taking care of corals and plants

[darklight2ooo]

Hello,

I’m new to this and I haven’t started my tank since I’m in a 2 week sitting period to try to level my water out.

I would like to get a little help on what kinds of corals, rock and fish i should start off with.

I have a 12 gallon tank, great filter with a spin wheel filter, my water is staying at a comfortable 78 degrees. I have a protein skimmer and some sea sand.

nothing living yet.

i would also like to know how easy it is to grown your own zooplankton for your corals and plants that need them.

when i finally get fish, what is the best way to transfer them into the water from the bag, especially if the salinity is a little different?

I’m trying to think if there is anything I left out but I don’t know...

but any help i can get is much apreachated...

oh where can i get cheap instant ocean?

 

[mmkeeper]

What kind of lighting do you have?

 

[darklight2ooo]

im curretly running a floresent 14watt i think but ill check when i get home... i plan on upgrading that as well.

 

[twilliard]

Hey welcome to RF!!

At this time I would like to point you to the stickies

They are a great first step.

So your tank.
Softies are low light, would be great.
I cant say for fish, I dont know of any that wont get too big for 12G.
Rock, as much as you like to look at and keep clean. (this will be the base of most of the system).

Start slow, and read!

 

[keener1830]

Welcome to RF. My first bit of advice I would give you would be to throw away the bio wheel on your filter it has a tendency to build up nitrties instead of nitrates on it. I had one was having problems with the tank and then as soon as I threw away the bio wheel the problems went away as well. As far as easy to keep fish start off with a damsel or something in that family they hardy fish.

 

[spongebob lover]

soft corals are great for starters since you don't need to have a close watch on the temp and adding to the water.
lps are kewl too but some need a little bit more of care.
if you think you'll get into sps you might wanna think about good lighting and flow .
fishes..for the size you got i'd go with either a clownfish (ocellaris) or firefish or a goby but make sure you ask info before going to buy the fish.
i'd suggest you go check out the RF library and just ask whatever you don't understand .
fishes need to be acclimated to your tank params before you let them in ...some people like to quarantine them before they even go into their tank dood .

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!!! Hope you enjoy your time here

As for the bio-wheel, I have to agree...They are nitrate fatcories as their end product is nothing, but nitrates. If you were planning on only having a fish only (FO) system, then it would be alright as fish can tolerate some levels of nitrates, but corals on the other hand don't do so well. Also, any excess nitrates in your system will add to a potential nuicance algae issue so it's better to leave the biological filtration to your live rock which leads me to my first question...Do you have any live rock in your tank as I didn't see any mention made of it? If not, I would seriously consider it as it will form the basis of your biological filtration for your system (including denitrification which is the process by which denitrifying bacteria found in the live rock converts nitrates into nitrogen gas) and also, provide a place for the fish to hide when the feel threatened etc. It also adds a lot of beauty and character to the tank.


Just a few thoughts. Hope you find RF very friendly and helpful

 

[darklight2ooo]

Thanks for all the great starting information. I’m sad to hear about the bio wheel, I thought that was good for bacteria but if its going to create nitrates :|

So as for live rock I have none, I was wondering when I buy them is there anything to my tank I need to do before adding cured live rock?

What would I need to buy?

I’m thinking I’m going to go clown fish, give it one home.. have some soft corals and maybe a shrimp and some cleaner snails.

 

[Snowboarda42]

I’m thinking I’m going to go clown fish, give it one home.. have some soft corals and maybe a shrimp and some cleaner snails.

Perfect.


As far as adding Live Rock (LR for short) if its cured or not, you still should let the tank cycle. The difference is how long the cycle will be. There's no said amount of time for LR to cure, as each tank and LR is different. You add the LR, wait for Ammonia to spike and fall, Nitrite to spike and fall, then Nitrate to Spike and fall as well. Once the Nitrate nears 0, as well as the nitrite and Ammonia, then Its safe to add a fish. I would only add one fish at a time for such a small tank.


Another type of fish to look into is a Goby. Most require 10G or less tanks. You might even research a pistol shrimp to go with it. YouTube.com has great videos of symbiotic relationships of the two. I just got a pair and I can't stop watching them work. You'll need around a 3" deep sandbed to make them happy.
Click Here For More Info

In my opinion, look into no more than two small fish for your tank. Get a few Mexican Turbo Snails (make sure they're Mexican) to clean rock and glass, a few Nassarius Snails to clean the sand bed, and a cleaner shrimp is always entertaining to watch.

As for corals, look at better lighting before you decide to buy any. You should base your choices in coral around what type of lighting you have.

Hope some of this helps. And as always, post pictures of your progress, everyone here loves pictures.

Good Luck and Take it slow!

 

[darklight2ooo]

Thanks that sounds really good...

i have a few more questions but i will limit them for the time being...

how long should you have your light on for the corals? can i turn it off at night? im asking because its hard to sleep with a light on for me. if it needs 24 hour light then i might think about buying some kind of something to block the light at night...

 

[joker577]

2 hours of actinics (to mimic the sunrise) followed by 10-12 hours of regular lighting followed by 2 more hours of actinics then lights off and the process is repeated

 

[DonW]

2 hours of actinics (to mimic the sunrise) followed by 10-12 hours of regular lighting followed by 2 more hours of actinics then lights off and the process is repeated

Corals could care less. Lights on for 8-10 hous is fine. Actinics are to keep the owner happy.

Don

 

[darklight2ooo]

alright thats nice to hear that means that i can sleep well at night. yeah im looking to have them grow a little and live... if they can do that on 8-10 of light then hell yeah...

 

[bighitrider45]

lol yeah I would suggest buying a timer for your lights, and I think clowns would be the best option for you because they are hardy fish and can live in a 12 gal because they dont get very big, Also I suggest getting about 15 LBS of LR and once your cycle begins to end like right as your nitrates begin to fall after spiking add one mexican turbo just to clean up any unwanted algea and then about a week later add fish after your water has leveled out

 

[darklight2ooo]

Alright update time. I currently have 10 pounds of live rock. The rock I bought came with 3 soft corals on them. a feather duster *i think* and some mushrooms. I think ill be buying some more rock soon. I was afraid that my corals would just crook when i put them in but its been about 5 days they are still looking rather happy in their new home. The rock i bought was cured and has algae going on it already. I’m still waiting on my protein skimmer *curses* slow shipping. The tank has been running for about 3 weeks now. I don’t see any algae growing on the inside of the tank, rocks or anywhere its clean as a whistle, when should I expect to start seeing algae grow? Water changes are pretty easy this last one was with the corals in and they didn’t die so I feel like I might have it down. Still waiting to get a fish, just taking my time.