• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Salt Water for New Tank (was "Ummm...quick question...")

You haven't told us where you live. Are you near a fish store that handles saltwater fish? Such stores usually give away 5-gallon salt buckets. They also sell tubing that you could use for a siphon - not expensive. They might also help you by giving you a handful of live sand.

Nancy
 
Airline tubing will take forever to drain the tank. PVC pipe would be way faster, but is more expensive. I would just get a few feet of PVC and a couple 20-30 gallon tubs from Walmart and drain the water into them, then dump them outside if you want.
 
In the other thread you wrote:

My tank is finally set up! I set it up last night, with 40 lbs of caribbean live sand, 50 lbs of fiji live rock, and lots of shells.

And in this thread you said that both the rock and sand were dry. If that is the case, neither were really live.

Depending on how they were dried out, there could be a lot of biomass in sitting in both the rock and sand, and that is prolly what you smell.
I would remove the rock and hose it off really well. I would do a water change just because the water stinks.
Tell me about the sand - where did it come from, was it used, and why was it dry.

Invest in a gravel vaccum (comes with vinyl tubing) - less than 12 bucks, and get some big buckets. If you don't have the ability to do proper, regular water changes, I worry for any ceph in the system. If you don't know how to do a water change, I wouldn't do anything else until you do some research.
 
I added dead rock to salt water at the same time as you and I have seen significant growth of filter feeders so far.
 
I already have a siphon. I just don't have enough airline tubing to reach outside. I live in rural Alabama, and trhe nearest pet store is about 65 miles away. I do know how to do water changes, I've done them on every tank I've ever kept. The sand was not used, it was Caribbean live sand (new in bag), there was just no water in the bag. It was all dry. Today I'm hoping to be able to go to a pet store and I'm gonna get airline tubing and just siphon all the water out the window in my room.
 
Why not just siphon the water into a bucket and dump the bucket outside, and repeat as necessary? Driving all that way to the store for airline tubing seems like a lot of effort for a little pay off - you could empty the tank in less than 20 minutes with your siphon and a bucket, while the store is almost an hour each way.

If the sand was really bone dry, there was nothing 'live' in it at all. 'Live' sand is supposed to be damp in the bag.
 
Ok, I taped the siphon into a garden hose and drained the tank. I'm working on taking all the rock/sand/shells out now. Is it ok to go ahead and fill the tank back up and keep it bare for a few days to get rid of any chemicals left over? If I do that, it'll probably be freshwater for about a week, but this time it will be empty so as to avoid doing this again. Then, once I add the salt, I'll prolly set the tank back up with rock and sand and everything. Is this ok to do? As you can see, I've decided to run everything I do with my tank past you guys...hope you don't mind!
 
I would make up your saltwater now in a large bucket (or buckets) with a bubbler in it. That way you can make sure the salt is all properly dissolved in it and you can more easily check your salinity etc.

By all means clean out the tank with FW but then drain it. DO NOT try to make up your salt water in the tank it's way too much trouble to get it properly mixed!

J
 
why aren't you leaving rocks in the tank and mixing the water in buckets? That is the only way to do it with out spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on an dedicated system. Buckets cost just a couple bucks each and every one uses them because they are easy and effective.
 
Dry rock is generally scrubbed well before you get it, so I would't expect anything for him to scrub off.
 
It depends on where he got the dried rock came from. Personally, I would scrub any dried rock with a wire brush and/or power wash it.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top