1st Tank

[tonyg]

Greetings!
I've only kept small freshwater tanks, never anything too serious until I was given a brand new Biocibe Hqi. I've been doing research and collecting supplies for the past few months and finally got to it about 6 weeks ago. I ultimately would like to end up having 5 or 6 small fish, an assortment of coral, starfish, and maybe an anemone.

I started with 25lbs of live sand and about 30 lbs of live rock, taken out of established tanks, and filled the tank with store bought real seawater. I put a handful of live rock rubble, some chaeto and red gracilaria in the refugium chamber. I use the protein skimmer that came with the tank, the standard biocube filters, and a 100w heater. I have the lights set up so that the main lamp runs for 8 hours then the light over the refuguim window is on when the main one is off. There are what appears to be several different colors of coralline algae on some of the rocks so ive been adding PurpleUp to encourage its growth. Ive been doing weekly water changes of around 15%, and checking water parameters at least twice a week.

After about a week I started noticing diatom and algae growth along with some snails, slugs and worms on the rocks. The LPS said the water tested out good and there should be no reason I couldn't start adding fish. I actually started out with a couple Nassarius snails, a blue claw crab, and 2 peppermint shrimp. Over the next few weeks the rocks started getting fuzzier and fuzzier so I placed an order with reefcleaners.org. The cleaning crew they sent me made quick work of most of the algae in the tank. After that I introduced 2 tiny clownfish who seem to be doing quite well so far.

I have many questions and issues to go over so please watch for my posts in other threads. Oh, and my family insisted on the decorations, hopefully they will let me remove them once i start adding more life.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
-Tonyg

 

[buddy08]

lmao at spongebob! Looks good ;D

 

[little_fish]

Very cute tank!

I hate to burst your bubble, but purple up doesnt really do anything. Its meant to be a calcium supplement, but you should have a perfectly fine calcium level just by doing regular water changes. More isnt always better.

Also in saltwater you can only have one fish for every 10 gallons, so you are limited to 3 fish, or 4 at max after your tank has been set up for awhile. Be sure you that research what fish you purchase independently of the store too, LFS are well know for selling fish that have no business being in a small tank. Also be sure to wait at least 3 weeks between additions to let the bacteria grow to handle the new waste before adding more.

 

[tonyg]

Very cute tank!

I hate to burst your bubble, but purple up doesnt really do anything. Its meant to be a calcium supplement, but you should have a perfectly fine calcium level just by doing regular water changes. More isnt always better.

Also in saltwater you can only have one fish for every 10 gallons, so you are limited to 3 fish, or 4 at max after your tank has been set up for awhile. Be sure you that research what fish you purchase independently of the store too, LFS are well know for selling fish that have no business being in a small tank. Also be sure to wait at least 3 weeks between additions to let the bacteria grow to handle the new waste before adding more.

Thanks!

I've been wondering about that. I have the API calcium test. I dont know how reliable it is, the test instructions seem a bit vague. However I beleive the calcium level to be at 340ppm. Isnt that low if I eventually want to introduce corals?

I've had soo many people tell me different things about how many fish can go in. Especially at the LPS, some of the employees have said things that sounded strange even to me before I really knew anything about aquariums. Im fine with only 3 or 4, and dont plan on adding any for quite a while. Im mainly interested in corals. And I know the tank should age for months before putting any in.

 

[little_fish]

Actually there is no reason to wait to add corals, especially the softies. They are great beginner corals and easier to take care of then fish IMO, Check out leathers, zoas, mushrooms, clove polyps, GSP all those will do great in your tank. If those do well, you can move onto some easy LPS corals like hammes, frogspawns, candy canes etc.

Also the API test kit for calcium and alk are really unrealiable IMO, i would go with the Salfert kit. More expensive, but well worth it.

 

[Northstar24]

I've had issues with the API Alk kit (I switched to the Tropic Marin alk test) but I've never had issues with the API Calcium test

Basically it has two bottles. You fill the test tube up to the white line. Then take the bottle marked Bottle #1 and add 10 drops if it to the test tube. Give it a few good swirls so it gets properly mixed. Then take bottle #2 and shake it for a few seconds. Add drops of this bottle until the sample goes from pink to purple. Remember to stop and make sure the sample is well mixed every few drops. Keep count of how many drops of the second bottle it takes to get the sample to turn purple - and cross reference the chart.

With no coral in the tank, you should have no problem maintaining a cal level of 400 - 440 with regular water changes as long as you're using a decent salt mix

 

[tonyg]

I was never quite sure how much to mix it as I count the drops from bottle 2. But it does seem low.

With no coral in the tank, you should have no problem maintaining a cal level of 400 - 440 with regular water changes as long as you're using a decent salt mix

I'm using store bought sea water, does that typically have lower calcium levels than a mix?

 

[tonyg]

Re: 1st Tank 1st update

I added a few more chunks of live rock. They came out of an established tank. It was only a few pounds and I was very careful transporting it. But I guess it was too cold, because I got a small ammonia spike shortly after adding them. I did a water change and everything seems to be back to normal.

I also decided to upgrade my power heads. I went with the ocean stream impellers because they offer greater, more gentle water movement at 500 gph. They are hooked up to a ocean pulse wavemaker set to switch power heads every 4 minutes. So far so good. They run very quietly, and dont seem to mind being turned on and off.

Everything seems to be doing well, The fish seem happy and eat like pigs, and my shrimps got big. Im still getting a little too much algae on the rocks and brown stuff on the sand, but its not really a problem. I plan on adding more snail soon. Even the crabs seem to have settled down a bit.

I would like to have a more complete lighting system. All I have now is the metal halide hqi the biocube came with. Im thinking about finding some led strips that I can put on the top of the glass to suppliment the hqi lam. And some moonlights. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I cant wait to add coral, but ive got a lot of research to do before I make any decisions.

 

[little_fish]

Your tank looks really good! I love the spongebob houses

 

[tonyg]

Quick update!

Added some accent and night lights. Got 2 stunner strips. One all blue that is connected to a dimmer which makes for a great nightlight, the other is blue/magenta which makes the colors in the tank really pop. Because of the hqi design I had to rig a fixture to get the stunner strips into position. Not the nicest looking light fixture, but the overall results are awsome.

Went to the fish store a couple of days ago and watched as an employee tried to separate rocks that a few different color zoas had grown over. He seemed to be going about it very clumsily. A couple of small chunks broke off and he gave them to me for $5. They seem to be doing ok. After acclimation, they opened right up once i placed them into my tank. I wanted to use them to make a garden for Spongebobs house but there was too much traffic there. They would just get fully open before a crab, shrimp, or snail would poke at them causing them to retract.

Here's the updated critter list so far.

About a dozen zoa polyps
2 tiny clown-fish
2 peppermint shrimp
6 nerites
6 ceriths
9 branded trochus
About a dozen blue leggers
Around 20 dwarf ceriths.
1 Thin striped hermit (banished to the refugium)
1 fuzzy chiton

I continue to have some algae issues, not sure what the cause is. All water parameters are great. I think once I find the ideal length of time to run the hqi light the snail to algae ratio should balance out.

 

[little_fish]

Lets see some pics!

 

[tonyg]

For the life of me I could not get decent pix of the zoas. Ill try again when the suns up.
The algae is kinda bad at this point, but the snails are very happy.

 

[tonyg]

The algae has gone away for now.

The Zoas seem to be doing well.

I have been thinking about adding a new fish. I would like a midas blenny. Hopefully one of the local pet shops will get one soon.