Got My Fluval Edge. Help With Salt

[johnnycomposure]

Okay I got my Fluval Edge tank from Santa.

I have placed 3 small pieces of ocean rock and one slightly bigger piece of live rock in there as I was told this will greatly improve compatibility with what I want to do with this tank.

I have bought a 2kg bag of Red Sea Salt and I want to know how much of this I should mix into my tank.
Its 23litres.

The tank is in its cycle process right now so nothing is living in the tank (cept the rock if that counts)

 

[seffieuk]

to TFF and the salty side - how about telling us your plans and showing us some photos

Seffie x

my first suggestion is: get rid of the ocean rock and get all live rock - the tank is so small you need to have the best 'heart and lungs' (live rock) that you can

 

[ben1987]

agreed. all live rock is the way to go. You need something to measure the salt levels with. Then usually its around 35 grams per liter to go upto 1.026

btw...this tank will be too small to home clown fish long term!

 

[johnnycomposure]

agreed. all live rock is the way to go. You need something to measure the salt levels with. Then usually its around 35 grams per liter to go upto 1.026

btw...this tank will be too small to home clown fish long term!

Thought it might.
How do you think 2 domino damsels will cope with 2 cleaner shrimp?

I am open to ideas you may have?
The key importance of the entire setup is to have at least 2 cleaning shrimp.


I have worked out that I need to add aprox 760g of salt to a 23 litre tank?
This seems like a huge ammount, is it correct?

 

[bae1994]

if your piece of lr is in there and theres no salt in the water that piece of rock will now be dead.

however if you add salt then get more lr then it will be seaded pretty quick

 

[three-fingers]

The key importance of the entire setup is to have at least 2 cleaning shrimp.

I'm afraid you have asked Santa for the wrong tank then, you may be able to get away with 2-3 peppermint shrimp, and sexy shrimp would be ideal for this setup.

But unless your specifically looking for some uncommon small species of shrimp that is known to clean fish, that size of tank really isnt suitable for even one cleaner shrimp long-term IMO.

Dominos are also a big no-no, too small for even one. Ideally it would have been better for you to have read up on marine fish species before you got the tank, but all is not lost .

Here's what I would do:

Throw away the media in the filter and replace it with live rock rubble and some Rowaphos or Phosguard on top, you could also use a small amount of carbon and replace it every week or two.

Fill the main tank with as much live rock as you can with it still looking good to your eyes.

Then you should have a system capable of supporting some sexy shrimp and a small goby or maybe some hardy mushrooms/zoas (but take it slowly and test the water several time over the course of a few weeks/months before you try that).

760g of salt is roughly correct (35x23=805g, good enough), but don't add it to the tank, mix it in a bucket first. The rocks/sand will be displacing some water. Make sure you have something to measure the salinity with. A hydrometer will do for now, but you'll end up eventually getting a refractometer so you may as well invest now.

Before you add any livestock you are going to need to get the water tested too, for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and possibly phosphate depending on your aims. So you will probably want to buy some test kits, or at least make regular trips down to the lfs and pay them to est the water for you.

 

[johnnycomposure]

Woooah thats alot of info thank you.

I have had the live rock in salt water. so there should be no issue there.

I asked the assistant in the fish store and he said it would be possible to house only a few cleaner shrimp.



Only wanted the cleaner shrimp.. Thats the whole point of it being for marine..

I am happy with the tank as its to sit next to my screen on my desk.

I am just wondering now if it really is a no no for cleaner shrimp that I just use it for tropical afterall?

 

[AK77]

+1 to all live rock. In a tank that small, all the rock in there should be live. Remember your LR is your filtration system.

+1 to not housing clowns in this long term. This would be better suited as a nano tank, with soft corals and maybe a nice colourful shrimp ( Check out either sexy shrimp or Fireshrimp). Check out this thread. Its a 15L pico tank, so its even smaller than yours but, it shows how much you can do with it.

To measure the salt, either purchase a decent refractometer (around £30) and/or some electronic scales. I bought some excellent little electronic scales for £10 from ebay that are accurate to 0.1 grams and is what I use to mix my saltwater. As Ben says, 35g per litre gives you 1.026 SG. I use empty 5L mineral water containers from Asda's to store/measure the water but, you can use any container with a known volume, provided its clean and has contained no harmful chemicals etc. I wouldn't recommend using an empty bottle of Domestos for example lol.

Add the water to a large bucket or plastic container. For every 5L I put in I have to add 175g of salt (5x35g). Next, place a powerhead or pump into the bucket and allow it to mix for a good few hours. Adding an airstone is also a good idea to help drive out the CO2 and oxgenate the water. Now would also be a good time to add your heater too. Ideally, allow the water to mix for at least 24 hours before adding it to the tank. Get into the habit of doing a weekly water change on a given day. Start mixing your water on Friday evening or Saturday day time and perform your water change on the Sunday.

Having both scales and the refractometer removes the guess work from mixing saltwater. Like most people, I just used to use the refractometer and would estimate how much salt I needed in a cup, then add that to the water, wait half an hour for it to mix thoroughly, take a reading, add more salt / RO water, wait for it to mix, take a reading, ad infinitum. Now, I use the scales to weigh the salt out precisely and mainly use the refractometer to monitor the SG in the tank from time to time. Its also handy for testing the SG of water that comes with livestock from either the LFS or bought online, so the refractometer isn't totally redundant and I would still recommend getting one. For £10 though, the scales are the best investment I've made for my tank and have saved so much time and effort and would highly recommend them.

I'm assuming that you are new to marine fishkeeping, so just remember that when the water level goes in the tank down through evaporation, only top up with RO water and not more saltwater, as you'll increase the SG.