Need Info On Setting A SW Aquarium

GEV83

GEV83

Top Dog!!!
Jun 19, 2002
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LA County, California
Real Name
Gabriel (Gabe)
I went to the local pet shop yesterday to buy stuff for my fish in my 60gal but I was looking at there saltwater fish they had various clown fish tangs and some others which escape my mind right now. Ive always wanted to setup a lil aquarium maybe a 20-30gal with a pair of clown fish some Amphiprion ocellaris but I know nothing bout maintaining saltwater. Ive had FW all my life well since i was like 3. I was told buy the guy at the pet shop if i setup an aquarium using his live rock his live sand and his water the aquarium would be ready for fish in 24hours. He showed me his live sand and it was in an aquarium alone no fish with a powerjet or filter not possitive which didnt look close enough his live rock he said gets cured in the back and the ones up front are cured ready to use he has fish swimmin with the live rock. He told me that u cant put fish with Live Rock cuz they would get sick and he even pointed out how other shops keep live rock and fish seperate cuz the rock isnt cured and from what ive seen the rock really is kept away from fish. Also he had his fish side by side with shrimp which he was sayin other shops dont do cuz they medicate there fish and medications will kill the shrimp and well he doesnt medicate his fish cuz there perfectly healthy and they looked healthy moving around alot more then the other shops. So I dont know if any or all what he told me was really true or not. Please let me know thanks. Sorry this is so long.

Oh just out of curiousity how big of an aquarium would i need for a Harlequin Tuskfish? My book says they get 10" but its an older book and I know some of the sizes are wrong considering it says an Oscar gets 11" when they really get 14" and says a Aztec Cichlid gets 12" when a male could get 18". Ok any n all info would be nice. Thanks again
 
"I was told buy the guy at the pet shop if i setup an aquarium using his live rock his live sand and his water the aquarium would be ready for fish in 24hours. He showed me his live sand and it was in an aquarium alone no fish with a powerjet or filter not possitive which didnt look close enough his live rock he said gets cured in the back and the ones up front are cured ready to use he has fish swimmin with the live rock. He told me that u cant put fish with Live Rock cuz they would get sick and he even pointed out how other shops keep live rock and fish seperate cuz the rock isnt cured and from what ive seen the rock really is kept away from fish."

You might get more replies if you break your post up a bit, it's hard to read when it's all one paragraph.

Do some basic reading on setting up a saltwater tank. It sounds like this guy doesn't really know what he's talking about, for the most part. Doing it his way will cost you far more than if you do it the recommended way.

I'm completely confused about the live rock being kept away from the fish. If he's telling you they need to be kept apart, why is he saying you can buy it, put it in your tank, then add fish?

Live rock is kept apart from fish in most cases because it's for sale. Stores don't want to put fish in a holding tank where people are going to be sticking their hands and moving things around. Most stores don't put much rock in the display tanks because it makes it very hard to catch the fish.
 
Yeah sorry for not breaking it up. What he had told me was that if live rock isnt truly cured then it could kill the fish and that is why he keeps fish with his LR cuz it shows its truly cured. He seemed to know what he was talking about.

I plan on doing some research online later on I hesitate doing SW cuz honestly it scares me that I may unwillingly kill the fish I want. I just wanted some clarifcation bout whether or not what i was told was true.

Ill do some reading and ill be back if I got any more questions.
 
GER1023 said:
I went to the local pet shop yesterday to buy stuff for my fish in my 60gal but I was looking at there saltwater fish they had various clown fish tangs and some others which escape my mind right now. Ive always wanted to setup a lil aquarium maybe a 20-30gal with a pair of clown fish some Amphiprion ocellaris but I know nothing bout maintaining saltwater. Ive had FW all my life well since i was like 3. I was told buy the guy at the pet shop if i setup an aquarium using his live rock his live sand and his water the aquarium would be ready for fish in 24hours. He showed me his live sand and it was in an aquarium alone no fish with a powerjet or filter not possitive which didnt look close enough his live rock he said gets cured in the back and the ones up front are cured ready to use he has fish swimmin with the live rock. He told me that u cant put fish with Live Rock cuz they would get sick and he even pointed out how other shops keep live rock and fish seperate cuz the rock isnt cured and from what ive seen the rock really is kept away from fish. Also he had his fish side by side with shrimp which he was sayin other shops dont do cuz they medicate there fish and medications will kill the shrimp and well he doesnt medicate his fish cuz there perfectly healthy and they looked healthy moving around alot more then the other shops. So I dont know if any or all what he told me was really true or not. Please let me know thanks. Sorry this is so long.

<< Regarding not having rock with fish, i think he means that he does not put un-cured live rock in the tanks with fish. Which, to be honest, i would not do either, its in the best interests of the fish to keep them seperate from curing live rock.

