Can I keep normal sedimate (normally used for Freshwater) for a saltwater aquarium?
I just bought an eclipse 3 (37 gal.) tank for saltwater aquarium use. I know, from what I have read that this is fairly small for this type of aquarium. Can I use it for salt water even with the supplied filtering systym in the hood? I have also bought regular (black, not "live" sediment) after the fact of reading that I should have bought live sedimate an live rock. Will what I have work? What is my next step? Shall I keep my black non-live sediment get some live rock to put on top of it? Will the live rock’s "creatures" take effect on the non-live sediment so that they become live as well? Can I even have a live rock in there before it has cycled, or with that spead it up? Should I add ammonia, if I have, or don’t have, a live rock to speed up the cycling process? How do you do the monthly maitenance of replacing 25% of the water without puting the fish and ecosystem in too much shock?
Please help and try to answer as much as you can. Very new, but very interested in it
The freshwater substrate (sediment) can not be used in a salt water tank. The freshwater substrate is built to be grainulated and easy to clean. In a salt water tank you do not ever vaccuum the substrate out becuase the fish need the substrate to be living. The substrate has to be a marine sand of some kind, I suggest asking a fish shop representative what is the best kind to purchase.
When you purchase your marine sand substrate it does not particularly matter if it is live becuase if you use live rock it will "infect" the marine sand and make it live for you. This however takes some time should you choose to go about this way. My favorite method of treating marine sand is to purchase one third of the desired volume as live sand, and two thirds of the desired volume in non-living marine sand. This method usually infects the whole sand within a couple of days.
Your live rock has to be very specific, you must purchase one pound of rock per gallon of salt water. In a 37 gallon tank you will need 27 pounds of cured live rock, and you will need 10 pounds of uncured live rock. The uncured live rock is not required per say, but the health of your aquarium will increase ten fold with its use. You can use more uncured live rock then just ten pounds if you like, just be sure to take it out of the amount of cured live rock you use.
The addition of ammonia is something I do not recommend though its not exactly troublesome. The thing is the liverock and the live marine sand will produce ammonia on their own so there is no reason to add anything that is not natural to the tank. The tank will cycle so you have no need to do this.
Salt water requires a lot more supervision then a freshwater tank. You will be doing something about the water on a weekly basis. The good news is this is very easy to do becuase the requirements and proceedures are easy to follow. The first is to make sure the specific gravity of your salt water is 1.21 – 1.25. I keep my tank at exactly 1.23. In order to maintain this balance you must add freshwater to the tank as the water evaporates. Becuase salt does not evaporate, once you get your proper balance of salt there is no reason to top it off with salt water. please note that when you do a water change it will be neccessary to change it with salt water becuase you are removing salt when you change water.
Also 25% water changes are far to steep and stressful on salt water fish, so every week you will do a 5% – 10% water change. You only need to remove water. This is really easy to do and will only take mabye 10 minutes with the right tools. if you vaccuum the substrate you will kill your bacteria colony and kill your fish.
You can use a hanging filter if you absolutely want to, I however do not recommend their use in salt water tanks becuase in my opinion they are not effective enough. I strongly advise getting a canister filter, please consult a fish shop representative for which product is best for that tank. Canister filters work better becuase they have layers of filtration in order to do the maximum amount of work in the least amount of time. They also cycle water faster then hanging filters which makes for a healthier tank. The best part however, is that canister filters are not noisy, they run just short of silent.
Another peice of equipment that can be overlooked is the protein skimmer. This is a very important peice of equipment becuase it removes bacterial particulates that the filter can not clean. What it does it runs bubbles through the water at high speed so any particulates in the water will be destroyed or trapped in a specialized catch within the protein skimmer. It will need adjustment every 3 days but it only takes 20 seconds to do. All that is needed is to be sure that bubbles are forming in mass inside of the protein skimmer.
A protein skimmer is important becuase it similates ocean waves. When a wave breaks on the shore it produces a lot of bubbles and it destroys particulates and also traps particulates in the sand. There is no filter powerful enough to act as a protein skimmer.
