First time with saltwater after avoiding it for 40 years

Fish Think Pink · Oct 29, 2022

SoCalSauce said:
If you used live sand, get some seeded live rock from someone else’s tank, dose microbacter and fritz turbo you could accelerate the cycle turn time.

SO... in DFW if you get someone's live rock, its like kissing every sick person at the hospital... I've been having a LOT of fun (not) after catching nearly everything there is to catch...

agree with the bottled bacteria approach, but not live rock for the sake of cycle... some cycle starts are better than others...

google online cycle start options - maybe you already have good product(s)

EDIT:
Reiterating - patience is the magic !!!

BroccoliFarmer · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
Hi Folks, I used to work at a freshwater fish store in the 1980's in NJ and have finally decided to give saltwater a try in CA. I set up an Evo13.5 last night with a dry live rock, dry sand, and a bottle of bacteria. I am so so so tempted to add a clown today since I am fine doing daily water changes (I have a freshwater community tank and a fancy goldfish tank) and desperately want to see life in the new tank.

Am I about to commit n00b mistake #1? I believe this is considered fish-in cycling and I do have that live dry rock and the bottle of bac so I feel somewhat justified but also a little guilty having these thoughts...

Welcome to the r2r community. After 40 years you MIGHT have saved up enough for a salt water reef tank…as long as you are willing to put off retirement!!

vetteguy53081 · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
Fair enough. I will redirect my energy to the other aquariums in the meantime. Do you recommend I phantom feed or put a frozen shrimp in there (if so, how much and how often for 13galllons) or just let the live rock and initial bac bottle just run with the filter is enough?

Agree will look into it. Really excited been thinking about this for years so excited to start the SW journey. Here's my current fw community tank

You can do frozen shrimp 48 hours or add ammonia chloride
With shrimp, It may even visibly rot, or develop mucous which needs to happen. As it rots, ammonia is released into the water, and bacteria grows spreading into the substrate. The water may seem cloudy, which is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. After 3 days, remove the shrimp and throw it away then test for ammonia and see what it measures which should read at least 1ppm, or higher.

fishtown-tom · Oct 29, 2022

BroccoliFarmer said:
Welcome to the r2r community. After 40 years you MIGHT have saved up enough for a salt water reef tank…as long as you are willing to put off retirement!!

I feel like you all laughing with and at me at the same time I'm enjoying being a n00b again! Will not be telling wife about expenses too often...

BroccoliFarmer · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
I feel like you all laughing with and at me at the same time I'm enjoying being a n00b again! Will not be telling wife about expenses too often...

I would amend that to NEVER!!

fishtown-tom · Oct 29, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
You can do frozen shrimp 48 hours or add ammonia chloride
With shrimp, It may even visibly rot, or develop mucous which needs to happen. As it rots, ammonia is released into the water, and bacteria grows spreading into the substrate. The water may seem cloudy, which is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. After 3 days, remove the shrimp and throw it away then test for ammonia and see what it measures which should read at least 1ppm, or higher.

Thx I put a couple of dried bloodworm pieces in there this morning. Will try shrimp later in the week if things look stable!

ScubaShane · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome to R2R!

tharbin · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome to R2R! As others have said, wait. Patience is the number one hard thing to learn in the saltwater hobby but it is almost always better to go slow with a reef tank. Notable exceptions to that rule; electrical short/fire, other potentially life-threatening accident, burst tank seams, dumping large quantity of non-reef-related material into tank accidently. For just about everything else, take it slow. As @vetteguy53081 mentioned, when you do add life to the tank. do it slowly. Each critter you add will increase the bio-load and the nitrifying bacteria will need to increase to offset that additional bio-load. That does not happen immediately. Too much at once can start a mini-cycle to the detriment of the tanks inhabitants.

Illini_Drew33 · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome to R2R and back in the saltwater game.

Jimbhoy13 · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Tom. Good advice from vetteguy. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

BroccoliFarmer · Oct 29, 2022

Jimbhoy13 said:
Welcome to R2R and the salty world Tom. Good advice from vetteguy. Take things slowly. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

well..to be fair there are a lot of people here that will also criticize you over minutia and give you poor advice.

exnisstech · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
Feels painful seeing it empty

WELCOME!
Patience is a virtue all reef keepers should possess, but many of us do not, (looks in the mirror). At least not in the beginning

kevgib67 · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome Tom, glad you are here! “ The waiting is the hardest part,” Tom Petty.

CoralB · Oct 29, 2022

Welcome !!!

Lowell Lemon · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
Thx VetteG. I was afraid you'd say that ;-) what about a shrimp? Is there any living saltwater thing I can add?

How about real live rock?

tbrown · Oct 29, 2022

fishtown-tom said:
Hi Folks, I used to work at a freshwater fish store in the 1980's in NJ and have finally decided to give saltwater a try in CA. I set up an Evo13.5 last night with a dry live rock, dry sand, and a bottle of bacteria. I am so so so tempted to add a clown today since I am fine doing daily water changes (I have a freshwater community tank and a fancy goldfish tank) and desperately want to see life in the new tank.

Am I about to commit n00b mistake #1? I believe this is considered fish-in cycling and I do have that live dry rock and the bottle of bac so I feel somewhat justified but also a little guilty having these thoughts...

Welcome to Reef2Reef! I'd be careful. With dry rock and dry sand there's the potential for some decay which could cause an ammonia spike. Test ammonia and Nitrite levels for a couple of days just to make sure the bacteria is doing it's job. Clownfish are supposed to be very hardy but it's best to err on the side of a little bit of caution.