dirty sand, im new...

I have a 150 gallon tank with about a 3-3/12" sand bed thats been running for about 3 or 4 weeks. I have a emporor snapper and like one peice of live rock, the lfs said that my water is good and that i can start adding fish. My sand is turning a brown color and i was wondering if i could put a yellow head gobie in there would there already be food in the sand to feed it or not. I want something to clean the sand that wont get ate by the snapper...

 

You're experiencing a diatom bloom. It's a normal part of the cycle and the diatoms will disappear once the silica in the tank runs out. I'd definitely suggest you get a lot more live rock (1 -1.5lbs per gal). What are your water params? I never trust an LFS for the fact that they're in it to make money. Did they test your params for you? Chances are very highly likely that you're not cycled yet.

 

Dont put a gobie in there --the tank is not finished cycling. Also dont know if the Snapper will eat him--I would say yes--Dont take this wrong but you really need to research your fish BEFORE they go in the tank, and decide which way you are going with your tank I.E. Reef--Aggresive--Corals etc.. and find out what livestock suits that. My 150 gallon took 8 weeks to cycle, and every time you add fish or rock you must let the tank balance out again--usually about a month between changes is safe. Slow down and be patient, I know it is exciting and hard to wait, but you will be glad you did!

 

all they tested was the salinity and the nitrites and ph, i dont know if there is anything else to test but the nitrites are zero and salinity and ph are good

im not trying to keep the snapper forever just another couple weeks he was only to help cyle the tank. i was just wondering if a 6 or 7 in gobie would be fine in the tank because it is so big and i just wanted to get the sand clean i thought it was just old fish poop.

 

They really needed to test nitrates and ammonia as well. Did they just use strips for the test? If so, those things are incredibly inaccurate. I would wait 1-2 weeks after everything has reached zero before I'd consider the tank cycled. I'd suggest you buy at least a hydrometer and test kits for PH, nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia.

 

well i have no idea what diatom bloom or silica is but ill read about it somewhere. im going to get some stuff to test my water tomorow. and i plan on getting more live rock but i cant get it all at once. i found out it was alot more expensive than i thought it was gonna be, and its alot more work than freshwater. thanks'

 

common mistake. stick with 3reef.

 

+1

Check this out: http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/ultimate-nuisance-algae-thread-58657.html

Scroll down and you will see the info on diatoms. It's really nothing to worry about, in fact it's a sign that you're going down the right path of the cycle.

Make sure to get a drip/vial test kit for each. API makes a decent and inexpensive kit to test for ammonia, ph, nitrite and nitrate. Salifert makes a very nice but expensive one.

If you have some live rock in there already, think about buying some base rock for it. The live rock that you currently have in the tank will seed the base rock with coralline and beneficial bacteria. That means it will become live rock in time. Base rock is cheaper than live rock.

 

Saltwater is more expensive / time consuming then fresh , buy well worth the rewards !!!;D;D

 

You're going to want to put in around 150 pounds of rock or more in that tank. And since you said you only had one piece of it...depending on how large or small the piece is, you're going to need 140 or 148 more pound of rock. At least.

Each time you add rock, a mini cycle occurs as the rock and bacteria colonies "balance out". I highly suggest that you focus only on getting an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kit (not strips) and getting all of your rock in.

To make it cheaper, you could do a percentage of base rock and live rock. Live rock is roughly $10 per pound, but base rock is around $2-$3 per pound. Base rock is live rock without the "live". No bacteria or critters of any sorts, it's just dead. So it takes several months to a year for base rock to become "live", but you save money at the start.

We have around 60 pounds of rock in our 46 gallon, and we started out with roughly 50-50 base rock to live rock and only 45 total pounds. Meaning we spent $263 on 45 pounds of rock instead of $450 pounds. We added the remaining 15 later on. You could go that route maybe. It'd make things easier, and you'd have all your rock in sooner.

My other set of advice is three words. Read. Read. And Read. Oh, and a little reading helps too. And maybe a bottle of Research and Information That's the best way to save money in this hobby. Or, to at least not shoot yourself in the foot in the long run. Research as much as you can, either through books or this wonderful gizmo called the internet. Google is a reefers friend. 3Reef is a really good friend too. You were wise to come here, my friend

And that algae bloom should go away as the take matures. We had nasty hair algae during our cycling, but now we're clean as a whistle.