MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 ok so i bought a 55 gallon saltwater tank off someone on kijiji went to his house, it was set up and him and i took apart the liverock, put it in buckets and rubbermaid containers. had them fully submerged in tank water. left a little bit of water at the bottom to cover the sand. brought it home, set it up. put the liverock in and filled it half with the old tank water and half with new water. salinity balanced out at about 1.025 came with an emperor 400 and a powerhead that i have running in there right now... ..... a little cloudy but seems to be settling down. there seems to be a lot of hair algae on the sand and on the liverock, should i do anything about that? can i vacuum the stuff off the sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Ok, first of all...congrats. Secondly, if there was a few hours between the live rock coming out of the tank and going back in, you're most likely going to have a small cycle from some die off of bacteria in the rock. Extremely common, nothing to worry about....just don't put any livestock in there. Less lighting until the cycle seems complete will help keep the hair algae in check. If you want to get rid of it all, one of these will work: They're called a lawnmower blenny, and John Deere has NOTHING on these guys. He'll clean a 1.5" growth of hair algae on everything in your tank within two days. I never worry about hair algae, because I like to keep one of these guys usually (I'll transfer him between tanks if he's picky, but usually the pigs eat everything they can once the hair algae is gone). Let everything settle before you vacuum it off the sand. Another tip is that if you want lots of nice purple coraline algae growing on the rocks is to turn off the powerheads, scrape some of the existing coraline off and let it float around the tank, wait an hour or two, then turn everything one again. Have you had a chance to do a lot of research? If so, great. If not, make sure you check on everything before you do it just in case. Not much more difficult than freshwater, but there's just some things that you need to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 the liverock was out of the tank for an hour and half tops.... completely submerged the whole trip i've been doing research for about a year and half now on salt water tanks and i was planning on getting a scooter blenny (dont know if its the same thing) how long do you think the cycle will take? about a week or so? also, i saw at big al's they keep some green stringy stuff in the filter... i read its suppose to keep nitrates down. what is this stuff and does it need a light source( looks like a plant) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 the liverock was out of the tank for an hour and half tops.... completely submerged the whole trip You might be fine then. i've been doing research for about a year and half now on salt water tanks Excellent....you should have a good grasp of the basics then. and i was planning on getting a scooter blenny (dont know if its the same thing) Nope, they're both blenny's, but different feeding habits. Scooters eat the pods that live in the algae..best left to a large (120+) experienced setup that has lots of pods growing. how long do you think the cycle will take? about a week or so? It might not even cycle at all. Check with a test kit to be sure. also, i saw at big al's they keep some green stringy stuff in the filter... i read its suppose to keep nitrates down.what is this stuff and does it need a light source( looks like a plant) Chaetomorpha - it's a type of algae. Grows fast in the right types of lighting. Most people sell it cheap or free, as it can grow quite quickly. Hardy too....some members on canreef used to mail it to each other in a padded envelope. http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&safe=off&q=chaetomorpha&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=935 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 thanks for all the great info. can chaetomorpha be bought locally? and how much does it reduce the water changes by? i do my cichlid tanks ever 5-7 days, but the guy i got the tank from said he did them every month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Your welcome. If you put a post on canreef looking for some and mention that you are new, most likely one of the veterans in your area will have some they can spare free of charge, or maybe even $5. Speaking of which, please update your location. Otherwise, no one knows where you are without asking. It doesn't necessarily reduce water changes as much as it helps to stabilize things. I know some freshwater people like to change their water on a regular basis, bit I was always of the opinion that unless it was dirty or had rising levels of something, it was probably fine. Saltwater can get very expensive if you are changing it regulary too....monthly should be fine if it is stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 thanks for the advice. im gonna repost this thread there and see what comes of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 (edited) one more quick question..... the fixture it came with is a 48" coralife light with 2 T5 bulbs..... one of the bulbs is atinic i think because its very blue(previous owner tried to keep anemone) should i just replace it with a standard bulb or keep the atinic? heres a picture of what it looks like now.... 3 hours after setup (tested 0 ammonia and nitrite) Edited December 30, 2010 by MarkoD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 With 2 T5s, I'm guessing they'd be HO, would put total output at about 110W of light - not really enough for an anemone, IMO. You'll want at least double that. If you're not planning on keeping corals, then use whatever light you want - fish don't mind. The actinics seem to make the colors of fish and corals pop, tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Actinics are good for purple coraline growth. I'd keep that for now. And wait until you get something in there with a hint of blue or green on it even....it'll glow like no freshwater fish you have ever seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 im also wondering if i should transfer some of my dried corals from my cichlid tank to this tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 You could. There's shouldn't be any harm doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 but theres a lot of green algae on it. so i should probably clean it, dry it and then put it in, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 but theres a lot of green algae on it. so i should probably clean it, dry it and then put it in, right? Yup, that should work. Green algae might me that you'll want to change your lighting, but it might also mean that the P.O. left the lights on more than necessary too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoD Posted December 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 water has been testing good. no ammonia and no nitrite. got a few fish. two 3 stripe damsel and two blue damsel. they seem pretty happy and actively exploring their new tank video here http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150344051380567&comments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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