Hello from Ohio

[DrBCool]

Hello all you Reefer Heads out there ,

My Name is Doug , or some know me as Doc . I have always admired the looks of a saltwater tank and now find myself in the midst of setting one up .. Let me tell you all a nice long story of how I got to this point .......

A couple months ago my girlfriend and I were in a LFS and was checking out the complete setups they had to offer . Just inside the door was this 36 Gallon Bowfront on a stand with light , pump , filter , gravel , fish net , fish food , some decorations and a magazine . The price caught my eye as well , $338 .. I had been reading on reef tanks and originally I had all my figures for a 150 gallon bow , but the cost of tank and set up was just way out of my reach .. So after seeing this tank I then decided to do some shopping around the area to see what other tanks were to be had and the pricing . I went to several other LFS's in the area and found myself back at the first store with the 36 gal bow .. I asked them if they had a layaway plan and Hay they did .. How nice is that .. lol .. So I put more than the 10% they wanted down , what I had in my pocket at the time ... Within a couple weeks I had the tank home and sitting in my bedroom . Laying there in my bed staring at an empty tank Oh the possibilities , but my thoughts at the time were on a freshwater system with lots of Tetras .. After studying the tank and looking at the gravel in bags sitting in the tank I decided I needed a few more bags of black gravel to deepin the base . So I hop in the car and go to some more LFS's .. The first stop didn't have any of the black gravel , so I thought I would check out a place I had never been to .. So I go in and the manager working there Eric , starts asking me how big a tank and what kind of tank and such .. He thens tells me that is a great tank to set up saltwater .. He then spends the next hour and a half talking to me about what I will need to setup and then things I will need in the near future .. So after the long chat I left there with a couple decent chunks of live rock , 2 different sizes of coral for a base , some seasalt , a pump to help create flow and a hydrometer .. At home I get everything going and after 24 hours the water cleared up and I took a bunch of freshwater stuff back to the original store for a refund ( I bought extra decorations and such that wouldn't work in salt ) .. I Evelyn and I got a yellow tailed Damsel ( basically a loner fish till we cycled the tank ) some more live rock which I am sure didn't hurt :-) and some base rock that another LFS guy said I needed ( wrong ) !!!!!!!! Woulda rather gotten more live rock ...

So now here I am 4 weeks into the cycling process and the tank is going wonderful .. I added my first thing last week a Hawain Feather Duster he is awsome I love it .. I have a few hermits in there and a couple snails .. Now I need to get myself a decent but not overly expensive hang on skimmer and then the hard part .. Lights .. shew lighting is the toughest thing I have found .. Everyone agrees to disagree when it comes to lights .. I found this forum by searching for lighting information .. I just don't know which way to go with it .. I have time I guess cause the skimmer needs to be my first purchase .. After that it is off to the LFS with Homer my Damsel fish for a trade in on some clowns , Evelyn wants some clowns around other than me ... lol .. I really want some firefish I think , they look really really cool . Eventually I want a clam as I have seen some blue or purple ones that are awsome .. I know I want some of the little round zoanthids ( did I spell that right ? ) They would be cool on my rock ..

So there it is that is how I got here .. Hope you all can help me out a bit as I am confused by the lighting .,. My LFS guy suggested this
All-Glass Aquarium: Bow Front Curved Glass Aquariums for lighting ..

 

[Bifferwine]

Skimmer is definitely a must. It's helpful to research and ask questions before you buy one, or you'll end up like me, spending more on pieces of junk that end up in the trash, when I could have just bought a good one to start off with!

Those lights you point out are flourescent lights, which are not bright (meant for freshwater, really), but they will work for a fish only tank (but their colors won't show up). If you are planning on keeping more than fish down the line (you mentioned zooanthids and clams) you will definitely need stronger lighting, as those animals will quickly die with insufficient lighting. That goes for any sort of coral/anemone/etc. that you might want to keep.

You have a few different choices out there, unfortunately they're all expensive!! :) Your best choices are probably T-5's, Power Compacts, or Metal Halides. Of these, the T-5's are probably the most affordable, and are still good enough to keep almost everything you want. That's what I have on my tank now, I had the regular flourescent strip light (like the one on that webpage) until I had enough money to upgrade. You should check out different lighting systems of the types I mentioned at www.marinedepot.com or Champion Lighting & Supply. Those websites will give you a good idea of what's out there. Remember, lighting needs are very different for saltwater and freshwater. And lights are probably the most expensive part of the tank! You can, however, get some good deals on Ebay on new and used lights, so that may help cut down on the cost.

