekly water changes, but to no avail. I'm going to step it up to every-other-day changes and keep an eye on my cats to make sure they're not putting kitty-litter feet in the water  Hopefully the tank rights itself - there's very little in it right now so I'm not worried about losing denizens, but I'm moving fairly soon and I'd like to get it stabilized before that particular trauma.
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Mar 16, 2009 15:44
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What kind of time do you have getting things from fish store bag to tank? I work halfway between my house and the fish store, it's a bit of a hike. Do people think 4 hours would be too much for hermit crabs and live rock as long as they were kept warm?
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Mar 16, 2009 15:51
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In the next few months I'm hoping to set up a brackish tank (and eventually a marine tank) for one or two green spotted puffers. Been thinking of cycling with Bio-Spira. I've read good things about it, but also conflicting info on whether you can cycle a brackish tank with it. Any insight, goons?
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Mar 17, 2009 01:03
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Morbid Florist posted:What kind of time do you have getting things from fish store bag to tank? Depends on how the things are packaged. Chances are that they'd be fine either way, but if you're that concerned about it, make sure that they are packaging with pure O2 in the bag as opposed to just using compressed air. That will ensure an ample supply of oxygen for the trip home. To give you a bit of scale, I was able to travel from LA to Phoenix with a cleaner shrimp and a few corals and they made the trip just fine.
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Mar 17, 2009 01:25
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Hermits and other active animals don't have as long out of tank, but most corals last a good amount of time. I just picked out some corals out of town and they were in their bag for 26hrs.
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Mar 17, 2009 11:52
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csammis posted:Bah, my 10g is crashing and I'm not sure why. Over the past week both of my zoa frags have curled up and died, my mushrooms are looking pretty unhappy as well, and the water surface has developed an extremely noticeable film that a pair of Koralias aren't breaking up enough to be skimmed out. Water parameters are nominal except for slightly elevated nitrate that I've been combating with weekly water changes, but to no avail. I'm going to step it up to every-other-day changes and keep an eye on my cats to make sure they're not putting kitty-litter feet in the water Sounds similar to my 6.6 Gallon before it mini-cycled and I lost most of my livestock. I'd suggest doing more frequent changes, maybe even a daily change of a gallon or so, to see if that stops the crash. I used to remove surface film by quickly running an unbleached paper towel across the surface. Good luck!
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Mar 17, 2009 17:31
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Do corals bounce back after a bit of a beating? I picked up some more live rock while I was there and a few pieces turned out to have seemingly wounded little corals on them. They still have color, but they're small and don't look so hot. they're not big enough I'm worried about them killing the tank if they die, but I don't know if there's something I should/could do to salvage them.
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Mar 17, 2009 18:22
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Morbid Florist posted:Do corals bounce back after a bit of a beating? I picked up some more live rock while I was there and a few pieces turned out to have seemingly wounded little corals on them. They still have color, but they're small and don't look so hot. I've seen corals make amazing comebacks before, so there's always a chance. You might consider dosing iodine, I've done that with wounded corals and anemones before.
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Mar 17, 2009 18:30
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Morbid Florist posted:Do corals bounce back after a bit of a beating? I picked up some more live rock while I was there and a few pieces turned out to have seemingly wounded little corals on them. They still have color, but they're small and don't look so hot. Half of my frogspawn heads just up and fell off one day, and now the surviving half are splitting to become four heads once again. One of my liverock pieces sprouted three large green mushrooms and a billion little fanworms.
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Mar 17, 2009 19:02
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optikalus posted:Half of my frogspawn heads just up and fell off one day, and now the surviving half are splitting to become four heads once again. I'm hoping by the time I get home today they may have adjusted to the tank enough that they'll look as good as they're going to and I can ID them. One looked like a purple fat lip that looks like it's half of what it used to be, the other looks like a tiny green/gold/blue rock zit but it has what could be described as an elephant's trunk coming out of one part of it. that last one is just too small to call the colors with certainty. A little brittle star (I think, he was tiny white and bony looking) came off one piece and ran to hide and I got those many fanworms too. I'm hoping the star evades my hermits long enough to get to see him again.
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Mar 17, 2009 19:40
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Two of my 4 new bits of live rock have loving aiptasia anenomes on them  Yanked them out last night, poured a little lemon juice on the things on the advice of some web readings, and they're sitting drying out today. I guess I'll smash them up into rubble and use it to prop up a bag of chemipure. Here I was all fired up to have scored free anenomes
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Mar 18, 2009 16:49
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Yeah I've got a few medium dime sized aiptasias in my tank. Probably just gonna use lemon juice or something.
