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New Member
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Last Login: 8/16/2012 10:05:28 AM
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| I am setting up a 20g saltwater tank and am not sure if i should replace the fine river stone subsrtate and go for a FOWLR tank. I really dont have the money for the substrate and was going to keep mollies untill i can get a job(im 15.) Is it ok to have the river rock? Iv got some marine hermit crabs and a fiddler crab right now. They seem to be fine.
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Advanced Member
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fiddler crabs are not fully aquatic and need to leave the water regularly, so theyre not suitable for an aquarium, but for a species setup.
second.. Substrate made for marine aquariums is generally used because it provides a pH buffer and keeps the water hard and basic. It also leeches helpful minerals into the water.
I usa caribsea aragonite sand.
also, don't use "live sand". there's nothing live about it, it's just got bacteria in it and is more of a gimmick than anything.
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New Member
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| Thanks for the heads up. I have a small underwater land thing set up so that air is punped down to a small overturned tuberware container. I have lots of calcium based rock and got some live rock for the tank. I'm raising the SG from 1.014 to 1.016 and will be raising the SG up to 1.025 over several weeks. I decided to get sailfin mollies( buy one get one free) and plan on breeding them in saltwater. I think i might add about an inch of coral based rubble to the tank.
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Fish Moderator
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I've used dolomite. It has great ph buffering qualities. It is like a crushed coral. Also if you are going to get burrowing fish the softer the substrate the better the fish will be.
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New Member
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| Great! I have some nutral play sand mixed in so i think ill get the coral and shell based gravel to go over what i have. For burrowing fish like engineer gobies($10 at my lfs is this a good price) how deep should the gravel be. Iv got 2 inches now. Should i get another 2 inches of marine gravel?
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Average Member
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| First, 1.025 like you are planning is the high range, 1.018 is perfectly safe and would be friendlier for mollies. Inverts need a higher salinity closer to what you plan, fish only tanks usually keep it lower cause it adds a benefit for keeping down parasite(i.e. inverts) populations. Engineer gobies are great easy fish, but they can get over a foot long. Eventually a 20 would be too small. They are generally peaceful, but will undermine structures by digging under them so be aware of that
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New Member
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| Thanks, iv got a SG of 1.020 right now and the mollies are fine. I got a clean up crew yesterday that includes crabs and snails. I also got a scrape of one of the store tanks that had some algea and corals for free. I got a few star polyp corals and a very small starfish. Im not too worried about these guys since my tank get 2 hours of direct sunlight. The temp is not affected badly by this at all. Also, what are some good starter fish other than chromis sp. I plan on getting a pair of clowns and several fire fish eventualy along with mandrine fish.
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| Mandarins are notoriously hard to keep alive primarily because they feed almost exclusively on the natural occuring critters from a reef tank. I have seen them eat frozen brine/mysis but only off the bottom. If you put fish in the tank that compete for their food, they will die. I would not get any other fish in a 20 with mandarins. If you're doing a pair of clowns in a 20, i would not add other fish either. Remeber that the crabs,shrimp, and snails also count as "fish" in the bioload
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New Member
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| Thanks for the warning, i might do a 10 with seahorses and a mandrine later. I got a damsel and a chromis to see if the tank is completely cycled. I got some corals for free too. What can i say, my store loves me. The new fish are not picking on the mollies and after a day began to eat freeze dried brine shrimp. The corals are doing great but they had no lable or anything. I cant figure out if they are photosynthetic or cornivorous. They are star shaped heads with a small mouth in the middle, and are a brown color, like chocolate milk. I tried feeding them baby shrimp and they appeared to eat it. Are they a relative of the sun coral( they look very much alike)?
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