First time setting for a marine fish tank

[patricklhc]

Hi all experienced bros,

Please guide me into setting up. I would say I bascially do not have any knowledge so please bear with me

Just managed to get all the stuff that i think is neccessary today.

2ft(W) by 1ft(D) by 1ft(H) tank

Ehim 2215 canister filter

Sea salt

bottle of bacterial

protein skimmer and a plump

hydrometer

themometer

Ph test kit

All the equipment are not up and running. No live rocks fish or anything yet. Just salty water, skimmer and filter running.

I understand that i need to cycle the tank for a while.

When is a good time to add in the bacterial, live rocks? I know i can't add in any livestock after about a month.

How long should i cycle my tank before before i can start pouring 25ml of bacterial (as stated on the bottle) ?

Is there like a interver period of time to add in bacterial then live rocks or I can add in bacterial and live rocks together

I heard people saying after adding bacterial I will need to put in a tiny bit of prawn meat for about 10days so there will be food for the bacterial..

There is also another one saying to add in bacterial and live rock together. As live rocks will have food for the bacterial so prawn meat is not need.

I believe both are a workable method but which will be a better method ?

I'm also having problem using the hydrometer.. It stated for accutate reading water has to be at 25 dgree cesius. Any bro can tell me where can i get a refractormeter and how much would it roughly cost?

oh ya..not forgetting I was silly enough to buy a Grotech Carbonat pro today believing it was sea salt anyway on the fine prints it says carbonate hardness + ph buffer.. do i have any need for this and what is this suppose to be for?

My tank seems to be overloaded with plastic.. messy looking. any suggestion to get it neat and organised will be greatly appreciated :)

Many thanks in advance to all bros.

[yourdi3]

Hi Patrick where do u stay?

[patricklhc]

Hi Patrick where do u stay?

Hi bro I'm staying in serangoon road somewhere near mustafa

[klim]

Hi Patrick, better to read up on the sticky thread which will give you information which will save you hassle and $$$.

What are you intent to keep? Fishes (fowl) or Reef (Fishes with Corals)?

Important note: your tank are small, any change in parameter will affect the Live Stocks (LS)

If fishes, then good to get some live rocks. They do contained bacteria, pods, hitch hikers(need to be careful).

Dosing bacteria (try to measure it with your water size in Liters or Gallons). Too much will caused problem to your water.

Check that skimmers are working as small tank, skimmers is the upmost important to filter away any unwanted stuff.

Do place a dead market prawn so that it will give u ammonia spike, then it will turn to NO2 then NO3. Need a test kits to verify.

Patient is the most important in Reefing. Not forgetting good husbandry like change water etc.

I did start off with no knowledge and spent a lot of $$$ wasted. Equipment is important and get a good one so that you don't hav to waste all the effort building and then see something happened to the LS.

Good luck and happy Reefing.

[patricklhc]

Hi Patrick, better to read up on the sticky thread which will give you information which will save you hassle and $$$.

What are you intent to keep? Fishes (fowl) or Reef (Fishes with Corals)?

Important note: your tank are small, any change in parameter will affect the Live Stocks (LS)

If fishes, then good to get some live rocks. They do contained bacteria, pods, hitch hikers(need to be careful).

Dosing bacteria (try to measure it with your water size in Liters or Gallons). Too much will caused problem to your water.

Check that skimmers are working as small tank, skimmers is the upmost important to filter away any unwanted stuff.

Do place a dead market prawn so that it will give u ammonia spike, then it will turn to NO2 then NO3. Need a test kits to verify.

Patient is the most important in Reefing. Not forgetting good husbandry like change water etc.

I did start off with no knowledge and spent a lot of $$$ wasted. Equipment is important and get a good one so that you don't hav to waste all the effort building and then see something happened to the LS.

Good luck and happy Reefing.

Hi bro, I intent to keep only fishes and live rocks.. Corals will be in future when I'm more experience.. I'm still trying to read up as much as possible on water parameter.. Someone once told me in order to keep a fish learn to keep the water first this is definitely not easy for me but I'm trying hard hehe

[Harlequinmania]

Get a sump tank, there are hundreds of benefit from having one and you can hide all the equipment below.

