Need help first salt water tank

[Doge14]

So I bought my first tank yesterday (biocube32) and I got approx 20 pounds live rock and put in 30 pounds Caribbean sand and the water,I got from the fish store (approx 25 gallons went in) i also bought a ounce of fritz 900 turbo start. So they dint have any thing to test salinity so i ordered that, they told me the only thing I needed to tested right now was nitrite, nitrate and ammonia so I bought them test kits well I got everything in at 12 am and put in the bacteria. Well today at 5 pm I checked the ammonia 0,nitrite 0, nitrate 0 as well maybe 5ppm well one thing I forgot was to add a pecie of deadshrimp to feed off the turbo start I added and I couldn’t get anything today sense everywhere was closed will I be fine to add it a pecie of dead shrimp tomarrow or will the turbo start I added be gone or dead by then and I need to get another ounce? The store I got everything from wasn’t as helpful as I intended

 

[HotRocks]

So they sold you all the supplies, no salinity tester? There are tons of people here that will be willing to help you. First thing is the newly setup tank needs time to cycle in order to be able to process the fish waste. Thankfully you have the bacteria in a bottle which will help.

 

[AndyinAtlanta]

First lesson in aquariums, patience. Very little happens quickly. Adding a dead shrimp is not an essential step. It's completely optional, and if you do want to go that route waiting a day...or two...or five...isn't going to kill anything already established in your tank.

It might not be exciting staring at a tank full of sand and rock right now, but get used to it for the next few weeks. Patience.

 

[Doge14]

So they sold you all the supplies, no salinity tester, and fish to go in the tank the same day you set it up? There are tons of people here that will be willing to help you. First thing is the newly setup tank needs time to cycle in order to be able to process the fish waste. Thankfully you have the bacteria in a bottle which will help. How many fish did you end up with? What kind and what size? How are you supposed to mix salt water properly?

Thanks for the reply, and no they dint sell me the fish I told them I wanted the tank to cycle before I got a fish, and as we were talking about cycling I seen a bottle of fritz turbo start 900 so I asked should I use that they said yes it will cycle the tank in 48 hours to a week, so they sold me a once that was good for 25 gallons, well I got home put everything in then after it cleared up i put the Bactria in well as I was testing my water today I forgot all about buying a pecie of shrimp or somthing to add to the tank to start the cycling process, so would it be fine to go to the fish store tomorrow and buy somthing or will the Bactria I already poured in he gone. And I ordered a rodi unit to make my own water and I already bought a box of 55 pound fritz salt to mix for it

 

[Doge14]

First lesson in aquariums, patience. Very little happens quickly. Adding a dead shrimp is not an essential step. It's completely optional, and if you do want to go that route waiting a day...or two...or five...isn't going to kill anything already established in your tank.

It might not be exciting staring at a tank full of sand and rock right now, but get used to it for the next few weeks. Patience.

Thanks for the reply man and yes I’m all about Patience I was just told the fritz turbo should cycle the tank I’m up to a week instead of a month or 2 but ethier way I was fine with

 

[ISFNick]

Welcome to R2R!!!!

I think you'll find that this hobby is incredibly rewarding!
Bulk Reef Supply is THE spot to get reef supplies of any kind if you need it, and their YouTube channel is what taught me all about this hobby! Use their channel to learn!
The 5-minute guide, 52 weeks of reefing, and podcasts are great for new reefers.
Depending on the store, I'd take what they say with a grain of salt, since their purpose is to sell to you.
Take it slow with the tank, go for stability first. Go light on bioload, meaning maybe 4 fish at the max (i'd do 3!).
I recommend soft corals like zoanthids and palys!

