Diving into Saltwater

[GirlWithFish]

Hey all! I have about 5 freshwater tanks (ranging from heavily planted tropical to planted cold water tanks) so I’m pretty experienced in freshwater. But I’m about to get a 37 gallon tank from my sister who is moving and I kind of want to convert it into a saltwater tank. It will be my first saltwater tank. I have some questions so thanks in advance This tank will not have a sump or refugium but it will have a filter and protein skimmer. It will house two clown fish, live rock, lots of macroalgae, snails and crabs, some coral but not much.
1. Cycling: how should I cycle- with added ammonia like for freshwater? I’m going to use Fritz bacteria.
2. When should the macroalgae be added, during cycling or after?
3. Are water changes done weekly like for freshwater or do you just do top offs with RO water?
4. Can I use the crappy white LED that comes with the tank lid or should I invest in a saltwater reef light (even tho coral won’t be the focus of the tank but is it still necessary?)
5. Do I need a wave maker for 37 gallons even with a strong filter flow?
Ok that’s about it for now. It will be a very slow build of just gathering equipment before I even start so let me know if there’s anything else I should consider, thank you so much!

 

[KrisReef]

Cycling: Live rock is cycled. If you have live rock from the lfs you can drop that into the tank and it is good to go. If you buy fresh harvest ocean rock that needs some time to settle in. You don’t need to use Fritz bacteria or add ammonia to cycle live rock.
2. Add macroalgae after the live rock is settled in.
3. Water changes are done by mixing RODI water with salt and matching alk and salinity and temperature parameters.
Replace evaporation with rodi.
4. Of course you can use the crappy white LED that comes with the tank lid. The light may grow more algae and less coral, results may vary?
5. Do I need a wave maker for 37 gallons even with a strong filter flow? Maybe, maybe not?
Ok that’s about it for now.
Start a build thread!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean...

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[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Cycling an Aquarium

Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...

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[RandomUser7]

1 - You can add in bottled ammonia and then use the bottled bacteria. Just use the recommended dosage on the bottles. I think for ammonia it's like a drop per gallon. However, if you're starting with live rock there isn't a real need for it. Adding bottled bacteria to the live rock wouldn't hurt. If you're using live rock I like to have at least 1 pound per gallon. You can never have too much live rock, it's your main source of filtration.
2. Never messed with macro, wouldn't hurt to put it in after but I think it'd be fine bedore it's cycled. I can't confirm though, take that with a grain of salt.
3. Weekly water changes, replace what you take out with Saltwater. You'll still want to top off daily with RO/DI water to keel salinity stable. Some advice I recieved when my tank was started was to leave it alone for 2 months after you add in your first fish. No corals, no water changes, no additions besides the clownfish for 2 whole months. To be fair, my tank started off sterile with dry rock, so it took a while to get fully cycled. If you're using live rock you could probably add things in sooner, however I probably wouldn't change out the water for at least a month just to ensure the tanks cycled.
4. It depends on the LED light. If it's Coralife or a tank geared towards Saltwater then I'd imagine it's probably fine. A cheap LED light meant for freshwater plants probably wouldn't work too well.
5. The filter will not generate enough flow, I'd probably just stick two cheap powerheads on both sides of the tank, although I think with cube tanks people recommend putting them on the back of tank? Make sure one powerhead is put towards the top of the tank to agitate the surface of the water.

I'm just spitballing here and giving some of my experience, remember to take everything with a grain of salt and RESEARCH everything! Good luck and happy reefing!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all! I have about 5 freshwater tanks (ranging from heavily planted tropical to planted cold water tanks) so I’m pretty experienced in freshwater. But I’m about to get a 37 gallon tank from my sister who is moving and I kind of want to convert it into a saltwater tank. It will be my first saltwater tank. I have some questions so thanks in advance This tank will not have a sump or refugium but it will have a filter and protein skimmer. It will house two clown fish, live rock, lots of macroalgae, snails and crabs, some coral but not much.
1. Cycling: how should I cycle- with added ammonia like for freshwater? I’m going to use Fritz bacteria.
2. When should the macroalgae be added, during cycling or after?
3. Are water changes done weekly like for freshwater or do you just do top offs with RO water?
4. Can I use the crappy white LED that comes with the tank lid or should I invest in a saltwater reef light (even tho coral won’t be the focus of the tank but is it still necessary?)
5. Do I need a wave maker for 37 gallons even with a strong filter flow?
Ok that’s about it for now. It will be a very slow build of just gathering equipment before I even start so let me know if there’s anything else I should consider, thank you so much!

