Chrisk's First Saltwater Tank (Journal)

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ChrisK

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Aug 10, 2008
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Hello everyone, after keeping fresh water tanks pretty much my entire life, I have decided to dedicate the time and investment to doing a saltwater reef tank. You can find the background for this journal on this thread. http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230503
Many thanks to Greech and other who answered my rookie questions at the beginning (I'm sure I'll have many more).

Equipment:

29 Gallon Aquarium
Cpr Bak Pak 2 Protein Skimmer
35 Pounds Live Rock
40 Pounds Live Sand
Tetra Whisper 45 Hob Filter (Running Carbon, and Floss)
Current Sundial 4x24 watt T5 H.O. Fixture 2x10k, and 2x460nm acitinic
1 Koralia 3 Powerhead, got a 2 on order

Livestock:

(2) Ocellaris Clowns
Yellow watchman Goby
Pistol Shrimp
2 Blue Leg Hermits
3 Red Leg Hermits
5 Margarita Snails

Here is a progression of the tank from day 1 of the 3rd week till today, not much really just a rescape of the rocks, new light, and livestock photos. I've started this journal at the fun part where I'm about to start adding some corals :)
I plan on this being an LPS dominated tank, with some softies/Mushrooms thrown in. Comments suggestions, critiques welcome. I will try and update this at least 2 times per week thanks for looking.

104_0452.JPG 104_0484.jpg 104_0490.jpg 104_0502.jpg 104_0512.jpg 104_0520.jpg
 

greech

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May 13, 2009
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Great start. Just take your time and stay on top of the tank. Much less margin for error compared to your planted tank. Speaking of which I found myself think that would be a nice reef tank. Upgrade? :Angel:
 

Conski

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Clean Crisp Start nice
 

the wizard

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Nice start, I can't wait to see some corals on those rocks.
 

fsn77

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Looks like you're off to a nice start. Glad to see you have some chunkier pieces of rock and not a large pile of smaller pieces. I hope it's stacked nice and stable, so your goby doesn't cause it to shift too much once he really starts digging in.

I would agree that taking your time will pay off in the end. No need to rush... It'll come together quite well in time.
 

mlefessler

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Mar 4, 2008
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fsn - I was curious to know what type of lighting you have on your 90 gallon?
 

ChrisK

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Thanks everyone for looking, and for the comments. I am definitely going to take it slow. I've got a quick couple of questions.

1.) I was thinking of running the lights 8 hours each per day, but seeing is there is nothing to grow in there, is this too much for now, I don't want to have an uncontrollable algae outbreak. Suggestions?

2.) My LFS has a lots of nice corals. I was thinking of going Saturday and buying a couple of them. I was thinking of adding a Toadstool Mushroom, and about a 15 Polyp, orange Zoa Rock on Saturday. Any objections, suggestions? They have everything you could think of at this LFS, so any suggestions of a different hardier coral I should add before these let me know.
 

Jerzboi

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Very nice chris, everything is turning out great so far, I'll be watching
:popcorn:
 
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