 

[PRock]

Hey there, welcome to R2R. You should be fine with the fritz, it sits in the bottle for a good while before it goes in your tank, so a day or three before you get something to put in the tank to "feed" it won't matter. You really have 3 options there. The Shrimp method, which can be stinky, because the shrimp has to rot before it really starts helping the bacteria you added, you can "ghost feed" where you feed the tank as if there were fish there, and let the food break down and feed your bacteria - this is generally less stinky, but like the shrimp method can make the tank dirty, or you can go with Ammonium Chloride. That's an ammonia source that's immediately available to the bacteria, no decomposition needed. You can pick it up online on Amazon or pretty much any good saltwater vendor - just look for stuff that says it's for "Fishless Cycling". You can dose that instead of the shrimp or the ghost feeding, and it's much more controlled and easier to test because you know exactly how much you're adding to the system so you can easily tell how fast the bacteria is dealing with it. Good luck, and feel free to ask away around here, the amount of info and help available is staggering!

 

[Doge14]

Welcome to R2R!!!!

I think you'll find that this hobby is incredibly rewarding!
Bulk Reef Supply is THE spot to get reef supplies of any kind if you need it, and their YouTube channel is what taught me all about this hobby! Use their channel to learn!
The 5-minute guide, 52 weeks of reefing, and podcasts are great for new reefers.
Depending on the store, I'd take what they say with a grain of salt, since their purpose is to sell to you.
Take it slow with the tank, go for stability first. Go light on bioload, meaning maybe 4 fish at the max (i'd do 3!).
I recommend soft corals like zoanthids and palys!

Ima have to watch them all tonight then lol appreciate the advice and yes zoas was one of the first corals I had in mind to get

 

[Doge14]

Hey there, welcome to R2R. You should be fine with the fritz, it sits in the bottle for a good while before it goes in your tank, so a day or three before you get something to put in the tank to "feed" it won't matter. You really have 3 options there. The Shrimp method, which can be stinky, because the shrimp has to rot before it really starts helping the bacteria you added, you can "ghost feed" where you feed the tank as if there were fish there, and let the food break down and feed your bacteria - this is generally less stinky, but like the shrimp method can make the tank dirty, or you can go with Ammonium Chloride. That's an ammonia source that's immediately available to the bacteria, no decomposition needed. You can pick it up online on Amazon or pretty much any good saltwater vendor - just look for stuff that says it's for "Fishless Cycling". You can dose that instead of the shrimp or the ghost feeding, and it's much more controlled and easier to test because you know exactly how much you're adding to the system so you can easily tell how fast the bacteria is dealing with it. Good luck, and feel free to ask away around here, the amount of info and help available is staggering!

Thanks for the help, ima go with the ammonia chloride if I can get it locally but if not, the ghost feeding method. any fish food or how much I should use in particular? Or that’s just a rough guess

 

[ISFNick]

Thanks for the help, ima go with the ammonia chloride if I can get it locally but if not, the ghost feeding method. any fish food or how much I should use in particular? Or that’s just a rough guess

Just a pinch is always solid my man!

 

[Yates273]

If you live near an Ace hardware store pick up a bottle of their ammonia. (Janitorial strength). I used this on all my tanks for a fishless cycle and it works great. They’re calculators online to let you know how much to use.

 

[PRock]

Thanks for the help, ima go with the ammonia chloride if I can get it locally but if not, the ghost feeding method. any fish food or how much I should use in particular? Or that’s just a rough guess

Basically you want to feed for your expected bioload, which honestly shouldn't be more than a pinch or so in a 32 Bio. But keep in mind that with both the shrimp and ghost feeding method there's a bit of a delay in the cycle because you need the shrimp/food to break down first, so it's available to the bacteria you're trying to grow, so it might take a few days before anything starts showing up on your tests. Be patient, it'll happen, and while you wait go find the 5minute guides from BRStv or any of the dozens of other good video series out there on youtube. Also, you'll probably hear this from others, but there's a big difference between cycled and mature, and while things like Fritz Turbostart get you cycled quickly, you're still going to go through lots of ugly stages as your tank matures, so expect that you'll have a diatom/dino outbreak, you'll probably have cyano at one point, and you'll have algae uglies too. It's natural, it happens to just about everyone when starting out, just think of it as your tank going through puberty. Just keep up with your testing, don't let your parameters go nuts, and when you have questions, hop on here and ask away.

