Water cloudiness and other starting questions.

[jimmock42]

Hi, first post here but I have been reading this forum for the last couple months. Just saved up enough money to start my first salt water tank, and I just have a few questions that I could not find throughout other posts.
(Tank- 30 gal Hex)

1) LFS suggested CaribSea Fiji Pink Agragonite for my substrate, So I bought a bag, along with salt, power filter, heater, lights, test kit, ect... First question, hopefully this does not sound stupid but here goes....
a)I mixed the salt, and washed the sand according to the the bag's directions, and the water is cloudy and I can see fine white particles settling on my heater... Is this normal, and should the filter be running as my tank is settling?
b) Question about LR, I know this was probably asked 1000 times on this board but anyway heres my question, I can get my hands on alot of nice and also cheap BR, so could I get away with adding like 10 pounds of LR and 20 pounds of BR? I have also read on here about adding something like a couple cocktail shrimp to promote the cycle. So my question is would it be a good idea to combine the two, live rock and shrimp, or just is it best to add either one or the other, not both?
Thank for your help in advance,

JM

[steri]

Question 1) Personally, I did not run the filters during settling, but I did run my powerheads just for constant water flow. I just didn't want sand particles clogging up my filters and getting into my impellers, but that's just me. Settling is very very normal. It took my tank about 3-4 days to really settle. Since you washed your sand first, I would imagine it will take your tank about 1-2 days to settle.

Question 2) LR vs. BR. If you got 10 pds of LR and the rest in BR, you would be fine. the 10 pds of LR will eventually seed the BR and the BR will become LR (well as much as it can any way) over a period of a few months.

Since you are putting a majority of BR in the tank, starting the cycle with a half peice of cocktail shrimp or something like that would be a good idea, IMO, but you could also use flake food or something like that if you wanted.

BTW, all of these questions are perfectly fine and normal to ask. Better to ask and get some helpful advice, then not ask and just hope for the best

Sounds to me like you got the start of a good ol' salt water tank!

[jimmock42]

Thank you for the quick reply, if I were to add a small piece of shrimp, do I just let that decay completely and let it run its course? If so for about how long?

Thanks again!!!

[kiknchikn]

Yes, you just let it completely decay and disappear with time. You should test your water for ammonia and nitrite once a day or every other day so that you can see a noticeable ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike. Once those are done and ammonia and nitrite are zero your cycle is done and you can start working on lowering your nitrates and phosphates before you add critters.

[jimmock42]

Is it ok to add LR and BR during the settling process???

[steri]

I can't say for certain. I used uncured LR to cycle my tank, but if I recall correctly from what my friends have told me and what RC has said, you put a half peice of shrimp in there, and let it decay completely. Someone else may have more specific advice for you though.

The bacteria will build up around it and consume it slowly. It will force your levels to spike (Ammo, Trates, Trites) but as the bacteria reproduces the numbers will come down.

Since you are using some LR, you could also use fish food flakes if you want. Really, all of these methods work and serve the same purpose. Something decays in the tank and there needs to be a massive sworm of bacteria to level off the situation.

[steri]

You can add teh LR and BR now. You may just need to dust them off in a day or so. I say get the rock in there as soon as possible. The sooner it's in there, the sooner the bacteria starts to reproduce and your cycle can get going. That's just my opinion though.

[kiknchikn]

I'd add the rock now and just squirt the sand that settles on it out with a powerhead or a turkey baster. Like steri said the sooner you get the rock in there the sooner it'll be covered with good bacteria.

[jimmock42]

Thank you for all the great help, I'll get the rock in tonight, I'm sure I'll have other questions in the next couple of day/weeks. Thanks again steri and kiknchikn

[steri]

No problem. Have fun. This site and this hobby get addicting fast

[beelzebob]

stupid people DON'T ask questions.

i've learned to be smarter

[kiknchikn]

Originally posted by beelzebob
stupid people DON'T ask questions.

i've learned to be smarter

I couldn't agree more. It's only fair to the critters we're keeping to know what we're doing ahead of time so we don't accidentally harm them out of ignorance. Besides, this hobby is too expensive to screw things up too often

[Scooter12ga]

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is don't expect your water to be super crystal clear at first like the tanks you may see at the LFS. The way it was explained to me is that there is quite a bit of undissolved solids from the salt mix in suspension. The water may look slightly hazy for a week or so until the tank becomes 'alive' and those bacteria populations explode. (perhaps the added CO2 or a PH shift from the 'animals' completes the dissolution of those solids?)

For me it suddenly changed almost overnight. One day the water was hazy, the next day or maybe two days later crystal!

[N8ster]

I would definitely recommend getting some high quality LR, especially if 2/3 of your rock is base rock. All of the LR I have seen at the LFS where I live have almost no life on them. The live rock I ordered had tons of different stuff on it--I see new things all the time, and the rock has been in my tank for about 3 months now.

I think that Premium Aquatics will let you order as little as you like (10 pounds, for example) although you would have the shipping. To me it is worth it, though, to have the biodiversity.

[kiknchikn]

Originally posted by N8ster
I would definitely recommend getting some high quality LR, especially if 2/3 of your rock is base rock. All of the LR I have seen at the LFS where I live have almost no life on them. The live rock I ordered had tons of different stuff on it--I see new things all the time, and the rock has been in my tank for about 3 months now.

I think that Premium Aquatics will let you order as little as you like (10 pounds, for example) although you would have the shipping. To me it is worth it, though, to have the biodiversity.

That's a good point. You don't have to spend a fortune on good live rock though. If you want to save some money wait until someone with an established tank breaks it down or downsizes to a smaller tank and sells some of their live rock off. Or, you borrow live rock from an established tank for a couple months to seed your tank and then give it back. Check out your local reef club, as they are generally pretty giving and helpful to new reefers.

[jimmock42]

I got the rock in and also added a small piece of shrimp...

I was going to get a few pounds of LR off of Premiumaquatics, but its going to cost me $30 to ship a $45 order. That is for Air shipping, $75 for an extra 5-6 lbs of live rock doesn't seem reasonable.

Another question I've already bought a test kit, but I spoke with my parents and have a small pond in their back yard and they have an extra box of pond testing kit. I know this kit is for freshwater, but could I use it on my saltwater. Its a liquid test kit for pH, ammonia, and nitrite or are these tests different?

Thanks!!

[kiknchikn]

I'm not a chemistry expert but I'd say no, they probably won't work the same for salt water because their chemical makeups are different. I think it may depend on the brand of the kit though and specific tests may work for both while others don't.

You might want to check the chemistry forum and get an expert's opinion.

[jimmock42]

Most of the cloudiness is gone, but there is a salty lines on the inside of the glass where I filled the tank gallons at a time, what is the best way to remove these lines, or will they go away on their own?

Thanks

[kiknchikn]

They should go away on their own I would think, if not just wipe them off with a paper towel or a mag scraper.