FishChannel Forums / Saltwater Forums / A Place for Beginners

Two dead fish

idahosalty — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:14:48 GMT

My first post on here looking forward to many long discussions and help. I have been undertaking a new tank my first saltwater a 75 gallon and its going great. But last week I purchased 3 blue-green chromis for the tank. All looked healthy and were doing great in the tank. Left for the g/f house for the night came back and two of the three were floating upside down, still alive but gilling and looking bad. I put them in a separate container to see if they would not come back, to no success. I noticed they both had what looked like a burn or something on their backs. I do have a Condylactis Anemone and have read about how they may sting and kill fish, but all the others have done fine in the tank. Has any one ever experienced this problem with these anemones, the anemone is really neat but the fish are much more important to me. Thanks.

Live Corals

Delvor — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:52:48 GMT

What kind of Live Corals does everybody have in there tank, and what's a good recomendation on types of corals that are fish safe and easily kept.

Feeding herbavores

Delvor — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:46:42 GMT

Hey all,
Recently i picked up a chocolate chip starfish, a scooter blenny, and a shrimp of which i cant remember the name. I was wondering what to feed them and how to go about feeding them, the blenny im sure you can just give some sort of plant food that sinks, but the starfish and shrimp im not so sure about, any tips and advice would be great! Thanks!

Tank location

Pam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:58:16 GMT

I want to move my tank in to a room I am setting up as my office for reflexology and massage. Is it ok to burn oils in the same room with the tank? I really want it in there for its soothing look as it will add to my customers relaxation and they will love it. However I do burn oils and candles too. Sure hoping this will work.

STARTER FISH

saltwater guy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:24:04 GMT

im starting a new aquarium

new tank

saltwater guy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:05:14 GMT

im setting up a 12 g with 2 clowns ,royal gramma, and a neon goby. i havent bought evry thing yet so i could use some advice.its a nano cube
ino its harder fot a smaller tank but i didnt have enough $ to get a bigger tank.

thanks

tank setup

saltwater guy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:11:22 GMT

im setting up a 12 g with 2 clowns ,royal gramma, and a neon goby. i havent bought evry thing yet so i could use some advice.its a nano cube

thanks(':D');
:D

Critters on my live rock!

jadedfalcon — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:53:27 GMT

I've been keeping freshwater fish for quite a while and finally am getting a saltwater tank. I've done lots of reading and research, but I can't find anything on these little critters. I have no fish in my tank yet. Just live sand and live rock. (and some base rock that isn't live yet!) On my live rock is about 20-40 little critters! (hard to count) They're VERY small, maybe an 8th in. They are clear/white. They crawl around pretty quick but i haven't seen them swim. They have some kind of arms they use to push each other around. Any idea what they are? Will they be a problem?

I just started a 55g saltwater tank

cope05 — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:32:07 GMT

Hi I am new at the hobby been doing this for about months. I started with a 10g (to many problems) then started a 20g and then finally my 55g got here and I have started it up its been running for about 2 weeks. I have used my live sand and live rock from the 20g and the filter. By using the existing sand and rock and filter media will this speed up the process of cycling. I have test my water everyday and all is good. I do have 3 crabs and 2 snails from the old tank also and they have been doing fine. When can I add a few hardy fish??. I am not interested in corals, not yet, but when can I add a chromis or clown fish??? any advise would be greatly appreciated have a cprbakpak 2r on order and have started putting together my sump. Can I add more sand over the existing sand???

THank you

Freswater question for saltwater experts!

felixpaws — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:04:03 GMT

Hey! I have a question regarding the dried seaweed used to feed Tangs, and the like. Does it fall apart very quickly in water? I bought some sushi nori(which is basically, the dried seaweed used in the making of sushi, and comes in sheets, just like at the pet store), and I bought vegetable clips to put in my freshwater tanks, to feed my herbivorous/omnivorous fish, and it fell apart within a few minutes! I was wondering if the $7.98 kind at the pet store does the same thing. If so, I'll stick with the $1.98 package at the local grocery store. Thanks!

New reefer light question.

SeanS — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:41:17 GMT

Okay I know there are a million questions about this everywhere, but I want to ask mine. I am setting up a new tank from scratch.

