Need a lot of help!

Traci2289 · Oct 8, 2017

Let me start off, I never intended to get into this, it was a wonderful accident. My kids had picked up hermit crabs along the beach and we took them home. We followed directions and got sand and heating lamps. Then one died, my kids were heartbroken, so I took it to the pet store to find out what went wrong. Turns out they were salt water! We quickly turned out 29 gallons Walmart tank (like k said I didn’t invest in 6 hermit crabs we got for free) that came with the basics. We then got 5 snails to clean up after them as well as a tomatoe clown and blue damsel. The tank was going great and we were super happy! Two weeks later we went back to the pet store and asked what next! We ended up with a dirty, needless to say we had to take it back the next day, blue damsels are not a fan of them. One week later 3 snails were found being eaten by the crabs and out clown was hiding in fear and not looking so good. We decided to scrap all the tank except the two snails left and a chocolate chip star fish (because the name alone is awesome)! Now we are trying to figure out what to put in the tank! We have 29 pounds live rock and the basic tank we bought. I have no idea what to get from here, do I get a school? What do I get first if we want a peaceful tank? Do you build protein skimmers? Can I have coral? I’m so lost!

Ty Hamatake · Oct 8, 2017

Oohh... lots of questions here. Let's see, first and foremost, have you researched the nitrogen cycle? It's sounds like that tank went up really fast, and that fish were added in the same manner. I would do some reading and make sure your tank is ready before you add anything else. Here is a goid place to start https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cycling-an-aquarium.306554/

Once your tank is cycled I'd do some looking around to find out what you want and if it works for your tank. For example, chocolate chips are cool, but not "reef safe" indicating that coral is part of their diet. I like to use Liveaquaria.com for spec requirements as they generally realistic http://www.liveaquaria.com
After you find a fish you want, make sure you research, research, research. Things like comparability, tank size requirements (your chocolate chip could grow big enough to touch both sides of your tank at the same time), reef safe or not, and parameter requirements are very important when choosing livestock.

Some people DIY protein skimmers, but with your size of tank using water changes alone to keep the water clean is feasible. If you go this route the WCs (water changes) need to be consistent and frequent.

Lastly, welcome to R2R! Keep the questions rolling in, as we love answering them! A few pictures never hurt anyone either

Oops, I forgot the coral. So keeping coral requires spealized lighting. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the lighting included with your tank is not sufficient to support coral. Next you'll want to decide what type of coral you'll want to keep as this will determine what type of lights you'll need. Corals are broken mainly into three categories. Softies, LPS, and SPS. The higher up you go on the list, the higher the lighting requirements (generally speaking).

Clinton · Oct 8, 2017

How long have you had the tank set up? Sounds like you were ill prepared and now is the time to slow down and go back to the drawing board

glb · Oct 8, 2017

I would definitely do a lot of research before adding anything else to the tank. +1 on learning about the nitrogen cycle. If I were you, I'd return the chocolate chip starfish and the snails and start from scratch. You'll need circulation for the tank to aerate the water. You'll also need test kits for ammonia, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, and salinity at the very least to get started. There's a pretty steep learning curve for saltwater but once you get the hang of it it's a great hobby. I'd check out the stickies at the top of this forum. There's a lot of great info to help out. And welcome!

Traci2289 · Oct 8, 2017

Yes!!! Thank you for the article that also helped clarify things on the cycle! I bought the master salt water test and have got my water perfect, I’m just not sure where to start with fish, I think after looking it up corals are something down the road for a larger tank.

Chrisfish · Oct 8, 2017

Welcome to R2R, youve come to the right place for questions and help. As others have said slow down, in addition to the help you'll find here , read read read and you tube videos are very helpful. How long has your tank been running?

Traci2289 · Oct 8, 2017

The tank has been up and running for 4 months. We we’re trying to research and subscribed to a couple of the YouTube channels but it’s easy to get lost in it all. We were guided by our local pet store on everything we put in the tank and now we are learning that’s not the way to go. How long to you usually wait in between fish?

Big G · Oct 8, 2017

Welcome to R2R! Here's some help. Highly suggested reading: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...-saltwater-reef-aquarium.138750/#post-1603526

Clinton · Oct 9, 2017

Traci2289 said:
The tank has been up and running for 4 months. We we’re trying to research and subscribed to a couple of the YouTube channels but it’s easy to get lost in it all. We were guided by our local pet store on everything we put in the tank and now we are learning that’s not the way to go. How long to you usually wait in between fish?

Depending on your lfs and the individual you speak to they'll tell you all sorts of things. I like to wait a month or 2 in between adding to my bioload while keeping a journal of my parameters. It's all part of the game. What all do you have running your tank. Take plenty of pictures too. I love pictures. In fact send some pictures of your scape and filtration, and water movement