Its official, I've converted to the dark side!

gatotsu77

gatotsu77

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May 17, 2006
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Hahaha, well, not quite. I have decided to convert my 6g to a saltwater tank though. (55g is staying fresh) Ultimately, I'm hoping to have a few LPS/Zoas and a couple inverts. I don't believe I'll be putting any fish in this tank. (I know it hasn't really got the space for most fish anyway... its 16"x10"x10") As of right this moment, I've got 20 lbs of CaribSea "AragAlive" live sand forming a 2" sandbed, 9.5lbs of branchy liverock, a Koralia Nano, A Jebo 18w 10000k CF light, and pre-mixed salt water in it. I've added the clarifier that comes with the sand about 10 minutes ago, so if the water clears up tonight, I'll post a couple quick photos of the tank as well. (this was all sparked by my betta passing away.... $5 fish passes, I spend almost $300 converting his home to saltwater. -_-)

At any rate, I've been reading up on salty tanks for a couple years now, but I imagine I've got quite a lot yet to learn. I was wise enough to invest in both a refractometer and a saltwater master test kit. (between those two, it cost me $110.00, but better to know what is going on than not) I do realize that this tank will have a fair bit of evaporation, so I've got a 5g jug of ro/di water on hand, and will be topping up likely morning and evening to ensure the salinity and other params don't go too far out of whack. As it is, my room is naturally quite warm, so the water is right about 79-80 degrees without need of a heater, and has virtually no fluctuation from this. (as tested when the tank was running as a freshwater setup)

So, please feel free to make any comments and or criticism you may have for me, and I'll do my best to learn from what folks have to say, as well as keep y'all updated on what's going on. :)
 
that would be cool. an entire tank of just zoas would be sweet...thats what i'm gonna do with my small 3 gallon jbj picotope when i find time for it :)

and after my betta is gone :(
 
Welcome to the salty side of aquaria!

Sounds to me like you've got a good plan. A few points that might help. I ended up having to add a buffer to my tank to keep the kH up. I mixed it in with the RO water and that kept the shock for the corals down, made it easier to add, and made the tank more stable.

That's all I can think of for now, but we want lots and lots of pics.
 
I think I may have made a bit of a mistake in adding all of the contents of that bag of sand... It had water in it, so I assumed it was good to go in the tank. Now I'm thinking it had a TON of silt in it, and this might take forever to clear up. -_-
 
A good way to take care of that is to get a powerhead/pump (not a korlia) and put a sponge filter on it. Then, when the water clears, you take the sponge off, swish it old tank water and it's clean. This also make a really good additional bacterial and debris filter for your tank.
 
I have a little 60gph hob I may toss back on, and put some pantyhose in it. That worked wonders for clearing silt from my 55g when I converted it from gravel to sand. I suspect I should give it a quick once over with saltwater before placing it in the tank, yes?
 
Running RO through it for a bit should be fine to get any gunk out. But yeah, that would work too. I keep an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter running on my 44g tank. It's a good thing to have if you need to run carbon or phosphate remover or whatever real quick.
 
I ended up giving it a quick scrub, and then rinsing all the components in salt water before setting it up. (I've got a bucket of waste saltwater I brought the rock home in, handy to rinse stuff before it goes in the tank) Its still pretty friggin snowy looking in there, but I'll snap a quick photo so you can see what I'm working with thus far.
 
Behold.... the snowy saltwater tank! lol...


nanoreef1.jpg

nanoreef2.jpg

nanoreef3.jpg
 
telling you man, its addicting and i feel like alot better then freshies! you wont stop at zoas ;) try blowing your rocks off with turkey baster for the first few weeks to as well, and dont add any inverts until you see some algae growth! i think you got the jist of it though man, good luck
 
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