Hi , I have a 29 Biocube it was a tropical tank for several years and did very well. I have changed it to do saltwater .. started the process with LR and LS the end of May. I thought it had cycled and started to add fish http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/images/Tsmilies/duh.gif I have lost ( 1 of each) bi color blennie , clown , royal gramma, orange dartfish, green chromis, yellow wrasse,pj cardinal and emer.crab and coral band shrimp. Now I have 2 turbo snails - brown algae bloom and high ammonia ... At this point I will sit still and check test results and go Very slow with fish But do I add beginner`s corals before fish or after. This site has given me the most help in understanding saltwater tanks and fish. Thanks!
Patience is a virtue
- Thread starter msw
- Start date
First off WELCOME to RS! We're glad you're here with us.
Wow! I gotta say WOW! First of all that was WAYYYYYY to much bioload for any age 29G tank. That's more like the bio-load for a 55g Mature tank. You want to add slowly and once you have the tank stable shoot for 1" of Adult sized (not the baby size at the LFS) fish per 5g of ACTUAL (after you deduct for Rock, Sand, and manufacturer OVER labeling). As time goes by you can "Tweak" this formula slightly but for the first 6 - 12 months this is a VERY good and proven rule of thumb.
Coral need STELLAR water quality so you'll want to wait a while on that. Most people start out with a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) and once they get the hang of it for a while add a beginner coral.
take some time and look through this thread and study it VERY closely.
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...rs/33555-look-frequently-asked-questions.html
Good luck and Happy Reefing
Wow! I gotta say WOW! First of all that was WAYYYYYY to much bioload for any age 29G tank. That's more like the bio-load for a 55g Mature tank. You want to add slowly and once you have the tank stable shoot for 1" of Adult sized (not the baby size at the LFS) fish per 5g of ACTUAL (after you deduct for Rock, Sand, and manufacturer OVER labeling). As time goes by you can "Tweak" this formula slightly but for the first 6 - 12 months this is a VERY good and proven rule of thumb.
Coral need STELLAR water quality so you'll want to wait a while on that. Most people start out with a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) and once they get the hang of it for a while add a beginner coral.
take some time and look through this thread and study it VERY closely.
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...rs/33555-look-frequently-asked-questions.html
Good luck and Happy Reefing
:welcomera to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary, with lots of very nice members
redsea reefer
Well-Known Member
welcome to rs.....Listen to BigAl, he knows his stuff.
fivel
Member
Welcome aboard - sounds like you did pretty much exactly what I did when I first started in this hobby. Best advice I can give you is to plan everything out ahead of time and force yourself to go as slow as possible. Al's advice on fish per inch is right on, although once your tank is mature - you'll find ways of tweaking that, like he said.
I would let your tank sit there with everything running while it continues to cycle - which will eventually remove the ammonia and nitrites from the water. Once you see they have dropped to zero and then find measurable amounts of nitrate, start doing water changes to slowly bring that number down. Using only RO/DI or distilled water will definitely help you in the long run keep the best quality water for your tank as possible. Tap and well water has so much extra stuff in there that it will generally always cause something ugly to happen down the road.
Back to the planning though... On the high end of the scale, you are looking at about 6" worth of fish while your tank matures. That is really going to limit you on the type of fish you can get as some can easily hit 8-12" for one fish. Figure out what kind of fish you like and research all of them. I have several books I look in as well as compare the "quick facts" on Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums to see the temperament and size of any fish I'm interested in. Add the fish to the tank in the order of least aggressive to most aggressive. By putting the most aggressive into the tank last, he'll be less likely to bully the other fish because he's technically "on their turf" in their eyes. However, I would try to stick with more peaceful fish in a 29g just to avoid the hassle of bullying and unneeded stress.
I'll stop there before this turns into a book, but definitely wanted to welcome you to the forums. Ask anything you can think of - we're always here to help
I would let your tank sit there with everything running while it continues to cycle - which will eventually remove the ammonia and nitrites from the water. Once you see they have dropped to zero and then find measurable amounts of nitrate, start doing water changes to slowly bring that number down. Using only RO/DI or distilled water will definitely help you in the long run keep the best quality water for your tank as possible. Tap and well water has so much extra stuff in there that it will generally always cause something ugly to happen down the road.
Back to the planning though... On the high end of the scale, you are looking at about 6" worth of fish while your tank matures. That is really going to limit you on the type of fish you can get as some can easily hit 8-12" for one fish. Figure out what kind of fish you like and research all of them. I have several books I look in as well as compare the "quick facts" on Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums to see the temperament and size of any fish I'm interested in. Add the fish to the tank in the order of least aggressive to most aggressive. By putting the most aggressive into the tank last, he'll be less likely to bully the other fish because he's technically "on their turf" in their eyes. However, I would try to stick with more peaceful fish in a 29g just to avoid the hassle of bullying and unneeded stress.
I'll stop there before this turns into a book, but definitely wanted to welcome you to the forums. Ask anything you can think of - we're always here to help
Thanks all good advice. I did not know if I needed to do a water change of some sort now or not -- thanks, five- for the info on that issue. I have read to use distilled water so I went out and got some but the cooking it . Do you add the salt to the distilled water and leave it in a bucket for a week ?
I have 30lbs. of live rock 10lbs. live sand with 16lbs. of seaflor substrate. The brown algae is going away .
Now to the fish and sizes -- I really loved my blennie - he had personalty plus. The orange dartfish and the royal gramma were cool too. So I guess my question is : dont add any fish now or change water until the test result are zero - right? I was taking a water sample to the LFS every weekend for a test and they always came out saying it was fine. After the unfortunate demise of everything that could move ( except for the turbos ) I went out and got a test set - Red Sea. I will test levels again tonite. For now turbos are kind of interesting to watch !
all good advice. I did not know if I needed to do a water change of some sort now or not -- thanks, five- for the info on that issue. I have read to use distilled water so I went out and got some but the cooking it . Do you add the salt to the distilled water and leave it in a bucket for a week ? I have 30lbs. of live rock 10lbs. live sand with 16lbs. of seaflor substrate. The brown algae is going away .
Now to the fish and sizes -- I really loved my blennie - he had personalty plus. The orange dartfish and the royal gramma were cool too. So I guess my question is : dont add any fish now or change water until the test result are zero - right? I was taking a water sample to the LFS every weekend for a test and they always came out saying it was fine. After the unfortunate demise of everything that could move ( except for the turbos ) I went out and got a test set - Red Sea. I will test levels again tonite. For now turbos are kind of interesting to watch !
fishmama67
Member
You didn't know about the "have patience" thing either huh? I know somewhat how you feel. I jumped in and believed everything the LFS said. Good Golly Don't do that! Then I found salvation in the RS! So good luck, put 'er in "putter" speed and you will be fine!