Slate's First Tank 55gallon

[Slate]

So I am about 1month into my conversion from freshwater to salt on my 55 gallon tank and thought I would throw up what horrible pictures I have taken so far. At the moment the tank has 60lbs of live rock cycling. For equipment I am using 2x Koralia 2 powerheads, an AquaC Remora HOB skimmer off ebay, and a aquaclear500 power filter for a refugium/added flow. I have ordered a Maxi Jet 1200 for the skimmer along with the preskimmer box to help take material off the top of the tank. For lighting I ordered a 48" T5 4x54w fixture along with a 13" PC fixture for the make shift refugium.
After taking my wife(Claire) to Kevin's store it looks like we will be doing a fair amount of LPS (frogspawn, hammer, torch, etc) to go with Claire's taste in corals. As we all know it is very important to keep the spouse happy in this hobby :razz:. We are in the middle of fine tuning the stock list for the tank as far as fish go to help with the order in which we would like to slowly add everything. That is about as far as I am, hopefully the first additions to the tank will happen in a couple weeks.

Filling the tank using the plate trick.

The tank with just the live rock and powerheads cycling. The light and tops pictured here are just the leftovers from my freshy setup.

Here is a picture from it tonight with the refugium pump running and the skimmer handing to see where I wanted it. Had to use the flash since I just now ordered my lights today.

So that is the beginnings of my move from freshwater cichlid tanks to becoming a reefer. Hopefully more to come in the coming days .

Shane

 

[cross]

keep us up dated. i to went from fresh to saltwater with my 55G.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Cool, glad you hopped on here too

 

[Slate]

Up and running

So I got the last of my equipment in this past week so I thought I would try to take a few pics real quick. Unfortunately my camera's batteries were dead so I had to use the wife's little digital which is even worse than mine. So as the tank stands now I am running; 2 k2 powerheads, an aquaclear500 with a 13" PC light for a refugium, an aquaC Remora w/overflow box, and a 4 bulb 216w T5 fixture. Earlier this week I got 6 snails from Barbie's store along with some chaeto packed with goodies. Then today I got some GSP rocks, a ricordia, some zoo's, and candy cane coral from James. BTW James my wife was very appreciative of the extras you sent me home with. We also found a cute little brittle star that must have been on a rock . Hopefully in the next couple of days I will get a halfway decent shot or two of all the components of the tank to show everyone.

Shane

 

[Slate]

Here are a couple pictures of the GSP I got from James yesterday. They are doing great and already opened for the most part. It is hard to tell with my camera but they are starting to green up a little as well.

AquaClear500 as refugium.

Back of tank from the skimmers side.

FTS

I made the zoos and the candy cane coral angry today when moving them so I'll get more pics tomorrow of them and the ricordia.

 

[Saltyfish]

Almost missed this thread, it is looking great Shane and you are very welcome for the frags. I wish I could have given more but I was scared the wife was going to say, "and what are you going to give to the next guy for free?"

She took it well and as said before next time bring the wife so she can see the big tank too.

Keep up the great work

 

[cross]

lookin good, keep the pics and updates comin.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

looking good

 

[Slate]

I scored a great deal on a 90GPD Spectrapure RO/DI yesterday, so no more running jugs to other houses. So next week I will probably build a little stand for my 20gallon Brute can and put a water valve of some type(would love suggestions on this) at the bottom to easily fill my 5gal bucket for water changes. I haven't decided what container I wont to use for freshwater though, pretty limited on space in the laundry area of the house. Either way i'm pretty stoked.

 

[Slate]

We have fish!

This afternoon I headed over to Barbie's and picked out a couple Percula Clowns for our first saltwater fish. Which feels great, after being a freshwater enthusiast it was a little hard having a tank with no fish for so long. They are doing great tonight and gobbled up some mysis shrimp. Feeding them the shrimp was awesome because it gave my wife and I the opportunity to watch the candy cane coral eat as well! I have a few pics of the clowns, they are horrible pics as usual. It was hard to get them because all night they have been swimming at the powerheads then turning around and using the flow to shoot them back across the tank :lol:.

 

[Slate]

Yesterday I picked up some wonderful pieces from Tyler: Green torch, pink torch, branching hammer, and an anchor hammer. He was also kind enough to give me a zoo frag with a couple different reds . So here a few pics with my point and shoot. I didn't get a picture of everything since my camera made me angry. However, I did include a really bad one of the zoos just in case someone could see enough to ID them for my stock list I am keeping of everything I add to the tank. Everything is just with the actnics on since it is late.

Green Torch(This is a huge piece and the wife LOVES it)

Anchor Hammer

Here are the Zoas Tyler threw in(just the frag on the right with 2 types of reds). I am absolutely no zoo expert but the ones to the left kinda look like Darth Mauls. Any input for ID would be appreciated.

I will have more updates later in the week. I am hoping for my RO/DI to come in tomorrow so I can finish setting up the fish station in the laundry area.

 

[Myteemouse]

I have the same green torch and I love it.
\Very nice corals you picked up!!!!!!
How bout a pic of the pink torch!!!!!

 

[Slate]

I have the same green torch and I love it.
\Very nice corals you picked up!!!!!!
How bout a pic of the pink torch!!!!!

I'll get a pic of it and the branching hammer later today. Couldn't get the camera to focus on it last night and didn't want to take another batch of pics.

 

[Slate]

Few more pics as requested, under actnics again since I was being a good boy trying to study earlier.


Branching Hammer(couple heads were damaged in transport but are looking great today. I estimate they will be fully healed by tomorrow night.)

Pink Torch(It is more purple then pink IMO. It is a baby compared to the huge green torch but is still a great size )

Better picture of the new Zoas.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Looking great Shane

 

[jake65]

moving along nicely

 

[tdgates10]

They look good Shane! Take care of em!

 

[Slate]

They look good Shane! Take care of em!

You know I will, they are the wife's new babies. So i don't really have a choice :lol:.

 

[Slate]

Well after a headache of waiting for my RO/DI, i purchased off ebay, to arrive it showed up on my doorstep yesterday looking like the post office drop kicked it. It luckily on had a few connections broken. I went to a plumbing store I use for work to find the parts to no avail. Then on a whim I went to Home Depot who had EVERYTHING I could want which was surprising and wonderful. I only spent $84 shipping for this 90gpd spectrapure ro/di so I can't complain too much for having to spend $10 to repair it. So now my tiny water mixing corner is setup in the laundry area.
On a more frustrating note my clowns have come down with Lymphocystis below is a link to the thread. So the RO/DI will be put to work right away.
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48297

Here are a couple pics of my little setup. I will try to get a update FTS tomorrow of the tank.

20gal Brute for Saltwater

90GPD Spectrapure RO/DI and the old salt bucket is actually for my fresh ro/di water.

 

[Slate]

FTS

Both torches are cranky from the clowns running around. Kind of a bummer since the green torch was reaching almost to the GSP above it. But pretty much diatom free now, just a ton of snail poop now .