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Mar 18, 2009 18:44
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:Yeah I've got a few medium dime sized aiptasias in my tank. Probably just gonna use lemon juice or something. I read there's commercial stuff you can throw at them but there were mixed reviews about how well they worked. The rocks had NOTHING else on them so a slash and burn doesn't bother me. The leftovers are just going to end up in the filter anyway.
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Mar 18, 2009 18:46
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If you buy stuff to get rid of them, make sure it's aiptasiax or joe's juice. Otherwise you're just overpaying for kalkwasser. I still think the best solution for aiptasia is peppermint shrimp. I've yet to have an infestation that I couldn't cure with them. Although currently my (neglected) cube has about 50 of the drat things in it, so when I re-start the cube soon, we'll see how they fare.
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Mar 18, 2009 19:44
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I used a needle applicator to attack my aiptasia with kalkwasser paste. It was certainly effective but you have to be careful that the paste doesn't land on any corals.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:01
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Psimitry posted:I still think the best solution for aiptasia is peppermint shrimp. I've yet to have an infestation that I couldn't cure with them. I was aiming this way but I checked the online inventory of the fish store and they didn't have any. I read they spread like wildfire so I didn't want to wait and find out how accurate that was. I also read peppermints won't go after them after they hit a certain fighting weight. These were loving big ones. I've got a little white thing that might be another one or it might be something not-bad. Hey while I'm here, are red leg hermits nocturnal or something? The two I just got will NOT come out into the open with the lights on. They just hang out under rocks doing poo poo until they go out. When the moon LEDs come on I can see them on top of rocks. They are the only things in the tank and my chem levels seem perfect.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:10
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Morbid Florist posted:I also read peppermints won't go after them after they hit a certain fighting weight. These were loving big ones. I dunno. I had peps in my tank for several months, getting very large. They eliminated all the aiptasia in the general tank, but there was one still growing in my overflow. I left it 'cause I thought it was funny and I had the peps in the main tank. Next thing I know, that one anemone is gone. A few days later, I see a large pep swimming around in my overflow. It was quite a bitch to get it out. The nice thing about peps is that they get the anemones that you can't see (and invariably are the source of them spreading). Sure, you may think you've hit that big one on top of your rock, but what you don't know is that there's two smaller ones in the back of your rock structure that you can't see. So when the fuckers DO spread, that's where they come from (that and the seedlings that are spread through the water before you can hit that first one). I've not had much luck controlling them chemically.
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Mar 18, 2009 20:58
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I had an aiptasia come in on a GSP rock, right in the middle of the GSP. Picked up a peppermint shrimp and the aiptasia was gone by the next morning. The peppermint took care of it <8 hours after being introduced to the tank.
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Mar 18, 2009 21:31
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Psimitry posted:The nice thing about peps is that they get the anemones that you can't see (and invariably are the source of them spreading). I might end up going with one but the problem is my tank only being 14gal. I was leaning in a different shrimp direction but maybe I'll end up in candyland after all. The fact they only come out at night is a huge disappointment. I figure in 14gallons I'm a one shrimp guy and so far my two crabs are playing the hiding game too. It's on its way to being the most boring tank on earth.
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Mar 18, 2009 21:56
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Morbid Florist posted:I might end up going with one but the problem is my tank only being 14gal. I was leaning in a different shrimp direction but maybe I'll end up in candyland after all. I have a 24g, my peppermint was coming out during the day until I got a cleaner shrimp and the cleaner proceeded to beat the poo poo out of the peppermint. Now it hides all the time
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Mar 18, 2009 22:25
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Come summer, I was thinking about setting up a saltwater tank for the first time, I've grown up with and cared for freshwater tanks my entire life thanks to my dad (including ponds and modified refrigerators for trout), and I'd like to take the next step up to saltwater. I'm looking to do a primarily coral/sea anemone setup with cleaner fish/shrimp, and maybe 4/5 regular fish as well. I'm looking at 45 gallons and up, since I read that they're less likely to crash, but that's about the extent of my research. There's just so much information out there that I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. Are there any good first-timer websites any of you could recommend? I don't want to just walk into a fish store and get ripped off, or worse, have the person sell me the completely wrong equipment/fish. Also, am I going about this the completely wrong way? Will having too little fish in such a big tank negatively affect any of the chemical balances/make it harder to keep from crashing? I want the most stable tank possible, and if that means less coral/more fish, I'm fine with that. If the setup with not a lot of fish works, how do hexagonal fish tanks do for saltwater? I know they aren't good to keep fish in, since they don't get much swimming room, but if it's primarily corals/sea anemone, would it be okay? I don't have a ton of space where I want to put the tank, but I can accommodate. I know I'll also need specific lighting for corals, any recommendations on that? I'm really excited to do this, but I want the best possible ecosystem. I get sad when my baby guppies die in my breeding tank, I don't think I could handle an entire tank completely crashing on me.
