And it begins...

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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I apologize in advance for the long post... :)

The Story:
Once there was a bored woman named Heather. It was Wednesday afternoon about an hour till quitting time and she was doing research on....her next fish project at home. When suddenly it dawned on her that jumping into saltwater with a large tank like the one she's planning to get in a few months might be difficult...so why not get rid of her guppies and use the 15 for salt as an experiment!? She'd been wanting to do something different with the tank anyway...

She called the closest LFS to her office and discovered that they had some Fiji LR on sale for 2.99/lb. She was exstatic about this after reading all of the threads on MFT about how expensive LR is! So she threw caution to the wind, went to the LFS and got salt, a hydrometer & liverock (~6 lbs)! She went home, emptied her 15G of its guppy inhabitants (soon to be food for a friend's big fish) and water...cleaned the tank. Took all of the filter media out of the filter and filled the tank back up with fresh declorinated water from the tap. (yes more about that later)

OK talking in 3rd person is difficult. SO if you haven't figured it out...I'm talking about ME :) Um So after that I found out why its a good idea to mix salt and water in a bucket before putting it in the tank. I also figured out quickly that the stupid little 7$ hydrometer will be replaced with a refractometer ASAP. (btw Fosters has a cool one on a really good sale right now) I let the SG get up to where it was bobbling between 1.017 and 1.026 and decided that the LR had been in a bag long enough and needed to go into the water. HOPEFULLY I didn't kill it completely. (anyone on the chances of it being dead?)

Overnight the tank seemed to settle at 1.018 so I added some more salt before running out the door to work. Yesterday afternoon I stopped back at that same lfs to get the rest of the stuff they had on sale for 2.99/lb (I figured if I'm gonna kill something it might as well be the cheap stuff). So it turned out to be about another 6 lbs. I went home and fiddled with the SG some more, turned the temp up just a tad (so its at about 76 now)...and after awhile added the new LR. I mixed up a bucket with salt and dumped that into the tank...and after everything...this morning everything leveled out to 1.024 (I'm hoping it wont have gone up at all or much during the day today).

SO As it is right now...I have a 15 Gallon tank...its actually a little over 16 I think according to measurements...but its difficult because its a hex tank. Its got sand at the bottom which was playsand and has been in there for forever since it was in there with the FW. There is a whispher HOB filter on it with no filter media in it. There is a heater set at 76. There are ~12 lbs of LR pieces.

The Plan: Bigals order shipped today. Next week I'll add a 200gph powerhead since I dont think that the hob is enough water movement because of the strange shape of the tank. I do NOT have test kits for anything except ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and have not used them...so tonight I'll probably use the ones I have to see what I get. Calcium, high range pH, phosphate test kits are coming with the bigals order so I'll do those when I get a chance.

I have no intention of trying to grow anything in here because upgrading the lighting on this tank would be a nightmare. There's a rediculously small fluroescent bulb in the hood.

Tonight I am going to stop by another LFS on the way home and get one larger piece of LR for the tank...going for the size and shape...not really how many lbs, because I want to use up some more of the tank than is being used by the mound of LR in there right now.

FAR future plans...as I said before...here in a couple months I'm going to start collecting pieces to set up a 72 gallon SW FOWLR tank. SO this little tank is more for figuring out some of the chemistry and the terminology and what not. I'll probably keep this one as a q-tine tank for when I start setting the big one up.

The Questions:

:confused: I'd like to stock this tank (eventually when I get all of the stuff figured out with chemistry and make sure that its cycled) with mostly inverts. Shrimps and crabs and a starfish and what not. There isn't TOO much room in the sand for things that prefer living in the sand instead of the LR. I could really use some suggestions on critters that work well together, and then opinions on how much would be comfortable? I'd like a starfish...but I know theres a ton of different kinds. I'd like shrimp...but of course there again theres so many different ones.

:confused: I wouldn't mind getting A fish if anyone could come up with one that'd be cool by itself, doesn't get too big, wont eat the little critters, wont die if I look at it wrong etc :) SO if you have ideas for that I'm listening.