In order to know when your tank is ready for any fish you must wait patiently for a brown out. This will be very very clear to you becuase the live rocks, the substrate, the glass, the filters, everything will be a nasty shade of brown. Your tank will look utterly horrible. This is when you add your first set of critters.
The first critters to introduce to your tank are your new employees, they are going to clean the glass and polish the rocks and substrate for you. You are going to need hermit crabs and snails. These crabs and snails are reef safe so you need not panic if you want to run a coral reef tank. You will need 6-8 hermit crabs and 6-8 snails. Understand they will not do quite all the work, but this is okay. they are here to take care of all that brown gook and also keep your algae to a minimum.
Let these guys hang out for about 2 weeks or until they cleaned up at least 80% of the live rock. Once that is done take a water sample to your fish shop or do a full spectrum test if you know how. You will need to test the specific gravity, the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. if you have test strips they should cover the whole test save specific gravity. To test specific gravity you will need a hydrometer for specific gravity. no worries its a simple device and costs about 10-20 bucks.
If the test shows an all clear then you may proceed to add fish. The same rule applies to salt water tanks as with freshwater. one inch of fish for every gallon of water. If you are going to have coral in the tank be sure all your fish are reef safe.
If you want coral you will need a retrofit kit for the tank. This is a new light kit designed specifically for coral tanks. In most instances they include a day light (white light) and an evening light (blue light. You want your day light to run about 8 hours, and your blue light to run about ten. Start the blue light one hour before the white light comes on, and have the blue light turn off one hour after the white light turns off. The blue light is very important for coral tanks.
please note that salt water tanks dispite size are incredibly expensive. It cost me 340$ to purchase all the live rock i needed for my 55 gallon tank. It cost me another 300$ for a retrofit light kit, 130$ for the canopy that can use that particular retrofit, 90$ for a protien skimmer and 160$ for the proper canister filter. The marine sand cost me another 60$, and my first employees cost me 50$ (hermit crabs and snails for 55gallon coverage).
The fish are also a whole lot more expensive. depending on taste they can range from 20$ to 200$+ easy. Coral shards (also called frags) cost 25$-60$ dollars each. for a full grown coral peice expect to pay no less then 150$ dollars. You will also have feeding supplies to purchase on a regular basis along with salt water unless you choose to mix your own (i don’t recommend it for a beginner or for a tank that small). Also expect stuff to break, it does not happen often but when it does its always expensive.
I am a fish keeper/breeder and am going to college and majoring in the feild of icktheology, the study of fish. I would be more then happy to offer my advise about any future questions you may have. My contact information is open so don’t hesitate to ask, starting salt water for the first time can be a bit difficult but once you get it down you will have no trouble at all.
Hails,
Silence
It’s preferable that you use living sediment that can be purchased from most pet stores. You can use the black sediment as the base of the tank in a very shallow layer and put live sediment above it. Yes you may add live rocks right away but not fish. Also remember that all of your equipment must be suitable for use in salt water; pieces made of metal, such as hoods or heater clips will contaminate the tank. Additionally, rock-work should be securely seated on the base glass and felled with coral sand.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 amReferences :
The freshwater substrate (sediment) can not be used in a salt water tank. The freshwater substrate is built to be grainulated and easy to clean. In a salt water tank you do not ever vaccuum the substrate out becuase the fish need the substrate to be living. The substrate has to be a marine sand of some kind, I suggest asking a fish shop representative what is the best kind to purchase.
When you purchase your marine sand substrate it does not particularly matter if it is live becuase if you use live rock it will "infect" the marine sand and make it live for you. This however takes some time should you choose to go about this way. My favorite method of treating marine sand is to purchase one third of the desired volume as live sand, and two thirds of the desired volume in non-living marine sand. This method usually infects the whole sand within a couple of days.
