My first saltwater tank

BallardFishGuy

New Member
Yeah salt tanks are more work but once they are really established they can thrive without a lot of fuss. A tank with just fish is easy but once you move into corals there is more work for sure. I've had a few salt tanks over the years but this is the first one where I'm going all out with the corals. Your two best friends will be really good water (RODI) and really good salt. I use Red Sea Coral Pro. Then if you do weekly water changes you won't need to dose supplements unless you have a stacked tank of intense SPS corals which I plan on not having. Also if your tank is done right and balanced I know an LFS that had their 14g BioCube that was a coral tank with some fish that hadn't had a water change in two years. They just topped it off and dosed supplements, not that I would recommend that but it does show things don't have to be overly complicated. I'm not planning on using a skimmer as it isn't 100% nessesary on a small tank. Time will tell.
 

DMD123

Administrator
Staff member
Contributing Member Level III
Very nice! The bio cube is coming along nicely.

I have a friend who wants to get into fish but wants to go salt with a bio cube. I feel like he is waiting for me to jump in before he starts. I was hoping all my freshwater tanks would influence him that way but no go. Might be a salt tank in my future. Love to see other experiences like this, gives me inspiration.
 
UPDATE!

After careful consideration, I decided to jump the gun and get some fish a little earlier than I planned. I figured, with an already established filter, already cured LR, and weekly water changes, water quality shouldn't be an issue.

Plus, I already placed 3 Cortez hermits in there, and since they have been happy and healthy I figured the fish would be okay, considering that inverts tend to be a bit more sensitive.

I found a local reefer who was slowly trying to break down his tank, and snagged a pair of ocellaris clownfish from him for a killer price. My wife has been asking me to start a salt tank with clowns for years, so she was pleasantly surprised.

Next steps are to increase the cleanup crew, start grabbing some easy LPS, and modifying the filter for chaeto growth.

Feel free to ask any questions or give me any suggestions!

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zkCfmXv.jpg
 

BallardFishGuy

New Member
Looks great, just make sure the big 3 are at zero or close to it... Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite. I have some Xenia I can give you at some point if you want.
 
Thanks, I've been keeping a close eye on the parameters and while there was an initial spike after I moved the tank, switched out the sand and added the LR, water quality has returned to near perfection. I think that the combination of an already established filtration system and already cured LR really kept everything in check. And possibly the 'live' sand from CaribSea, though I've heard conflicting accounts regarding that.
 

Gryphon

New Member
BallardFishGuy said:
Nice, just let your tank settle in now or a while before adding more to avoid a crash since you have a young biological load.
+1!

If you're looking to get any more fish in there you'll have to be careful with your selection, a pair of clowns will establish the whole tank as their territory.
If you're ever down in Federal Way let me know I'll hook you up with a piece of branching frogspawn.
 
Gryphon said:
BallardFishGuy said:
Nice, just let your tank settle in now or a while before adding more to avoid a crash since you have a young biological load.
+1!

If you're looking to get any more fish in there you'll have to be careful with your selection, a pair of clowns will establish the whole tank as their territory.
If you're ever down in Federal Way let me know I'll hook you up with a piece of branching frogspawn.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. As far as any extra livestock, I might add one of the smaller gobies in the future, but I'm okay with just the 2 clowns. lucky for me they are relativly small, only about 2 1/2"-3" and fully grown. I've heard that occ clowns can push 4+ inches at times, especially the females.

But anyways, I'm planning more on lots of inverts and coral in the future, not really fish.
 

BallardFishGuy

New Member
Gryphon said:
BallardFishGuy said:
Nice, just let your tank settle in now or a while before adding more to avoid a crash since you have a young biological load.
+1!

If you're looking to get any more fish in there you'll have to be careful with your selection, a pair of clowns will establish the whole tank as their territory.
If you're ever down in Federal Way let me know I'll hook you up with a piece of branching frogspawn.
 :plus1: Frogspawn is one of my fav's too! I have one small frag/head of it so far, it's green with purple tips!
 

Gryphon

New Member
Mine are red with bicolor (green/purple) tips. I have a few pieces scattered around my tank.

Right now I'm busy watching where my new RBTA is gonna roam.
 

Gryphon

New Member
<img src="http://i59.tinypic.com/a9mid2.jpg" style="width: 400px;height: 300px" alt="" />

Best picture I can get of it, my camera hates the blue lights. It looks a lot better in person. Ignore the algae too, I need to get my scraper going sometime this weekend.

I'll try to get a picture of the RBTA up once it comes out of the rock work more. I just got into the tank Tuesday, and last night it decided to leave the cave it was hiding in, work it's way through all my rock work to pop up under some Montipora.
 

Gryphon

New Member
Sorry for the thread hijack Bronzefighter, last pictures unless you request more  :D 

New RBTA with blues on:
<img src="http://i59.tinypic.com/2jb1745.jpg" style="width: 400px;height: 300px" alt="" />

Blues turned low:
<img src="http://i61.tinypic.com/24qtjpv.jpg" style="width: 400px;height: 300px" alt="" />

My other RBTA, low blues:
<img src="http://i61.tinypic.com/2vtv7lz.jpg" style="width: 400px;height: 300px" alt="" />

My LTA, currently being stupid and staying above the sand, low blues:
<img src="http://i61.tinypic.com/1zeyq1s.jpg" style="width: 400px;height: 300px" alt="" />
 

BallardFishGuy

New Member
Those are great, love that first picture. I would love to get a small Flower Pot Nem... one with great color, they don't move much and won't kill my corals or fish.
 
No worries, that is one gorgeous bubbletip. Anyways, here's an update from 5-30:

bronzefighter said:
UPDATE!

After careful consideration, I decided to jump the gun and get some fish a little earlier than I planned. I figured, with an already established filter, already cured LR, and weekly water changes, water quality shouldn't be an issue.

Plus, I already placed 3 Cortez hermits in there, and since they have been happy and healthy I figured the fish would be okay, considering that inverts tend to be a bit more sensitive.

I found a local reefer who was slowly trying to break down his tank, and snagged a pair of ocellaris clownfish from him for a killer price. My wife has been asking me to start a salt tank with clowns for years, so she was pleasantly surprised.

Next steps are to increase the cleanup crew, start grabbing some easy LPS, and modifying the filter for chaeto growth.

Feel free to ask any questions or give me any suggestions!



zkCfmXv.jpg

CWSS0bW.jpg

rkKKdyK.jpg

yElj0KS.jpg
 
Okay, updated pictures of corals! I got these from a local reefer, and am pretty happy with them. A frag of Candy Cane Coral, a few polyps of Green Button, a Pulsing Xenia, and my favorite, a Duncan.

After a few hours they all opened up, and just last night I saw the Candy Cane open up for feeding! As you can see, the clowns have taken a liking to the duncan as well.





[flash=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/v/fgQl8bsvUwo" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true[/flash]
 
Here's an update for you lovely people!

Everything is humming along pretty smoothly now! After a brief diatom bloom, I added a CUC from Reef Cleaners. They have been munching down on any algae that pops up, and the tank looks great now. I also added a small bit of Sargassum into the tank. Pod population seems to have EXPLODED overnight, along with coralline growth. The coralline growing on the magfloat has started to grow up and out into little 'tubes,' and water parameters continue to stay in check. The corals have been doing great too, the light hasn't been on very long in this picture so their a bit closed up still.

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Any suggestions?

Future tentative plans include a possible Pistol Shrimp/Goby Pair or a 6 line wrasse or possum wrasse. I'd like to look into some how adding a mangrove to the system too, either by modding the hood, or using a HOB... I'm not too sure yet.

Thanks for looking!
 
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