My Name's John and I'm from Canada... EH?

[Bergserker]

Hello everyone!

My name's John and I've done fresh water aquariums to death.  When my wife and I first moved in together I left my aquarium at my parents and they sold it on me!  So I haven't had an aquarium for some time now.  This past summer I missed having some kind of water habitat SO much that I built myself a little pond.  Having space constraints my pond was too little and too shallow to survive our harsh Canadian winter (picture that in a thick accent).  So I got myself a little 10 gallon aquarium to house my few gold fish for the winter, unfortunately they didn't transition all that well so I had a 10 gallon aquarium on my hands just asking for something cool to be done with it.

Having always wanted to try my hand at salt water and reading all of the nay sayers going on about how hard a 10 gallon salt water tank is to upkeep I decided "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

So I've been researching salt aquariums for some time and a couple of days ago stumbled across Bill responding to some question on another website and at the end referring them to this website.  So here I am!

So as it stands right now I have the filter going until I can get my little eco system going, I have crushed coral substrate (don't hang me! When I eventually upgrade I'll do live sand I promise).  With some dead coral pieces in there, waiting for the live stuff to take it over.  I don't have any live coral yet, I'm going to be looking around over the next few days to see what's pretty.  Any suggestions for such a small set up, or what would do a good job?  I do eventually want to get a little fishy darting around in there, but I'm not in any rush.  I want to get my mini reef going first.

Lastly I apologize for the long winded diatribe! So I'll summarize: John, 10 gallon, Canada.

Thanks!

[Bergy]

hey john and welcome to the little ocean.

This forum is a a little slow at times so sorry for any delays...I still hold out hope that this forum will turn into something a little more popular and busy... but until then...

as for your tank, congrats... and yes, smaller tanks have different propblems that will keep you on your toes... meaning, things happen fast... and usually for corals, things that happen fast are usually not good... but moving on.

things to look out for in a smaller tank is water evaperation...  when water evaporates, ONLY the fresh water evaps, not salt... so what happens is the wter turns more salty, *(higher salinity)... so for smaller tanks, salinity is what will be the variable... and again, changes arent good for coral growth.. and in more extreme cases, leads to coral death. and failure.

the problems with bigger tanks are 1, when things happen, it usually affects more organisms.. which means more money at risk...

but, larger tanks also have issues with utuility costs... electricity to operate the lights, and then in the summer to cool the water due to the heat generated by the lights...

anyways... you have a lot to read and ask, and this is a great forum to do that... btw, there are a couple other canucks on this forum, and i am sure they will pop up shortly... hehehe


let us know what equipment you have already, filters, lights, test kits, etc... also let us know what goals you have, what organisms you want to keep, and also, what local fish stores you ahve near you... what type of selection do they have...

[Bergserker]

Well as it stands right now I just have an incandescent hood with 2 25w bulbs, filter and heater (although that blew out today, so now I have to get a new one).  I'm looking at different powerheads, there's on with a built in UV sterilizer.  Any thoughts or comments on getting a UV sterilizer?

I have a few pieces of dead rock in the tank right now, I don't particularly have any preference for the type of live rock.  Although I would eventually like to put some clown fish in the tank because I think my son would enjoy those the most.

As for fish stores I have the choice between a skeezy looking one that I just went into today to hopefully get some ideas for live rock, but they only had one tank devoted to live rock and they all looked so sickly  .  There's one other one that I stepped into a couple of years ago that seemed to have a pretty nice selection.  Although I tried to stop by there today and they just weren't open, so I wasn't able to see if memory serves me well.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and as things settle down I'll take some pictures and keep everyone updated on my little reef!

[Learner]

Hi John,
Welcome to the Ocean.
You're going to get lots of good sound advice here; I don't know what I'd have done without everyone  for the past 18 months or so.
I'll leave the advice to those who have more experience than me, but looking forward to seeing pic's of your set up as it progresses.
Good luck.
Tania.

[KYLE.801]

Welcome!  Something I do from time to time is google pictures of other small saltwater tanks to get ideas for mine and that has been very helpful.  This forum is great too for asking questions and Bill and the rest usually respond very quickly.  good luck and keep us updated with your tank!

[Bergy]

www.nanoreef.com  is a good forum for small tanks... they do all tanks, but as the name indicates, it was initially designed to be a small tank forum.

as for live rock or dead rock... dead rock will become live rock over time.. and as it seems, you arent in any rush...I guess you might want to start the cycle process on your tank while you are still researching...  you can do this with a small fish, or in your case you can do this with a small piece of shrimp... yup.. shrimp from a supermarket... give it a quick rinse under the sink, or if you have some spre water, maybe from a past water change???

then toss it into the tank... you will want to do some water tests... make sure your water is within normal range, and to confirm the status of your biological filtration...

and then just keep testing daily for nitrite and ammonia...(assuming you know the cycle process... if not, please ask)

getting your system started now is a good thing as you wont be risking any livestock... it will also get you used to testing regimine... testing is important, and after a long while you will start seeing and recognizing patterns and key things that usually end up with you, us, everyone becoming lax and not testing like we should... but for now, I strongly urge you to test nitrite and ammonia, daily, at the same time of the day... and if you cant invision the data on a graph, then to actually chart it out, so you can see the SPIKE

anyways,  enuf for now...

[Bergy]

So I've been researching salt aquariums for some time and a couple of days ago stumbled across Bill responding to some question on another website and at the end referring them to this website.  So here I am!

btw:  hopefully this highlights the question Lanny asked earlier???   the best way that i know of to spread the word about this forum is to actually spread the word!... drop the name of this forum here and there... put it into your signature on other forums, and just keep being persistant...  let folks know where there can be more folks and more info

[pinkorchid]

Hey John,
Welcome! Good luck with your set up....it's a fun hobby. My tank has been up for just over 1yr, it wouldn't have gone so smoothly withot the help of others here. It really is a great spot!
Nice to see a fellow Canadian here!!

Amy

[jamess497]

Hello all, I thought I would make a nice thread to welcome all of our new members. We appreciate you all being with us, and look forward to watching the freebie community grow. You can say hello here and meet the rest of the community!



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