I know more people that have more experience than me will weigh in here...

 

[jhnrb]

Welcome to the site. glad you found us.

 

[DrBCool]

Hey I went out and wasted money ... lol.. Well not actually wasted money but I got things for my tank :-) I picked up a coralife lighting system ( probably not enough light for clams ) but good for me as a begginer .. It has 10K , atinics and lunar leds , I got a prism deluxe skimmer , not sure that was a good buy but I figure something is better than nothing ... :-) I got a cleaner shrimp by asking the owner how much I had to spend to get the shrimp free ... he looked at all the stuff I had on the counter and said he could give me a cleaner shrimp for free :-) I got a digital timer ( wasn't the one I thought it was :-( ) but I can make it work the way I want by using my other timer in conjunction with ...

Today I traded in my damsel fish , got some base rock for him :-) 3 LBS some small pieces just to make more hiding places .. I got a mandarin gody , and a firefish . I picked up a banded coral shrimp last week .. and he since went through a mault or molt ( not sure how that is spelled ) and I think either my damsel messed with him in the process or he just had problems cause he didn't come out of it very well :-( ... I am hoping he survives and after his next one he looks in better shape ... My firefish was out to eat this evening but I havne't seen him since .. I think I gave him too many places to hide ... lol ... The Mandarin hangs out all the time which is cool since he is so graciously colorful . :-) Oh I about forgot I added my 2nd power head to get flow in the tank ... that is the latest scoop on the tank .. I will have to get some new pic's for everyone to see .. Next on my list is a new digital camera .. this one I have is one from the onset of digital cameras , was a $400 camera new but that was eons ago ... now I can get so much better for less money ... :-)

 

[Bifferwine]

The Prizm is not a bad skimmer if you keep a low bioload (only a few fish). If you add more fish and find your levels rising, you may want to buy a different one. A lot of people will rag on the Prizm, but I had one as my only skimmer for a while without any problems when my tank was fish only and I switched to a more powerful one when I started adding corals and inverts and needed to ensure better water quality.

Mandarins are extremely difficult to keep unless you have a refugium with an ample supply of live copepods and amphipods -- usually that's the only thing they eat and most mandarins end up starving to death if not provided with live food. If you are lucky, you can sometimes find mandarins that have been "trained" to eat frozen mysis shrimp, I hope you were able to find one that will eat that? Although, in my opinion, they are the most attractive fish that are widely available, mandarins are generally not good fish for a new tank. My current tank has been up for 11 months now and I'm still not comfortable enough with the pod levels in it to add a mandarin without worrying about it starving to death. They tend to decimate the pod populations very quickly.

The firefish are pretty shy and will hide most of the time, mine only come out for breakfast or dinner, the rest of the time they hide under a rock. You might want to get more than one, they look really cool when they school and hang out with each other.

Problems with shrimp molting may be due to your iodine levels being off. You might want to check that...

Good luck and have fun!

 

[DrBCool]

well the shrimp didn't survive .. I am not sure what happened to him :-( I feel so bad he was doing very well was eating frozen brine shrimp and seemed happy until he mautled :-( After that his decline was so rapid I didn't have a chance to save him ... I am not sure what exactly happened there ... His legs started all just falling off to where he couldn't get around , all within a day after his mault ....

The mandarin I have has been at the LFS for over a month .. They said he eats frozen brine mostly .. But just curious how do I get the copepods to grow ? I need some anyone wanna sell me some .. lol ...

 

[yote]

pods will just naturally grow and breed in your tank. They live in and on your live rock

 

[Bifferwine]

And they grow and breed better if they have a sheltered place where fish can't reach them and eat them all. I know there are some people here that have built little "pod shelters" in their main tanks out of rock, maybe someone can give you details?

 

[DrBCool]

Pod shelters ...lol ... that is kinda funny really , but it makes sense .. If I could find some live rock with pods already growing that would help ....

I think the Mandarin is eating the brine shrimp though .. He is going around picking stuff off the bottom after I feed , and then you see these little puffs shoot out .. I am guessing that means he is eating something .. :-) He is a cool fish to watch , as is the firefish , the firefish has been out most of the day today so I am guessing he likes his surroundings .. The cleaner shrimp climbed on my finger as I rescued him from the skimmer inlet ..

Also my hermit crabs are stupid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!STUPID !!!!!!!!!!! They keep ending up upside down , not sure what the deal with that is ... I have been on crab rescue duty all day , turning one after another over .. I don't know what their deal is .. I am thinking there is a cooooo and they are making a game out of this .... LMAO ....