New Salt h2o Hailea FA400 Tank

[snarly883]

Hello from Jersey City, NJ,
I had fresh water fish growing up and a large saltwater in college.
Now that I am a Dad with a 3.5 and 1.5 year old girls who love animals, my wife and I started with a small fresh water tank, then a 10 gallon freshwater tank, and now a 70 liter salt tank.

Does anyone have this Hailea FA400 tank? We got it from a store that is closing and paid $100 - but it had no manual. I am not sure of how many gallons it is - conflicting and limited info on the web. I think its is around 17 gallons total.

Over the weekend, I super washed the coral sand, mixed the salt water, got it to a good level with the saltmeter, and added some bio mix.

A couple of days later I added 2 damsels and some plastic plants my daughters wanted.

Any thing I am missing?
Thanks,
Chris

 

[masterswimmer]

Hello from Jersey City, NJ,
I had fresh water fish growing up and a large saltwater in college.
Now that I am a Dad with a 3.5 and 1.5 year old girls who love animals, my wife and I started with a small fresh water tank, then a 10 gallon freshwater tank, and now a 70 liter salt tank.

Does anyone have this Hailea FA400 tank? We got it from a store that is closing and paid $100 - but it had no manual. I am not sure of how many gallons it is - conflicting and limited info on the web. I think its is around 17 gallons total.

Over the weekend, I super washed the coral sand, mixed the salt water, got it to a good level with the saltmeter, and added some bio mix.

A couple of days later I added 2 damsels and some plastic plants my daughters wanted.

Any thing I am missing?
Thanks,
Chris

Hi Chris,
Welcome to Manhattan Reefs. Sounds like you're a good dad to your girls. Most kids I've known love aquariums.

The information you provided above is extremely abbreviated. Without more detail it would be very easy for the community here on MR to surmise that you've missed a lot of steps. For instance, '.....got it to a good level with the saltmeter, and added some bio mix.' What is 'a good level' in your mind? Will you be running a reef tank or fish only? The difference in those two bio-systems could mean a difference in specific gravity (salinity).

Measuring the level of salt in your system is usually done with a refractometer, swing arm hydrometer or even a digital salinity monitor. Using a 'saltmeter' doesn't help since that term is not recognizable.

Adding fish at this stage is done for one reason, to cycle the tank. I don't like to speak for anyone else, since it isn't my place to do so, but as a whole, the members of Manhattan Reefs prefer to cycle their tanks in a more humane way, without fish. Adding uncured live rock or a raw cocktail shrimp or even some fish food to cause a spike in ammonia will work well. Using live fish will cause undue suffering to the fish.

Like I said, adding more detail to your post will help us to help you.

Again, welcome to MR and enjoy your stay here.
Russ