Typically you want to add your bacteria and then ammonia chloride or a piece of shrimp (shrimp for 48 hours). Then you want to monitor ammonia , When your ammonia is steady at zero for 5 days and Nitrate is steady at 20 or below- You are cycled. Ignore nitrIte Unless sky high
The tank will go through two phases in which ammonia will rise then fall and nitrate will rise and fall which is normal. When fish are added, the bacteria population will increase with the new bio load, converting waste to nitrate.
Overloading tank with too many fish up front will exceed what the bacteria can handle which is why its best to stock fish slowly over the next few months

 

[GirlWithFish]

Thank you everyone for the amazing replies! I’ll definitely start a build post when I get all the equipment

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

You might need to consider a more specialised light for a macro dominated tank. Freshwater spectrum LEDs work well. If your looking for macro tank inspiration I can highly recommend both tigahboy.h2o and sono_aqua_pfm Instagram accounts.

 

[Fish Styx]

Greetings and welcome to the reef!

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

This thread should be useful for you. Documents the journey, successes and failures in a detailed and informative way. Beautiful end result too.

Build Thread - Salty Fingers

Hello everyone! New to R2R, I'm Courtney from London, UK. Thanks for all the messages on the welcome board. I'm coming from the freshwater side, keeping planted tanks for 12 years. It was inevitable... The thing I wanted to do since I got into fishkeeping was have a saltwater tank. Despite...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[GirlWithFish]

This thread should be useful for you. Documents the journey, successes and failures in a detailed and informative way. Beautiful end result too.

Build Thread - Salty Fingers

Hello everyone! New to R2R, I'm Courtney from London, UK. Thanks for all the messages on the welcome board. I'm coming from the freshwater side, keeping planted tanks for 12 years. It was inevitable... The thing I wanted to do since I got into fishkeeping was have a saltwater tank. Despite...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you!

 

[JC1977]

 

[dstockwell]

Welcome to the Reef

 

[Reeflix]

Hey all! I have about 5 freshwater tanks (ranging from heavily planted tropical to planted cold water tanks) so I’m pretty experienced in freshwater. But I’m about to get a 37 gallon tank from my sister who is moving and I kind of want to convert it into a saltwater tank. It will be my first saltwater tank. I have some questions so thanks in advance This tank will not have a sump or refugium but it will have a filter and protein skimmer. It will house two clown fish, live rock, lots of macroalgae, snails and crabs, some coral but not much.
1. Cycling: how should I cycle- with added ammonia like for freshwater? I’m going to use Fritz bacteria.
2. When should the macroalgae be added, during cycling or after?
3. Are water changes done weekly like for freshwater or do you just do top offs with RO water?
4. Can I use the crappy white LED that comes with the tank lid or should I invest in a saltwater reef light (even tho coral won’t be the focus of the tank but is it still necessary?)
5. Do I need a wave maker for 37 gallons even with a strong filter flow?
Ok that’s about it for now. It will be a very slow build of just gathering equipment before I even start so let me know if there’s anything else I should consider, thank you so much!

WELCOME!! what i have experinced from doing fresh and salt that all the principles are the same but just a lot more difficult.

 

[Reeflix]

also yes you do water changes very week with RO, do not use the crappy lights. coral will not survive without proper lighting

 

[GirlWithFish]

also yes you do water changes very week with RO, do not use the crappy lights. coral will not survive without proper lighting

Ok thanks! Yes I’m buying a different light. Currently compiling my list of needed things on Amazon. The only thing I’m stuck on is which protein skimmer to buy. I’m not going to have that many corals it’s mostly going to be macroalgae, a planted saltwater tank if you will. So I’m on the fence about the skimmer. A good friend who has kept saltwater for years said to hold off on the skimmer if I’m doing mostly macros

 

[Reeflix]

also for the wave maker it depends on what kind of coral you are getting, how much flow are the coral getting ect ect. the answer varies a lot

 

[GirlWithFish]

also for the wave maker it depends on what kind of coral you are getting, how much flow are the coral getting ect ect. the answer varies a lot

Ok cool, buying two powerheads for now

 

[Diastro]

I have a macroalgae build thread on my account. Maybe it would help you out. I similarly came from freshwater. I added the first macroalgae while the tank was cycling without issue.

 

[GirlWithFish]

I have a macroalgae build thread on my account. Maybe it would help you out. I similarly came from freshwater. I added the first macroalgae while the tank was cycling without issue.

Nice I’ll check it out!