My First Setup

[mrzehnder]

I have a JBJ 12 gallon Nano cube with 13 pounds of live rock and roughly 12 pounds of live sand. It has 48 watts of lighting - what type of corals would be a good fit for this tank? Any help is welcome!

 

[user 26995]

Hi, Congrats on your first setup. You will want to wait until your tank has cycled to start adding any livestock. You will also want to make sure your water parameters as far as calcium/alkalinity and magnesium levels are in balance if you want to keep any hard corals. And then add things slowly. Some of the easier to start with corals can be xenia, kenya tree, mushrooms, some zoanthids, montipora digitata. Explore this site. There is a lot of great info to help you learn what you need to. Its been a lot of help for me. I started my first tank a year and one month ago. I have three tanks now and they are all doing pretty good.

Oh, but anyway, is the lighting you have t-5 or compact fluorescent. It seems like you should be able to keep just about anything with that wattage.

 

[Chichas01]

Welcome to RF! Any number of soft corals would be great in there. As far as fish go how about a cool shrimp goby and shrimp?

 

[mrzehnder]

I've got power compact lighting. I'm starting to explore the sight and see what else I can learn, if you've got any other advice I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for all the help!

 

[scottmdebord]

very nice. Love the rock work

 

[user 26995]

Yes it is nice rock work.

Dont know if you found this thread or not, but heres some good reading.
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72&highlight=cycling

 

[mrzehnder]

Thanks!
That link is very informative! I'm still reading through it but I'm learning a lot of what I need to know!!

 

[estoniangirl]

welcome to the the site, it is very helpful, and people are awesome

 

[SRWoodcock]

Tank looks ready. Have you tested your water yet?

 

[mrzehnder]

ive got the temperature at 78 degrees, and ive checked the salinity but nothing else. i need to get a test kit

 

[user 26995]

Yep,Get your test kits. You just want to make sure your tank has cycled before adding any livestock. There area a lot of people here willing to give you coral to get started. Just for you, I have some blue xenia and orange kenya tree you can have when your ready if your interested and willing to drive for them. May have some zoas for real cheap too.

 

[mrzehnder]

That's awesome! Thanks! I want to get test kits for Nitrate and Ammonia right? Is that all I need to test for?

 

[Crack31]

If you are testing to see when your cycle is complete, you will probably want a nitrite test also.

 

[user 26995]

That's awesome! Thanks! I want to get test kits for Nitrate and Ammonia right? Is that all I need to test for?

No, not really.... you need to test for
Ammonia
Nitrates
Nitrites
PH
Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium
These are the main tests you will be doing if you want to keep what is refered to SPS or LPS coral. These are coral that use calcium and alkalinity and magnesium to live and grow. CA, ALK, MAG must be maintained at certain levels for stony corals. Your softer corals dont need these levels to be maintained as high. Some livestock such as clams need these levels maintained at a higher concentration to grow also.

I have been happy with API for
Ammonia
Nitrates
Nitrites
PH
They have a test kit with all tests included.
I also have a hand held PH meter

and Salifert tests for
Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium

Until you are going to start keeping stony coral or critters that need calcium, I wouldnt worry about buying the test kits yet. Your saltwater mix should be balanced for the most part to maintian soft coral.

I buy everything just about from
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/

 

[mrzehnder]

Wow! I checked out that website and found some pretty cool kits that contain a lot. Thanks for the help!