I have a 30 gallon finnex M tank. 24" across x 18" deep (not sure about the width with the dividers). I plan on having a shallow sand bed, probably 2" at most. Its more for asthetics.

I have a Outer Orbit 250w MQI lighting setup. There is also 4 T5's with this setup and the most awesomest blue and white lunar lights. Total wattage is 355. I got this from a friend of a friend for a good price (cheaper than a good PC setup).

I plan on keeping SPS in this tank at some point in the future, which is another reason I wanted the 250w HQI.

What are your thoughts on using this light for soft corals and zoa's to begin with? From what I have read it is way to powerful, so I am probably going to be using some diffuser to cut back the MH output and putting some distance between it and the tank. Will this work good for SPS in the future?

Any other suggestions for using this setup with the softies and zoa's?

home breeding live copepods

lilsaltyfresh — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:01:38 GMT

me and my brother have set up a large, spaced breeder tank, and have bought a bottle of 100 live copepods. i was just wondering if any1 has any suggestions or advice on breeding them...

thnx.

Setting up a Saltwater Tank?

FastFoward5k — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:26:45 GMT

I'm new to saltwater tanks and I was wondering how long and what order to put in my fish. Here is a list of aquatic life I am putting in:

Invetabrates: Carribean Live Sand, Fiji Live Rock, Banded Coral Shrimp

Fish: Ocelarris Clownfish (2), Chalk Basslet, Pajama Cardinalfish

I wanted to know what I should put in first, second, third, etc. and how long to space it out. Also, how long should I have the tank running before I put anything in? :D

New to Saltwater

FastFoward5k — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 06:03:05 GMT

I was looking at my local fish store, and I became interested in researching and maybe later getting a saltwater tank. I have had some experience in freshwater, but this would be my first time even like touching a saltwater tank.) I found a 30-gallon, cube-shaped tank that was very nice looking (and not too expensive). I would like set up a reef, and also put in fish and invertabrates. The invertabrates I would like would be a Coral Banded Shrimp, some Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, and a Chocolate Chip starfish. Some fish I would really like to put in are: a Spotted Sweetlips, 3 Pajama Cardinalfish, a Longnosed Hawkfish, 3 Candy-Striped Cardinalfish, a Blue-Streaked Goby, and a Sailfin Tang. I would like to know if this is a good idea, if you have any suggestions for fish I should add or take out, if I should not do a reef, etc. But please reply! :D

Starting a saltwater

scottneth06 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:53:35 GMT

I already have a 55gal freshwater tank and I have always been interested in saltwater. I just wondered if a 20 or 30 gallon tank would be large enough for salt water.

Mail Order Brides

HuntValley — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:38:34 GMT

Has anyone purchased any "livestock" over the internet? Its very tempting with the prices. I would really only want to purchase one of the "cleanup" crew packages that are typically sold. (different types of crabs and snails). Has anyone had success/failure?

Also, just to clarify (and this is the fresh water side of me coming out) I dont need any mechanical filtration in my tank? (again, have a 72gallon with about 30 lbs lives rock, just added 50lbs dry rock, 50 lbs substrate, which is slowly being turned over to new sand, two strong powerheads for movement and a Seaclone 100 protein skimmer). No power filter that hangs off the back is needed? or canister filter? Just want to be sure. The fish crap has to go some where. Guessing natures way is best - let the critters handle it?:D

Banded Cleaner Shrimp

FastFoward5k — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:31:19 GMT

Hi. I'm kind of new to aquariums, and I would like just to purchase a small tank, some easy coral, and a Banded Cleaner shrimp. I would just like to know what to feed it, if I should use live sand, if I should ever do a 100% tank change, and other stuff like that. (I will do other research but I can't find anything so far.) ;)

Coralimorphs

stewwey — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:05:26 GMT

Ok, so I got these things growing in the shadows. Pretty reclusive during "light" times and very active and extended at dark times. If I had a pic I would show u, but can't seem to snap a good one due to crappy night vision lens. Did my research, and found out they are some kind of Coralimorph. I did some more research and found a pic that resembles a Caribbean type exactly. The thing is, a stalk is growing from a single point, that's different from a mat-like clump and is mobile(moved to different overhang last night). Both species have the same tentacles with the white bulb at the end but this single stalk anemone looks a little more robust and evil to it's cousin. It is not Aiptasia and not a Sebae anemone but does show rainbow colors at its base column. Should I be alarmed? The Live rock that I bought is from Fiji and fully cured(as far as I know). Tank is 1.5 years running and this Coralimorph just now pops up? Why is it so late to the party?

