Brought home dream tank tonight! Was SW, have ?s!!!

[AnnetteG]

Okay, ya'll, tell me what to do! I swear, I need an expert to come over here and help me sort thru all this stuff this guy gave us for $200!!!!!!!!!!!!! He JUST took it down tonight when we went to pick it up, so the rock is alive, the gravel probably has good stuff in it, the 2 canister filters, he left full of water. We need to paint the stand cuz it's fugly. We have to buy a new light fixture, which we can do on Tuesday. SO, what do I need to do to make sure the rock stays alive and the filter media stays good in the day or so it's going to take us to get the whole thing in the house and plugged in and filled up again? The guy gave us 2 buckets of water from the tank, plus he poured water over the rock and it's sitting in a lidded cooler. The gravel is all in buckets and is wet, but not full of water.

It's 110 gallon tank!!!!! Could you DIE?!!!! OMG, an EHEIM canister AND a FLUVAL canister AND a HOB of some sort and a protein skimmer, which I have no idea how to set up. He gave us all his chemicals, food, a python, EVERYTHING! I literally have no idea where to begin. But I REALLY want to take advantage of this opportunity of having already cycled filters and live rock and try to have a go at a SW tank!

HELP!!!!!!!!! :help:

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

[judgemax]

well, first things first, i would make sure that the rock is completely covered in water, check his salinity, and get heaters, and power heads in the water. hopefully, by the time you get that done, someone else with better advice will have stumbled along!

I am by no means an expert, however, I would suggest atleast figuring out what his params were, so you can keep them similar, did he say what temp he was keeping the tank at?..You have a long night ahead of you! I bet you are really excited!

[judgemax]

well i was hoping someone else would have chimed in for you! how are things going?

[AnnetteG]

I'm downloading manuals right now for the filters, since everything is taken apart and is a jumble of tubes and cords and :eek3: I think we'll have to move the rock into another cooler since we need the heater because right now it's in a Styrofoam cooler. :nilly:

[animalman]

Judgemax has given you good advice for now and keep water movement over the LR with a heater till you setup. Good luck

[BadRoma1]

i would't worry about filters at this moment. you can run everything without them but with rock only. the same goes for protein skimmer. set up the protein skimmer last. just put the set up together as soon as possible. put the water in, rock, sand, live stock that he gave you, plug in the heater, powerheads, and light. make sure the rock is covered with water before you'll put everything together. make sure the new water has the same or very close parameters to what his water was. $200 is a good deal. post pics of everything.

[bowser7of9]

Surprised nobody else has chimed in yet.

Place all that rock in a container that you can heat to about 78 degrees. Make sure the rock in covered by the water he gave you and have a pwerhead to run some flow through it. That should be fine for the rock.

As for the rest of what you got. I am far from the most qualified on this site but gravel is not ideal for a marine set-up. Not sure you will even need it so I wouldn't worry too much about it but if you want to keep it I guess you could place it all in an airtight container (garbage bag) and it should at least stay wet.

As for filtration, if you have enough LR it will serve as your filter for the tank was it is re-established so I wouldn't worry about the canisters so musch either, just use what ever water is left in them for your LR.

The skimmer will come in handy once the tank is set-up again. Read all the stickies on this site for newbies. Helped me out a lot but remember that at this point the rock is likely the best stuff you got from this so far and if you can keep it cured it should be fine. If it smells bad that is because there is some die-off on it but even a little won't hurt it.

Good luck and keep us informed.

[AnnetteG]

I'm having trouble deciding for sure whether I want to keep it SW or go FW. I do love plants and cichlids. And loaches. Have to go over to Aquarium World in the am and look at fish to try to decide.

Right now, we've got a heater and air stone running in the live rock cooler. May see if I can get store credit for the rock. Anyone in Houston want to buy it from me? :Angel:

decisions decisions! It's a good problem to have! This tank is HUGE! Wheeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

[clown-lover]

Sounds like you found a terrific steal... Hope you decide to join us on the salty side but I can understand the decision can be difficult. There are quite a few nice african cichlids that I would like to try and propogate since I've been out of the FW side..

[judgemax]

don't forget to keep us updated!

