Hello AC just wanting to introduce myself to the site. I'm fairly new to the aquarium hobby but have picked up rather well now owning 3 tanks, which I have to lower to 2 per wires request! Haha. But anyhow I just cleaned out and converted a fairly newley established FW 10 gal tank into a saltwater tank. I've had it up for about a week now. I have 10lbs of LS and about 7 or more pounds of LR. One with alot of anemones?? Not sure.. They have tentacles are peachy colored one more marroon.. But they are small measuring about maybe an inch long and diameter of about half and inch or less... I manually give them krill and they love it! There's 2 at that size and 2 smaller ones that nearly come out of the cracks and look really tiny. There is also what looked like a tiny bristle star.. They are white right?? I have 2" red leg crab" and a blue damsel. I want to put a pair of clown fish.. Maybe they can mate? Any suggestions as far as set up? Maybe a goby or blenny for the bottom and a spider looking crab or critter type thing. I defently want an anemone for the clown fish. What do you guys think?
Hi new to site and new saltwater set up! 10 gal
- Thread starter Roman09
- Start date
Roman, my first suggestion is to slow down. With saltwater, speed kills.
If you have just set up a tank a week ago, and you are now putting “livestock” into it, the chances are that you will have problems. The tank must cycle…this means to establish the right bacteria to “digest” waste products. Typically this can take about a month or so. You can speed this up, but either way, you should be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, as a minimum. Once ammonia and nitrate levels hit zero, then you are ready for fish, inverts and corals. Please do a search on cycling a saltwater tank and follow those instructions. Also read up on the other things you should be testing for….salinity, ph, alkalinity and magnesium for starters.
Without pictures, I’m also going to guess that your hitchhiker anemones are Aiptasia, which are a pest anemone. Google Aiptasia and see if these are the guys you have. If they are, I would suggest you kill the little suckers using a little squirt of lemon juice or hot saltwater (microwave a little water).
Also, and again a guess without pictures, are the starfish. My guess here is that they are Asterina which some consider a pest as well. They are great detrivores, but keep an eye on them because some will also munch on coral.
My suggestions are to slow down and read as much as you can about setting up a saltwater tank. This site (and others), are a good source of information as well.
If you have just set up a tank a week ago, and you are now putting “livestock” into it, the chances are that you will have problems. The tank must cycle…this means to establish the right bacteria to “digest” waste products. Typically this can take about a month or so. You can speed this up, but either way, you should be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, as a minimum. Once ammonia and nitrate levels hit zero, then you are ready for fish, inverts and corals. Please do a search on cycling a saltwater tank and follow those instructions. Also read up on the other things you should be testing for….salinity, ph, alkalinity and magnesium for starters.
Without pictures, I’m also going to guess that your hitchhiker anemones are Aiptasia, which are a pest anemone. Google Aiptasia and see if these are the guys you have. If they are, I would suggest you kill the little suckers using a little squirt of lemon juice or hot saltwater (microwave a little water).
Also, and again a guess without pictures, are the starfish. My guess here is that they are Asterina which some consider a pest as well. They are great detrivores, but keep an eye on them because some will also munch on coral.
My suggestions are to slow down and read as much as you can about setting up a saltwater tank. This site (and others), are a good source of information as well.
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thank you very much on your suggestion and you are right. I threw in the crabs based on the bag of live sand i got. It stated after placing sand and added the salted water, that i can throw in most inverts.?? i have an ammonia detecter and test strips which all at the present time read zero. The damsel i threw in for cycling purposes. So all those levels should sky rocket then drop when cycle is done? should i do any water changes? or add chemicals?
What is meant by pest anemone? they look pretty cool to me but your suggestion is to kill them? thanks again for your help!
What is meant by pest anemone? they look pretty cool to me but your suggestion is to kill them? thanks again for your help!
I never do water changes while cycling. However, I always have done fishless cycles. I just let the wort brew until it has gone through the ammonia and nitrite spikes…eventually settling into a relatively low nitrate level (0 – no more than 20ppm).
Again, first google Aiptasia to see if these are the guys you have. If they are Aiptasia, they multiply like rabbits and end up stinging your corals, damaging and potentially killing that coral. If you aren’t going to have any corals (FO or FOWLR), you might not have a problem….I don’t know because I never had FO or FOWLR tanks…all my tanks have included corals…so NO AIPTASIA for me. Maybe someone else who has FO or FOWLR can comment on whether Aiptasia are OK in their tanks.
after doing some research ive come to find out they are aiptasia. Being that i want to head down that road of having a reef...im going to kill them! how bad i know i know! haha. Ya im going to try the lemon juice injection. or maybe the pepermint shrimp if im saying it correctly.