:) Give me a timeline of howyou added things to your tank.

I would just rinse it real well with ro water and put it back in. one thing to remember is that a smaller tank that bad things seem to happen faster. you need to keep an eye on all the paramaters more closely. for an example if you run your salinity at 1.25 on a 37 gal tank and you evaporate 1 gal of water out your salinity could be 1.28. if you do the same thing on a 120 tank your salinity may be 1.26. these #s are not correct but just an example of what im trying to say. a larger tank you have more time to react. I have a wet/dry with LR and SB, skimmer, and a HOB for carbon on a 29 gal tank.

 

Can you give us a rundown of what he sold you? We can give our best to help you out. I personally would not run a 37 withouut a skimmer also. What did he sell you for lights also this might turn into an algae issue also. There are so many things involved in salt water fish keeping but its simple and easy if done right from the start. you seem paitient enough and have the basic equipment so its not to late. I would get 5 extra gallons of water if they are already getting it to you in the even your water eveporates faster then you think. My fish shot at salt water tank I was told I dident need good lights the skimmer he sold me was one built into my sump and not nearly large enough for my tank. then he alos told me to keep low water cirulaction. All this was wrong and doomed me for failure.

 

we have a 35 gallon tank, the salt he sold me is.. Instant Ocean sea salt
The sand is the Carib sea Aragonite
as far as lighting, we just have what came with the tank
the heater is just a standard heater
the filter is A Marineland bio wheel with double fliteration. the filter catridges are penguin power filter cartridges
he also sold us a hydrometer
he told us to set up the tank as follows:
put the sand in the bottom of the tank, fill the tank with either : tap water and dechlorify it, or filtered water. after 24 hours, then add the salt. let that sit about a week, come back and get live rock. let that sit for about 2-3 weeks then you can add either fish or snails etc. 2 at a time only and atleast a week inbetewen introducing new life to the aquarium.

1 question I have is, with the live rock in there, shouldn't there be something in there to do cleaning? I am not sure what those are for saltwater, but in the freshwater we used algae eater and plecco, so there have to be cleaners to help keep it all balanced right?

 

also, we told him we had went to a pet store in the city, and that they had wanted about $1000 to get us set up.
This is what he said to us:
That the big stores are pushing you to buy a plethora of things to make their sales. he then took us over to his tank (which is gorgeous I may add) and said, all I run this with is a regular pump (we bought the pump he uses) a regular heater. Don't get sucked into the glam and the glitz of all these high end products, this can be a very easy and attainable thing without being insanely expensive. he said that the most expensive thing we should have to purchase would be our fish/plants/coral depending on our taste. and that he checked his tank once every week for the first little while, now he checks it every 3-4 weeks. That it isn't as awful as some people make it out to be. If you change 5% water every 2 weeks, then it will keep everything perfectly healthy.
He also said he doesn't change his filter cartridges, just rinses them out once a week and throws them back in there.
Now, I don't know if he is just lucky that his tank is the way it is, or if this is actually true, I am leaning towards luck becuase it seems like all of you put alot of work into them!

 

The water station is literally 3 blocks away from me, so anytime I need more, he said he will lend me the jug to transport it here, so I am not worried about having extra gallons here in my home

 

$1,000 for a 37 gallon would probably be about right with lights, rock, sand, tank, skimmer, etc. I have over $3,500 into my 75.

BioWheel filter is pretty much useless in my opinion, the carbon in the filter pads is good but they will build up detritus which will break down into nitrates unless changed every couple days. The stock lighting won't sustain any corals, unfortunately (unless it came with T5's or Power Compacts - regular florescent won't do anything but grow algae). Salt and hydrometer are good (replace that with a refractometer when you can). Sand is good. Rinse before you put the RO/DI water in your tank. His advice to go slow is good, but adding water then waiting and adding salt? Ridiculous advice. Rock should be added first, sand around rock, then pre-mixed water.

Cleaners are necessary as the tank matures, not right away. Saltwater cleaners are a bit different from freshwater. A variety of snails will take care of algae, crabs and other snails for excess food and detritus. Worry about adding them once the tank cycles. What kind of test kits did you buy?

 

Hi Mandamama

there are many different ways to set up and maintain a reef aquarium and the guy at your LFS has his way and its working for him - he probably also has years of experience and has developed the important "feel" for his tank and inhabitants and when he feels something is not right, he probably knows where to look for the source of the problem

there is no substitute for experience and with the best will in the world he cant sell you that

is it possible to run a succesfull reef tank without all mod cons - sure
but if you lack the experience and "feel" thats required, anything you can have on your set up that helps maintain it is to your advantage

so
+1 on RODI
+1 on protien skimmer


the algae eaters your asking about for reef tanks are the snails they do the cleaning of glass and rocks and some species clean the sand

Steve

 

My smallest tank is a red sea max which is close in size they retail for 999 for the whole setup so 1000 is about right to me too. My 220 reatails with all the equipment is well over 10k. There are people yes that run the very very basic systems and get away with it. I would get some type of small skimmer even a hang on the back model that wont run you much. I would get a small water circulator like a korilia1 or 2 just to keem the water moving. You need to get the live rock to cure in the tank as your going to have some die off so you will add cleaners(snails,Crabs, Shrimp etc) which do the same concept as your pleco in your freash water tank after the cycle. You want to mix the water add the live rock rince the sand put in rock add water, put sand in and start the system. If the lighting is rated for fresh water you will need to upgrade and if down the road going to get corals you will want to think of that when purchasing your lights. Craigslist is also a great place to get started on a budget and to a degree you dont need all kinds of fancy bells and whistles like the lfs guy said but it sure makes saltwater fish keeping mych easier. Without a skimmer I would think a 10percent water change would be safer then 5 percent every few weeks. I am just saying how I see it others may have other feedback also that is going to be helpfull. The crew on this site have been great to me over the last few years. This is where I would start and dont be discouraged its a addictive hobby and its a great community where everyone seems to help everyone. Btw welcome to 3reef.

 

This is very true as experience. I know as myself goes if im lazy and let me water go for a while I can tell by the fish and corals something is off. granted my tank is large and is easier to maintain my red sea is less forgiving but I can tell from years of owning them and would probally notice there was a problem when I first started. I found a good skimmer and water changes were my most helpful tools. I hate to say it but water changes help a ton until you learn how to adjust everything in your water.