[Rukas]

Bro

welcome to the reefers world

I can understand how tempting and exciting this is for you now

I would strongly suggest, do some reading before deciding the next step

Before all that, i hope you have asked yourself the question if you can setup, stock and maintain a marine tank, this includes both financially, physically and mentally

Please make sure you read reefing 101

Practice alot of patience, the most important thing in the hobby is urself and your interest, so don go around throwing hard earned money without building some knowledge

There are alot of good used equipments, including Test kits and refractormeter you can buy from the Sell off/Pasar malam section of this forum

i am not sure if i have eyesight issues, but i see some scratch or crack in your tank, please make sure its not deep or you can cause the tank to crash considering the fact Salt water is densed

Dont get pulled back with all the advice you get, trust me you will be more excited once you embark in the learning process, in the world of reefing everyday you can learn something new. Once you achieve it with all the patience and hard work, you will stand proud by it

[patricklhc]

Bro

welcome to the reefers world

I can understand how tempting and exciting this is for you now

I would strongly suggest, do some reading before deciding the next step

Before all that, i hope you have asked yourself the question if you can setup, stock and maintain a marine tank, this includes both financially, physically and mentally

Please make sure you read reefing 101

Practice alot of patience, the most important thing in the hobby is urself and your interest, so don go around throwing hard earned money without building some knowledge

There are alot of good used equipments, including Test kits and refractormeter you can buy from the Sell off/Pasar malam section of this forum

i am not sure if i have eyesight issues, but i see some scratch or crack in your tank, please make sure its not deep or you can cause the tank to crash considering the fact Salt water is densed

Dont get pulled back with all the advice you get, trust me you will be more excited once you embark in the learning process, in the world of reefing everyday you can learn something new. Once you achieve it with all the patience and hard work, you will stand proud by it

Hi bro, is it on the top right of the tank that u see scratch/cracked? I

Double check the tank it could be caused by reflection

I have done quite a lot of reading and those I think are useful have been kept in fav for future referrence hehe

Today managed to combine the skimmer to work with the canister. I really cannot stand that plumb inside the tank going to let it run for a few more hours before adding in bactrial and prawn meat.

Since the tank was setup yesterday the water is still a little cloudy. Could be it due to wrong placement of ceramic ring, active carbon and filter

[patricklhc]

Picture taken this morning..

about 25ml of bactrial was pour into tank last night with a pcs of prawn meat..

Water is still cloudy

after removing plump for the skimmer and connect it to canister filter.. would like to check with bros here if i am connecting it correctly..

canister water out pipe connected to skimmer water in..

canister water inlet pipe put it inside the tank

[KELVINx3]

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/page/index.html/_/marine-aquarium-setting-up-resources/faq-for-setting-up-a-new-marine-tank-r41

you may refer to this link. from my little knowledge. you're suppose to dose bacteria when cycling. for me i dose bacteria for cycling base on total volume of water in my tank. then after 1 week i'll just throw 2-4 market prawn and let it melt away. skimmer and pump is full running. no wave maker/ light was on. measure water parameter every weeks. for me i shortcut. used NSW instead of salt mix. then weekly changed a pail of water with RO/DI water together with salt mix. so my cycling time is shortened.

[patricklhc]

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/page/index.html/_/marine-aquarium-setting-up-resources/faq-for-setting-up-a-new-marine-tank-r41

you may refer to this link. from my little knowledge. you're suppose to dose bacteria when cycling. for me i dose bacteria for cycling base on total volume of water in my tank. then after 1 week i'll just throw 2-4 market prawn and let it melt away. skimmer and pump is full running. no wave maker/ light was on. measure water parameter every weeks. for me i shortcut. used NSW instead of salt mix. then weekly changed a pail of water with RO/DI water together with salt mix. so my cycling time is shortened.

Thanks bro kelvin.

I did dose bacterial continuously for 3 days according to the instruction Lol..

I have got live rocks inside the tank

Just did another test and below are the reading

Ammonia 0.25

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 2

Ph 7.7

Sg 1.023

Is there anything that is wrong in the process because ammonia suppose to be 0 right?

Also nitrite was always at 5.. 3days ago when I tested was still at 5.0. It went down to 0 today. color on the chart 5 is purple and 0 is light blue so it cannot be wrong reading and I tested 3 times today to make sure

[Harlequinmania]

Thanks bro kelvin.

I did dose bacterial continuously for 3 days according to the instruction Lol..

I have got live rocks inside the tank

Just did another test and below are the reading

Ammonia 0.25

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 2

Ph 7.7

Sg 1.023

Is there anything that is wrong in the process because ammonia suppose to be 0 right?

Also nitrite was always at 5.. 3days ago when I tested was still at 5.0. It went down to 0 today. color on the chart 5 is purple and 0 is light blue so it cannot be wrong reading and I tested 3 times today to make sure

This could mean that your tank cycling is not completed yet.

Just wait for a few more day and test again.

[patricklhc]

This could mean that your tank cycling is not completed yet.

Just wait for a few more day and test again.

Thanks bro.. Hopefully it's just still cycling. Will test again next week. But Is this reading normal during cycling? Cos most of the website I read says ammonia will reduce to 0 while nitrite will go up follow by nitrate go up and nitrite goes down to 0

[Harlequinmania]

Thanks bro.. Hopefully it's just still cycling. Will test again next week. But Is this reading normal during cycling? Cos most of the website I read says ammonia will reduce to 0 while nitrite will go up follow by nitrate go up and nitrite goes down to 0

What brand of test kit are you using ? It look normal to me just test your water again a few day later. If possible , try to draw up a chart and you should able to see the nitrogen cycle where ammonia peak and fall again.

