[Doug]

Originally Posted by River

I hope I've got this in the right place!

I am in the process of starting my first saltwater tank. I have done all sorts of freshwater for the last ten years or so and I've been considering trying my hand at saltwater for a while, but I finally decided to do it a few months ago.

My set up;

-26 gallon bowfront
-Tunze Comline DOC Skimmer 9001
-Tunze Turbelle nanostream 6020
-Fluval Sea LED light strip (not fancy, I know)
-25lbs base rock (I may add a bit more)
-1.5-2 inches of sand
-C3 fluval HOB filter

I did not want to go live. I have a thing about segmented worms and wormy things with legs? It's weird, yeah, but I can't even handle PICTURES of bristleworms, so I'm starting off completely dead. The horror stories of people finding 5+ foot worms in their tanks definitely put the last nail in that coffin, no matter how rare it might be.

I went all dead rock with my new reef also. Not sure if its from the one small piece of live rock or from frags but I have bristle worms all over. So be aware of what goes in after.

The tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now. The levels as of yesterday were;

Ammonia - none to minimal. I can't quite tell if there is any colour to the solution or if it's just the light. I'll do another test in the morning and look at it outside where my living room lights won't confuse me.
Nitrite - 2ppm (down from 3 a couple days before, so it's going down now)
Nitrate - 50ppm
PH - 7.7

I know my PH is too low... Baking soda still the best solution? Or is there a better way? Will the PH have any effect on my cycle or can I wait to fix that until after it finishes and I do the water change?

I use a bulk soda ash from one of our many sponsors.

When the time comes to start adding some life to it, what should I start with? I was thinking one or two nassarius snails to help stir my sand bed as well and one or two cerith snails? Would I be able to add a shrimp at the same time? I really like fire shrimp. Would one of those be okay to add early on, or should I wait until the tank is a little older? I know freshwater shrimp can be really finicky, does the same hold true for saltwater?

Nassarius usually need a seasoned sanded to survive but a couple would be ok, as long as tank is fed good and they can get some of the food from the surface. A few ceriths would be ok, as would a couple turbos as long as they have a bit of algae of some kind to eat. Fire shrimp are nice. They will eat most anything fed. Mine were bullies though and killed my peppermints & cleaners. Also tried stealing momma clowns eggs. Needless to say she put an end to their existence. I would like another pair but stick with cleaners & peppermints now.

As for fish, I'm looking to start with a couple occelaris clowns. Then maybe some combination of a yellow clown goby, a tailspot blenny, and a firefish. Is hoping I can do them all too much? I know stocking rules for saltwater are different, but I'm not really sure how those rules work yet.

I like clown pairs and they are good for a smaller tank. Bought my percs as baby tank born clowns. That was close to 15yrs. ago and still thriving. The male still tries biting me everytime Im in the tank. Would think after all that time he would trust me.
Never had a clown goby or not a big fan of blennys, {myself}. But many do. I prefer smaller gobies like various watchman gobies. Filefish are nice but bad jumpers. Be aware of that.