Already have Eclipse 6 tank. I have 10 gallon with Emperor 280 filter, but space is tight where tanks going. I heard about nitrates being harmful in saltwater tank system. Talked to my local fish wholesaler. He wants me to pick up saltwater and some sand at high tide at the beach. Mix it with distilled water till specific gravity measures 1.020. Add a little aragonite that he has laying around to sand. Add a few pieces of live rock, and let tank circulate for a month. Also can add a small Damsel to tank, & check water every few days to watch how its doing. He said the Damsel will determine the water condition & cycle the tank. *twirlysmiley*
10g saltwater tank!
- Thread starter jf228
- Start date
I'd be really careful with using local water with non-local fish. That's usually not a sound thing to do, but I don't know, your wholesaler might know a bit more.
Sargent majors, Beaugregories, and jewelfish (aka yellowtail damsels but not to be confused with yellowtail blue) are the only two Damsels I can think of at the moment indiginous to your area that I have personally seen in the trade (and on the reef). Although, the sacraficial damsel idea kinda doesn't float either. If you really want to do a water quality check I would rather spend a buck on a black molly then three on a damsel.
~~Colesea
Sargent majors, Beaugregories, and jewelfish (aka yellowtail damsels but not to be confused with yellowtail blue) are the only two Damsels I can think of at the moment indiginous to your area that I have personally seen in the trade (and on the reef). Although, the sacraficial damsel idea kinda doesn't float either. If you really want to do a water quality check I would rather spend a buck on a black molly then three on a damsel.
~~Colesea
Well he told me to filter the local water with carbon. Make salinity or specific gravity is at or below 1.020 or 20 ppm. He said parasites will thrive in higher levels, but die or a lower levels. This helps to clear the water. I was thinking of running UV sterilizer through the water for a few days before trying a fish. He said he can also probably pick up some established water, sand & rock for me this weekend. I'll have to check with him tomorrow to see if he going to pickup any live stock from the saltwater wholesalers this Sat. *twirlysmiley*
Yeah, and after all that time "cleaning" the water from the beach you might as well have made yourself up a steril batch in even less time because everything you do is going to kill whatever beneficial plankton you derive from using local water in the first place.
That's what I like the most about local water tanks, is that all the good stuff is pretty much already in it, good to go. Lowering the salinities and running it through the UV light will get rid of the bad stuff for sure, but it will also get rid of the good stuff. If you use fish from the same local waters, they're already adapted and acclimated to dealing with the bad stuff, so parasites and disease of the Carribean might not bother a sergent major, but it may descimate a clown.
That's just my opinion on the deal. I'm sure your wholesaler as tried this method he told you about himself and is sure it is going to work with pacific fish. he does know you plan on putting pacific fish in this tank, right?
~~Colesea
That's what I like the most about local water tanks, is that all the good stuff is pretty much already in it, good to go. Lowering the salinities and running it through the UV light will get rid of the bad stuff for sure, but it will also get rid of the good stuff. If you use fish from the same local waters, they're already adapted and acclimated to dealing with the bad stuff, so parasites and disease of the Carribean might not bother a sergent major, but it may descimate a clown.
That's just my opinion on the deal. I'm sure your wholesaler as tried this method he told you about himself and is sure it is going to work with pacific fish. he does know you plan on putting pacific fish in this tank, right?
~~Colesea
Well I haven't decided on fish yet, though I have mentioned a clown so far. I think we'll probably pull all the species needed from the same supplier. This way we can keep the natural bacterias that the fish came from. I'll have to go over it some more with him about the local water/sand setup he told me. I know it works cause alot of people I've talked to have done it, but I pretty sure its also local fish used in the tanks. I think he was trying to start this tank off by keeping some costs down. As for the UV sterilizer, it was my idea, I figured it would have been a bad move after I thought about it. It would basically kill off all the good as well as the bad bacteria/parasites. *twirlysmiley*
Let us know how it goes. I've a friend right now that is setting up a local freshwater steam tank, and is using "live rock" substrate right from the stream. Lots of my customers have what I call "bay" tanks. See, on LI we have about four or five different ecotypes to choose from. Many South Shore residents have Great South Bay tanks, with the shallow water fish and some of the tropical exotics that get brought to us by the gulf current. These tanks are sandy bottomed and nice tanks with sea horses, butterfiles, fluke, baby shrimps and stuff. They try to grow sea grass in their tanks, but sea grass doesn't do very well once it has been uprooted, and it's not a good idea to go picking through endangered sea grass anyway.
