My New Tank

C

colesy

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Sep 18, 2005
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Hey guys. I read all the sticky threads all the way through and learned a ton! Thanks.

Here is a break down of my setup. I have been running a pretty basic salt water tank for a little while now. It's a 33G tank with 2 Clowns, 2 Black/White Damsels, 1 Purple Basslet, 1 Hermit Crab, 1 Peppermint Shrimp, a small peice of Live Rock, some fake plants, on a sand base, and a bubble wall. Not sure if the sand is live or not because it came with the tank when I bought it. I am pretty sure its just play sand though.

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I just recently purchased a new 55G tank, stand and hood. It is still cycling empty with a crushed coral base. I chose crushed coral because I thought it looked nicer, however from what I have read I get the impression that a sand base makes for a healthier tank. Is this true?

Basically I want to start this new tank on the right track. Should I switch to a sand base over the crushed coral? My main goal of the tank is to have lots of live rock, maybe some inverts, and anywhere from 5-10 fish. All that and 10 fish is probably pushing it with a 55G tank I guess, but that is just an estimate at what I want. Basically I am looking for a colorfull tank, and no fake plants..

So in order to get all my levels just right where should I go from here. My salinity seems to be within spec. I read that I should get some shrimp and let them disolve to help with differnet levels.

Here is a pic of my new tank with the crushed coral base.

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Thanks for all the good reading so far, and I hope to have some good advice to come in this thread.
 
I think the crushed coral is ok, but its just a bit chunky for fish or inverts that like to dig or live partially under the sand, some snails, starfish etc..might prefer a deeper sand bed,so you have to consider what you would like to keep.
 
ok that makes sense.

When I was reading through one of the other threads a member named JasonA showed some pictures of his tank as he was cycling it. He had a nice wall built up of what I think he called Lace Rock. It pretty much looked like Live Rock to me, but it wasn't. Is this a normal thing for Pet Stores to carry? The only rock at my pet store that they had for me to build up a base for my live rock was this white stuff that totally doesnt match. I was told eventually it will start to match better once things start growing on it.

Anyway, JasonA's pictures in his post are down, or else I would post what I mean. But it's the thread called "A couple of quick questions reg. SW tanks and lighting. " and it's on page 4. Take a look at my first pic I posted of my existing tank. The two side peices of rock holding up my live is the white stuff I am talking about.

So if anyone has any suggestion, or comments about my posts please let me know.
 
That white rock is base rock. When I started my 55g tank I bought about 30 pounds of base rock and about 60 pounds of live rock. I put my live rock on the bottom and used the live rock on top of it. I have a deep sand bed in my tank and have since found out that if you are going to use a sand bed it is a good idea to place the base rock on the bare bottom of the tank, then put the sand in, and then place the live rock. That way if you have any animals that my dig through the sand the rocks wont shift and fall on them.
As far as the base rock goes, you can usually find different types of it. The white type will turn into live rock pretty fast if you have a healthy tank.

Hope this helps,

Bradd
 
Ok thanks for the info.

So basically from here would you recommend me getting the cocktail shrimp and let that work its magic. Is this the next step I should do?
 
Run your powerheads and skimmer if you have one and wait out the cycle, you can add the rock now. If you add rock now it will help the cycle and stabilize parameters faster. If you add rock after the cycle, it should be cured or you'll risk another small cycle. :)
 
Swimfins said:
Run your powerheads and skimmer if you have one and wait out the cycle, you can add the rock now. If you add rock now it will help the cycle and stabilize parameters faster. If you add rock after the cycle, it should be cured or you'll risk another small cycle. :)
Click to expand...

Powerheads being my filters? I am sorry if that is a dumb question. As far as the skimmer goes, I wanted to get one, but any of the ones my pet store has I don't think will fit with the hood I got with my tank. Here is a pic of it.

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All the skimmers I saw hung off the outside of the tank, and I have a feeling there will not be enough room at the back for the top of the skimmer to stick out. If anyone has any names of reasonably priced skimmers that would fit with my hood please let me know.

When you say I should add rock at this point. You mean stuff like the white rock that I have in my old tank? I will pick some up. At which point should I put the cocktail shrimp in the tank? Thanks again for the information.
 
I should have asked:will this be a reef tank? Fish only tank? For fish only with the base rock, your fine.

I was talking about live rock, but if your just going with base rock, you don't really need a skimmer. A good filter is all you need,a skimmer is not necessary.


A reef tank with live rock does need a skimmer after a few months. Powerheads circulate the water, circulation being very important in reef tanks. Powerheads are used with undergravel filters (but in reef tanks they can be used just to circulate the water by themselves) Let us know what your plans are.

Thecocktail shrimp can go in at any time, to start off your cycle, it will disintegrate which can be icky to watch. :)
 
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Here are my plans for this tank.. I want to take this as slow as I have to. I am lucky to have my 33G running while I get this one setup. In the end I want to have a good base rock structure with live rock on top, with fish and some anenomies. Reef would be sweet, but my LPS doesnt stock it and would have to order it in.

So I am thinking just fish, anenomies and live/base rock. The cocktail shrimp went in yesterday, and after about 20 hours they seem to still be in tact. I assume it takes a few days or week before they totally disolve. Once that is done I will check my levels and then start putting in live rock. I can have my base rock in during the shrimp cycle right?

The only problem I have ran into at this point is originally I went with a crushed coral base. I got the biggest crushed coral they had (see pic above) and now I think I regret it and wish I had of went with sand or smaller crushed coral. Its hard to get my base rock set very well in this stuff. I don't know if I want to take all of the crushed coral out now, so what are your thoughts on keeping the crushed coral base, and putting something like aragonite on top of it. Its not a very big layer of crushed coral. Does that make any sense to do?

Again thanks for all your help.
 
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