Advice for initial GSP tank set up

[*GSP*Fan*]

I expected to have some die off regardless because it will have to be shipped. Unless I was to purchase live rock from my LFS but its actually a good bit cheaper getting it online. Hoping this cycling won't take too awful long. It does seem rather simple using live rock for the cycling, convenient too.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing what sorts of hitchhikers I may find, hopefully no pests and that something both interesting and beneficial comes along.


And thanks for the link. I will continue reading up on everything. I certainly want to do this right.

[bertie 83]

Live rock really excites me. As soon as I get fully settled in life I want to set up a couple of tanks. 1 small critter tank and likely a tank for a dog face or similar with oodles of live rock in lol. Thanks for the link it's cleared up my misunderstanding.

[*GSP*Fan*]

Live rock really excites me. As soon as I get fully settled in life I want to set up a couple of tanks. 1 small critter tank and likely a tank for a dog face or similar with oodles of live rock in lol. Thanks for the link it's cleared up my misunderstanding.

It does me too, haha. After knowing I wanted a puffer, deciding on a GSP, and reading more about marine setup I really started liking the idea, especially with the live rock. Just reading up on the different hitchhikers people have found makes me anxious to see what I may find in my tank. Trying not to get overly excited as I don't want to be disappointed. I also love the idea of how much more natural it is both as a habitat and filtration.

I think once I am more settled as well (finish college-nursing, getting moved into my own house-in next yearish,etc) then I'd like to setup at least another saltwater tank. Probably not something too large, even though I'd love to have like a dog face or porcupine, but maybe similar size as to what I've got so I can have a community tank. Its hard to say how many tanks I'll have setup later in life. Getting this 60 gallon up will already make four, though the rest are freshwater and two of those are for breeding food for GSP. The other is more my boyfriends that he set up for our daughter, community tank that he's moving in the 29 gallon from a 10. Which mean we'll have an extra 10 setting around.

[bertie 83]

Oh believe me it's addictive, I have supported my habit by adopting unwanted fish and rehoming/ I also have a good Lfs which will take fish for credit. I have tons of tanks most are currently empty until I move. There will be mass tank setting up and fish purchasing when I do move lol

[Pufferpunk]

Sit down at the tank with a flashlight, about midnight & watch the show. I once glanced up & spotted a gyrating, spinning thing dart across the tank & dive into the rocks!

[*GSP*Fan*]

Lol. That will be great and so is the fostering! I've never known anyone to foster fish but I actually foster for a local rescue; dogs/puppies and cats/kittens. It helps me when it comes to adopting more then I can really handle, mostly because of space. I already have two dogs, one cat, and four guinea pigs of my own. I'm currently fostering one kitten and then have few tanks set up now. I'm sure they're will be more. My first saltwater isn't even set up and I'm already thinking of more haha. Especially after I get the hang of it all. I can not wait to get moved into my own house for reasons such as this. Space is the biggest issue again really.


I've read quite a bit about looking with a flashlight at night, I'll definitely have to try that. I think seeing what you did would scare me a bit haha. How soon can I even begin seeing hitchhikers and how long can they continue to pop up?

Really excited to see what I may find but kinda worried about pests at the same time as well.

[bertie 83]

There are more good critters than bad. I can imagine seeing some wierd stuff and thinking wtf lol

[*GSP*Fan*]

There are more good critters than bad. I can imagine seeing some wierd stuff and thinking wtf lol

I keep reading thats the case, which I'm glad. Just worried I may not catch something that is bad. Guess I may need to do some research there too.

Lol. Thats exactly what I feel like is going to happen.


On a side note, I finally got some water in the tank, only about half full for now. I'm not sure how much displacement to expect from the sand and rocks so I wanted to be safe there. Powerheads and heater are in and I've added the salt, have yet to test the salinity. Kinda excited to at least see some more progress. I wanted to have it ready for the live rock when it arrives, which hopefully won't be too long.

[*GSP*Fan*]

So another question has came up.

I've had the water in the tank for exactly a week now to have it ready for the live rock when it arrives, which should be tomorrow.

The only things in the tank are two powerheads, heater, and a thermometer. I have not added any sand, rock, etc. Also, the salt was added when I first added water (water was cloudy then for about a day) and the salinity has been reading at about 1.024. No more salt or saltwater has been added, only fresh. The temperture is staying at just over 77F consistently.

Well sometime yesterday I noticed the water has begun to look cloudy again. It is still cloudy today, maybe not quite as bad, but still very noticeable. I don't understand why it is though. I mean since there isn't anything in the tank I wouldn't expect this to happen until I began cycling and all. Am I missing something obvious thats causing this?
Any ideas?

[*GSP*Fan*]

Just a little update of sorts...

Since my last post my water has cleared up a bit, though I still have no idea why it was cloudy.

Happy to say that my live rock arrived yesterday and was placed in the tank. It is not aquascaped yet as I am waiting on my 25lbs of base rock to arrive from Macrorocks and I also have 10 more pounds of live rock on its way. I have taken a few pictures and intend on starting a tank progression thread as soon as my iphone and macbook decide to cooperate, can't get them transferred over at the moment.

Anyway, the live rock was placed in the tank as soon as possible to prevent any more die off and begin the cycle. I tested the water a few hours after adding the live rock and these are my results along with additional water parameters:

Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8.0
ammonia: 1.0ppm
nitrite: 1.0ppm
nitrate: 80ppm
temp: ~78F

There are two powerheads in the tank as well.

Thoughts on the results or any of the water parameters? It seems to me that the nitrates are kinda high but being new to this I'm not sure what type of variations to expect.

[Pufferpunk]

If the rock was semi-cured, you would be seeing nitrate. How may lbs did you get?

[*GSP*Fan*]

If the rock was semi-cured, you would be seeing nitrate. How may lbs did you get?

I am not sure what details may help with things like comparing to the test results or give any ideas as to what the cycle may be like so I'll mention what I can think of.

I asked the seller what the status of the rock was as far as being cured and was told it was kept in holding tanks until sold. Looking at the tracking information its showing it left CA on October 9th and arrived on October 15th in WV to me and was kept damp by newspaper (seemed that is the usual way from my reading and appeared to be packaged well to me but being my first time dealing with anything like this I could be mistaken). Seems to me like a decent amount of time out of water, which I pretty much expected when I knew I would be ordering online.

Its 50lbs total now in the tank.

I have another 10lbs of live coming (for some variety) and 25lbs of base coming (Macrorocks).

Couple questions if you don't mind.

I have water prepared for a water change but am not sure how often it is best to do PWCs during a cycle, keep getting conflicting info. Any advice there is appreciated.

How often do I really need to be testing? Everyday seems a little much but I don't want to miss anything and I just don't know what to expect, especially seeing levels as they were already. Just threw me off I guess.

Also, the pH seems a little on the low side to me but I am not sure what is ideal/acceptable/etc. I have not added substrate yet though and from my understanding, since it is aragonite, it should help with this, correct?

[Pufferpunk]

No WC necessary during the cycle. I'd test after a week of adding the last rock.

[*GSP*Fan*]

No WC necessary during the cycle. I'd test after a week of adding the last rock.

Thanks.

I wasn't sure if water changes were necessary or not really.Less work knowing I won't have to worry about them during the cycling though. I did go ahead and get some water ready for one. I was thinking I'd change some and siphon out some of the dust/debris thats settled on the bottom.

I'd say it will be about a week before the rest of the live rock arrives. My base rock actually arrived today from Macrorocks, a lot sooner than I expected.

Its beneficial to go ahead and add the base rock so that bacteria can colonize that as well even during cycling, right?

[Pufferpunk]

Yep