I'm a personal fan of the "sound" tanks. The Long Island Sound has the most interesting bottom, all rocks and algae. Great beds of -Ulva lactucca- cover it. Simply take the rocks right off the bottom and instert them into the tank and you get all sorts of interesting critters. Sea stars, muscles, clams, spider crab, hermit crabs. Sand perch if you can catch them, baby flounders, pipefish and shiners nearshore, little stripers. It's really cool, and they eat right off the rock. If your rock dies off, no problem, skip it back out into the Sound and get another. I'm a big fan of the algae garden<G>.
Then we've got the estuary areas, and the freshwater lakes and streams that are crawling with small mouth bass, pickeral, sunfish, freshwater clams, trout. A freshwater tank is the one my friend wants to do since he's a stream in his backyard.
I don't know of anybody except the big name aquariums that have large offshore tanks. Some of the triggers though, them be eatin' fish! The NY Aquarium of Coney Island has a great Hudson River display with huge stripers in it. HUGE!
~~Colesea
I'm a personal fan of the "sound" tanks. The Long Island Sound has the most interesting bottom, all rocks and algae. Great beds of -Ulva lactucca- cover it. Simply take the rocks right off the bottom and instert them into the tank and you get all sorts of interesting critters. Sea stars, muscles, clams, spider crab, hermit crabs. Sand perch if you can catch them, baby flounders, pipefish and shiners nearshore, little stripers. It's really cool, and they eat right off the rock. If your rock dies off, no problem, skip it back out into the Sound and get another. I'm a big fan of the algae garden<G>.
Then we've got the estuary areas, and the freshwater lakes and streams that are crawling with small mouth bass, pickeral, sunfish, freshwater clams, trout. A freshwater tank is the one my friend wants to do since he's a stream in his backyard.
I don't know of anybody except the big name aquariums that have large offshore tanks. Some of the triggers though, them be eatin' fish! The NY Aquarium of Coney Island has a great Hudson River display with huge stripers in it. HUGE!
~~Colesea
The tank has been done for about 3 days. I bought cycled live sand. Have 2lb. of fiji rock and gonna get more when i have the $$. I have 2 damsels, theyre doing great! The 15watt bulb looks fine. The tank is crystal clear! Does anyone know what other food i can give the damsels besides flakes(already have them)?
Hey JF228, what filter are you running on it now? Does it have a protein skimmer. I held off my small salt-water to get a skimmer. Looking to get Supreme Skilter 250 for 10 gallon right now. As for feeding the damsels, practically every food can be feed. Brineshrimp, mysis, lobster eggs (don't know where you'll find it, maybe LFS), plankton, small pieces of squid, cockle & mussel pieces. There are planty of frozen foods for saltwater fish at LFS, just check the freezer section of the store. If I'm not mistaken, you have to add nutrients for the live rock also!*twirlysmiley*
[quote author=eseow link=board=nanosaltwater&num=1018398288&start=45#51 date=04/17/02 at 22:27:43]
Hey JF228, what filter are you running on it now? Does it have a protein skimmer. I held off my small salt-water to get a skimmer. Looking to get Supreme Skilter 250 for 10 gallon right now. *twirlysmiley*
[/quote]
The majority of reefers usually don't use a skimmer on a 10 gallon less. It's much better to do a 10% water change weekly or biweekly. The skilters and all other skimmers for that tank is usually worthless other than to provide added aeration.
