First Tank! stoked

[Whopper Stopper]

Whats up guys, this is my first post. Ive been a fisherman for close to 20 years and a surfer for 10. That being said I love the ocean and its creatures! I kinda had an epiphany to get a saltwater tank and have just been spending a lot of money lol. Its worth it cuz I have really been enjoying my tank, and trying to keep everything in it happy. This is my first tank ever. Ive had it for about 7 weeks and I just wanted to say whats up and get your feedback on my setup. -Cheers

Aquarium: Eclipse 25 gallon with factory filter which from what ive heard are pretty good. It has activated carbon and then flows through a bio-wheel and back out the tank.

Lighting: Replaced the factory light with a remote ballast and am using a 32w high output "SUNPAQ" with 10,000k daylight and 460nm acticnic.

Current Water Conditions: Ammonia-0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- approx 20ppm :( (using de-nitrate and doing a water change Im guessing this will fix the problem)
PH-8.2
Alk- 4.0 meq/l
Specific Gravity-1.0225 (Soon to be 1.024)

Aquascape: 30lbs live rock ( 7 pounds of it is branching rock)

Animals:
FISH: -1 tomato clown 2 inch,
-1 blue hippo tang 2.5inch ( after some reading im thinking my tanks too small for him):duh:

INVERTS: 1 condylactic anenome
1, 4 inch feather duster + 20-30 small dusters that came on the live rock)
1 fire shrimp
15 hermit crabs

CORALS:
-Frog spawn
-sclerethia??? (way off on name its the pink/purple soft coral in the pic)
- Brain coral
- star poylps


CLAM: 1 beautiful maxima blue clam ( Its high in the tank so im hoping I have enough lighting. He is fully open and seems to like where hes at.



FOODS AND SUPPLEMENTS: -bio plankton, marine plankton, "marine snow", "Fish" solution,dried nori, and mixed fozen. I am trying to feed as little as possible esspecially because i dont have a protien skimmer. Question: Have you heard of those fission nano protien skimmers? will it have a material effect? How often do I have to change the it?

Everything seems to be really happy. Im a little worried that my frog spawn will sting the brain coral, thought? Any advice is much appriciated!
Check out my pics i hope the upload worked

[rockethippo]

The tank is definately too small for the blue tang. I asked many people and they say ATLEAST 75 gallons. I think you need atleast a 150 watts halide for your inverts/corals, maybe even more since your corals/inverts are near the bottom. The anemone needs pristine water qualities.

[Whopper Stopper]

The tank is definately too small for the blue tang. I asked many people and they say ATLEAST 75 gallons. I think you need atleast a 150 watts halide for your inverts/corals, maybe even more since your corals/inverts are near the bottom. The anemone needs pristine water qualities.

cool thanks for the input! I screwed up on the the tang hopefully he grows slow! from what ive been told all of the corals that ive bought will still do great in lower light tanks the thing im most worried about is the clam. The condylactic anenome is supposedly very hardy thoughts?

[rockethippo]

Sorry if I was being offensive!

[rockethippo]

Well if you want all the corals to be happy, I'd say get a 150 watt halide in addition to your 32 watt actinics. I think with 32 watts they are barely living. Your tank is also tall and the corals are placed near the bottom. If you got the 150 watt in addtion to your 32 watts, you'd have about 7 watts per gallon and that would be better than perfect for your corals. Also water quality and feeding makes your corals healthier.

[Nick540]

nice looking tank. I agree and think better lighting would help your corals.

