saltwater tank..help?

Question

ok i have a 46 gal. i have a good filter on it i have added the live sand and it was cloudy its clearing slowly. so how long do i have to wait until its clear and i can add fish and live rock?

Answer 1

The key thing to remember when stocking a salt tank is sssssloooowww. very slow. It's not really possible to go on time frames as each tank is different. You need to base the addition of more "bioload" (liverock, inverts, fish etc) on your water test results. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites should be the case before you consider adding any thing living to the tank.

Answer 2

If you have just added all these things, you cannot add fish for a while. Saltwater cannot be rushed.

If you had just added your sand and filter, you have a minimum of 4 weeks (no less) to cycle your salt water. Waiting any less will ensure dead fish.

Saltwater is not the same as fresh. Salt water needs different forms of good and bad bacteria. If you add anything within the first four weeks, unless they are black mollies, they will or soon will die, even though your water quality will be good.

PATIENCE. Even when you start off with salt fish, I always recommend after three weeks adding two mollies one male one female. Let them finish cycling your tank. After about 6 weeks, you can purchase a damsel or two. If after two weeks they are fine and the water quality is good, you can start purchasing the lower species of fish. Sweet lips, tangs, puffers and triggers will not be able to go into your tank yet. I would not recommend too many types until your tank is over 6 months old. Invertabrea's, shrimp corals (absolute no no) are another item to stay away from for the first 6 months. Invertabreas require strick water controls and low nitrate levels. Remember corals require different lighting and PH levels so be careful what you mix. Live rock can be added, however, if you WAIT you will find more life and interesting specimines on your live rocks than tossing them in to cycle your tank. There is NO Quick way for salt water.

Ask your pet store, and let them know how old your tank is, how long it has been running, water tests, temperature readings and they can suggest which fish are best to start out with.

Saltwater tanks are beautiful, but cannot be rushed.

Answer 3

"Live" sand contains bacteria to help cycle your tank. How much is actually "live" depends on how long it was sitting on the shelf before you bought it!

"Live" rock, on the other hand, can be purchased as "cured" or "uncured". I will have bacteria and (potentially) lots of other life forms (I've gotten 3 kinds of shrimp, corals, plants, sponges, an urchin, a brittlestar, mollusks, snails, etc.). In the process of moving it from the ocean to your store, it is usually shipped in wet newspaper (water adds shipping weight) and some of the material on it will die. This will add to the ammonia in the tank and is considered "uncured". Once it reaches the store, it can be held in vats of saltwater with denitrifying bacteria and strong water movement & filtration and have the water changed frequently so that all dead material is removed and no ammonia will be produced. This is the "cured" (as in "aged") live rock. Only thing is, when you buy it at the store (by the pound), it's tanken out of the water again to be weighed, and may or may not be put into water for you to take home. This creates another potential for die-off. So, it's best to treat all live rock as "uncured".

Since you don't have any fish in your tank yet, you could go ahead and add the live rock now. Get a saltwater test kit that can test for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Test a few (2-3) times a week till your ammonia and nitrites are 0. Once your tank has been through this cycle, you can start adding fish (only 1-2 at the start, then a few more each week or so). The exact timing will be different for each tank.

Here are some additional links:
http://www.fishlore.com/SaltwaterBeginners.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cat=1987

Good luck with the tank!

Answer 4

This can depend on your filtration and how 'Live' your live sand was (often from my experience it is not that live, except for de-nitrifying bacteria)

If you add CURED live rock this will add more aerobic nitrifying bacteria which is very important. I would add the live rock first, then the fish in a few days or better a week . Monitor ammonia and nitrites during this time.

As your tank ages, make sure and check alkalinity (kH) and nitrates.

As stated earlier, take it slow, read more about Marine basics; here is a good article to start with:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Basic_Saltwater.html

What is your filter?
Good filtration is very important, the Berlin method is a popular method of filtration and should be considered, but it is not limited to specific filters.
Be careful with large filters such as wet-dry and canister filters, as they can become nitrate factories if not rinsed regularly in de-chlorinated tap water or used aquarium water.
Try and read more about what filters can and cannot do as there is a lot of hype and misinformation around many popular filters.
A good place to start is this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Filtration.html

Look into a good forum staffed by professionals such as these:
http://fishroom.rapidboards.com/
http://groups.msn.com/EverythingAquatic/

There of coarse are many other excellent groups as well.

Answer 5

like suggested before get a protein skimmer, remora and bakpak are 2 good ones for a tank your size ( im suggesting hangon models, cause i assume your not using a sump) . go ahead and put your live rock in now. it will get your cycle more established, cause you will have a die off on your live rock, better to get it out of the way early. hope this helps.

Answer 6

a couple days, you really should have a protein skimmer, it will make the clearing process go ALOT faster