Salt Water Start Up

[mattbeau]

Well after some success with planted, community, betta, and Krib tank, I've taken the plung into saltwater.

I have already made a few mistakes

30 gallon
1 inch of crushed coral to bring my ph up to 8.0
15 lbs of live rock (getting the rest on the first)
realized the heater was a non submersable one, cooked the liverock and anything on it
let it die off and let the system run for a month fish free,
H.O.T.T. Magnum filter 250 GPH
Protein skimmer
50/50 atnic lighting (forget the wattage) non-Power compact
currently 1 little yellow tail damsel

sg 1.021
ph 8.0
nitrate 10 (possibly from seeweed food stuff you clip on, should be lower I think

started off with the yellow tail and (my bad) domino damasel for a month
I donated the domino to a LFS as much as I miss him.

replaced with a fox face. for what eveR reason he took a liking to getting stuck to the intake of the filter and died. a 25 dollar death. will one of those little green damsels get along with my little yellow tail. The yellow tail has to stay as its my GF's and she's named it.

I know damsels can get agressive but with just 2 of them with 30 gallons to them selves, any reason to worry. should I just stop at those two or is there room for a pair of perc clowns later on.

will be adding inverts later on down the road once the diatome turns to algae and things settle a bit

Im afraid to add anything pricy as this is a fresh tank two months old and cant afford 'dumb' fish deaths

 

[crazyelece]

Your yellow tail should be fine, they are the least aggressive. I would not add anything until you get the live rock amount up. Also remember for a 30 gallon you are only going to be able to house around 6" of adult length fish. A foxface can get larger than that by itself so it wasn't a good choice from the go. Check around on www.liveaquaria.com at the smaller fish or fish for nano tanks to get some ideas.

 

[steelhealr]

Matt...I think you are tripping yourself up here with a lot of errors. I'll move this to the nano section and let some people hone in. SH

 

[Die_Grinder]

WOW you did the same thing as me, ballsed up your first nano lol, sorry to see i aint alone out here.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=132740

ahh well it will all aork out in the end.

you cook, i dip

 

[steelhealr]

Some thoughts:

-ditch the crushed coral and change over to aragonite sand
-you need at least 40-45 lbs of live rock in that tank or you wont' have enough filtration
-I'd get rid of the HOT Magnum filter and stick with PH's and LR; if you want to keep it, make sure you have no sponges, ceramics, bioballs in there
-nitrate of 10 is not that bad
-I agree with protein skimming a 30
-you're picking WRONG fish for your tank.

SH

 

[mattbeau]

odd, I thought I had already replied.

-ditch the crushed coral and change over to aragonite sand-
//what is aragonite sand, will it raise my PH, whats so great about aragonite

-I'd get rid of the HOT Magnum filter and stick with PH's and LR; if you want to keep it, make sure you have no sponges, ceramics, bioballs in there-
//I have no sponges ceramics or bioballs, Im using activated carbon, by marine land

-you're picking WRONG fish for your tank.
//I now have 1 yellow tail and 1 percula, and one chocolate chip starfish (wish I read about the CSS before getting him)


sorry fro the really slow reply,

thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

CaribSea Aragonite sand is used because anything that is aragonite based has lots of pH buffers in it. It will try and hold your pH around 8-8.2 which is where you want it with a marine setup. If you use a non-aragonite substrate, you dont get the buffer your pH will fluctuate too far out of range with light cycles. Fluctuating pH caueses unneccsary stress and can lead to secondary problems with fish.

 

[Aquascaper]

I can't belive you have actually added all these things and haven't actually cycled your tank first

The Foxface needs to go as its too big for a 30g as is the Starfish, which is heading for a slow death due to lack of substrate area and food supply