salinity question?

Question

my fish store has helped me out a lot
im starting a 10 gallon salt tank with no corals just fish and live rock

i added 20lbs live sand and 5lbs live rock and mostly live water and some of the freshwater they gave me tohelp balance out the salt

i think my salinity is correct but im not sure

i check with my hydrometer and most of the time it reads that it is fine but some odd times it is off. are there any tips as how to use this thing?

if i put it in the water and let it slowly fill to the top it shows my salinity is fine

i fill it slow and then tapp the bubbles out and it looks okay

am i doing it right?

im waiting a week to add 2 small tank raised clown fish and 4 hermit crabs for now.'

he said i could have up to like 6 small fish but only two clowns and i need 10lbs live rock
the five i already have fill up the tank a good bit though.
thanks

Answer 1

It sounds like you are doing it correctly. Your readings will vary as your water evaporates. The salinity will get higher as the tank water gets lower. Be sure to keep it stable. After every use or two you should clean your hydrometer with fresh water to get rid of the salt deposits. Continue to tap out the air bubbles each time you use it and you should be fine. If you are planning on adding invertebrates you should maintain your salinity around 1.025, this will accommodate all types of animals.

Answer 2

First, you did the hydrometer test right. When in doubt repeat the test untill you have an acceptable average. Bubbles are a pain but are pretty easy to spot. Also make sure the hydrometer is sitting on a flat surface and your not holding it even a slight tilt will throw off the readings. Keep the salinity near the high end of the scale that mimics sea water more closely. As for waiting a week thats really not long enough for a cycle to have taken place.
Now unfortunately your local fish store doesnt know there stuff. Run a web search for the species of clown your looking for. I did real fast and for tank raised clowns that reach 4 inches at maturity the minimm tank size is 20 gallons. They start off real small but they do grow. You may be able to get away with one in there maybe 2 at most but not likely. If you stock it with 6 its definently gonna be overcrowded. I know it sounds weird but this isnt like fresh water where a 75 gallon tank can hold 50 or more fish at a time. Speaking of which my 75 gallon is only supposed to have 6-8 fish in there. One bonus though for you having such a small tank you can easily get the wattage for an anenome to host your clown. You want watts per gallon around 3-4 so for your 10 gallon a 30-40 watt bulb would suffice and isnt to hard to find. But you definently dont have the size for 6 fish.
You are doing the right thing though in checking before doing things so give it a try with 10 gallons get yourself good and addicted then break the bank with a huge tank like me :). Oh yeah last thing when you add your clown fish add biospira with it to help the cycle along. And dont add an anenome until your ammonia and nitrite have been at 0 for a while. Those things are real finiky when it comes to water quality. Best of luck, please feel free to email me for more info if you need it. Welcome to the addiction.

Answer 3

Ditto to tang man on how to use the hydrometer. One of the glass types that floats will give you more accurate readings, though - no air bubbles to worry about, but these have a tendency to get broken.

In a 10 gallon tank you'll be pretty limited on the fish you can keep. Clowns will get anywhere from 2.5-3" (for an ocelaris/percula pair) up to 5"-6" (for a tomato, maroon, or other large clown). Plus clowns are territorial and semi-aggressive/aggressive, so they probably won't allow another fish in that amount of space. For a pair of smaller clowns only, I would recommend a 20 gallon tank, and a 20 long or 30 gallon if you want to add any other fish. It sounds like your fish store just wants to sell you fish and hope you buy another tank when you realize how much space they really will need.

There's also no such thing as "live water". Live rock or live sand has bacteria which will break down the ammonia your fish produce and convert it to nitrite and nitrate, but the bacteria attach to the substrate or your filter media. And there's no reason to get both rock and sand as one will produce enough bacteria to colonize the other. And since the live rock is in tanks with flowing water (if in a store), it has much more "live" bacteria than the sand. The easiest and least expensive way to get saltwater is to buy the synthetic salt and mix it yourself at home. If you tapwater doesn't contain nitrates, or phosphates, and will produce a decent pH, you can just use that. If you have any nitrate or phosphate, it would be better to use reverse osmosis water (you can get this at supermarkets or Super WalMart for about $0.33 per gallon once you buy their refillable container).

They are correct on the amount of rock, though - for good biofiltration, you should use 1 - 2 lbs per gallon of water, depending on the source of the live rock. Pacific rock (Fiji, Tonga, Marshall Island, etc.) is more porous, so it has more area available for bacteria to colonize, so you can get away with 1 lb per gallon. Atlantic/Carribean is less porous, so you need more of it for the same surface area.

You might want to check the info on this website against what else your fish store people have been telling you:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

Answer 4

there might be little bubbles stopping the dial from going down so when filled just tip it a little