[Grins]

let's tempt her with LiveAquarias Diver's Den, or ClamsDirect, etc....bwahahaha

[mandy21]

let's tempt her with LiveAquarias Diver's Den, or ClamsDirect, etc....bwahahaha


oh man, I found clamsdirect from your blog. holy crap i wanted about 50 clams but knew I should wait a little bit to get one, like spring when I feel better about shipping since it's a nice cool 30 degrees outside as the high today. . . . . That and I should be buying presents for other people, not myself with that whole Chrismtas thing going on. :headshake2:

[AnnetteG]

Help me work this out guys & girls. SW is overwhelming my little brain right now. All the fish are GORGEOUS, but it seems like they're all SO sensitive and delicate and my brain is boggled reading all the different things they need to stay healthy and happy. Why can't it just be easy, mix this much salt with this much water, add fish and stir? :silly::grinyes:

[Grins]

It is not as hard as it first appears. The GREAT thing about a marine tank is that it is scalable. You don't have to do everything nor get everything at first. In fact, I would recommend against that. It is something you can expand as your knowledge grows. My thoughts are if you're willing to read and research you'll be fine. Some of the planted tanks are really just as complex as marine tanks.

[Subliminal]

Step 1: Put tank where it goes
Step 2: put rock in tank
Step 3: Put sand in tank
Step 4: Mix water and fill tank.
Step 5: Insert heater and get pumps and filters running
Step 6: Wait

No reason to sit on this, get it done while the rock/sand is still live

Saltwater is really not much harder than fresh, especially if you aren't going reef. Without high powered lights, dealing with the happenings in the tank isn't really all that tough...

Anyway, get to it and start asking pointed questions....we're here to help. I mean, look at Grins post count...she must be averaging 20-40 posts a day alone! ;)

[Grins]

I SAW that

[AnnetteG]

Okay, so after a slight argument, we've come to a compromise. The 110 will be FW. I get to convert the 28 and 29 I have to SW!!! Now the hurry is getting the 110 cleaned and into the house so we can start moving everyone around so I can put the rock in the 28 and 29 to keep it alive while we get everything else done. My little cichlid guys could maybe stay in the community for a couple of days while we store the rock in the 29 in order to keep it happy while we get the 110 set up. We have to buy substrate for the 110. I don't want to use just gravel in it.

Anyhoo, I'll be sticking around to ask you guys those pointed questions to get my 28 and 29 SWs going!!!! :headbang2:

[Subliminal]

You know, the bigger the sw tank, the easier it is to maintain stable conditions.

Just food for thought. I keep a 29g reef and i think it's a perfect size for a tank, but if I had access to 110...well...I'd be broke for buying livestock. ;)

Cichlids are fun fish.

I think once you get into the hobby and learn that the fish are perhaps the second or third most interesting thing in the tank, you'll really start to come around to the salty side.

[judgemax]

you do do brackish right now right?, so you have a better knowledge then most, when starting salt. I think you will do fine!

[clown-lover]

So do I... And with a 110 there is very little you can't do except for maybe the largest of angels. Compromise with your husband and tell him since you got such a steal on the 110 that means you get to buy a 55 for your FW and keep the 110 as salt.. ;)

[AnnetteG]

oh wouldn't that rock? I KNOW it would be best to do the 110 SW, but he is just dead set against it. I don't really even know why. I may work on him some more. I wish he'd just go see the SW fish with me. That might change his mind. I went today to look and OMG, pretty!

[wantvws]

You know, the bigger the sw tank, the easier it is to maintain stable conditions.

:iagree:
I have managed to keep everything in my 210 alive (except for 3 snails-stupid hermits) and prior to having this tank I had virtually no SW or FW experience.
Trust me...if I can do it, it ain't rocket surgery:drool:
Robbie

[clown-lover]

oh wouldn't that rock? I KNOW it would be best to do the 110 SW, but he is just dead set against it. I don't really even know why. I may work on him some more. I wish he'd just go see the SW fish with me. That might change his mind. I went today to look and OMG, pretty!

Actually show him some of the pictures from the SW tank of the month threads.. If that doesn't get him going nothing will.

[AnnetteG]

The live rock I have came with a bunch of dead corals mixed in. I guess they're dead anyway, they're hard as rocks and not pretty anymore. There are also a bunch of shells. I left it all together as I imagine there is good bacteria and stuff in all of that as well, but I'm thinking I don't want to use it unless you all tell me I should or there is some wonderful thing I can do with it. I have a LOT of really good big chunks of cool rocks that have loads of holes and are really going to be fun to put together in my tanks, but IMHO, the dead corals are kindof ugly.

Thanks!