Taking the plunge

[Omni2226]

Well after researching and reading books till my little brain almost exploded I went out today and bought a setup.

55 GL Marineland starter package (yes I know the lights suck) which includes 200 watt heater,hydrometer,glass top,in tank floating thermometer,bag of instant ocean salt (enough for 50 gallons) and a fastest master kit (the granule shake in tester kind, not the strips). Emporer/penguin 400 HOB filter. (Should be good for running charcoal/phosphate/whatever pads later and some extra water flow).
Total cost $239.00 U.S.

Two 140 GPH powerheads (Rated at 170 so I figure 130-150).
Total cost $ 32.00 U.S.

Handmade all wood stand with lots of room under/behind to place all the stuff I will buy and never use.
Total cost $ 99.00 U.S.

100 Lbs of sand and roughly 30 LBs of "J,s base rock" (Sand and concrete I mixed myself).
Total cost about $15.00 U.S.

Next weekend 10-15 LBs of "Live" rock and two more powerheads.
Not much use in posting pics because there is nothing to see yet except some cloudy water. (Didnt quite get the sand clean enough, oh well)

Just thought I would share, no need to reply if ya dont want to.
I will update after I blow some more money next week.

 

[LA-Lawman]

cool...

a 55g is a good tank to start with.... what are your plans for the system? are you gonna incorporate a skimmer?

let us know, we are here to help and guide ya.

 

[Omni2226]

Plans? You need to have plans?

I quit drinking two years ago and havent smoked any green stuff in years and Im totaly burnt out on pc/video games. Need a blackhole to pour money into.

Been looking for a hobby to get into and I used to keep several FW tanks long ago. Had one saltwater with a Lionfish. Kept him about a year or so till we had a major cold spell and they were doing "brownouts" and he bit the dust. ( I was a long distance truckdriver at the time so I wasnt at home).

After I get all my deco in the tank (Going to make most of it with pvc and eggshell) and a few live rocks and a couple of bags of live sand nothing will be added till the algae has a chance to grow and cover everything except the front glass.

Then one to three fish Maximum. Its not a "show" tank per se, its set up in my bedroom as a "toy" for me to play with.

If the whole thing crashes I will lose a few dollors worth of rock and sand.
Last thing I want is to make fish/critters suffer over my ignorance so there wont be any corals or fish added for a long time. (not counting any hitchhikers of course, and the cleanup crew gruys).

The power skimmer is a high tech gadget called "J,s manos".
If I see something big I will fish it out. The small stuff stays in the tank for critters to eat. I am not to worried about super crystal clean water right now. As I said it will be months before I even add a fish let alone anything else.

Eventualy a wet/dry filter will be added and a skimmer in it to replace the bioballs. Maybe. Im still not convinced I even need one for what I plan to have in the tank. Time will tell and everything changes so who knows.

Thanks for the chat. Later.

 

[Omni2226]

Well heres a update.
25 lbs of live rock added. 3 days and no amonia yet, so tomorrow will add 3 dominoe damsels. ( rock was a little "too" cured at the store I guess)
These are NOT cycle fish.
After looking and reading these guys should be perfect for my tank.
reef safe, act a lot like their "cousins" nemo, are hard to kill ( a big plus for me) and they look neat. Ive settled on the black with one dot and a strip across the nose as my color choice.
Think they will look good among all the other colors that will eventualy be in here.
Anyway heres tank readings.

Amonia 0
Nitite 0
Nitrate Looks like a minute trace, im not sure, probaly not as I havent had any traces of amonia yet.
Salt 1.22
Temp 80-82 (day-night)
Oops forgot PH its 8.2

 

[ChrisRD]

Personally I would give it a bit more time before I tried adding fish. I would also opt for some more peaceful fish too. Those little guys get pretty mean as they mature (actually, they start off fairly mean!)...

JMO of course...

 

[Omni2226]

Well I deserve the dimlight award for this one.
No amonia reading was because el bright one forgot to take the carbon out of the power filter I had running to clear up all the gunk from adding the sand. A blonde moment what can I say.

Amonia is now showing about 0.2 and may go up more by morning.

So back to the plan, modified. After amonia and nitrite are gone Ill add the damsels.

Ya I know they are/can be mean little buggers but Im a working man. I cant afford to pay 100,s of dollors for a fish, and from what I have seen/read they are good reefsafe fish.

