Last time I tried salt water I failed

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PunkMartyr

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Dec 23, 2002
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and I don't want to fail this time. I have numerous questions and any advice at all is welcome.

I'm planning on doing a 4" DSB in a 29 gallon tank. I'm pretty sure I will only be able to afford maybe 10 lb of live rock to start. I have a couple of pieces from last time I tried.

The current occupants are a green scat and two figure 8 puffers which will be gradually brought up from brackish to fully marine.

1. If anyone has used one of those cheap skilters and found it to be worth anything please let me know. I researched protein skimmers before and found them to be out of my budget.

2. My scat enjoys algae tablets, algae, plants, etc. Will he eat and enjoy marine plants too? Do marine plants bring anything to the table as far as making the aquarium healthy for the fish?

3. I need easy to feed foods like shrimp pellets, flakes, algae tablets type stuff for marine. Are there any marine particular foods like, dried plankton or something wierd that should be fed?

4. What do you guys test for and how often do you test for it? Do you do a basic water quality test like pet stores provide, and do you test salinity? How often, weekly? Do you have more than 1 hydrometer "just to make sure" ?

5. I'm going to age the tank for some time before adding anything after the live rock, but one of the first things I want to add is a clean up crew. My mom takes care of the fish when I am at college and she tends to overfeed. In my freshwater tanks snails handle it. What are some of my options in salt water?
 
Ok well in a 29 gallon tank and with that much Bio Load, 10 pounds of rock will not be eough on its own, You will have issues with Nitrates and Ammoinas... really you should get atleast 30 pounds of good seeded live rock for that tank, Mechanical filters could be used in replace of the live rock, but they will need a real tight cleaning schedual.. and keep to it,

as for feeding, there are many frezze dried foods out there, as well as Flakes.. i use Omega1 flakes.. for my fish. As for marine plants.. if you go with a Microalgea, like Calupra its great for your tank, I run a 65 gallon sump full of Grape calupra on my tank it will eat the nutrients like nitrates witch will starve the other Nussince algeas.. Skimmers are not allways needed, but a great idea, even if you get somthing small like a seaclone or somthing just to skimm some of the tanks protiens.

i only have One Hyometer but i do get it tested at my lfs monthy., i test for lots...

Ammonias, Nitrates, nitrites, ph, salinity, Mag, Cal, ALK, Temp, and i test every other day and i do 10% water changes every week.. i do about 20 gallons of water every weekend.

For the clean up..

Hermit crabs ( red or blue legged) try not to mix them they say 1 per gallon, But i would add atleast 10

Nassirus Snails, again 1 per gallon but add atleast 10..

As for feeding, have your mother if she over feeds and you know it.. only feed them every other day, you may also if you can maintain a stable system with no Nitrates or Ammonias.. add in a Brittle star.. or surpent star.. they are scavengers.. they will eat anything dead or left over.. they come out at night and mine do a wonderfull job of cleaning.. But they can be delicate.. so you need to ensure your system is pretty stable!
 
You're not going to be able to run a true LR/LS filtration system with those puffers. Hermit crabs will be snapped up, stars will lose legs, ect. Agressive tanks usually do better with some mechanical filtration that is maintained regularly.
 
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