Hello From WA state!

[davisni]

Hi All!

My name is Nicole and I'm starting out with my first saltwater tank. My dad has had reef tanks set up for the last 8 years and I have been an active participant in the hobby with him however never on my own. Ive been working on getting my tank set up and ready for sand and live rock this weekend. Very soon I will be totally on my own and won't have my dad to give me instruction and help me out so as a newbie I may ask some really dumb questions, I apologize in advance. I have a 36 gallon tank, fluval 205 and an octopus skimmer. I'm hoping to bring my dads 2 clown fish (8 yrs old) and 6 yr old Anthias up to my tank in the next month. I'm totally open to advice from more experience people, my dad is super old school so I'm hoping to learn the newer best ways to do things!

Thanks,
Nicole

 

[rainydave]

Welcome!

Looking forward to watching your progress.

 

[Scooterman]

Welcome Nicole, :welcome::welcome:

I would use the fluval 205 only to polish off the tank but not run it full time, also I'd keep it cleaned very often when using it. I guess it all depends on what you have to work with that would determine how much I'd use that. Tell us about what you have, rocks, etc, sump & what your doing right now to get it going. No dumb questions here, this is what we do, help others get things started, figure out problems etc, so please post away, ask questions don't be shy we'll help!!

 

[Vandur]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

Are you going FOWLR (fish only with live rock) or are you thinking about adding corals?

~V

 

[davisni]

Right now I've just got sand in the tank since I'm waiting for my fiji rock to arrive this thursday. I have a couple small pumps just for water flow, the fluval 205, reef octopus skimmer that I thought had a sump, and overhead Led lighting. Over the weekend I added my salt to the dechlorinated water and have it currently at 1.022 however I need to read up on whats the best salinity for corals and fish, i just did what the bucket of salt said.

 

[davisni]

Absolutely adding corals, My dad has a couple varieties of xenia, rose bubble tip anemones, and a few others that I don't know the names of that are in quarantine waiting for my tank to be ready right now! I'm very excited to begin growing different colonies. When we started this 8 years ago, my dad was all about the fish, but my mom, newborn daughter and I would go all over the place looking for corals. I want a small reef

 

[NanaReefer]

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!! Are you planning to add more fish to your tank?
Your dad has done really good job on keeping those fish but since the fish are old,it would be best to add fish that are docile and not aggressive at all.
Good luck !!

-MJ

 

[davisni]

I don't really know the life expectancy for clown fish and anthias, these are the last of my dads fish and since he can no longer care for his tank my goal is to care for the fish for however long they live and continue to build my reef and add fish along the way. I definitely know that I don't want aggressive fish because I want to have a reef and don't want fish that will eat my corals. While I'm learning I think I will focus on building my corals, however I do know that Anthias like to live in groups and up until recently he had 3 anthias. Should I get 2 more Anthias in order to keep the old one happy?

 

[davisni]

Took me a minute to figure out that he has a Randall's Anthia, and my tank is going to be too small for him. I'm thinking it won't be good to bring him to my tank, moving will be stressful however but to also put him into a tank thats only 36 gal when he has been in a 120g would also be added stress. Can you guys give me any ideas what to do with him?

 

[1guydude]

+1 i was gonna say
But u figured it out on ur own. Anthias are a deep water fish that swim constantly eating zooplankton and small organisms contanstly out of the water.
Trade for maybe another small or couple small fish.
D

 

[1guydude]

Coral reef tanks ur gonna want a bit higher salinity than a fish only.
Fish only can be 1.018-1.021
Reef tank u want to be at around 1.024-1.026
Refractometer and sumps are the way to go.
Hths
D

 

[davisni]

That explains a lot, I went to my dads last night to take care of the tank and the salinity was over 1.028. Its only been 3 days since he last added water, so when I added his bucket of declorinated water it went down to 1.024. I was worried it was still too high but now I understand it needed to be there. Thanks for clearing that up

 

[1guydude]