If anyone has ideas on small (and stay small) fish that dont cost a fortune and are safe for corals please speak out. I havent seen too many except for clowns and the others are out of my price range or too hard to feed.

 

[ChrisRD]

There are lots of small, colorful, reefsafe fish that aren't expensive or hard to care for. Clowns as you mentioned, Orchid Dottybacks, Royal Grammas, various small wrasses, firefish, etc. Some species of Chromis are fairly pretty too and many are more peaceful than damsels. I haven't even scratched the surface here as I'm rushing out the door...

 

[Omni2226]

Well I wasnt positive last night, but there is definatly amonia this morning, 0.2
I will keep an eye on it today and tomorrow and do a partail water change if it goes higher. Want to keep the bugs alive.

No crabs yet (good) and dozens of small brittlestars and bristleworms and I want to keep as many of those alive as possible.

On the fish. Ya I have been looking at clowns...but everybody and their brothers has those, and to be honest they are too peaceful. I kept convicts,oscars and jack dempseys in my fw and I prefer the mean fish over what i always used to feed em with.

Triggers , now theres a fish I can relate to, but this will be a reef tank and I dont want a fish that may use my snails and other critters as basketballs.

Damsels remind me a lot of the convicts. Kill any other fish that invades their space, but tolerate cleaner/catfish types and usally (Usally) dont try to eat snails and things bigger than what they can fit in the mouth.
Do you think they will kill cleaner types? Everything ive read and the compatibilty chart shows them as good to go with larger shrimps and snails and such.

 

[Omni2226]

Well for anyone who cars heres a update.
Amonia is staying around .2 .3 so will do a small water change tomorrow.

Been looking at all the hob skimmers and think ill go with the ramora c.

No use getting one till all the cycling is over in a month or so but that gives me time to finnish mods/deco. Added a 4 foot shop light with some daylight and aquarium bulbs. Looks a lot better with the glass tops off and should be good enough for now. I just hate those cheapo "lights" and glass tops that come with a kit.

Another powerhead which brings total water flow up to about 600 gph which should be enough for a 55.

Since Im going to be trying the hardier corals first doubt ill get mh. Looking at some light kits at the local stores and quite are few are in my budget range (250-350 dollors).
Built in timers with moonlight phases (have no idea why a rock would care about moonlight but anyway) and all the whistles/bells.

Nice chatting at ya. Later.

 

[ChrisRD]

The damsels will be fine with inverts. It's with other fish (including each other) that the problems will come in...

As for circulation - I would have at least 1000 GPH or more in a 55 gallon reef tank. The Remora is a decent hang-on skimmer - not sure why you'd want to hold off on adding it though. The goal for most reefers when setting up a new tank with live rock is to keep ammonia levels as low as possible to preserve the life on it. Having the skimmer running from day 1 would have helped in that regard.

 

[Omni2226]

Mayb im mistaken then. Dont ya need stuff in the tank to start the amonia/nitrite/whatever cycle?
If the water is too clean whats going to cycle it?

This is cured base rock, not "premium" rock with a lot of stuff growing on it, and is being added a little at a time. 5-10 lbs a week.

And till the algae bloom cycles are over/started why worry about crystal clear water? Im using active charcoal bags to keep the amonia down and doing water changes.

I dont think this will wind up being a fullblown coral reef tank. Fowlr and maybe a few corals that come on the nicer rock i will place on top of the base rock later. Im not doing the "wall" across the back its more of slope from the sides/corners down to the middle of the tank, where im planning to make a series of caves out of garfcrete and a pvc eggcrate frame.

Then far far down the line center piece fish like a flame angel (one from hawaii if i can get one) or maybe another type of pygmy angel.

Mmm may be a problem adding a skimmer at all because i will be wanting to promote algae growth, not get rid of it. Ill do some more research on it as time goes on.

 

[ChrisRD]

IMO the idea that tanks have to "cycle" by seeing a spike of ammonia is a bit of a common misconception. IMO it's an idea that's leftover from the days when many saltwater tanks were using inert biofiltration systems that needed to be seeded with bacteria and have some source of organics to get established (a piece of table shrimp, hardy fish such as damsels, etc.). The spike of ammonia is just an indication that aerobic bacterial populations in the system can't yet keep up with the bioload and it (ammonia) is accumulating.

