Newbie questions for Salt Water Fish Tank.

crismar629 · Apr 4, 2015

Hello Guys I'm new here at reef2reef, got few questions and I really need your help and suggestion

My Fish tank is 10 gallons and 5 days old, I already placed a live rock and now on curing process and have one black stripe damsel fish is on my tank I bought this the day I purchased the tank along with other 10 salt water fish but unfortunetely they died after I place the live rock I bought on Day 3 so only 1 damsel remaining. Here's my question...

1. How will I know if my live rock is cured. If still not is there any way to speedup this process?

2. Once my live rock is cured can I also put some anemone and corals on it? Because I want to have some clown fish in the future.

3. And also what are those web look like on the live rocks? Just curius

4. I'm using a hydrometer and salt water level is at 1.20 and having a hard time to get the correct volume so is that okay if I stop in this salt level or should I still go to 1.23 - 1.25? If not, is it okay if I add some salinity on water while my fish is on the tank or should I remove it first? what is the proper way for this?

I'm sorry if I lacking of patience, I know it is the 1st thing that I should have right now

My son is really excited to see a different kinds of fish on our tank and me as well so could you please give me some suggestions in order to have my tank well prepared.

Thanks in advance to all of your help and very much appreciated your warmth welcome ^_^

Mike in CT · Apr 5, 2015

This is going to stink, but if I was you I would take back last fish you have to start with. That fish will become very territorial and probably not let any other fish you can put in a tank that small live. Next, if your local fish store knowingly sold you a tank and 11 fish at the same time, at the very least I would never take any advice from then again (and I would not shop there if I had a choice).
Your correct, you need to have a lot more patience ( not criticizing, we have all been there ) . There are some good threads on here how to properly set up a new tank and hopefully someone will chime in with some links. Also a tank that size is VERY hard to keep stable because of the small volume of water involved. You might want to move up to a bigger tank if you seriously want to keep a saltwater tank for the long run.

Betta-Chetta · Apr 5, 2015

For starts ten gallon aquarium with ten or eleven fish is way to much. The most you may be able to get away with is probably two. Also your tank is very new so the reason why your fish died is because a spike in your ammonia and over crowding. In fish tanks ou have to go through the nitrogen cycle. In freshwater the cycle can only be done with adding fish. in saltwater the fish are way to sensitive to be thrown in just like freshwater fish that is why you use live rock and live sand because it has beneficial bacteria in it that helps go through this cycle. In the cycle you have ammonia which will rise and then fall, then you have nitrite which will rise and fall and then nitrate which is the last stage so when you have all zeros one the other two you need to do a 25% water change and then you will be ready for fish. For new systems they have to wait anywhere from 2 weeks to a month before adding any fish. I had the same issue when i first started out and i threw in 10 in my thirty gallon and they all died in less than a week. So in other words be patient and give it time if not you will continue to lose fish and money. Now on the live rock usually it takes several weeks for it to cure but i never pay attention to my being cured because i just go and pick them up when i need them. Now on the anemone and corals will need a very special light to be able to thrive and most anemones will not do good in a ten gallon aquarium just because they get really big. to be honest with you i would maybe get at least a 29 gallon. I tarted out with a 5.5 gallon and had a small condy anemone in there which no clown fish will host. I would recommend getting a larger aquarium for the anemone part. Now on the coral there are coral you can do in a small tank but i would stay away from a few of them just because they get really big. Also depending on the type of clowns will depend on if you could put two in a ten gallon aquarium just because the ocellaris (Nemo) will get 3.5 inches long, Clarkii clown ( yellow with white stripes) get 5 inches and maroon clowns get 6 inches long. Also in the long run i would say up grade the aquarium if you get small ocellaris because they will get very unhappy very quickly. In a ten gallon i would honestly recommend maybe a firefish goby, Clown gobies or something that stays small. My personal favorite would be a shark nose goby which i have had and they will perch on your arm while it is in the aquarium and crawl on you very cool! On gett ing the saltwater level if it has anemones and corals system i would get it to around 1.024-1.026. Now fish don't have to have it at that level to survive they can be at 1.021-1.022 and they would be fine. but if you want to keep corals and anemones it needs to be 1.024-1.026. Also i know from my experience working at a fish store that a lot of kids want the nemo and dory pair if that something you want to do i would suggest a very large tank for dory just because she will get a foot in length so i would personally recommend 75 gallon and up just because the length and the amount of swimming space for her.

crismar629 · Apr 5, 2015

Mike in CT said:
This is going to stink, but if I was you I would take back last fish you have to start with. That fish will become very territorial and probably not let any other fish you can put in a tank that small live. Next, if your local fish store knowingly sold you a tank and 11 fish at the same time, at the very least I would never take any advice from then again (and I would not shop there if I had a choice).
Your correct, you need to have a lot more patience ( not criticizing, we have all been there ) . There are some good threads on here how to properly set up a new tank and hopefully someone will chime in with some links. Also a tank that size is VERY hard to keep stable because of the small volume of water involved. You might want to move up to a bigger tank if you seriously want to keep a saltwater tank for the long run.