Eventually you will want to get a water filter. Ro di units. Reverse osmosis de ionized. You will get low almost if not most of the time 0tds. Total disolved solids.
Purest water on earth probably lol.
Anyways. Its good ur de chlorinated the water. With airating it 24hrs u can do the same.
Your more worried about the silicates building up over time by using tap.
D

Edit: by not ny lol

 

[davisni]

My Dad has a 5 gal bucket always with the aerator so i set up the same thing. Do you have a brand recommendation for the Ro di units? I don't know that my dad has anything like that so I would like to do some research

 

[1guydude]

Im a bit behind the trends.or popular thing but i use air water and ice out.of flordia i thinks.it is. They have a 10% off code i think on here cuz they r sponser....correct me if im wrong scooter?!
Anywayd they are a bit on the expensive side. Water general. Bulk reef supply house brand. Those r a cpl of cheaper options but still get the job done.
Nice units are good but the filters and di resin is what matters...which is why i went with airwater and ice
They will send u an email when its.time to change filters and such but i just watch it with my handheld tds.meter.
D

 

[davisni]

Ok, so my tank is set up and running. I've got all my equipment running, sand has been in since Sunday, I received my Fiji live rock today and cleaned it up and got it into the tank. I'm reading to wait 2 weeks before introducing my cleaner crew and then another 2 weeks before introducing fish. Can someone who has set up a brand new tank advise if what I'm reading is accurate or if I should do something different? Thanks!

 

[Vandur]

What type of cycling method are you using?
I've found the "shrimp" method to work pretty well (Buy a couple of shrimp from the store, cut them up and throw them in. As they decompose they'll let off ammonia to feed/grow nitrifying (sp?) bacteria). Within 5-15 days you'll start to see your ammonia and nitrite levels rise. Generally around 30 days or so, it'll drop off (it takes a long time for the necessary bacteria to grow). Once your nitrate and ammonia levels are back down to zero, it's safe to add fish (Fish produce ammonia, so you need the bacteria to break it down. If you add the fish too early, the high levels of nitrates/ammonia can kill your fish.).

Edit: Your live rock should have quite a bit of bacteria on it -- so expect this to help reduce your cycle-times.

When to add a clean up crew?
I'm probably not the right person to ask about this. Other then a hand full of snails I go without the typical XXX snails & YYY crabs for ZZ size tank. Instead, I just pick types that I personally enjoy seeing or that have a direct benefit to my tank. Having said that, if you're going to add a clean up crew, wait until the first signs of a diatom bloom (brownish algae) then add the snails and then once you can actually see algae on the rocks, I'd start considering crabs. If you don't have enough food for them, the crabs will definitely start hunting snails/each other and this can cause all sorts of early-issues with the tank.

Can you make the process go faster?
Yes. There are a number of companies that sell bottles of the nitrifying bacteria. I'm sure someone here can recommend a brand.

 

[davisni]

Question for all you experienced people! I went to the biggest local saltwater store here and the person recommended Chemiclean treatment for the red cyanobacteria in order to cleanse my dads 120g tank so I would be able to bring some of his rock that has mushrooms and other types of corals without bringing the red crap into my new tank. Has anyone used this before and does it really work? I would love to clean his tank up so when we break it down we can actually sell some of his stuff and be able to bring his corals to my own tank. Its amazing how much his tank has grown despite being plagued with the red algae

 

[spieszak]

Chemiclean works, but cyanobacteria isn't going to cease to exist because you used it. Chemiclean is basically an antibiotic. It will kill what you have, but the only thing that will KEEP it away is to limit nutrients available to it. Control your nutrients, control your cyano.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria#Ecology
"Cyanobacteria can be found in almost every terrestrial and aquatic habitat—oceans, fresh water, damp soil, temporarily moistened rocks in deserts, bare rock and soil, and even Antarctic rocks. They can occur as planktonic cells or form phototrophic biofilms. They are found in almost every endolithic ecosystem.[10] A few are endosymbionts in lichens, plants, various protists, or sponges and provide energy for the host. Some live in the fur of sloths, providing a form of camouflage.[11]"