 

[Doge14]

Basically you want to feed for your expected bioload, which honestly shouldn't be more than a pinch or so in a 32 Bio. But keep in mind that with both the shrimp and ghost feeding method there's a bit of a delay in the cycle because you need the shrimp/food to break down first, so it's available to the bacteria you're trying to grow, so it might take a few days before anything starts showing up on your tests. Be patient, it'll happen, and while you wait go find the 5minute guides from BRStv or any of the dozens of other good video series out there on youtube. Also, you'll probably hear this from others, but there's a big difference between cycled and mature, and while things like Fritz Turbostart get you cycled quickly, you're still going to go through lots of ugly stages as your tank matures, so expect that you'll have a diatom/dino outbreak, you'll probably have cyano at one point, and you'll have algae uglies too. It's natural, it happens to just about everyone when starting out, just think of it as your tank going through puberty. Just keep up with your testing, don't let your parameters go nuts, and when you have questions, hop on here and ask away.

Hey man I indeeded up getting the put ammonia yesterday from the fish store, I also got a 1 ml syringe, I put in a whole ml yesterday and today it’s testing only .50 ammonia should I add another ml or is that fine? My nitrite also reading .25 and 0 nitrate

 

[Victor_C3]

The 5-minute guide, 52 weeks of reefing, and podcasts are great for new reefers.

I’ll second how great BRS videos are. I’ve been in the hobby quite a while and I only started watching them a few months ago and I’ve really learned a lot from them.

I used to have a 30 gallon nano. It’s a great size for a beginner tank. You can do a lot with it and it will last you several years before you outgrow it.

I personally found that 4-5 fish is the sweet spot for the 30 gallon setups I’ve had before. Whenever I tried to add a 6th, something usually ended up dying. 4-5 fish might not seem like a lot, but it really ends up being a decent amount of activity. Once you add a shrimp, a tuxedo urchin, a bunch of snails and hermits, there is a lot of life and activity in the system.

And as everyone else says, go slow!

I wouldn’t even worry about testing anything (or adding any livestock) until your tank is at least a month old. You will get hair algae on everything and you will get some other things growing crazy. Don’t worry, don’t start trying to fix these problems in a cycling tank, and they’ll work themselves out. I promise.

 

[maceto]

Welcome!!!

Like everybody mention before you need patience. These water parameters will start growing and changing with time.

In the meantime, you have a ton of information here to read and watch videos, is the best way.

Best,
Martin

 

[PRock]

Hey man I indeeded up getting the put ammonia yesterday from the fish store, I also got a 1 ml syringe, I put in a whole ml yesterday and today it’s testing only .50 ammonia should I add another ml or is that fine? My nitrite also reading .25 and 0 nitrate

Is that .5ppm? If so, then yeah, I'd dose back up to 2ppm. You're looking for your tank to eat 2ppm Ammonia in 24h to consider yourself "cycled".

 

[Doge14]

Is that .5ppm? If so, then yeah, I'd dose back up to 2ppm. You're looking for your tank to eat 2ppm Ammonia in 24h to consider yourself "cycled".

So yesterday I doesed another ml and got up to 1-2ppm ammonia,my nitrites were .50 nitrates 5ppm well today I tested now I’m reading .50ppm ammonia, 1.0-2.0 ppm nitrite and 10-20 nitrate. so u think I’m good on ammonia and should wait another 24 hours and test agin. I’m also growing some yellowish brow spots on the sand and rock should I be concerned? If I look closely there’s small looking hairs on some of it, from what I could look up looks like a possibility of diatoms or cyano

 

[vetteguy53081]

If you live near an Ace hardware store pick up a bottle of their ammonia. (Janitorial strength). I used this on all my tanks for a fishless cycle and it works great. They’re calculators online to let you know how much to use.

W H A T ????

 

[vetteguy53081]

SLOW is KEY.
There is a lot of chemical changes occurring and unlike freshwater, it will take a LONG time to get things developed.
My first bit of advice : The store that told you to use bacteria for a speedy start in a week. . . Fire Them !!! I would find a different and more reputable store as this one will likely sell you every fish and coral you Dont want and when they die, to keep selling you livestock as long as they get the money.