new tank need help

[reefhobby]

Get a good test kit and start slow. I keep telling myself this too... LOL

[reefhobby]

Oh yea
Welcome to the hobby
You will get out more than you put in. Caring for the fantastic underwater world and Gods creatures...

[onyong4u]

Stabilize your salinity and temp, leave the dead damsels to help the tank cycle by itself and do not add anything until you get zero ammo and nitrate. Will save you tons of money.

[sushibug]

Ammonia will spike then subside, then the same happens with nitrites and finally nitrates. You don't want to put any fish or inverts (snails, crabs, etc) in until after your nitrates go down. Cycling with a fish, even a cheap one, is cruel and old fashioned. You can get the same results w/ a frozen shrimp from a grocery store.

[Radman]

Go do some research on the internet... There are plenty of sites that tell you how to set up a SW aquarium. Read about intial cycling of your Salt Water tank. There are also Utube videos. (goggle "set up Saltwater aquarium") Since it appears you bought the tank new, did you ask the place you bought it from for suggestions? Any LFS (local fish store) should have steered you into at minimum a ph, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, test kit.

tank its 28 and the other end 34 any ideas?

Salinity doesn't change like that in a liquid. It will be the same thru-out the body of water in your tank. Make sure you are testing properly. No bubbles on your Hydrometer (I'd suggest a refractomer) (look it up on the net) They can be had for under $30 on Ebay.

Here are Parameter ranges. Worry about the Top four when you first start out and then the rest when you decide on a reef.
pH 8.0 -8.4
Ammonia ~= 0
Nitrites ~= 0
Nitrates < 20
Alk 7- 11 dKh or 2.5 to 4.0 meq/L.
CA 375 -500
Mag 1250-1450
SP (salinity) 1.022 - 1.026 could go lower for fish only
temp 75-82 but I try to keep my stuff around 78.
Phosphate- Don't worry about Phosphates too much until you get Reef going or too much algae starts forming... (don't use tap water) but the lower the better with best being ZERO.

[onyong4u]

this will give you an idea:
http://www.reefcorner.com/Manual/nitrogen_cycle.htm
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articl...cle/Page1.html

[oswaldo1424]

Tank size-10g
Age of tank-new
Lighting-50/50
Salinity-32
Water temperature-78
Nitrites-0
NitrateS-15
Alk or pH-?
Dosing anything?-no
Any recent changes to tank-
Inhabitants (fish)-none

[oswaldo1424]

new water test

pH= 8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates =0
SP (salinity) =1.024

[oswaldo1424]

quick question can i use an air pump intead of a power head for my 10g tank???

[surfnsd]

You need a powerhead to help circulate the water. An air pump wont do that.

[deceptor]

One thing I did that helped me cycle the water much quicker was to do water changes. I don't mix my water, buy at san Diego rock for 50 cents a gallon. In a 10 gallon I would do a 1 gallon water change. try to do a water change everyday during the first week of cycling. After that, you should be able to throw in a chromis. Better then a damsel. Good luck.

[oswaldo1424]

ok thanks

[oswaldo1424]

ok so im new to this i got a 10g tank i got a powerhead, heater,filter i want to know wat other equipment i need to have to have a succesful mini reef aquarium and what lighting i can get for my tank cause i need to upgrade it any advise would help thanks

[EuroDriver]

Hello and welcome!

Let me start off by saying I want to help and the following is not to criticisize you:

I'm rather surprised that for a new tank, your ammonia and nitrites are 0. Just how old is your tank? If it's only a few days old, it probably hasn't even begun to cycle.

If you truly want to enjoy this hobby and don't want to end up frustrated and broke, you really need to be patient during the first few months.

To completely cycle, a tank needs an average of 6 weeks. Cycling is the process where things (food, waste) break down, producing ammonia. Certain bacteria then digest the ammonia and break it down into nitrite. It will take a few weeks for those bacteria to reproduce and populate enough to handle the ammonia levels present in your tank.

Then another form of bacteria digest the nitrite and break it down into nitrate. Those bacteria won't begin to reproduce and populate until enough of bacteria popoulate and produce measurable levels of nitrite. Then the second bacteria will take some time to reproduce enough to get rid of the nitrite. This entire process is going to take about 6 weeks.

By the time they are done, your ammonia and nitrite will finally be at 0, and you should have some measurable levels of nitrate. At that point, practically the only method of reducing the nitrates is with a water change.

I respectfully disagree with deceptor about doing 10% water changes, since with those water changes you would be getting rid of the beneficial bacteria described above and you will be interrupting the nitrification cycle. (also on the chromis - they are typically more delicate than other damselfish)

Sorry to inform you, but if your cousin gave you some cured live rock ("LR") it's probably going to suffer some die-off while your tank cycles. The good news is that cured LR probably has a good amount of bacteria in it and will hopefully speed up the cycle a little bit. However, contrary to what many of us want to believe, there is no miracle method to speed up the cycling process.

A 10g tank is pretty small (imagine living in a 10 ft X 10 ft room with no exchange of air or water - you are given food, but no where to dispose of the waste - either leftovers or the waste you create). That's the environment of a fish tank at a very basic level.

That said, if you don't have much experience at reefkeeping, I would strongly suggest you stick to fish only, or coral only until you learn a lot more about the chemistry and biology of keeping such delicate animals. In the meantime, read up as much as you can.

I really don't intend this to discourage you - on the contrary, I want to save you some expense, frustration and the possibility of giving up on the hobby as a result. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have patience and discipline, mainly during the first 3-6 months, and especially the first 6 weeks or so. We all get excited when we set up a new tank and can't wait to see all kinds of cool stuff in it, and many of us have been guilty of rushing to add living creatures, only to cause their death.

Give it some time to adapt - it will really pay off and save you quite a few bucks.

What type of lighting you need will depend on what you end up having in the tank.

Different creatures require different lighting. I wouldn't worry about it too much for now. You might want to consider investing in a skimmer, though.

Finally, welcome to SDReefs, congrats and good luck with your new tank; and keep us posted with your progress. I'm sure as you learn more, you will have tons of questions. Use the search feature here on the forum and if you can't find your answers, we are here to help.

[oswaldo1424]

ive had the tank running for about 3 weeks im starting to get a lot of algae the lr are all purple how should i get rid of the algae? i did another test and the ammonia still came out 0 and my ph is at 8 should it be lower or is that fine?