Taking it very slow

Wow, what amazing people you all are. Thank you all for taking the time to read and post for me. That is really impressive - so thank you.

I have stopped adding salt all together. My hydrometer hasn't moved a bit and reading reefmonkey's post made me pause altogether. There are only two pictures for directions on the hydrometer I got. One for periodic readings and one for continuous readings. I choose the later of the two. I did go to redseafish.com and I did find a pdf of directions.
http://www.redseafish.com/languages\95\pdf\238.pdf
So, by reading what they said, I would guess that I am doing it correctly. I stopped adding salt about 30 min ago and the needle still hasn't moved. So I did a little math and decided I am no where near what needs to be added. If I use 55 half cups of salt then I need 27.5 cups of salt. I have added in a total of 6 cups total. So I still have a ways to go. But if this does not work reefmonkey, I will go and buy the one you mentioned. But I will probably by the refractometer because several people on this posting and on this sight have mentioned they use that one.

Peredhil, I most certainly will check out the feature you have mentioned and I will use it a great deal. Thank you for pointing it out. I am actually going to the movies to get my mind off the salt needle not moving and hopefully when I come back it has moved a bit.

I am really excited about this and reading everyone's post here and other post on this site, I am getting even more excited. Who new that greyish blue foggy water could be so exciting!!

I did get my filter working again and my heater seem to be running like a chap. Water temp is between 72 and 75 degrees. I have read on this sight that I want to keep it at around 78 degree. So I may go by another heater or a bigger one. The one I did buy said it was for up a 60 gallon tank.

Mojo, I am not sure about the type of tank I plan on getting. I have seen pictures from both and find them both amazing. However, I think I am leaning more and more towards a live rock or coral tank - is there a difference?

I see so much of adding rock to the fish tank and I plan on getting some in the morning. However, the more I read, the more weight I am putting into this tank. I read someplace that with everything added into the tank, it could reach up to one ton. Since all of you are doing something similar, can someone please confirm that my 55 gallon fish tank is not going to bottom out. It just seems like so much weight to be supported by glass. As for the power heads, I am not really sure what those are, but I will check for some at the fish store tomorrow.

 

you really dont have anything to worry about. 1 gal = 10lbs. so your tank will hold roughly 550 lbs of water. adding say 75 lbs of rock, will lessen the water load. you will not reacha ton. also to ease your worries, these tanks are made to stay together in regards to weight. as proof by all the tanks here. mine is a 90 with about 120lbs of LR. you will be alright.

powerheads are basically a small motor with a prop attached that moves the water in your tank. circulating it. they attach to the inside of your glass with a magnet on the outside. there quite a few different sizes out there. in the koralia line, 2 K2's would do you fine to start.

guy

 

I've got a 55. Here are my two threads on it.

Reading through them might give you ideas for your 55.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/inverts/clean-up-crew-53007.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/peredhil-55-gallon-thread-56156.html

 

Welcome to 3 reef Mozis

anchored down in Anchorage

I may have read this wrong , but if you have a 25 gallon bag of salt and its a 55 gallon tank, you only have less than half of the salt you will need.

so even when you have added it all , you wont see enough movement on that hydrometer

Steve

 

Well Steven, that makes me feel a ton better. I just got home from the movies (which royally sucked!!) after having added 90% of the bag and still no movement. I guess I did my math wrong. I will recheck it and go buy another bag.

Also, thank you Peredhil and Divott for easing my concerns about the weight. I won't worry about that anymore.

I can't get over how helpful this website is. I'm amazed.

 

Yeah that was not good of me. Sorry. I don't use a hydrometer because they are known to give inaccurate readings. I own one though and was thinking of how it is used but not that other types are made.
I really do think you'll have better success managing your sg if you invest in refractometer though. They're way more accurate. I'm sure others would agree.

 

Oh, no worries dude, at all. I will go out and buy a refractometer in the morning.

I have also come to the conclusion that I need so much more salt. When I got home from the movies, my son had slipped a gold fish in my salt water tank...I was wondering why he was hiding under his bed. (no, I don't beat my kid..lol) However, after adding a 25 gallon bag of salt to my tank, I was shocked when I had to ask the question, why is there a small gold fish swimming in my salt water tank......alive???? So, needless to say, I need more salt. No, but really man, thank you for your post and advice.

 

if you are really interested in getting a book on the subject, i recommend "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist 2nd edition" by Robert M Fenner.....unless there is a third edition out now. then i would go with that one.

 

Thank you very much. I was actually looking at a few books online and The Conscientious Marine actually came up several time by people on this forum. So I will see if B&N has that tomorrow.

I also just got back from the fish place and they have a very limited supply of Live Rock. So I bought all that was there, only 40 pounds. I am pretty limited on the stores that I can go to here in Alaska. They will have more next week. So I will finish adding my salt tomorrow and hopefully get a good salt level. After that, I will go pick up my live rock and start adding that in, I will also add a few raw shrimp tomorrow. After that, if I am understanding what I am reading so far on this forum, I need to wait a good 6-8 weeks before doing anything else. Which is just fine. I need to order online the power heads as no one in Anchorage sells them. At what point between now and whenever do I need to start looking at lightening? Right now, all I have is the light that came with the tank. Which Is not even on right now nor is it even set up.

 

Mozis

lighting - I prefer to leave lighting off completely during the cycle period
so having no lights on the tank for 6 - 8 weeks is a good thing IME

The main reason being that if you have live rock, you can have all manner of algaes present and they are present at a time when your nutrient levels start to rise
so if you add algae spores, nutrients and lights - you can end up with a forrest of stuff you dont want

leaving the lights off , removes one of the 3 contributors to algae outbreaks
and even though you will in all probability experience some as the tank matures, it wont be as bad as it might have been if you had run the lights early days IME

Steve