Saltwater newbie
- Thread starter pkumar
- Start date
AC2020 - The actual "building" part with tank/stand/plumbing was through advice of several people and by just going through build threads of other tanks on this website and others. I had never plumbed anything before this, and was a new learning experience. I certainly could not have done it without the helping hands and input from numerous people. I had looked through several books too - Jeff Senske's "The Inspired Aquarium" , and Takashi Amano's "Nature Aquarium World" to get some really good ideas of different layouts. I was intially planning a planted Discus Tank before I decided to try SW, and had fun with arranging the live rock, and composed it very similar to a layout that I had in mind for a planted tank.
DSA, Reefscape - Thanks for the kind words. Now I can realistically think about how to stock! Looking at soft corals / zooanthids / perhaps LPS. Fish wise - pair of ocellaris (my daughther is already asking about when nemo will be in the tank), one tank - zebrasoma sp, not sure which, one wrasse - not sure which, gobies - ? how many. Flame hawkfish. Want to try to keep fishload relatively light (easier said than done i'm sure). This live rock was ordered close to month ago and has been curing at LFS. Will be checking parameters freq, and plan for clean up crew hopefully by the end of the week.
DSA, Reefscape - Thanks for the kind words. Now I can realistically think about how to stock! Looking at soft corals / zooanthids / perhaps LPS. Fish wise - pair of ocellaris (my daughther is already asking about when nemo will be in the tank), one tank - zebrasoma sp, not sure which, one wrasse - not sure which, gobies - ? how many. Flame hawkfish. Want to try to keep fishload relatively light (easier said than done i'm sure). This live rock was ordered close to month ago and has been curing at LFS. Will be checking parameters freq, and plan for clean up crew hopefully by the end of the week.
Couple of quick questions...
1) The red sea "reef lab" test kit - did not come with a test for ammonia! just checked and nitrates are in 5-25 ppm, or 10-50 ppm - difficult to make an absolute distinction on the color for the results card. will it be ok to add clean up crew in next several days? should i go ahead and buy another test kit for ammonia? - will a "freshwater" ammonia test work (i have one of these already)
2) Lighting system came preprogrammed with 12 hour cycle - 10 hours actinic, 8 hours of daylight in the middle. rest of time with led moon light. This photoperiod ok in a new tank? would anyone decrease the time period to 10hrs...8hrs?
3) question on natural light in the room with aquarium. no direct sunlight in the room, but has one wall with large windows, which still makes it pretty bright in the daytime. I know lots of factors contribute to unwanted algae - with regard to sunlight - should I have dark drapes to minimize sunlight in the room? just wanted to see what people thought.
Thanks in advance,
Prashanth
1) The red sea "reef lab" test kit - did not come with a test for ammonia! just checked and nitrates are in 5-25 ppm, or 10-50 ppm - difficult to make an absolute distinction on the color for the results card. will it be ok to add clean up crew in next several days? should i go ahead and buy another test kit for ammonia? - will a "freshwater" ammonia test work (i have one of these already)
2) Lighting system came preprogrammed with 12 hour cycle - 10 hours actinic, 8 hours of daylight in the middle. rest of time with led moon light. This photoperiod ok in a new tank? would anyone decrease the time period to 10hrs...8hrs?
3) question on natural light in the room with aquarium. no direct sunlight in the room, but has one wall with large windows, which still makes it pretty bright in the daytime. I know lots of factors contribute to unwanted algae - with regard to sunlight - should I have dark drapes to minimize sunlight in the room? just wanted to see what people thought.
Thanks in advance,
Prashanth
Bump for update??? I like the looks of your tank and I know it's new, just wondering how it's coming along for you???
Things are comming along nicely, including brown algae! - clean up crew having difficult time keeping up - most of nice white substrate now with patches of brown spots. I think i successfully acclimated my first anemone - got a green carpet anemone - has not died....yet, hopefully will do ok. snails and hermits went in about a week ago. just put in pair of percula?- still cant tell diff b/w perculas and ocellaris-, royal gramma, "cleaner" shrimp, several small colonies of zoas (get scared when turbo snails go over them), and frogspawn. Went ahead and got a seachem ammonia reader - not too sure about accuracy, but sticks on side of the tank, and is reading pretty low. Will check water parameters tommorow and try to take some pics. Tank looks dirty with new algae, but am waiting for magnet cleaner to come in, will take some pics tomorrow after work. thanks for looking.
- prashanth
- prashanth
Diatoms! Nothing like a quick reference (saltwater aquariums for dummies). It's quite the diatom party in the tank at the moment. The book said that they would disappear just as quickly? The carpet anemone has "shrunken", did this yesterday and "reinflated", not sure the reason but still looking for answers. Checked parameters today, things seemed to be in order. [Ca] at 350 ppm, will retest tomorrow to confirm, and try first attempt at supplementation if still little low tomorrow.
That is one mightily impressive set up. You appear to have overcome all the problems usually encountered very well and it looks amazing too.
I myself am new to this SW hobby, been tropical most of the time, but I'm just starting out with a Nano tank first, but one day a tank of considerable size I will custom build also.
Well done
I myself am new to this SW hobby, been tropical most of the time, but I'm just starting out with a Nano tank first, but one day a tank of considerable size I will custom build also.
Well done
Thanks RobMac, I'm knee deep in the diatom stuff, it seems every day there is more and more. The prestine white substrate that looked great when i initially set up like two weeks ago, is all gone. The turbo snails are like little elephants bulldosing through this stuff (knocking frogspawn over), but stay on the rock and dont seem to go onto the substrate, which is where this tank needs the most help. Nitrates are certainly not zero, but are not sky high either. I may consider decreasing time period the lights are on to see if it helps. From what I've read, it's a matter of other photosynthetic stuff / corals etc to outcompete the diatoms for nutrients, after which it is said that they will start to die off. my "mightymagnet" came in, and it is pretty strong, now atleast i can clean up the side and front panels. this is going to be a struggle to say the least.
- prashanth
- prashanth
Would like opinions if anyone would gamble with two zebrasoma species in the same tank. I have had a beautiful purple tang in for almost two weeks - 2.5 - 3 in or so. Eating flake, frozen food well. Seems to be healthy and I think will make it (unlike my clowns). My LFS owner went down to distributor in LA and calls me up and tells me they've got black tangs in last week. one 3.5 in, the other slightly larger. This is a fish I've had an eye on since initially setting up the aquarium. I would like to get the smaller of the two. My question is, should I gamble with keeping the purple tank in, and attempt to see if these two will end up ok together, or take this guy out and leave the entire tank for the black tang. I sort of like the purple guy already. Any experience/advice is greatly appreciated. I have no further plans for stocking any other fish from Acanthuridae family. Thanks! Pics when/if this guy lives. No problem with water parameters currently, and am planning first 15% water change soon.
Took the plunge. Got this guy this pm. Left the purple tang in the tank. They put a bow on the bag! He/she? is about 4 in. Will not reattempt if he does not make it.....i dont even want to think about it :thud:. Has been swimming well since acclimation. Purple tang initially seemed somewhat aggessive, black tang has seems to ignore the aggression. Wife has put the hammer down on no more "stuff" for awhile, not sure when she will lift this ban. He has been at wholesaler for one week, and eating well, or so I've been told. Did not have time to set up QT tank, I've got a 29g that I will set up this weekend in case I need to pull this guy out for tx etc etc. Fingers crossed.
