HI ! new here.

[Gee]

Hello all, i am new to sw aquarium, i find it so interesting !! its like a drug, anyway i been reading on forums for about a month and decided to jump in, i already have a little 10 gallons freswater aquarium.

So today after reading all the newbies FAQ i went and bought one, i had a killer deal on a discountinued tropiquarium 68 its a 20 gallons tank, i wanted to go custom but i choose this because of the double ballast hood, the light timer.

Now ! i got some questions,

1 - I did what you guys suggested and bought a playsand bag from home depot, (its hard to find up here in December !!), it is screened , wash and dryed. is it OK ?

2 - I am really not in a hurry, i want to go slow and learn the good basics, so right now no life is present in the tank, i already did the salt mix is it ok or will the water get corupted ?

3 - The filter that came with it is a biolife 35 with a 100 w heater.
will it be good for now ?

4 - do i need more water turbulence, the lfs told me no but i think i need a pump on the bottom ?

5 - if i want to start the cycle next week, would 10 ponds of live rocks will be ok, with 2 cocktail shrimp ?

6 - if i add "normal" rocks while cycling ,will they become live ?

7 - for lightning i got one aqua glo, and change the sun glo for a marine glo, was it a good choice ?

8 - i only have sand on the bottom now, do i need crushed coral, or argonite with it ?

Sorry if i got so much questions, but the lfs around here are not to great of an help, they can sale stuff, but explaning is not there best part, i ask them so much questions without any straight answer, he even didnt know what came after amonia, he was like euh... nitrite or nitrate...... i am not sure........ !

The live rocks around here are so expensive, its 10 $ / pound in canadian money, and 5.99/pounds for rocks that have very little life on them.

If i dont put enough live rocks in it will the cycle work, if it only slows the process i dont have a problem with that.

So finaly thank you all in advance, and this is a great board with great ressources.

Excuse me if you read and i sound like a retard , i am a french Canadian, so my first language is French.

[Gee]

...

[OrionGirl]

1 - I did what you guys suggested and bought a playsand bag from home depot, (its hard to find up here in December !!), it is screened , wash and dryed. is it OK ?

Yep--good to go. If the tank has water in it, you're going t get a huge cloud when you add the sand, but it will settle down.


2 - I am really not in a hurry, i want to go slow and learn the good basics, so right now no life is present in the tank, i already did the salt mix is it ok or will the water get corupted ?
It's fine in there, just make sure you replace with FW for any evaporation.

3 - The filter that came with it is a biolife 35 with a 100 w heater. will it be good for now ? Sorry--I'm not familiar with the filter, but the heater is fine. You may want to run the filter without any media, since it's usually not helpful in SW.

4 - do i need more water turbulence, the lfs told me no but i think i need a pump on the bottom ?
I like lots of current in SW tanks. It helps the fish and coral, IMO. So, I would say yes, add a power head. Most are adjustable, so could be turned down to a lwoer level if needed.

5 - if i want to start the cycle next week, would 10 ponds of live rocks will be ok, with 2 cocktail shrimp ?
Yes.

6 - if i add "normal" rocks while cycling ,will they become live ?
To some extent. Porous rocks will be colonized by bacteria and other beneficial critters--algae, corals, worms, etc. Non-porous rocks, like granite, will not be as beneficial to the tank--only the outside can be colonized.


7 - for lightning i got one aqua glo, and change the sun glo for a marine glo, was it a good choice ?
For fish and crustaceans, this is fine. For corals--probably not. It sounds like these are Normal Output lights, and this won't be enough for the photosynthetic animals.

8 - i only have sand on the bottom now, do i need crushed coral, or argonite with it ? The sand is fine. You will need to monitor your alkalinity--the aragonite helps buffer your water, so without it, you may be prone to reduced alkalinity levels, but this is easily remedied.


If i dont put enough live rocks in it will the cycle work, if it only slows the process i dont have a problem with that.

It will still work.



Excuse me if you read and i sound like a retard , i am a french Canadian, so my first language is French.