Anyhoo...

Chad

Tanksize question

Lennartik — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:24:56 GMT

I have a cabinet that has a space that seems perfect for a built-in aquarium. The size would be 36"w x 24"h x 7"d. Is the 7" dimension too narrow for the this?

Thanks,
Lennart

Are sharks good?

Shark Hunter — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:50:41 GMT

I 've been intrested in sharks for a long time, is there a species that can be kept in an aquarium? If there is, how can I keep it?

Nanos

Crush — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:58:17 GMT

Ok I wanna start a salt water community im going to get a 12gallon Nano tank. And im wondering what kind of Salt,lights. all that stuff. i wanna grow coral in the tank and have like 2 clown fish. So if you could post what i need for the tank i will very tankful (hehe) for your time it

What are these tentacle-y things?

TurtleLover — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:09:46 GMT

I'm playing with my new camera and I want to know what these inhabitants on my new live rock are?

Need some HELP!!

wildfire44231 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:00:06 GMT

Here is my problem .....

I have been trying for sometime now (about 3 years in total ) to get a well established and beautiful reef tank up and running. But I always keep running into the same problems. I cannot seem to stop algea from growing EVERYWHERE!! I can never seem to get any coralline algea to grow and the algea that I have is kind of like green hair algea but ti grows on everything including my soft corals inturn killing them. I currently have a 90 gallon reef tank set up with a few fish in it and a mud sump refugium. I also have a canister filter, a marine land Penguin cartridge filter and an aquamedic turbo-floater skimmer that is pulling great Skimate out of the tank. My lighting consists of a hood with two metal halide 10,000k, 4 compact flor. acatinc bulbs and 6 blue moon LED bulbs. I have tried everything from cutting down on the lighting to only 4-6 hours a day, stopping my addition of trace minerals (Calcium, Molybendium,Strotinum, ECT.) Altering my feeding to every 2 days and no matter what I do this crap overwhelms my tank and makes it look horrible. There is also this REALLY hard to scrape off green algea that grows on the glass as well. Even with my chemistries being good (numbers posted below) I cannot get corals to thrive and pretty much everything that I put in there in the way of Corals dies in a little while. I do consistent 20% water changes with either RO/DI water or boxed sea water from petco and I still get the same problems. I am at the end of my rope!!.... I also have two power heads to keep water flow up and still no luck. I have tried snail and everytime I put them in my tank they die and then I have to go fishing for them as well. I have about 60 lbs of natural live rock in there and about 10-15 lbs of aquacultured rock in there as well. Please help me because I am out of ideas here and there are good salt stores here in wyoming to help me. I am used to being able to ask these kinds of questions at my local shop as I moved here from Louisiana. (great shops there)

Here is a list of my live stock in the tank:

2 small clowns, 2 small seudochromis, 2 turbosnails (everytime I put some in there they all die), 1 snowflake moray eel (which is pretty small about 4 inches long).

Current water chemistries:

Ammonia (NH3-4) 0.004

Nitrite (NO2) 0.048

Nitrate (NO3) 2.5

Phosphate (PO4) 0.22

Silica (SiO2-3) 0.3

Potassium (K) 302

Calcium (Ca) 381

Boron (B) 3.4

Molybdenum (Mo) 0.1

Strontium (Sr) 9.9

Magnesium (Mg) 1268

Iodine (I-) 0.03

Copper (Cu++) 0.01

Alkalinity (meq/L) 3.01

Thanks ahead for the help !!!

nano cube?

blue74 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:01:44 GMT

would a 6 gallon nano be good to start off with?I would just like to get my feet wet in the saltwater world.:D

Where to start

guppygirl1990 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:02:53 GMT

Ok I think I'm ready to start with saltwater but I have no idea were to start.How small a tank can a saltwater be?Would ten gallons be big enough?What are some good fish to start with?Weres a good place to get all the stuff I?What all do I need?Ok I think thats it but I'm sure i'll of more.:D

New Additions

O'Leary — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:57:09 GMT

What would be a good additon to my tank? I like the Maroon Clownfish, Hippo Tang, and all Blennies and Gobies. Also, what would be the lighting requirements for corals?

