Another Newbi!

[My94TA]

Hello everyone, my name is Bryan. I am currently in college at GC&SU. I have had fish for a long time. I normally only have cichlids in my 55g tank, and community fish (for my girlfriend) in my 10g tanks. I have had a saltwater setup in my 55g tank before but I was doing something worng bc I could never keep it just right. I believe that it was bc I never "flushed" the water. Also I leared trigger fish are not good with invertebrates . I just purchased a 29g tank that I am wanting to start with saltwater. I have a post in the salt section if anyone wants to chime in and give me advice to quickly start it up. As soon as I get it setup I will get some pictures of it.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Bryan, welcome.

Fill the tank with salt water, beach sand and some rock. Leave it for a few days and put a couple of small fish in it. Feed them once a week and add some Sera Nitrivec every day for the first week or so.

 

[My94TA]

Can I put actual sand and drift wood from right off the beach, or would that have contaminants in it?

 

[My94TA]

Would mine be considered FO if I only put a few pounds of live rock in it?

 

[Colin_T]

if the beach is clean and free of chemical contaminants, oil, etc, then the water, sand & rock should be fine to use. I get my water from a popular swimming beach. If the water looks clean and there are fish swimming around it is usually fine.
My opinion is if there is any rock in the tank then it is a fish and rock tank. If there is no rock at all in the tank then it is a fish only tank. However, other people think that a fish and live rock tank should have a fair bit of rock in it, not just one or two pieces.

 

[jourdy288]

Welcome! I actually had SW for about a week, but:

A. It was a plastic bottle of 1 gallon

B. I was in the Carribbean.

Here's how it went:

I went to the beach, filled my bottle with seawater, collected rocks from underwater, added them, and carried the bottle home painfully. I got to see polychaetes, copepods, etc. Really cool.

 

[Colin_T]

Hey jourdy288
why only a week?

I know the feeling of lugging water around. I used to cycle to the beach and carry 2litre glass bottle of seawater back. Geeze that was monotonous. Thank god for plastic containers.

 

[My94TA]

The beach I can get it from is clean, not too many people around there. I did collect enough crushed shell for my 10g tank and it worked fine, I just wasnt sure if the sand would be ok. Thanks.