[Whopper Stopper]

Sorry if I was being offensive!
you werent at all I appriciate the feedback

[rockethippo]

If you decide to get MH lights, this is a good choice if money is an issue. http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=JB9113.
Or you can get a retrofit like these
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_metal_halide_pfo.asp?CartId=
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_metal_halide_icecap_system_refle ctor.asp?CartId=
The prices are all pretty close, the lamp being the cheapest. The MHs are best, but you can also go VHO or T5 like these... the MH's are actually cheaper and the light output is better, but here are links anyways.
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_fluorescent_icecap_retrofit.asp? CartId=
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_fluorescent_coralife_vho_electro nic_ballast_kit.asp?CartId=
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_fluorescent_pfo_retrofit_kit.asp ?CartId=
Or you can go power compacts, but T5's,VHO's, and MH's of equal wattage are better than power compacts.
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_lighting_power_compact_powercompact__subi ndex.asp?CartId=

[Germanman]

yea go for halides..that calm will die fast without better light they need the penetration that halides or strong t-5s produce. eclipse filters...gah dont get me started on ther lol...they are less than flawed...but with adequate rock u should do fine. it looks great though! oh and yea i would give the brain and frogspawn more room.

[Whopper Stopper]

yea go for halides..that calm will die fast without better light they need the penetration that halides or strong t-5s produce. eclipse filters...gah dont get me started on ther lol...they are less than flawed...but with adequate rock u should do fine. it looks great though! oh and yea i would give the brain and frogspawn more room.


cool thanks. Im going to get the halide clip on lamp, i just need a week or 2 to get another 200 bucks. how long do you think the clam can last? Also, since ill be removing the entire hood are air bubbles neccessary? Will enough oxygen dissolve from the surface without added air bubbles?

[Germanman]

they calm should survive...the better question is will it recover. it should be fine though as long as u set it up soon. as for the bubbles it has more to do with surface disruption and exchange rather than visible bubbles. no hood will allow more exchange but also more evaporation so top off regularly. typically bubbles arent wanted in the reef due to them clogging sponges and thus surge or bubbles arnt usually desirable.

[Whopper Stopper]

they calm should survive...the better question is will it recover. it should be fine though as long as u set it up soon. as for the bubbles it has more to do with surface disruption and exchange rather than visible bubbles. no hood will allow more exchange but also more evaporation so top off regularly. typically bubbles arent wanted in the reef due to them clogging sponges and thus surge or bubbles arnt usually desirable.


should I position my powerhead to disrupt the surface? Since i will be removing the eclipse hood the power head will be my only source of water flow do you think it will be adequate?

[Whopper Stopper]

Also, I plan on adding a protien skimmer. since I have about 30 lbs of live rock will I need any other additional filtration?

[Whopper Stopper]

ok I added a 150w halide and a bak pak protien skimmer. do you guys think this will be enough?

[Germanman]

looikng much better!

[Whopper Stopper]

looikng much better!

thanks man I appriciate the help

[musho3210]

very nice tank, loving the frogspawn.

[Whopper Stopper]

very nice tank, loving the frogspawn.

Thanks alot. im really happy the way its turning out

[Reefscape]

Looking really nice..keep up the effort and good work...

Niko

[kandibrandy]

It looks awsome, good job...But may I make a suggestion...

You should really think about taking out your gravel and replacing it with arragonate sand to better "buffer" your system. And gravel is also a NITRATE catcher...you'll probably have problems with it later on...

Just a suggestion...;o)

[Germanman]

It looks awsome, good job...But may I make a suggestion...

You should really think about taking out your gravel and replacing it with arragonate sand to better "buffer" your system. And gravel is also a NITRATE catcher...you'll probably have problems with it later on...

Just a suggestion...;o)
ooo wow never caught that the clam got my mind span...yea i would replace that for sure if u can.

[Whopper Stopper]

It looks awsome, good job...But may I make a suggestion...

You should really think about taking out your gravel and replacing it with arragonate sand to better "buffer" your system. And gravel is also a NITRATE catcher...you'll probably have problems with it later on...

Just a suggestion...;o)

Im thinking about using some 1" syphon tubing to remove the CC during my next few water changes. do I need to take out my LR with my livestock while doing this? I dont want to suck out all the CC around my LR and have every thing collapse. Do you guys have a good procedure for doing this?