Your live rock has to be very specific, you must purchase one pound of rock per gallon of salt water. In a 37 gallon tank you will need 27 pounds of cured live rock, and you will need 10 pounds of uncured live rock. The uncured live rock is not required per say, but the health of your aquarium will increase ten fold with its use. You can use more uncured live rock then just ten pounds if you like, just be sure to take it out of the amount of cured live rock you use.
The addition of ammonia is something I do not recommend though its not exactly troublesome. The thing is the liverock and the live marine sand will produce ammonia on their own so there is no reason to add anything that is not natural to the tank. The tank will cycle so you have no need to do this.
Salt water requires a lot more supervision then a freshwater tank. You will be doing something about the water on a weekly basis. The good news is this is very easy to do becuase the requirements and proceedures are easy to follow. The first is to make sure the specific gravity of your salt water is 1.21 – 1.25. I keep my tank at exactly 1.23. In order to maintain this balance you must add freshwater to the tank as the water evaporates. Becuase salt does not evaporate, once you get your proper balance of salt there is no reason to top it off with salt water. please note that when you do a water change it will be neccessary to change it with salt water becuase you are removing salt when you change water.
Also 25% water changes are far to steep and stressful on salt water fish, so every week you will do a 5% – 10% water change. You only need to remove water. This is really easy to do and will only take mabye 10 minutes with the right tools. if you vaccuum the substrate you will kill your bacteria colony and kill your fish.
You can use a hanging filter if you absolutely want to, I however do not recommend their use in salt water tanks becuase in my opinion they are not effective enough. I strongly advise getting a canister filter, please consult a fish shop representative for which product is best for that tank. Canister filters work better becuase they have layers of filtration in order to do the maximum amount of work in the least amount of time. They also cycle water faster then hanging filters which makes for a healthier tank. The best part however, is that canister filters are not noisy, they run just short of silent.
Another peice of equipment that can be overlooked is the protein skimmer. This is a very important peice of equipment becuase it removes bacterial particulates that the filter can not clean. What it does it runs bubbles through the water at high speed so any particulates in the water will be destroyed or trapped in a specialized catch within the protein skimmer. It will need adjustment every 3 days but it only takes 20 seconds to do. All that is needed is to be sure that bubbles are forming in mass inside of the protein skimmer.
A protein skimmer is important becuase it similates ocean waves. When a wave breaks on the shore it produces a lot of bubbles and it destroys particulates and also traps particulates in the sand. There is no filter powerful enough to act as a protein skimmer.
In order to know when your tank is ready for any fish you must wait patiently for a brown out. This will be very very clear to you becuase the live rocks, the substrate, the glass, the filters, everything will be a nasty shade of brown. Your tank will look utterly horrible. This is when you add your first set of critters.
The first critters to introduce to your tank are your new employees, they are going to clean the glass and polish the rocks and substrate for you. You are going to need hermit crabs and snails. These crabs and snails are reef safe so you need not panic if you want to run a coral reef tank. You will need 6-8 hermit crabs and 6-8 snails. Understand they will not do quite all the work, but this is okay. they are here to take care of all that brown gook and also keep your algae to a minimum.
Let these guys hang out for about 2 weeks or until they cleaned up at least 80% of the live rock. Once that is done take a water sample to your fish shop or do a full spectrum test if you know how. You will need to test the specific gravity, the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. if you have test strips they should cover the whole test save specific gravity. To test specific gravity you will need a hydrometer for specific gravity. no worries its a simple device and costs about 10-20 bucks.
If the test shows an all clear then you may proceed to add fish. The same rule applies to salt water tanks as with freshwater. one inch of fish for every gallon of water. If you are going to have coral in the tank be sure all your fish are reef safe.
If you want coral you will need a retrofit kit for the tank. This is a new light kit designed specifically for coral tanks. In most instances they include a day light (white light) and an evening light (blue light. You want your day light to run about 8 hours, and your blue light to run about ten. Start the blue light one hour before the white light comes on, and have the blue light turn off one hour after the white light turns off. The blue light is very important for coral tanks.
please note that salt water tanks dispite size are incredibly expensive. It cost me 340$ to purchase all the live rock i needed for my 55 gallon tank. It cost me another 300$ for a retrofit light kit, 130$ for the canopy that can use that particular retrofit, 90$ for a protien skimmer and 160$ for the proper canister filter. The marine sand cost me another 60$, and my first employees cost me 50$ (hermit crabs and snails for 55gallon coverage).
