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Hi as the topic suggests I am new to SW tanks. I ahve in the past kept FW tropical tanks, mainly chiclids.

Now I ahve purchased myself a 70gal (270L) 4ft tank and all gear that the LFS has advised me that i will need

i ahve filled the tank and added salt andf the substrate s in. In a week I will add live rock and do the whole cycling thing (fishless) as i was told by the LFS.

Now my question is the fish that i would like to have this whole tank built around is the lionfish...but with reading info on this site about how big they grow and such, i think it might end up being the dwarf fluffy lionfish.

Sow aht i would like to know is what fish could I keep with it, a yellow tang would be nice, some other high colour fish to brighten the tank up would also be nice. And I would like to keep some anenome (sp?) with or without clowns.

Is keeping a lionfish and anenome a possible thing?

any info you could give would be greatly appreciated, also a what times should the certain fsh be introduced (in any order, once ph and nitrite and nitrate lvls are 0, or whatever they are supposed to be, etc)

A link to a complete guide on cycling the tank would also be nice.

thanx in advance

Lionfish aren't too hard to keep but stock them with fish that it can't easily eat remember how big its mouth is a yellow tang is good or full grown clowns depending on ur lionfish size another great one is the eel for ur size I would say get a snowflake they r pretty docile

i wouldn't mind a snowflake eel, but thaught they needed a much bigger tank, in the area of 130gal

No they r docile and stay at the bottom I have one in my 45 gallon Pentagon

A larger snowflake would indeed appreciate a larger tank, yes. A juvenile would be all right. Snowflakes are common enough that you can trade in big ones for little ones.

When cycling, basically what goes up and down is ammonia first, then nitrites, then nitrates. You can add fish after your . In our articles section we have an in-depth article on fishless cycling. This is targeted for the freshwater aquarist, and there are different things you can do in a saltwater tank. For example, cycling just by adding live rock is popular; uncured live rock will contain lots of things that will come off and provide an ammonia source and will also have bacteria.

Not sure about the lionfish and anemone thing.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

well i still ahve plenty of time to thnk as the tank has only been up a running fr 3 days, and I ahve yet to add the live rock, so quite a bit of time yet...

I want a lion fish that is the main thing I want, dont really care beyond thast. but anenome just sound cool, you know these bright little swaying things that will move from here to there, just sounds cool, I figured they just sat in the one place the whole time, like coral.

and the eel, maybe, i haven't realy seen one in my LFS, but never know, havent really looked hard up till recently, so...

I haven't kept SW inverts before, but if I'm not mistaken... Anemones will move whenever they feel like it, although they will usually pick their favorite spot, if I'm not mistaken. So though they CAN be generally immobile, they have the ability to move if they so choose. Anemones also can have bright light requirements.

Snowflakes are almost always available around here...

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Another question i have is, for water chnages could freash SW be used,as in straight from the sea. I haven't done any tests to see just wondering as i don't live that far fromthe sea...only thing is the sea near me would only be like 22C instead of the normsl 26C you would want for a tropical SW tank.

Just wondreing if freash SW would have anything in it that you don't want in your tank

It could contain pollutants, depending on where you get it from.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

well I might steer clear of that idea then

juts another question what is a good flow rate for a SW tank. as in how many times an hour should the tank be cycled.
I know you need a strong current for SW tanks just don't want to over do it, or not have enough

Minimum of 10X turnover. I like closer to 30-40X turnover myself.

It's really hard to have too much, and very easy to have too little. In a 70g tank, I'd probably have two koralia 4s in addition to whatever return pump or filters you are running.

EDIT: Reading the thread further, it looks like you are wanting a lionfish. That's one of the few sw fish that won't be out in the open if the tank is getting pounded with flow. So watch out for that I suppose. Maybe try just one koralia 4 or two koralia 3s instead.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

whats the flow rate of those koralia (powerheads i assume)
I currently have a 270L tank and have 1700L/ph flow from powerheads, so that is approx 5x tank volume and hour

Each of the Koralia pumps have different turnovers. I believe Koralia 4 has 1200 gph and Koralia 3 has 850 gph.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

ok I chnaged a few things I now have a 1000Lp/h canaister filter and a 2000L p/h powerhead, so now i get around 12x tank p/h all up.

but I ahve noticed one f my rocks has two white furry tentical looking things hanging out of it that wave around and what not, they are about an inch long, they don't look like a plant but some sort of worm looking thing. are they bad, or good?

ohh and also my live rock seems to be going a dark browny color, is this normal or is something wrong

It's just a diatom bloom. Totally normal for a new tank. You'll see some other varieties of algae ending with, hopefully, pink or purple coralline algae.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Brown stuff is common, won't be as bad once your tank stabilizes. Clean up crews (snails and hermits) help but may become a snack for the lion? Back to what an earlier post said, water flow helps keep down unwanted algae, cyano, and diatom growth.

I ahve a new "thing" I ahve found in my tank, not sure what it is any ideas. there is two of them atleast in thee, this one is just the biggest.

would this be a sign my tank is cycled?

Attached Image:

sorry the image did not come out to clear, I took it with my phone.

this thing whateveer it is must have been a hitchhicker on my live rock, thing is it has been about 3 weeks since i last put any LR in there, so it has remained hidden all that time.