A good video on nitrogen cycling.

[KELVINx3]

Thanks bro kelvin.

I did dose bacterial continuously for 3 days according to the instruction Lol..

I have got live rocks inside the tank

Just did another test and below are the reading

Ammonia 0.25

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 2

Ph 7.7

Sg 1.023

Is there anything that is wrong in the process because ammonia suppose to be 0 right?

Also nitrite was always at 5.. 3days ago when I tested was still at 5.0. It went down to 0 today. color on the chart 5 is purple and 0 is light blue so it cannot be wrong reading and I tested 3 times today to make sure

no problem bro. best to cycle with liverocks together. dont rush. this hobby cannot rush. once rush pocket burn.. last time i learn the hard way haha.

[patricklhc]

What brand of test kit are you using ? It look normal to me just test your water again a few day later. If possible , try to draw up a chart and you should able to see the nitrogen cycle where ammonia peak and fall again.

A good video on nitrogen cycling.

I'm using API ammonia and nitrite test kit. Nitrate and ph I'm using salifert

[patricklhc]

Tested the water again today .. And got good news!!!

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 4

Ph 7.7

Sg 1.023

Went paris ris farm today and got a banded shrimp and a little yellowtail damselfish... And a bottle of iodine... Wanted to get a cleaner shrimp but it's out of stock.

I used the drip acclimate method for the shrimp and floating bag method for damselfish.. Both over a period of 2hours before putting them in to the tank.

Next of the list is a brain coral and lion fish/cardinal but going to read up on it first before making the final decision.. I'm also thinking of replacing canister filter to sump tank cos I heard from a lot of people telling me it's way much better to use a sump tank instead of canister.

[ckchow13]

you intend to put in a lionfish with your little damsel? I think the damsel will become a meal for lionfish in a matter of time....

[KELVINx3]

agree with bro ckchow13 lionfish wil consume your damsel soon

[BFG]

Hope you know what you're doing, lionfish is poisonous and you might get hurt if you handle it the wrong way. I've seen the scar on my friend palm. Let the tank cycle for a month before adding any livestock.

[patricklhc]

Thanks bro Ck, kelvin and BFG most likely I will drop lionfish from the list. Went shopping around the other day. Most lionfish look lazy.

Past 2days damselfish not eating and keep hidding in a small space within liverocks.. Is it normal for banded shrimp to lose 1 claw? Did it drop by itself or is there any other reason that could lead to this?

Water tested and everything seems ok. Water change sechdule suppose to be next week but bring forward to today...Just did a 20% water change. Hopefully things will get better

[patricklhc]

Poor damsel is gone... Don't know what's wrong everything seems ok banded shrimp also active moving around liverocks picking and eating.

The water change today was direct tap water left it for 2nights with anti-chlorine added and air pump running. Salt mix was also slowly added until i get the same SG as tank... :/

What else could have gone wrong ? Could it be due to iodine about 5ml that I added in?

[KELVINx3]

Poor damsel is gone... Don't know what's wrong everything seems ok banded shrimp also active moving around liverocks picking and eating.

The water change today was direct tap water left it for 2nights with anti-chlorine added and air pump running. Salt mix was also slowly added until i get the same SG as tank... :/

What else could have gone wrong ? Could it be due to iodine about 5ml that I added in?

did you acclimate your fish?

[Admiraltian]

Thanks bro Ck, kelvin and BFG most likely I will drop lionfish from the list. Went shopping around the other day. Most lionfish look lazy.

Past 2days damselfish not eating and keep hidding in a small space within liverocks.. Is it normal for banded shrimp to lose 1 claw? Did it drop by itself or is there any other reason that could lead to this?

Water tested and everything seems ok. Water change sechdule suppose to be next week but bring forward to today...Just did a 20% water change. Hopefully things will get better

its common for coral band shrimp to lose their pincer, it will grow back in no time. Cheers

[patricklhc]

did you acclimate your fish?

yes i did.. over a period of about 2hours... Fish is gone but seriously don't know why .. check the shrimp again just now and its happily picking don't know what from the liverocks and stuffing them into its mouth.. looking great expect for being a "tok gong" now.. usually shrimps are more sensetive than fish right?

its common for coral band shrimp to lose their pincer, it will grow back in no time. Cheers

Thanks bro.. read up alot more about them.. i saw something like after 1-2 molting it will grow back and iodin can actually help with the growth.. don't really understand what it means..

any bro know what is this cute looking purple plant thats growing on the liverock?