I just started a saltwater tank...dead reef rock was placed in the tank instead of live rock.?

Question

Will I have a problem with dead reef rock? And how long should I wait to add more fishes. I have a domino damsel and a blue reef chromis now.What product do I use to test water. The person who set up my tank left all these information out due to they want to come once a month for maintance at a high fee.Please is there anyone out there who can help me, I already spent a lot of money just setting the tank up.

Answer 1

What "live rock" refers to is the bacteria that convert the ammonia nad nitrites in the tank to nitrate, which isn't toxic to your fish (the others are, and they are produced by your fishes wastes). There are some other things that are usually alive on the rock as well. It sounds like the rock you got was dry and out of the water for a while. It's cheaper to use, but it will mean it will take longer for your tank to cycle (get enough bacteria to keep the ammonia and nitrite down). You could still get some live rock if you have a store near you that sells saltwater fish and supplies. There are also bacterial additives you can buy, but these are a lot different in how well they work.

Since you already have fish in the tank, they will provide some bacteria in their "poop". But with fish, you'll need to keep an eye on how high the ammonia and nitrite levels get. These should be below 0.5 ppm or the fish will start to get stressed. You shouldn't add any more fish until the ammonia and nitrite levels are zero, and nitrate is the only thing you can detect in the tank. You can buy a saltwater aquarium test kit at a good pet store as well. I'd suggest getting one that uses a liquid the do the tests. They're more expensive, but more accurate and they will perform more tests.

There's a lot to know about keeping saltwater fish, but if you do the research, you won't need to keep having people come in to do the work for you. I'd suggest getting a good saltwater aquarium book you can use for reference. You should be careful of info from some websites and forums - anyone can participate, no matter how much knowledge or experience they have (if any) and it can be hard to tell the good info from bad when you're just starting out. One site I like is wetwebmedia: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ The have a crew of experts in marine aquaria and marine science who write articles and answer questions for people. All the good stuff gets indexed, so you can find info by topics. You can get lots of tips and info about fish and equipment (and they give pros and cons so yo can decide things for yourself, based on the direction you want to go with your tank and your budget.

Good luck and welcome to saltwater. You'll find out this stuff can get very addictive.

Some additional links for info:

Answer 2

Ok loaded question here I go. First tell that person to screw off they are just playing you. As for dead rock it will turn into live rock eventually but live rock will help with the cycle as will live sand and real sea water. Other things to help your tank avoid the high spikes of the cycle is bio spira. I bio spirad my tank and started with a shark lion fish eels the works and they all lived. Dont do that btw :). Its cheaper to learn on these and live with th others. As for testing go buy yourself a saltwater master test kit from petsmart or somewhere similar. Also for routine maintenance such as algae grow get a magnetic floating scrub brush. Now decision time for you. Is this gonna be a reef tank or a fish tank? In a fish tank the normal cleaning crew of serpent stars and hermit crabs may not be safe. In a reef tank you have to exclude some clumsy eels and shrimp predators. Here contact me via email and give me this info and ill keep typing :).

Answer 3

starting a reef tank can be very expensive. skimmer ( $250) live rock (anywhere from $3 per lb to $7 per lb needing at least 1 lb per gallon) lighting (at least $150). then all the live stock I would start a FOWLR(fish only with live rock) tank then all you need is the live rock then you could buy a skimmer later and then buy the lighting if you choose to go reef later. most coral will appreciate a more mature tank anyway and it would be easier to learn with just fish than to go all out with coral too.

Answer 4

Theres really no such thing as dead rock. As soon as you put it in your tank beneficial bacteria starts to live in it. Hence "live rock". The person who is doing it is ripping you off. Go to saltwaterfish.com and set up an account for a forum. Those people are really into fish and can help you out a lot. Anymore questions just email me, [e-mail]. Salt Water Fish are my hobby so feel free to ask me for help.