55 gal set up :D

M

MalR

Reefing newb
So, originally, I was going to re-purpose my old 29 gal freshwater tank and switch to saltwater. Then the hubby suggested I get a 55 gal set-up instead. He rocks. So, here it is so far, at nearly one month out.....
tank2.jpg


40 pounds live sand, 40 pounds live rock, t-5 lights, marine land emperor 400 filter, koralife powerhead (it's rated for my original tank, so I'll need to add another one). The live rock came with a colony of clove polyps, which are THRIVING, and some neat little ball-tip nems? Living under the polyp rock... There's one aiptasia hanging out in the back, which I'll be murdering soon....I'm still debating a skimmer, the guy at the LFS highly recommended one, but I'm not sure if he was just trying to make a sale or not...Water prams are good so far, if things start getting wacky I may add one...
 
Tank looks really good. I love having a skimmer. If you go HOB for your skimmer Reef Octopus makes a really good one and they wont break the bank. I assume you are changing the media in the hob filter often. I keep a hob filter on mine for when I decide to run carbon but keep it empty and just giving flow the rest of the time. How ever you are doing it the tanks looks great. :Cheers:
 
WOW...that background threw me for a loop! IMO I would add more rock. If you are considering not running a skimmer, you'll need all the biological filtration you can get.Your stocking list and feeding schedule will also be a big factor on wether or not you'll need a skimmer.
 
That background threw my mom and mil too!! Lol!

I'm looking at adding another 10 pounds of rock next month-ish. I've got 2 snowflake clowns coming this week (they'll be chilling in the QT for 6 weeks before I add them to the display), 5 peppermint shrimp are in that order too....a couple months after the clowns go in I'd like to add some type of blenny or goby, beyond that I'm not sure what else we're going to toss in there. I added 10 nassaris (sp???) and 10 hermit crabs last week, so maybe more cuc in a few months?
I'm certainly not against getting a skimmer, especially if it makes life a little easier ;P
 
Oh wow, just got a notification that fish and shrimp are showing TOMORROW!! Glad I got the QT set up today....
 
I think a skimmer really helps. Regardless of the back ground I dont see any diatoms or algae issues in there so you are so far so good in my opinion.
 
yeah, the only algae we have going on right now is the hair algae on that rock on the far right. Which came with the rock. It had too much cool stuff on it to pass up, figured I can manage the algae as I go... I did have some type of bloom 3 weeks ago, but I think that was part of the cycle...
 
Tank looks good. Make sure you are doing a true QT with your clowns (ie treat with copper or hypo) otherwise there is no point in doing it.
 
Little_fish, just out of curiosity, what are the benefits of running copper or doing hypo? I disagree with treating when there's no evidence of disease, if the fish had some type of parasite wouldn't that become evident over time? Just wondering since there seems to be several ways of running a QT tank... It seems like if I ask 5 different peeps I get 5 different answers, lol :)
 
Nope, a fish wont show signs of a disease (and in this case we are talking parasite, like ich, and bacterial infections, and viral infections, so pretty much everything) until they are stressed enough and the immune system cant handle the parasite anymore. Its just like us and getting the common cold, we get sick when we are stressed.

Almost all of us dont QT our fish because its so easy to prevent stress and not have a disease problem. There are very few disease that will show up in the QT period unless the fish is stressed anyways.
 
Would shipping cause enough stress to show signs? These guys are coming in after 24 hours in a packing container from FL....That's the main reason for the QT. Plus I've battled ick before, I just want to make sure I get a good, solid start on this set up.....

And that's similar to what the LFS guy told me, only he said not to run copper unless something seemed hinky. So, would it be best to just run hypo?
 
There's nothing WRONG with QTing the fish. It is good reefkeeping habits. little_fish is just saying there's really no point in doing it if you're not going to treat.....and hypo isn't really a good option. You should treat with copper if you're going to QT them. Otherwise, there's really no point.

As for shipping, it is impossible to tell if that will be enough stress to make the fish show signs of infection. Every fish is different.
 
Thanks for the input guys! I'm going to spend some more time reading up before I decide to do anything, I really appreciate the advice :)
 

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