Betta-Chetta said:
For starts ten gallon aquarium with ten or eleven fish is way to much. The most you may be able to get away with is probably two. Also your tank is very new so the reason why your fish died is because a spike in your ammonia and over crowding. In fish tanks ou have to go through the nitrogen cycle. In freshwater the cycle can only be done with adding fish. in saltwater the fish are way to sensitive to be thrown in just like freshwater fish that is why you use live rock and live sand because it has beneficial bacteria in it that helps go through this cycle. In the cycle you have ammonia which will rise and then fall, then you have nitrite which will rise and fall and then nitrate which is the last stage so when you have all zeros one the other two you need to do a 25% water change and then you will be ready for fish. For new systems they have to wait anywhere from 2 weeks to a month before adding any fish. I had the same issue when i first started out and i threw in 10 in my thirty gallon and they all died in less than a week. So in other words be patient and give it time if not you will continue to lose fish and money. Now on the live rock usually it takes several weeks for it to cure but i never pay attention to my being cured because i just go and pick them up when i need them. Now on the anemone and corals will need a very special light to be able to thrive and most anemones will not do good in a ten gallon aquarium just because they get really big. to be honest with you i would maybe get at least a 29 gallon. I tarted out with a 5.5 gallon and had a small condy anemone in there which no clown fish will host. I would recommend getting a larger aquarium for the anemone part. Now on the coral there are coral you can do in a small tank but i would stay away from a few of them just because they get really big. Also depending on the type of clowns will depend on if you could put two in a ten gallon aquarium just because the ocellaris (Nemo) will get 3.5 inches long, Clarkii clown ( yellow with white stripes) get 5 inches and maroon clowns get 6 inches long. Also in the long run i would say up grade the aquarium if you get small ocellaris because they will get very unhappy very quickly. In a ten gallon i would honestly recommend maybe a firefish goby, Clown gobies or something that stays small. My personal favorite would be a shark nose goby which i have had and they will perch on your arm while it is in the aquarium and crawl on you very cool! On gett ing the saltwater level if it has anemones and corals system i would get it to around 1.024-1.026. Now fish don't have to have it at that level to survive they can be at 1.021-1.022 and they would be fine. but if you want to keep corals and anemones it needs to be 1.024-1.026. Also i know from my experience working at a fish store that a lot of kids want the nemo and dory pair if that something you want to do i would suggest a very large tank for dory just because she will get a foot in length so i would personally recommend 75 gallon and up just because the length and the amount of swimming space for her.

Thanks Betta-Chetta and Mike in CT for your responses.

Too bad for my small tank I thought I can keep at least 5-10 diffrent kinds of fish on my 10 gallons. As of now I guess I would stick first in my 10 gal tank and do a lot of research, this will serve as my training tank. Btw, I just saw some videos on youtube keeping 2 clownfish in 10 gallons do you think that would be fine? If so, I will focus on having a 2 clown fish.

Mike in CT · Apr 5, 2015

10 gallons is really not big enough for 2 clowns in my opinion... and definitely not big enough to ever have an anemone for someone just starting out. Please do not buy anymore fish for at least a month or more till you do more research and properly cycle your tank. 10 fish is a lot of dead fish and we owe it to the next fish to give them their best chance of survival!

Good luck!
Mike

aquaman84 · Apr 5, 2015

im far from the experienced hobbyist but ive been running my tank for 2 weeks now and i still dont have anything in my tank and i dont plan on getting any clean up crews for about another 2 to 4 weeks. you definitely want to research more about your tank size and how many fish and what kind of fish are suitable for a 10 gallon. but my advice is to get a bigger tank the bigger the better! it would be easier to maintain is what i read. but still in this hobby your gonna have to live and learn another advice i have for you is to log everything you do in a notebook or journal or something. thats what i do when i check my water or when i study i take notes. how many lbs of live rock do you have in there? i think you need atleast 10 to 15lbs of live rock it will help with curing.

aquaman84 · Apr 5, 2015

what are your water levels? for ex. ammonia,nitrates,nitrites numbers? my nitrates are spiking up everyday now i hope im almost done with the cycling process.

aquaman84 · Apr 5, 2015

here's some info on clowns. Getting a Clownfish to Live in a Host Anemone - Ocellaris Clownfish

Mike in CT · Apr 5, 2015

Yes, you should definitely give us results of a water tests so we know what's going on with your tank. You still might have high ammonia which is fine if you have no fish, but if your still are trying to keep that one alive you really should know your water readings are so you can address it.

crismar629 · Apr 8, 2015

Mike in CT said:
Yes, you should definitely give us results of a water tests so we know what's going on with your tank. You still might have high ammonia which is fine if you have no fish, but if your still are trying to keep that one alive you really should know your water readings are so you can address it.

Right now I dont have a test kit. I just properly make sure that after 5 mins all un eaten foods should clean in the aquarium. So far my stripe damsel fish was still alive and still strong.
My tank is now 1 week old, I'm also done in water change for 20% only.

Mike in CT · Apr 8, 2015

You need at least a basic test kit for ammonia and nitrates otherwise you will have no idea what's going on in your tank. Otherwise your just guessing and you will end up with another disaster.