About the medication, yes it common for shops to medicate tanks, and there are some medications ( copper based ) which could kill inverts, so, again, i would agree on shops keeping them seperate.

On the live sand, blahdy blahdy blahdy..dont let them tempt you into paying the cost of live sand. All you need is a couple of cup fulls to add to a new sand bed to transfer a bit of life in there, and this will seed the new sandbed.

Using fully cured rock, their sand and water "MAY" be a cycled tank and be able to stand fish after 24 hours....would i just add fish after 24 hours? no, i would at least monitor the tank for a week. >>

Oh just out of curiousity how big of an aquarium would i need for a Harlequin Tuskfish? My book says they get 10" but its an older book and I know some of the sizes are wrong considering it says an Oscar gets 11" when they really get 14" and says a Aztec Cichlid gets 12" when a male could get 18". Ok any n all info would be nice. Thanks again

<< Harlequin tusks average about 8 - 10 inches in captivity. These do like to swim, and personaly, i would not put one in less than a 150 which is least a sparsely laid out aquarium >>
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Add some comments above, in red....
 
GER1023 said:
Yeah sorry for not breaking it up. What he had told me was that if live rock isnt truly cured then it could kill the fish and that is why he keeps fish with his LR cuz it shows its truly cured. He seemed to know what he was talking about.

I plan on doing some research online later on I hesitate doing SW cuz honestly it scares me that I may unwillingly kill the fish I want. I just wanted some clarifcation bout whether or not what i was told was true.

Ill do some reading and ill be back if I got any more questions.
Click to expand...

It's all right, I wasn't trying to be rude, sometimes questions just get lost within paragraphs.

I see now that you meant he keeps the uncured live rock out of the display. That makes sense. The reason for that is when rock is shipped, some of the organisms die, creating chemicals that are bad for your tank.
But many places do keep cured live rock in separate tanks because of space issues, and because people like to dig through and collect their own rock.

I don't mean that this guy knows nothing about saltwater, but the parts about using live sand, and how you can put fish in 24 hours later are junk. I agree with Reefscape on both of those. I just wouldn't listen to this guy's advice without checking first, because it really seems he wants to just sell you a lot of things. When someone promises quick results with what they're selling, it's suspect.

There's no reason you can't do saltwater. It sounds like this guy threw a lot of confusing information at you, but it's really not that hard. It's overwhelming at first, but broken down it's pretty easy. Read this site a bit and see how others are putting together their tanks. There are also some good articles on setting up your aquarium.

It just takes work, research, and money, just like a freshwater tank.

So you want a 20-30 gallon tank with a pair of clownfish. Do you want to keep corals, or just start with fish and some live rock?
 
i didnt take it in a rude manor collarcrazy (nice GSD in your avitar). I dont know whether or not i want coral. I know fish but have never really read up on corals so I know almost nothing except what ive seen on my many nature programs.

I have always liked clown fish and i know that Amphiprion ocellaris stay small at around 3" unlike the Maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) which get twice the size and are kinda aggressive compared to the common clown fish. I would eventually want 2 pairs one of the normal ocellaris and one of the black variety.

Reefscape i think ill be rethinking ever owning a Harlequin Tuskfish 150gal is alot for a 10" fish to me. I was reading bout these and most sites said a min tank of 75gal which is more do able for me. Maybe in the far off future.

Oh also is it true that clown fish wont always take up residance in a sea anemone if provided one?
 
I'm not sure if two pairs of clowns would fit in a 20 or 30 gallon tank. I'm not a huge clown person so maybe someone else could tell you. But I do know they often won't reside in anemones. The wild caught clowns are more likely to do this, and even then it's iffy. They're almost as likely to hang out in a soft type of coral.

I suppose you already have your approximate tank size figured out, the next would be to decide what else you want in the tank besides clowns. That will let you know what kind of equipment you need to start with. I personally feel good lighting is worth the investment even if you don't want corals. Saltwater and freshwater tanks look so much nicer with good lights! And it doesn't take anything wildly expensive to keep soft coral. But that's a decision for you.

You could also look into an all-in-one system like a Biocube, Nanocube, or Aquapod. They come in different sizes, from six gallon to twenty nine. All you need to add is a heater, thermometer, maybe a powerhead, and of course water, rock, and livestock. But they come with built in lighting and filtration. Some people prefer to build their own system from scratch because you have more flexibility. I found this time around the Biocube is the option for me because I don't want to keep any challenging corals, and I prefer the look of these systems anyway.
 
Ok soft corals which are those any that would stay small or grow slow? Sorry but I know nothing bout corals soft or hard any good sites that have good info on both that you could recommend?

Oh and two pairs of clown fish but seperate tanks if the first thirty would run good then ide get a second one going or convert my sixty to a SW aquarium and just put a divider to keep the pairs on there respective sides.

Was looking at the flame angelfish would they be compatible or is that a no no?
 
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