:confused: The LFS I got the fiji rock at sells SW for $1/gallon. How does that sound? Anyone better at math than me? With this little tank I'm guessing that a two gallon change once a week would be good...and spending $2 on that might not be an unreasonable amount?? Obviously with a huge tank I'll do my own...but I thought that was a pretty good price...havent stopped to figure out how much IO or Reef crystals costs comparatively.

Thanks in advance for any input...I'll pop a picture in here tonight when I get a chance...even though its not real interesting to look at with ROCK in it :)
 

KahluaZzZ

KahluaZzZ

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IMO the best hardy fun fish is a false percula..not that i had more than 7 SW fishies, so my experience is limited, but this one is a "can't miss" fish.
The LFS sells SALTWATER for 1 $/g ? Or is it RO/DI water without salt ? Saltwater can mean "old" water from a LFS, i won't pay for that.
Here the reef crystals is 10 % more than the Instant Ocean. The only difference i saw ( 'cause i used both ) is that Reef crystals has more calcium..and and water primer..like a detoxifier ..this one i read on the bag.
If you don't have much livestock, use Instant Ocean...same stuff. Anyways, if one day you have a good load of livestock, you can add calcium manually and it costs almost nothing.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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The box I picked up was Instant Ocean....but I think when I get the big tank I'll think about getting both. From places like bigals or petsmart it didn't seem like there was a heck of a lot of difference between the two$$wise.

As for the SW...they have it in a giant tank next to their RO water. I believe its SW that they make from their RO water...although I didn't ask so I'm not 100% positive.
 

M

Mushroomman

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Jan 16, 2004
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For a fish I personally like gobies, and would put a pair of green clown gobies in. They are cool and like to hop from rock to rock, and they become buddies. Or another small goby would be nice.

For inverts you could go 1 hermit crab per pound of live rock (that seems to be a basic staple), same with snails, or a number close enough.

Yeah saltwater is made from RO, you just add the proper amount of salt. Thats how we do it at my LFS.

Since you dont have corals you dont need to get alot of water flow, you might be able to get away with the one powerhead, I think it would have enough flow to keep fresh food to the organisms living on the LR. But I could be mistaken.
 

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1979camaro

1979camaro

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Oct 22, 2002
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i was going to suggest a green clown goby myslef...i wouldn't get 2 though as one will likely be killed if my understanding of goby behavior is correct

i think 1 hermit per gallon is a bit overkill as well...i think five dwarf blue, dwarf red, or scarlet reef hermits would be plenty

there certainly are a lot of shrimp to choose from...among the easiest are the peppermint shrimp and the cleaner shrimp but most will do well...i might go for a coral banded in a non-reef system

I personally would not put a starfish in a tank of that size as it will need regular feedings in order to survive. your best bet is probably with one of the fromia...they generally stay small and will graze on live rock/sandbed

is this a 15g hex?
 

A

aresgod

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Jan 14, 2004
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as far as inverts go there literally are thousands of choices.
A personal favorite of mine is a pistol shrimp/watchman goby combination. for a small tank like that I think it would work out well. There are tons of shrimp and depending on how macabre you are there is the option of the Harlequin shrimp which is an impressive specimen. A herd of cleaner shrimp would be cool. 3 or 4 of them. a porcelain crab would go well.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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1979camaro said:
is this a 15g hex?
Click to expand...
Yes, so like I said...even though theres 15ish gallons of water in there, the actual footprint of the tank is much smaller. I dont remember the dimensions exactly but I think its probably only about a foot across and then about 19 inches high...something like that. I'm wondering if 5 crabs would all run into each other since there really isn't much "tank floor" for them...or do they climb on the rock too?
1979camaro said:
i think 1 hermit per gallon is a bit overkill as well...i think five dwarf blue, dwarf red, or scarlet reef hermits would be plenty
Click to expand...
I know nada about hermit crabs...do I have to get all the same kind? What is the difference between them? Just the color?