The fish are also a whole lot more expensive. depending on taste they can range from 20$ to 200$+ easy. Coral shards (also called frags) cost 25$-60$ dollars each. for a full grown coral peice expect to pay no less then 150$ dollars. You will also have feeding supplies to purchase on a regular basis along with salt water unless you choose to mix your own (i don’t recommend it for a beginner or for a tank that small). Also expect stuff to break, it does not happen often but when it does its always expensive.
I am a fish keeper/breeder and am going to college and majoring in the feild of icktheology, the study of fish. I would be more then happy to offer my advise about any future questions you may have. My contact information is open so don’t hesitate to ask, starting salt water for the first time can be a bit difficult but once you get it down you will have no trouble at all.
Hails,
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 amSilence
References :
Fish shop reps, A few dozen books, School of hard knocks, sheer dumb luck :p
A 37 gallon is fine for salt water. The smallest I have is a 30 and it has been running for more than 20 years. You can use the filter system that came with the tank as well. I still do. You would be better off with dolemite, crushed coral or sand but your gravel will also work and you can still add live rocks. It is highly unlikely anything will "spill over and start growing on your new substraight. You should not put anything into your tank until it cycles. Live sand and Red Sea salt will speed up your tank. DO NOT ADD AMMONIA! or any other chemicals with the exception of Novaqua Plus to declor your water. DO NOT USE Start Right or Slime Coat for your tank.
Also, PATIENCE! Salt water if set up properly will give you so much more in return.
The 1" per gallon rule should not be pushed in a salt water tank. It is safe to stay at 1" per 2 to 3 gallons, taking into consideration water displacement for gravel and live rock. Try avoiding ceramics since these tend to leach in a salt water tank.
After two weeks, to get your tank cycled quicker, buy a couple of black mollies. (YES they live in salt water too, as well as guppies, however the mollies are "dirty" fish and will creat the bacteria build up faster)
When you clean your tank, and if you keep an eye on your water quality, you can get away with doing a water change every month. As long as you don’t start having problems with ph or nitrates. To do a water change, you need a gravel syphon. As you move the syphon around the bottom of the tank picking up the "debris". Everything can stay inthe tank. I suggest two 5 gallon buckets. USED only for your tank. Before you start cleaning your tank, fill the other with your water Novaqua + and salt. Be sure the salt is dissolved and at the right salinity level. Clean your tank, then add your new water to the tank.
Don’t clean your glass ouside with anything other than a wet cloth.
I needed to add, You can buy any amount of live rock. Most Marine hobbiest buy the rock to see the corals and cridders that live in and on the rock. You DO NOT need to have a specific amount.
Also, Your top filter is fine. You do not NEED to have sand in your tank. and the fish invertibreas, depending on where you live will run you from $3.99 for damsels, small anemone, shrimp and up. (Which is why I suggest black mollies to cycle your tank) at $.99 each. You don’t HAVE to have crabs either. My 30 gallon has been running for more than 25 years and I have never had a crab or a snail in the thing ever. I also only changed the water every month at 20% Approximately. You will get lots of advice, and there are web sites which have questionable advice. Just like Petco, Petsmart and even local stores who are just interested in selling you something, not the welfare of your fish. Read up on the fish you choose. Find a petstore where the people there are actually knowledgable and friendly. Stick with just them. Don’t buy your fish from non-reputable places or in too many different places. Knowing and trusting a particular store decreases your chance of bringing home unwanted parasites.
One thing I would suggest when you can afford it, although with the water displacement in your tank, I don’t think introducing too many fish will be the problem. A UV Steralizer is a good bet on larger tanks where the introduction of more fish is more common.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:03 amReferences :