Newbie looking into saltwater

scoluvsmo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:20:44 GMT

Hello to all. I am new to this site and I am so glad I found it. I currently have a 46g freshwater tank. I just started my hobbie in june of 07 and am in love with it. I have learned so much and this stuff is far more intailed than I thought. Now my question is I am thinking about taking on the task of a saltwater tank. I have no idea what I am doing and want to do my reasearch before I take the chance. Where is a good place to go to understand saltwater set up, sumps and evrything I need to know to have a succeful tank ? Also I hear that saltwater tanks can be very difficult and expensive to keep and require daily attention and water changes ? Is there any truth to this ? Any and all help would be grateful. Dont be afraid to tell me I am crazy for going saltwater . lol Thanks in advance.

Pinned Topics

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damsles?

MoorishIdol — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:07:42 GMT

my friend told me that i should start my salt water tank with damsels, because they are cheap and hardy. what do you think

Brackish Water Information Needed

rocknrob — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:59:25 GMT

Hello Forum Members,

I need some help in starting a brackish water tank. I know that brackish water is somewhere between freshwater and saltwater. I recently won a 16 gallon tank in a contest and I'm very interested in trying my hand at the saltwater way of life.

Perhaps I'm foolish in my reasoning for trying brackish/saltwater, as I think that a brackish water set-up will be a good stepping stone to a full blown saltwater set-up some day. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I think it will be a great learning experience for me to try none the less.

I plan on purchasing 2 Green Spotted Puffers from the local Wal-Mart store. I know I will be taking a chance purchasing these fish this way, as Wal-Mart fish keepers are usually less than experienced at fish keeping (no disrespect meant to any Wal-Mart employees who happen to actually work at Wal-Mart... I'm just basing my opinion on personal experience in the past. I wasn't very impressed with past purchases.) That being said, I still plan on purchasing 2 Puffers for this tank. I figured that I'll be saving at least 2 Puffers from a direct life right into someone's toilet.

I know that puffers need room, so eventually the pair will have to be moved to a larger tank. I'm also aware that Wal-Mart sells their Puffers as freshwater fish. I know that unless these fish are graduated to brackish water simulated tanks, that their life expectancy is greatly reduced. Hence forth the need of the information I'm looking for.

I have been online looking for any and all information on raising Green Spotted Puffers, but the information is generally too vague and confusing. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

I plan on asking an awful lot of questions on this subject before actually purchasing these fish. I don't want to go into this endeavor only half prepared. I'm not that kind of person. Fish are people too ya know.

Thanks in advance for any advice and information given on this topic. I hope that this topic is informative to more than just me.

Thanks
rocknrob
:)

Lighting for a 110h reef

lakec3 — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:47:12 GMT

I have been doing alot of research on properly keeping a reef tank and lighting is my main hang up. I already have a new 110 high and want to know if i can put a lighting system on it that would allow me to place light demanding corals anywhere i want or am i going to be limited to the top half of the tank? I think the new solaris or galileo led lights might but their out of my price range. T5 lights will not penetrate the depth will they? What aboutpower compacts and metal halides? Going to keep very easy corals for a long time but depending on future success or failure would like to not be limited. Maybe just forget the tank, hate to cause its already here and would like to utilize it.Thanks for the time and hope i was not to windy!

going from fresh to salt water

racefan28 — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:27:49 GMT

Ok here it is a question most of you have heard a thousand times i am sure. I am moving in the next couple of weeks and when I set up my 75g tank I am thing of switching over to salt water. My question is what would suggestions be for set-ups? I have a 75g tank and just standard lighting two 48" fluorescents and a Eheim 2215 canister and a inline heater. I also have a 25g tank and was wondering if there was a way for me to use this as a sump even though my 75g is not drilled? My plans for this tank are live rock 75lbs or more as well as fish. The ones the interest me at this time are clownfish as well as puffers and trigger fish not to sure whether this is a good combination or not.

