The waiting game

Acrylic

Reefing newb
I introduced myself to these forums yesterday. Thanks to all those who made me feel welcome.

Apart from a protein skimmer, I've got everything I want to get (to start, at least) for my aquarium. What is everyone's opinion on a good protein skimmer? My tank is 90 gallons, saltwater.

My snails are hanging in there. I've got a couple strange things living on my rock, which is fine by me. I'm getting more and more pods by the day.

So now the hardest part begins... letting a month or so go by to let everything evolve. I guess it's a good opportunity to talk about fish. I understand it's best to start with more passive fish first, and introduce the potentially more aggressive ones further down the road. So what are some examples of some passive fish?

Ideally, I don't want any fish that will get too big. The biggest I'd like to see a fish get is 6 inches. Having looked at the fish at my local fish store, there's a few that caught my eye. I don't think they're the type you'd introduce first however. That being said, I liked the Flame angel, Coral Beauty angel, and there was an 8-line wrasse that looked pretty cool too. Clowns of course, who doesn't like clowns? Oh, there was a grey tang, it's fins were orange - very cool looking fish! Anyways, is there a good site I can go to to just research fish?

So... the waiting game... ugh. It's gonna be tough. :)
 
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For starter fish every one I know told me the clowns would be great for first fish. And so thats what I did, and all is well! the wrasse you mentioned would be good, I'm assuming its the same as the 6-line? some one correct me If im wrong. I'm to the point now where im starting to think of my final additions to my tank, and contemplating the flame angel (very sweet fish!) But the clowns and wrasse are good first fish. The only other fish I have that you didnt mention is a royal gramma, pretty passive and really pretty fish.
Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums has a lot of info listed with each fish, its agression level and conditions, sizes, etc...
 
The 8 line wrasse is a totally different fish than a 6 line.
However both are great fish.
Flame Angels and Coral Beautys are great to.But really should be the last fish you add to the tank.
Its always better to know what fish you want before you actually start buying them.That way you can plan out how your going to get it done.

Add the most passive first then work up to the more aggressive members of your tank.Start with something like Chromis,Firefish,stuff like that.
 
For skimmer go with what biff has, good deal, lots of bang for your buck so to speak... As far as fishies go, I started with a clown or 2, then just picked up a 6 line wrasse a week ago, biffy is her name and she is doin great...
 
Pick yourself up a good fish book. I recommend Marine Fishes, by pocket experts. it gives you a great overview of many great fish.

You need to decide what kind of tank you want during this waiting period. Do you want a common, hardy tank? feel like taking a risk and grabbing some less seen, but beautiful fish? FOWLR (fish only with live rock) or traditional reef?

Anthias are beautiful in a 90. Some are quite hardy and are not aggressive at all. Avoid damsels. A pair of clowns are great to have. dottybacks, firefish, gobies, are all good choices for first fish. Many are hardy and reef safe.

In a 90, you can get away with a yellow tang (add last), but not many other tangs will fit in a 90. You can also get away with a Regal Tang (sometimes called the Hippo Tang)

Flame angel is amazingly beautiful as are coral beauties. Ebili angels are not seen much, but are also pretty. Potter's angels are fantastic fish too.

Foxface rabbit fish are great for reefs as are copperband butterflyfish, but that guy can be a tough one to keep. I have killed four in my day, but refuse to give up.

Anyway, do your homework and make your choices. The tough part is sticking to your plan once you make it. Best of luck to you.

-Dr Marco :sfish:
 
Octopus brand skimmer hmm? Bear in mind I'm not running a sump/refugium, nor do I plan to anytime soon. Truth be told I'm not even sure what that is for. Will I be able to simply hang a skimmer off the back of my tank?

As for Doc's suggestion on deciding what kind of tank I want to set up.. Eventually I'd like to grow some coral, but not for a year or so. Never one to take the well-travelled road, I wouldn't mind trying to keep some more exotic fish.

I'll start with something fairly common though. Maybe 3 blue/green chromis? I like how they swim as a group, and their color is awesome.

I guess it comes down to doing a bit of research though.

I was hoping I'd be able to order from that Drs. Foster and Smith site a lot of you refer to, but it seems they don't ship to Canada. I'm about an hour and a half ENE of Detroit. So close, yet so far... Heh.

I should probably try to find a local reefing club and get to know how people in my area get stuff. There seems to be only one store in this city that sells a reasonable selection of marine fish. I went to a big-box pet store the other day to see their selection and was shocked and saddened to see their marine fish in tiny holding tanks - seriously no bigger than a cubic foot. I won't be going there again...
 
While I'm just hanging around, I figured I'd post this pic.

Aquarium019.jpg


If you look in the opening of the rock (where you can see right through the aquarium) you can see something diagonal. It's about 3 inches long. It's been there ever since I filled the tank with water. It's actually attached to the rock at the bottom. Honestly it just looks like hairy algae, and I suspect that's all it is. But the top portion has moved around a bit. I've seen a worm (bristleworm?) sticking its head in it, dunno if the worm is eating or what. So is it just algae? I don't think it's growing, or if it is, it's doing so very slowly.

Here's a better pic:

Aquarium020.jpg
 
So it sounds like you are looking to run a FOWLR for a while. If you want to go exotic with no corals or shrimp, go with a triggerfish. THey are not common in tanks and are really pretty and fun to watch swim around. Blue Ring angelfish are also rare in fish tanks (I have one in my work tank) and they are stunning. Best of luck.

-Dr Marco :sfish:
 
Or the Coralife Super Skimmers.They dont cost near as much as the Aqua C skimmer,but still do a great job.
 
yup no adjusting just move cup up high or low for wetter skimmate. sorry yote but i know a few people who have flooded basements after coming home from work and coralife went nuts pumping water everywhere. Coralife do work just have to fine tune them as far as water and air flow.
 
The only time my super skimmer ever flooded was when I first hooked it up and that was only once.
After than,never had a problem with it
 
Yeah, my super skimmer works great, but it did flood my room last week... I must have adjusted it just a bit wetter and it was doing fine, then while I was gone it pumped like 5 gallons of water onto my carpet... Now I have it flow into a 2 liter bottle next to my skimmer, with a tube running as an overflow back into the sump incase that would ever happen again, its foolproof now!
 
After a bit of research it sounds like the Aqua C Remora Pro is a great skimmer so I will likely go with that. Thanks for the suggestions.

Now for a question re: lighting.

It seems I'm going to go with a FOWLR tank (although with snails, crabs, shrimp, etc.) so I'm just wondering if I will need any special kind of lighting. As it stands now, I'm just running the cheap single-bulb fixture that came with my tank. I'm getting the impression that this might not be enough light to grow coralline algae which is something I would like to have. At the very least I need to grow algae for my snails and recently introduced crabs (blue legged hermits).

Thanks!
 
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