You sound fluent to me--much better than I would be in French! Welcome aboard!

[mogurnda]

oups i forgot something, will this be safe to put in, what can i do to wash it before i put it in ? It depends on where it came from. If you suspect that it has been chemically treated, leave it out. If it's off the beach, a good rinse to get rid of debris should be fine. Others might recommend boiling to get rid of disease, but that may not be necessary if it has been dry for a while.

[Gee]

Thank you very much, i got quick respond by the two i was counting on !!!! You guys really rock, oh and as for the rocks, lsf around here are crazy, i got a 6-8 pounds lava rock from one and it was 19.99 + taxes (15 % here :rolleyes: ) and i got two small tufa rocks for 14.99 each, **** the live rocks are 10 $ a pound, i got 14 ponds of dead rocks about for 3.60 $ /pound. Anyway i just had to cry a little , sorry wont happen again :D .

I wanted to start the cycling today, but i didnt like my dsb, so i had the rest of the bag, so :

45 ponds of play sand , 14 ponds of base rock, i remove the BIO element in the filter, i got a little pro 2 rotating powerhead , got two cocktail shrimps am i ready for action ?!?

I cannot thank you guys enough, so thanks again !!!!!

[OrionGirl]

Yep--you're good to go! Glad we can help out!

For more live rock, you may want to look online. It's usually a bit cheaper than buying locally--but I'm not sure about shipping to Canada. Otherwise, just buy a few pieces you really like, and the rest will become live--just takes a bit longer.

[Gee]

Its getting good !!

Last picture with 2 shrimps in it.

first day of the cycling :D

My wife is getting sick of hearing me talking about my tank all the time ! :p

Do you think i have too much air mix in the return of the filter ?

- ph 7.6
- sg 1.023
- amoniaque 0.6
- nitrite 0
- nitrate 0
- temp 82 (lights on)

http://24.203.72.60:81/gee/aqurium/aq231203a.JPG

[Gealcath]

Ph is abit low, you want the PH to be at 8.3 or 8.4

[OrionGirl]

I wouldn't worry about the pH in a cycling tank--the biological processes make pH flustuate a bit during cycling. Before adding critters, you will want it to stabilize around 8.3, but it can wait until after the cycle.

For the air--for now, more air is good, but if you get corals in there, many of them don't do well with lots of bubbles, and sponges are killed if too much air gets into their pores. Just a consideration for when it's time to stock, though!

And, yes, our significant others all learn to put up with our fishy talk. I'm lucky--mine loves the hobby as much as I do!

[Gee]

Im back from the holidays, hope you had a great time, i sure did !!

here is the latest :

23 decembre
test eau :
- ph 7.6
- sg 1.023
- amoniaque 0.6
- nitrite 0
- nitrate 0
- temp 82 (light on)

25 decembre 2003:
test d'eau :
- ph 7.6
- sg 1.023 - 1.024
- amoniaque 1.2 - 2.4
- nitrite 0.1
- nitrate 5
- temp 81 (light on)

30 decembre 2003 :
test d'eau :
- ph 7.6
- sg 1.024
- amoniaque off chart
- nitrite 0.1
- nitrate 5
- temp 82 (light on)

What do you think ? my cycle is going ok ?

[Gealcath]

The Cycle is going fine, once Ammonia and Nitrite are 0, you will want to raise the PH to 8.3 or 8.4 before putting any fish into it.

[Gee]

New picture, i got some gift for the tank, some rocks and stuff...

what do you think ?

[Gee]

i dont know if you notice on the picture above , but i got a black dust over the sand now ? and my power heads are doing a hole in the bottom, even if they are pointed high center , is it ok ?

[OrionGirl]

The powerhead will pull a bit of sand out, not a big deal. You can play around with different locations for it, but still expect it to move the sand a bit.

For the black 'dust'--most likely it's just darker particles that are lighter than the rest. Unlikely to be a problem--though you can use a bit of airline tubing to siphon them out if you like.

Otherwise--looks to be proceeding on schedule!