The same thing can happen with live rock that is not yet cured. The rate of dieoff creates more bioload than the resident bacteria can keep up with. Most reefers have the rock in a vat/tank with lots of circulation and a strong skimmer to keep these decomposing organics to a minimum in an effort to prevent a large ammonia spike that could kill off many useful organisms in/on the rock. In addition to (or instead of) the skimming, water changes work as well (dilution).

However, since live rock has plenty of the denitrifying bacteria on and in it already. It's not uncommon for well cured rock to be added to a system and for there to never be a trace of ammonia present. If the system is stocked slowly, the already present bacteria populations will multiple quickly enough to keep up with the bioload and there will never be an imbalance - therefore no excess ammonia.

In short, live rock comes "ready to use" and if it is already cured it's perfectly normal to not see any ammonia spike when adding it to a system. I would not recommend purposely not skimming or adding a heavy bioload to force an ammonia spike as this, IMO, will have no real benefit and will possibly kill off some beneficial creatures.

HTH

 

[Omni2226]

Makes sense. That would explain why I am not seeing any large increase of amonia (though the loads are small, added about 8lbs of rock and nothing happened as far as amonia).

Im adding the rock a little at a time as im handpicking them for the shape/caves/noooks and crannys.

The ramora is the one im gonna buy. Pick it up this weekend if I can get over that way. Busy time of year for me.

Oh edit here: The ramora with the maxijet pump is the one im getting.

 

[Omni2226]

One week update.

SG 1.23 at 80 degree water temp.
PH 8.4
Amonia 0.2 and falling after a high of 0.6
Nirite no traces (Could be the DSB and rock are doing their thing.)
Nitrate no trace but my kit starts at 10 so there may be some.

No crabs (good) yet and the worms and brittle stars seem to be surviving ok. Lots of places on/in/around the rock were critters unseen are pushing little piles of trash out of the holes, so who knows whats in there.A few really tiny feather worms.

Nothing else will be added till the cycle is complete, and my LFS gets in some fiji rock. There is a shortage of it right now in this area. So two to three weeks and I can start looking for some premium rock to finnish the "top" with. Still cant make up my mind on fish, but the biotope idea appeals to me. Fiji rock with one or two fish from the tropics may look nice. More reading to see whats out there and what they need as far as care goes.

Now the lights....geezz why does there have to be so many choices? Metal halides are out, too hot and I dont have an easy way to suspend anything heavy, so Im looking at tankmounted VHO kits that sit about 8 inches above the water. Too many choices...sigh. Ah well something will catch my eye sooner or later.

Later.


Later.

 

[Omni2226]

Kind of early for an update but..

All readings are at 0
PH is 8.4
SG 1.23 at 80 degrees.

Mainly wanted to share some good news.
My first decent hichhiker.

Have a nice brown algae bloom going on and while looking for new tubeworms growing I noticed a tiny rock moving..after looking at several photos it appears I have a stomatella.
Mowing the diatom down like a lawnmower.

Later.

 

[ChrisRD]

That's good news. They tend to multiply well in our tanks so they make a nice self-sustaining cleanup critter.

 

[Omni2226]

Two week update.

Am 0
Nit 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.3
SG 1.24 at 80 degrees (Raising this slowly to 1.25)

After having water tested to back up my tests, added two mex turbo and two margirita snails, two blueleg hermits.

If these survive till next weekend will start looking at soft corals, maybe a fish.

After a lot of thought this is the plan:

Centerpiece fish will be a Flame angel (At roughly the 6 to 9 month mark)
Coral will be soft coral only and stick to a small variety. Mushroom and star polyps.
Lights will be the VHO type, looking at some fixtures now.

Filter method: A few larger Live rocks with some smaller ones as "islands", deep sand bed at 4-6 inches.
Hob emperor filter with a few ounces of charcoal changed bi-weekly.
These are in place and working.

Hob skimmer (remora) run once or twice a week. (I know everyone runs these 24/7 but I want to promote algae of all types and avoid dosing chemicals.)
A 20 gallon refuge mounted above the tank. (My bro and I are still "discussing" the plans for a stand and plumbing).
After the refuge is kicking good the power filter will be moved to a 29 FW tank for the Girls to enjoy in the living room.

Four powerheads, one in each corner at diffrent depths, pointed to the middle in a X type pattern. About 650 GPH flow. Bubble tests show nice random motion across most of the tank.

Since this thread is getting kind of long this will be the last update for a while. Maybe at the 3 month mark Ill update it.

Later.