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Mar 19, 2009 00:00
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Morbid Florist posted:I might end up going with one but the problem is my tank only being 14gal. I was leaning in a different shrimp direction but maybe I'll end up in candyland after all. I had an 18 gallon tank for quite a while and had a fire shrimp, 2 peps and a cleaner. Multiple shrimp can get along just fine in a 14 gallon cube. Sometimes the cleaner will harass the peps, sometimes not. It's a crapshoot really.
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Mar 19, 2009 00:24
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moechae posted:Come summer, I was thinking about setting up a saltwater tank for the first time, I've grown up with and cared for freshwater tanks my entire life thanks to my dad (including ponds and modified refrigerators for trout), and I'd like to take the next step up to saltwater. Less fish is definitely the way to go if you're looking for long-term stability. I would avoid the hex tank, they can present a lot of challenges when it comes to arranging rock and lighting it. In general the bigger you go the better stability you will have. If a clownfish dies in a 10g tank it's pollution could be a big issue, whereas if a clownfish dies in a 150g tank it's unlikely to pose a real issue. This is assuming it couldn't have been removed and was left to decompose in the tank. What lighting you'll need depends a lot of what you plan to keep, in general there are certain soft corals that be kept with almost any lighting whereas some hard corals require rather intense lighting of a T5HO fluorescent or metal halide setup. If you plan on keeping anemones though that puts you in the higher light category. T5 fluorescent bulbs are getting pretty popular because when used with individual reflectors on each bulb they are very bright and very efficient. Metal Halides have been a long time favorite and provide a bright point of source light that creates a shimmer effect in the tank. Both T5 and Metal halide have their downsides, but both are very effective ways to grow high light corals and anemones. Metal Halides are often criticized for the amount of heat they put off (if you touch the reflector or god forbid, the bulb, you will be burned), however the amount of heat put into the tank is essentially the same as that of equivalent T5 fluorescent lights, it's simply concentrated over a very small area. T5s with individual reflectors won't burn you when you touch them but they are can still add small amounts of heat to a tank. The downsize of T5 lights is that they do not produce a shimmer effect in the tank because of how the light is evenly distributed over the length of the tank rather than a single point. I personally chose to combine both of these types of lighting in my tank. I use T5 lights for 2 actinic bulbs(which are sort of like a black light and make certain colors of coral flourescent) and 2 day light bulbs. This allows me to gradually increase the lighting in my tank throughout the day using timers. During peak hours of light my 2x 250watt metal halides turn on and tank really starts to shine. The metal halides not only double the intensity of the light but they add that shimmer to the tank I just couldn't go without.  Here you can see the T5 lights on either side of the 2 metal halide reflectors in the center. Ultimately it's a personally choice for what you'd like to do for lighting, but either T5 with individual reflectors or Metal halide will provide sufficient lighting for an anemone and coral tank. You'll want to look into what type of anemone you'll want to keep, Bubble Tip Anemones are a popular one as they are considered easier to keep, but it should be noted that even the easiest anemone to keep is usually considered difficult(ignoring all pest anemones). Here are some recommended websites for reading: Wet Web Media: for just about anything. Melev's Reef: A great website for beginners which explains a lot about running sumps and various other aspects of reef keeping. Reef Central Forums: The biggest forum dealing with reef keeping, excellent resource of study. If you want to do some window-shopping here's some good online retailers: Marine Depot: Awesome company that carries all sorts of saltwater equipment. Fast shipping and good return policies. If you contact them they will personally help you pick out your lighting. Hello Lights: Affordable lighting that should give a good idea of the options available. These guys will also personally help you if you contact them. Live Aquaria: Live animal dealer, good resource for seeing animal requirements or habits if nothing else.