Hey JF228, what filter are you running on it now? Does it have a protein skimmer. I held off my small salt-water to get a skimmer. Looking to get Supreme Skilter 250 for 10 gallon right now. *twirlysmiley*
[/quote]
The majority of reefers usually don't use a skimmer on a 10 gallon less. It's much better to do a 10% water change weekly or biweekly. The skilters and all other skimmers for that tank is usually worthless other than to provide added aeration.
I will honestly tell you this. Your chances of keeping an anenome alive in a 10 gallon is very slim. It's that they usually require more space than you think because it can grow very big and requires room to move around like any organism.
Poor water conditions, poor feeding, and even lighting will probably kill it very quickly.
Even experts have hard time keeping them alive and they do require a lot of feeding. If you post the same question of placing an anenome in any of the other aquaria forums, you will have at least 10 guys yell at you for thinking of such a thing.
Just want you to a little research before you get one.
Sorry to be so straightforward but hope it's not meant to be harsh.
Poor water conditions, poor feeding, and even lighting will probably kill it very quickly.
Even experts have hard time keeping them alive and they do require a lot of feeding. If you post the same question of placing an anenome in any of the other aquaria forums, you will have at least 10 guys yell at you for thinking of such a thing.
Just want you to a little research before you get one.
Sorry to be so straightforward but hope it's not meant to be harsh.
I guess the protein skimmer makes more sense now with the anemone. This is one of the things I planned. As far how to keep it alive, I have plenty info on what it requires. It will be a small one, it will be feed when needed, lighting would be there, and as far as the protein skimmer, an inefficient one, is better than none at all. I was also considering either the Visi-Jet or a Prism Hang-on. Both are counter current. The Skilter was cheap alternative,and seems too short to effectively "skim"the water, but this is why I have NOT set-up a 10 gallon salt water yet. Its steering me more to 20 to 25 gallon at the least, which means I will have to teardown one of my freshwater tanks for saltwater. *crazysmiley*
Good luck with the anemone. They're tricky to take care of. Tell us how it turns out. I've had them, but only for a week at a time, then we would put them back in the ocean. Usually they ate concentrated plankton we would squirt directly into their mouths with a pipet. We collected the plankton fresh ourselves (10 micron mesh nets are cool!). Sometimes we'd poke a bit of squid in there, and they'd eat that. But I've never actually "kept kept" one, we've always put them back after a week. They were Caribbean Giant Anemones. Very pretty. Nice purplish colors. Usually we took the entire rock they were attached too and plopped that into the aquarium.
Of course, Caribbean giant anemones aren't going to be a happy home for clown fish, they're from opposite sides of the world. Many clownfish anemones really don't do well in captivity at all.
If you're planning to keep one, you'll probably need a full reef lighting set up.
~~Colesea
Of course, Caribbean giant anemones aren't going to be a happy home for clown fish, they're from opposite sides of the world. Many clownfish anemones really don't do well in captivity at all.
If you're planning to keep one, you'll probably need a full reef lighting set up.
~~Colesea
I'll post what happens. Trust me, I don't buy anything live without trying to know how to take care of it first. Thanks on all the comments & answers. I won't get any carribean anemone either, not natural for clown. Even looking for ground probe when tank is setup. Should have better idea when I go to the wholesaler this weekend.(Ever seen 7 foot tall protein skimmers emptied into 55 gallon garbage pails & 15 foot wet/dry sumps!!) *celebratesmiley*
My tank is setup finally! Its a 10 gallon tank. One emperor 280 filter, glass lid with one 24 watt 15 inch 60/40 Reef light (temporary). Has live sand with a little sugar size "aragamax" mixed in. Lots of cured live rock, 4 damsels, 2 hermits, 2 snails I think? I'll have to watch tank for stability, and how its going to cycle, before going to clown & anemone setup. Changing out light to JBJ 17 inch unit (2 x 24 watts, blue & white bulbs). Working on protein skimmer setup, but after tank cycles. *celebratesmiley*
