Newbie from Stone Mountain GA

My boyfriend inherited a tank from a co-worker. It had live sand, live rock, and a few fish in it. He eventually killed off everything except the rock and sand and was about to turn it into (ANOTHER) freshwater tank. Mind you, he just bought a 300g acrylic that he's planning fill up with cichlids, so I told him I wanted to to keep this teeny 30g as a salt water and try to fix it up myself. I have NO idea what I'm getting into, of course, but I am reading books and have talked to a few people.

I have a 30 gallon tank with a hang on wet/dry filter, (Right? It's got that wheel that spins in it...:) protein skimmer (That's taken apart and I have no clue how to reassemble it...), heater, live rock, and live sand.

I have NO idea how to get the layer of filth off of the sand because we've always had gravel and just vacuumed with our fresh waters. I also have no clue how to get the blanket of filth off of the rock. My nitrates and ammonia are high, but I've had no fish in there for at least a week. The last fish disappeared- we can't find him anywhere...

I suppose I need to do a 15%(?) water change, but I'm scared to touch anything!! I think all I do is put tap water in a bucket, treat it and salt it up, right? Then let it sit for at least 24 hours and pour it in? It should be measuring what the aquarium should be at as far as salt goes, right? Y'all, I'm new.

Hope I didn't overstep my welcome with a billion dumb questions!! LOL I looks forward to getting to know you guys and eventually showing off my own tank.

 

Well, first of all welcome to 3reef, you came to the right place. I think we will have to take it one by one. If i was still in GA, I would come by and help ya out but moved back to chi . O darn, I forgot I have to go to the airport. Sorry, im sure a bunch of people will chime in soon enough. Good Luck

 

Welcome to 3reef and dont ever worry about asking too many questions. Helping is what were here for and we will help however we can.

Sounds like you have a good start there. Bio wheel filters are awesome places for bacteria filtration.

Seeing as how you have no fish in it and your ammonia is already high I would take this as a good opportunity to start fresh (not freshwater). Empty the tank and get everything very well cleaned up. Get your skimmer running well and then put it all back together.

When you get that far your cycle will start and in a few short weeks you will be ready to start adding fish.

 

Hello, welcome to 3reef

+1 to starting from scratch. I would scrub the rocks with a brush, clean your sand like you did with your gravel using a simple siphon gravel vac and then ditch your water.
I would go for a good quality salt mix like red sea coral pro (there are many other good ones, thats just the make that I use) and use then RO water (which you should beable to buy from your local fish shop) to make it up to the correct salinity.

I would also recommend investing in a refractometer for measuring salinity (It will cost more than a hydrometer but is one of the most important tests in a salt water tank).

 

It look like its been covered in the last few posts so i will just say
Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef!!! ;D To start off don't use tap water if you can avoid it. Use either RO water from your LFS or water out of a culligan machine.....or even better buy an RO unit for your home. That way you have water for ALL of your tanks in your home. ;D

 

I agree with the purchase of a refractometer (from ebay, about $25-$35) as the hydrometer always gave me widely varied readings. Salinity needs to be stable so you have to know what it is.

Good for you, starting a 30 gal tank. I am a complete novice myself so I am limited in what I can offer as advice. I will comment to the best of my ability and hope that if I make an error someone else on the forum will correct me.

I do think you already have the basics in place to get a SW tank going.

Steps to take:
(1) Clean the tank but not sterilize it; no soap and absolutely no copper treatments (bad for invertebrates and reef tanks).
(2) Cycling. Get and use test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The bio-wheel has helpful bacteria that you want to get back into the cycle. Live rock (LR) and live sand (LS) will also have nitrogen cycling bacteria. The cleaned and set up tank with proper salinity sits with the bio-wheel filter running. It may be that you will already have enough cycling going on that you don't need to choose either a hardy fish or fish-less cycling. I think, while cycling, sequentially ammonia peaks and drops, nitrite peaks and drops, and nitrate peaks and drops. After the nitrogen cycle is set up and the bacteria are playing their roles, you will do about a 30% salt water change (de-ionized water purchased from store; not distilled and definitely not spring). The nitrates should be low or zero.

If you do fish cycling, select a very hardy fish (some people like damselfish but I like their relative the green chromis). Treat nitrate increases with a partial water change. Once the swings have stopped, nitrate level near zero, you are cycled and can add other organisms.

Fishless cycling is adding a fresh (not frozen) shrimp in a gauze bag and letting it start the cycling process.

Again, if your ammonia is already high, I think your cycling will be on-going without adding either fish or fresh dead shrimp.

Rules of salt water (in contrast to FW): go slowly and try to keep the environment stable with little change in temperature, pH, and definitely low nitrate. Your tank is big enough but it will be sensitive to changes.

About your protein skimmer, if you know another SW aquarium person, he or she could come over and show you how to assemble it. Alternatively, perhaps the local fish store staff would show you how to assemble it. As soon as you get it up and running, you can start using it. It will help keep the nitrates down.

Good luck and have fun. You are off to a good start.

 

Glad to have you aboard,the only dumb question is one not asked.Take your time and ask questions when needed and you can make your boyfriend with the 300 freshwater envious of your 30 salt tank .

 

agreed.. then maybe he will come here and do a build thread... best of luck! and never be afraid to ask questions..

 

welcone to 3 reef Rocheal

if in doubt, type it out
the more questions you ask, the more you will enjoy this hobby

Steve