CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Hi people.....

ok.....so now ive done loads and loads of research on keeping marine fish and ive bought myself a practicle guide marine book,
i think my head is clued up on whats needed and the general care of marines.i have a few questions which interest me;

firstly with live rock;

i know that its made up of living organisms inside the rock but do they effect the appearance of the rock after sometime of being settled,does things grow off the rock similar to an invert?
i ask this because when i saw a picture of live rock in my book it had loads of little tenticles clinging to it??


secondly with protein skimmers;

ive heard that there is no need to have one with fish only set ups.
but all the things i have read up on set ups say that it is a must.(or is this purely a by the book example)
im going to take stillearnins and juniors advice and not have a skimmer but will this mean i will constantly be battling with nitrates and algea blooms?

The filteration im going to use on my set up is 2 fluval 404 canisters in a 48x15x18inch tank.and i only intend to have maybe 5-6 small fish.

sorry for the long post any replys would be appriciated.

.........jay

Hey Jay.

Sorry I have no answers for you, I am saltwater illterate. Anyhow, have you actually gotten the set up yet, or still in research mode?:cool:

i know that its made up of living organisms inside the rock

Its actually on the surface area of the rock where most stuff lives - think of liverock like natural filter media

but do they effect the appearance of the rock after sometime of being settled,does things grow off the rock similar to an invert?

somewhat - depending on what type/collection location of live rock you get.

different types of live rock can grow/host different things - sponge,tiny inverts,Anemone,coralline algae , etc...


it will also depend on what fish you have some fish will eat anything that tries growing on your liverock

i have read up on set ups say that it is a must.(or is this purely a by the book example)

I'm this whole hobby - theres two ways things are written - oponion and promotional

I read the same thing years ago - but via word of mouth I was told it wouldn't hurt but was also a waste of money - in the end I NEVER lost a fish or had an algae bloom due to not haveing one.

ok guess I should respond and give you a little help.

skimmers are a saltwater persons best friend, they will make your life so much easier because of the fact that they remove the waste before it has a chance to pollute your system. Some people get by without them but they have lower bioloads and do more water changes.

Live rock, the more porous the better aka lighter larger peices. the reason for this is because live rock is covered in algeas and bactieria that naturaly filters the water, aka making it easier on you.
Yes the look of the rock greatly affected by what is on it and what is in your water. the tenticels you are refering to are feather dusters, the more food in your water column the more of them you will have, they are a good thing and spead very quickly.
Also sponges will cover your live rock after your system matures, you won't have them to start since a fresh system doesn't have the abilitie to sustain them.

good luck
JR

hey guys!!....fuzzy im still in research mode,i want to learn everything i can before even getting my new tank.(i could'nt bare to watch any fish suffer because of my own doing.):(

The thought of live rock is very appealing to me now i know what its all about..is it possible to have too much live rock?and can it die off?and if it does would that spike the parameters?
i presume that if it can die off it would only be down to bad water conditions or as stillearnin said fish eating the growing organisms?

I think for the extra little cost of a protein skimmer it sounds like it could save me of any future problems...

thanks again for your help guys


jay...

more live rock the better but it gets to a point that you will run out of space. I had 200+lbs in my 85g just to give you an idea of how much you can fit in tanks. Most of carribean so it was very dense, not like figi with is light(I suggest figi).
You will only have a bit of die off if you get uncured rock aka fresh from the ocean. I actually suggest getting uncured because it will cycle your tank for you, all you do is drop it in and wait a month. A good place to order rock from is liverock.com. I have never personally ordered from them but I know of many people that have. It will be cheaper than you lfs about $3 a lbs(if you wait for a special) and their rock is very high quality.
If I remember right you just want clown fish and damsels, they won't eat anything off of your live rock, and if you get any fish that do remember its a good thing, more of a varied diet and the usually eat the stuff you don't want on your rock, like hair algea.

JR

This all sounds good to me.....

my fish choice was going to be clowns,tangs and/or butterfly fish.

what do you think on compatability??

jay;)

personally, I would say no to tangs because they are open water swimmers and requirer a large amount of space. Depending on what you get, a hippo tang needs a 100g+ at about 6"(they can reach 16"+), which they get to quite quickly. Some people will say less or that they have put them in smaller, just my opinion.
I am guessing you are thinking of the copper banded butterfly, this is a good option, get about 6" full grown. The down side to these guys is that they are very picky eaters. Before you buy one be sure to ask them to feed it something prepared.

Clowns are always a good choice for a beginner but be sure to read up on which one you want before buying them, marroons are very aggresive and will bite quite often.

JR

Hi....i was gonna go for maybe a yellow tang,ive heard that tangs can be aggresive towards other tangs.so only one should be ok.
a couple of common clowns was gonna be my first two fish,and adding 1 tang at a later date and as mentioned a butterfly at again a later date.
the only other things i wanted to add as suggested by yourself is a clean up crew of crabs and snails...

thanks for your help so far.........

jay:)

that sounds about right for how many gallons you have, if you like the look of this you may want to try adding some macro algea to your tank, because it grows so fast that it will eat up a lot of your nitrates and lower your maintence, the problem is it will over take all your rock work in no time, so you must prune it about every 2 weeks or so, but it cleans the water amazingly well.
If you want the benifit of the algea and not the appearance, look into a AC 500 conversion to a refuge. It is a really easy DIY project and provides a space for the algea to grow w/o being in your main tank.

JR

ok i will look into that...anything to help water quality must be a bonus..

After a bit of shopping around i finally got my new marine tank!
the measurements are 42x24x18. i only paid £130 which i thought was a bargain.(roughly $200):confused:

i will get some pics for you soon...and let you know when set up is complete...

p.s do you know roughly how many gals this tank would be??

thanks again junior...your a real help.:thumbsup:

89.8 Gallons

about

89.8 Gallons

That really depends...are your numbers centimeters, inches, or what?

Hi.....the measurements are in inches.i was going to go for48x18x15 but this one came up and it was cheap.

thanks again junior.....will keep you all posted.

I don't get 89.8. onlineconversion.com says that its 78.54 gallons. What formula do you use to convert, junior?