New Setup - Fish Recommendations to Cycle

jayedwood — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:11:05 GMT

I've got a Marineland 29 gallon Saltwater kit set up. All water levels and temp are fine. Would a pair of clownfish make a good starting fish to get the cycle going? My plan was to eventually stock 2 clownfish, a cardinal or two and a few yellow tail damsels. Eventually I'd like to add some live rock, some cleaner shrimp and a chocolate chip star.

I'd really like to start with the Clownfish but am not sure if the damsels would be a better choice to start.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

Jim

Odd appearances in my tank

TurtleLover — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:52:37 GMT

Ok, the joys of saltwater and finding things that come with live rock (I'm assuming this is where they came from). I did a PWC earlier today and didn't really notice anything weird. Tonight I looked at my tank and on the walls (mainly the front of the tank) there are a million little white specks that are alive and moving around in little jerking motions! They are super tiny. Then there are larger whitish/orangish/yellowish dots with what looks like sticky hairs coming out of them that they use to cling to the walls of the tank. The latter appear in loosely formed groups and the super tinies are just all over. Any ideas? Thanks.

red sea max aquarium

danvan — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:41:54 GMT

hi i have been keeping fresh water fish for about 25 years on and off i was in my lfs and they had redsea max aquariums 34 gal reef ready tank kits has anyone used these?? are they any good i am thinking that it would ce a straight forward way of starting out with salt water.

any feed back you can give would be great

tks

dan

I got a tank!

TurtleLover — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:50:44 GMT

apparently my obsessive research and longing looks at the sw tanks at the lfs haven't escaped my boyfriends attention. I wasn't quite ready, but here we go.

The love of my life just got home from work, with an extra/late Valentines present. He went to PetCo after work and got me a 12 gallon Eclipse Instant Ocean aquarium kit. I want to make this as beautiful as possible, his heart was in the right place. I know you all recommend starting big, but I want to work with what I have since he picked it out. He also brought home some live sand (it's packed in water, sold at PetCo) and went to the other lfs to get 6lbs of live rock. I set it up with the sand and rock. He also got the boxed ocean water and an API saltwater master test kit and purpleup. The salinity was a bit high in the ocean water so I mixed in some fresh.

What will be my options as far an inhabitants at this point. Later on we want to upgrade to an 80 gallon bowfront he saw (just couldn't afford right now). For now we will be trying our best with this one. Here's the link to what I now own:

http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?familyid=13544&Ntt=instant%20ocean%20aquarium%20kit&OneResultRedirect=1

What were those little worms?

TurtleLover — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:35:52 GMT

I was looking at the tank of live rock for sale at my lfs when my bfriend spotted a couple critters in them. They looked like tiny little worms, longest was a little over an inch that we saw, very very skinny, first 1/4" was a bright orange and the rest of the body was brown and it looked kinda fuzzy. What the heck was it?

I'm starting to get obsessed with research and ogling the sw tanks at the lfs, can you tell?

Feather Dusters

TurtleLover — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:08:24 GMT

What can you all tell me about feather dusters? I'm continuing research into a saltwater tank and I really like the idea of a feather duster or two in the tank. Are they easy to keep? How do you put them into a tank? Do they burrow by themselves or do they need something special to anchor to? Any info would be great!

Octopus Reef BH-100

HuntValley — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:14:26 GMT

Hooked it up, and it continuously "belches" out large bubble from the return. I have re started it about 3 times and adjusted the collection cup. THere is no way of adjusting the intake (king 225pump). Any suggestions?

Blue Legged Hermit

HuntValley — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:57:41 GMT

I have one blue leg hermit (has bright blue and black stripped legs) and I just bought 12 margarita snails to start my cleaning crew. The hermit has been in there by himself for a while (there is one random turbo snail too that has been there for a while). There are empty shells all throughout the tank for him to "upgrade" to.

Problem is he is attacking the new snails. These snails all have shells smaller then him. I read online that hermits will only attack the snails when they want a new shell. Is this false? Do hermits go after snails? If that is true, why are they sold together in "cleaning crews"?

Thanks