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Mar 19, 2009 07:09
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ludnix posted:
Also the worst site design of ANY saltwater information page out there. Seriously, it's loving horrible. You might THINK you're getting a FAQ page, but all you're getting is an email that has comments injected into the email text. Seriously. Bob Fenner is a very smart man, but his site is truly loving awful. And it's basic HTML that hasn't changed since like.. ever.
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Mar 19, 2009 10:48
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I cannot name a single well organized website that easy to navigate in this hobby that is not a retail website. I don't know what the deal is but there's a huge group of people who have amazing tanks but don't even know how to turn on a digital camera. I guess the ability to run a saltwater tank and use a computer are just about mutually exclusive with a few exceptions. Speaking of good resources that gently caress ugly we have the Reef Chemistry Calculator. I use it frequently but I'll be damned if he couldn't have picked a more obnoxious color scheme and background.
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Mar 19, 2009 11:41
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Heh. I've actually talked to guy that made that. It didn't used to be that bad. It used to be a basic light blue background with an easy to navigate interface. But then he put a bunch of time into the flash based one that nobody uses, so as punishment he decided to make the old (more useful) one ugly as humanly possible but still keep it (mostly) usable.
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Mar 19, 2009 12:12
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Psimitry posted:I had an 18 gallon tank for quite a while and had a fire shrimp, 2 peps and a cleaner. Are there shrimp that generally leave other shrimp alone? Or at the very least will peppermints leave each other alone in a tank?
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Mar 19, 2009 14:25
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Morbid Florist posted:Are there shrimp that generally leave other shrimp alone? Or at the very least will peppermints leave each other alone in a tank? Typically the peppermints and the cleaners will leave each other alone.
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Mar 19, 2009 18:34
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I have a few aiptasias popping up. Would a peppermint shrimp mess with my BTA too much? Or is it one of those things where if you keep the shrimp fat and happy it'll leave it alone?
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Mar 19, 2009 20:02
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I don't think peppermints normally bother BTA any more than any other shrimp. They'll probably try and steal any food you feed it though, as that's usually true with any shrimp.
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Mar 19, 2009 20:31
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Thank you so much for the information ludnix! Those websites are great, and the lighting information is invaluable, I had no idea what most people were talking about. One last question has come up from my further research though, about sumps. I know they aren't totally necessary, but they sound pretty useful. Has anyone here used/built one, and do they make caring for the tank tons easier, like it seems to do? Or does having one over complicate things, especially for a noob like me?
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Mar 20, 2009 03:01
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I received my order from Blue Zoo Aquatics yesterday. Here are a couple snap shots of the new additions.  The fish and corals are quarantined in my 14G biocube.  The porcelain crab quickly made his home in some GSP.  Here is the rest of the order:  Overall I am pretty satisfied. The clown is closer to 3 inches, and the brain coral is at least 6 inches across. And a new full tank shot of the 25G 
Hypnotized fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Mar 20, 2009 |
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Mar 20, 2009 03:13
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moechae posted:Thank you so much for the information ludnix! Those websites are great, and the lighting information is invaluable, I had no idea what most people were talking about. One last question has come up from my further research though, about sumps. I know they aren't totally necessary, but they sound pretty useful. Has anyone here used/built one, and do they make caring for the tank tons easier, like it seems to do? Or does having one over complicate things, especially for a noob like me? It's complicated at first, but once you understand the basic draining and pump scheme it's pretty simple. Melev's reef has a billion different designs for making a sump, I personally just got a glass 40g breeder tank and inserted acrylic dividers in it. Overall I whole heartedly recommend a sump, it opens up options for in-sump skimmers, puts a place to hide your heaters, and can provide a room for a nice refugium. Here's my sump:  The right section is where the water is drained to, the skimmer and heaters are located in there as well. There's then a bubble trap to keep skimmer bubbles from making it all the way back into the tank. Then we have the refugium in the center with chaetomorphia algae and mangroves, and finally the return pump chamber on the left. My sump might be a little confusing so if you have an questions just ask, I don't really know where to start and trying to explain that mess. Ultimately your sump can be as simple as a plastic bucket with a pump in it, what you want to use for a sump just depends on what it needs to do.
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Mar 20, 2009 04:13
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| # ? May 13, 2024 21:43 |
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Lets just start a new thread already and compile all this awesome information we have. The opening post isn't that informative for starters or appealing for potential hobbyists.
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Mar 20, 2009 04:25
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