woo hoo my first marine tank :)

ausername

ausername

Algae Farmer since 1998
Nov 2, 2006
143
0
0
Trenton Ontario
Hey all i have just set up my first marine tank... i have been quite successful in freshwater and decided to try a new challenge. Sooo.. heres the thing.. i know nothing lol. I have read about live sand live rock and chemestry and i think i'm ok on most of it but a few questions...

I have a 27 long (36 x 12 x 15) with 20 lbs of caribsea live sand...( hope its still live as theres no expiry date) 15 lbs of caribsea aragonite. 8 lbs base rock and 4 lbs of live rock... i know its not enough live rock but the store was out of live rock. Can i skimp on live rock in the beginning if i use live sand... and it is still live lol. I'm gonna cycle it for a few weeks and see how that goes before i get my fishies but i need some suggestions i was thinking a couple clowns (would love to get anemone's down the road) some small gobies not sure which shrimp hermit crabs... i dunno never realy payed much attention at the lfs till i decided to set up a tank... any thoughts?
 
I would hold off on putting any livestock in until you get the rest of the rock. Not necessarily because I think there will be an issue adding them, but rather, adding a good amount of rock later could present a problem. If, for example, there is significant die-off on the new rock (and there is plenty of it), then you risk killing things.
 
oh for sure that was the plan... i'll be making the trek to a fish store with live rock in stock tomorrow... the livestock is probably at least a month away but i'm lookin for some ideas as theres not alot of stores that sell marine fish so when i make the trip tomorrow i can look at some prices.
 
I've heard that the "live" sand sold in bags isn't really alive at all and its really all dead.
A pair of clowns and a goby would be lovely in the tank.
 
SpockthePuffer said:
I've heard that the "live" sand sold in bags isn't really alive at all and its really all dead.
A pair of clowns and a goby would be lovely in the tank.
Click to expand...

Well, that is true and untrue. It all depends upon what you consider "live" to be. For me, live means LIVE-- bacteria and fauna included--by which, bagged sands would not be live. If, like the companies, you only consider bacteria, then it is live.

In all, it sounds like you did your research and everything seems in order. Just research any purchases from now on--make a habit of it.
 
lighting... nothing realy... i have 6500k 15 watt over the live rock just to keep any coraline algae alive... not worried about that quite yet until i'm cycled .. prob gonna get t5 ho 2x 39 watt. for the first while... gonna let the tank mature before i get into anemone's or coral ... still too new for that... i learned long ago not to jump head first into aquariums (not literaly)
I have read that you can drop inverts in right away with marine tanks.... is this true? I'd like to get some snails or something ... but i CAN wait... just dont like too... :) who does?
 
78 watts probably wont be enough for any nem or corals maybe some softies but no lps or sps and you could put some snails and crabs in but you would have to feed them the main reason most ppl keep them is to rid your tank of nuisance algae if there is none there they will starve. when my tank is low on algae i feed my hermits and snails those sinking wafers
 
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