The Harlequin shrimp are neato lookin, someone showed them to me last night...but I'd rather have a starfish...SO I guess I'll have to see whats available to me. If I can find a starfish that doesnt get TOO big, I can always put him in the big tank later...of course I dont want it to be unhappy for 4 months until it gets a new home.

I'll take the names you guys gave me and do some research...thanks for the input :)
 

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FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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Here's a pic I just snapped of the tank...sorry about the staples box in the reflection and the salt drips on the front...but you can get the general idea lol


I just pulled out the trusty test kits. Ammonia is like impossible to compare to color chart...if I had to make my best guess I guess it looks like its about .5ppm

Nitrate looks like its somewhere between 0 and 5ppm

and just for the heck of it I pulled the nitrite out and the nitrite is between 0 and .25ppm
 

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KahluaZzZ

KahluaZzZ

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Sorry for the 3 posts..but i was suggested for a long time to get "the conscientious marine aquarist" by Bob Fenner. It was hard to find, but man this is a great book. Altough i tried to ask questions and read a lot on the net, i could have learned so much faster with this helpful guide to the SW world. There is a section about choosing hermits too. Anyways this book will answer pretty much all your questions. I also bought "the new marine aquarium" by M.Paletta but it's pretty much the same kind of info, but half the number of pages.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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I got the Paletta book on ebay....should be showing up any day now. I'm planning to pick up the fenner book sometime in the next couple months before I start in on the big tank. bigalsonline has it for a pretty good price if I cant find it on ebay.
 

stagger19

stagger19

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Apr 23, 2005
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Hey Froggy, Welcome to the Salt Water World. I started a 20 gal salt about a month ago and I will be ading a pair of False Perc clowns within a week or so. I have 20lbs of live rock (combo or fiji and tonga) and about 10-15 lbs of live sand (combo of live sand from the LFS and agralive)

Good luck to you on your salt water journey and I will let you know how my tank progresses.

-Rich
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

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May 16, 2003
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Ok I lied....I have rock and algae. Must mean there's something in there :) It was that stuff that grew on the glass and kind of made the tank look cloudy from a few feet away...I just stuck my hand in there and rubbed it off the front panel. Tank is now very clear and looks 'normal' :) woohoo. Should I do water changes while my tank is cycling? If I need to, I want to mix up the bucket of water tonight so I can do the change tomorrow.

Waiting on the bigals order...supposed to be here Thursday. In it, is a 200gph powerhead...that I wanted to get for some more water movement in the tank more pointed at the rock instead of just having the HOB filter flowing. I need to look up the gph on a whisper filter that size...but I cant imagine its more than 150 or so. If thats the case, will 350gph be too much for this little tank? I can take the HOB off of that tank...its pretty loud.

While I wait for my next paycheck to roll around and get that one last piece of LR to make it look a little less like a rockslide...I'm trying to decide what to put in it. I got the New Marine book, haven't had a chance to sit down and look at it more than just flipping through some pages.

Is SW like FW in the sense that since the tank cycled naturally that I should add stock slowly? Or if I decided to go get everything the same day would it be ok?

So I looked into some different gobies and some shrimps and crabs and what not.

Due to the little footprint of the tank (~15 inches across) I am a little worried about putting too many things in there. Right now I'm thinking 3 (dwarf) hermit crabs, a handful (5ish?) snails of whatever kinds I can find at my stores around here, 5 shrimp (still not sure if I should get all the same kind or different kinds. How about a banded coral shrimp and a blood/fire shrimp and then a few cleaner shrimp? Not pistol shrimp cuz I read they like to eat other shrimps?) and then one or two small fish. The small fish I have looked at, read about, been suggested to me...I've narrowed down to clown gobies and firefish. Do you think I could put one of each in here without causing fireworks? Or should I just pick one. I read that they're both non-aggressive to other fish, but territorial and aggressive to conspecifics.
 

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