Extremely newbie questions!

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Mark_b

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I am a pretty experienced freshwater aquarist but a complete newbie when it comes to marine! I am just about starting to research a marine reef tank. Straight away i've come across a couple of questions:
1) Do you salties do very regular water changes like us freshies? If so how often and how much?
2) Did i read somewhere that the cost of liverock and livesand could be reduced? It was something to do with buying a small amount of each and putting them in the tank with normal rock and sand and letting the 'live stuff' spread over time to the rest. Is this right? If so how long does this take?
 
Originally posted by Mark_b
I am a pretty experienced freshwater aquarist but a complete newbie when it comes to marine! I am just about starting to research a marine reef tank. Straight away i've come across a couple of questions:
1) Do you salties do very regular water changes like us freshies? If so how often and how much?---- Just like the FW side, some do weekly, some every other week, some monthly and a few claim never.

2) Did i read somewhere that the cost of liverock and livesand could be reduced? It was something to do with buying a small amount of each and putting them in the tank with normal rock and sand and letting the 'live stuff' spread over time to the rest. Is this right? If so how long does this take?
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That is correct. We use playsand from Lowe's or home Depot. We then seed it with a few cups of LS from a friends tank or from another source. For the LR we use base rock ( www.hirocks.com ) and add some LR on top. For filtering purposes this only takes 1-3 months, for the life forms other than bacteria it can take months or even years.



Ray
 
Some people do water changes as often as you would for a FW setup, other don't. The same principle applies though--you're diluting toxins and wastes by doing water changes, along with replenishing trace minerals. I think water changes are a very importan part of successfully keeping a tank--fresh or salt.
 
I see!
So seeding the live rock and sand can be completed for the purposes of bacteria in a couple of months but the critters take more time to reproduce. Does this mean light stocking can be started after a couple of months when ammonia and nitrite go to zero? I was reading in the sticky about the cocktail shrimp cycling method!
About the water change thing, it was a bit of a daft question really! I should have realised that they would be necessary! I'm Its pretty obvious for a start that all the corals and things ( what is the term for the non-fish creatures in general? ) will use up the minerals from the salt mix in the water. Do you have to buy a different salt mix if you are going to have corals and live rock or just fish?
Do nitrates build up without water changes as they can in a freshwater aquarium or are they used up in a reef tank in a similar way to a heavily planted freshwater tank?
 
The Base rock aquires(not sure that is the correct word) the bacteria as it is needed. This is why we say go slow on additions. Each time you add something, the bacteria required to surpport it must multiply to adequate levels (IE a Small Cycle).

As to the critters, the pods will be thare in 3 - 4 weeks if no fish. The rest like sponges and tube worms and some of the small inverts we do not see hiding in the rocks take longer. Some say 6-9 months; some people say years.

Ray
 
'"Do you have to buy a different salt mix if you are going to have corals and live rock or just fish?"

I use the same salt mix. Kent


"Do nitrates build up without water changes as they can in a freshwater aquarium or are they used up in a reef tank in a similar way to a heavily planted freshwater tank?"


Yes, to both. They build up and you do water changes to remove the nitrates and replace trace elements. With a proper DSB the nirates can stay very low. We also use different algaes (PLANTS) just like freshwater in our tanks, sumps or Refugiums to remove excess nutrients.

Ray
 
Thanks for all the replies guys!
Certainly helped me to get a basic understanding of what is going on.
Cheers!
 
what is the term for the non-fish creatures in general?
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We normally call these inverts. (short for invertabrates(sp?)) as most of the non fish creatures, like shrimp, anemones, and crabs, have no backbones.
 
Thought that that might be the case!
Wasn't entirely sure whether these pod things were inverts or not though!
cheers!
 
Thanks Mark B for your questions..really helped me also with my "Newb" beginnings!!:confused: I know I will have more questions also as I go forth and grow my tank
 
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