Well today I made the plunge into saltwater. After a couple of hours at my local Saltware Aquarium shop and several hundred dollars later Ive got a 30 gallon aquarium setup in my living room. At this point I dont know what to expect since the owner of the saltwater place didnt recommend I try ANYTHING under a 75 gallon aquarium to begin with!
My original intention today was to try starting up a 10 gallon nano reef but after talking to the owner today, and not willing to give up entirely, I bought a 30 gallon. I know I have LOTS more to invest into this project in the future but I feel its a start and I can move up from here. Heres what I got today,
30 Gallon aquarium with standard lighted hood (I know its not enough lighting and will be improving this in the near future!)
Aquarium Stand
2 HOB filters (I know, Ill get a skimmer soon!)
1 Power head
1 Heater
Red Sea Marine Lab test kit
Hydrometer
30lbs aragonite
20lbs live sand
9lbs live rock
Questions? Comments? Only thing I ask is that you dont criticize me to hard. I know Im a newbie but Im a quick learner and intend to make this work. I plan to make a DIY canopy soon and upgrade the lighting as well as making a DIY sump/refugium. Cheers
Nope just something that was on my liverock. I will post a picture later when the daylights are on. Your probably right and its dead. I might go get that Pipe Organ tonight because my other corals are scheduled to arrive tomorrow so I want to be sure Im home when they get here.
One thing I can add is that I often see very unhealthy looking Pipe Organ available at the LFS. Don't throw your money away and don't support the LFS purchasing poor livestock. Make sure you get a healthy specimen.
These are healthy specimens. You can see the exact ones in question in the link I posted a couple posts up. Anyway, Ive decided against it. I have no experience with corals of ANY kind right now so I feel it wouldnt have a good chance under my care. Ill work with the softies that will be here tomorrow for a couple months and see how I do there. Ill be honest, Im nervous about keeping these happy as it is.
I think you are making a wise choice. There is a lot more to this hobby than book knowledge. Some things you can only recognize after having hands on experience, which is what separates the easy corals (and fish) from the difficult ones!
My corals are supposed to be here tomorrow. I would love any info/suggestions for proper acclimation. Such as what should I do about lighting. Keep them off the the day at least? Run just actinic or just daylight? Is a FW dip beneficial or to be avoided? Anything you might be able to tell me in order for these corals to have the best chance of success would be greatly appreciated!
My corals are supposed to be here tomorrow. I would love any info/suggestions for proper acclimation. Such as what should I do about lighting. Keep them off the the day at least? Run just actinic or just daylight? Is a FW dip beneficial or to be avoided? Anything you might be able to tell me in order for these corals to have the best chance of success would be greatly appreciated!
This is where a frag tank works beautifully! I do not think that a FW dip is neccessary. I think that it could be detrimental to some corals as the shock could stop the polyps from opening.
I would thoroughly inspect the corals that are going into the tank for worms, nudis, and any other visible parasites. After that I would place them in the tank where you think they will get the appropriate light. Zoas put in the middle if the tank, in a medium flow area. Mushrooms will do better if you keep them in shaded areas, low-current. Keep star polyps (if you have any) in a low-flow area. This might keep them from overpopulating. I think whatever your lights are doing at the time they are introduced should be fine.
They may take a day or two to open up and become fully acclimated to their new enviroment. Most online coral companies ship corals in little to no water, so don't think it's detrimental if they are not submerged when you recieve them. Just let any excess water drip from them and rinse them with a little tnak water before putting them in your tank.
Wow are these things small! I was expecting small but not this small.... Now I see why my LFS wants so much for the pieces she has! Well I hope they all make it. They are currently drip acclimating. Ill do it for the next 2 hours as per instructed. The pistol shrimp appears to be DOA but I will give it a chance.. These things are almost small enough to need a macro lens to take a picture of them lol
The feather dusters on the other hand..... They need a 75G tank just for themselves! Haha, Ill let everyone know how it goes
EDIT: Thanks for the info on what to do to acclimate them. Ill inspect them all very carefully before putting them in the tank. Cheers.
Yeah I hear ya. They will obviously grow, its just hard to imagine that right now lol Ive spotted one worm so far in the acclimation bags. I dont know much about worms but its not similar to any that I already have so I will do my best to see it doesnt make it into the tank when the time comes. I really cant get over the size of these feather dusters.....GIGANTIC. Haha
Pretty sure the shrimp isnt going to make it. If thats the only loss I will still be completely satisfied! I only got the shrimp because the price was way cheaper than my LFS. I can always get one locally if it doesnt live which im pretty sure it wont. The corals are the most important to me.
Yes they do. But I would feel bad making them do another overnight delivery for a pistol shrimp that cost something like $5 lol. Maybe I can talk them into a voucher for free shipping on another smaller order instead. I would rather that than just have them ship out a replacement shrimp personally. Shipping was free on orders of $150 or more. I dont think I need another $150 worth of corals now but they might have something else I would like that would make the free shipping worth while. Ill figure out what to do later on.
Haha yeah that would probably make more sense! Well they are all in the tank. Some dont look very good right now. Boy do they glow under the actinic! Im going to give them 10-15 minutes under just the actinic and then turn the daylight on as well. Ive got my fingers crossed that they all make it.
What am I supposed to use to glue them to the rocks? Right now Ive got the ricordias and the mushrooms on the sandbed....
No most came on rocks or something else hard and white, lol. Almost looks like a clam shell maybe for the ricordias. They all appear to be looking fairly good. The Zoas have started opening as well as the GSP. The mushrooms look ok but not great. The ricordias look pretty descent.
What the heck is with my Pink Spotted Watchman and taking snails and now hermits to its cave? Any ideas? I did a google search but didnt come up with anything. Ive yet to see this fish eat but it sifts sand most all day long.
You will have to wait until my wife gets home for pics, the batteries in the camera are dead
Edit: Another search turned up some people with the same issues. Usually dont eat them though. I will have to keep an eye on it. I think he justs grabs them, takes them to his cave and drops them but Im not sure.
looks like you got yourself some nice first pieces. the watermelon zoos are in a nice mini colony and should be slowly spreading before you even know it. as for mushrooms glued to plugs or rocks this can work but tends to be tricky because of their slime. personally ill cut a shroom like a pizza, lets say into 1/4s and drop them into my tank. in some time there will be 3 or 4 new shrooms randomly showing up from the pieces. i let the pieces attach where ever they "land" in my tank. you might not want to do this, since these are your first ones and if thats the case, wait until they reproduce on their own before trying to cut one, this way you have a back up. im not sure how well this method of propagating works on rics. ive been planning out a new setup for sometime now and the idea of a mushroom garden has crossed my mind. im not sure if im going to go through with that idea though. you may have just inspired me. thank you.
as for the goby taking shells back to its burrow i can only guess it is using them as a "door" at night. it is pretty common for sea life to use pieces of shells or rocks to cover their holes for protection as an open hole makes an easy target for an eel to slide into. ive also had pistol shrimp selectively pick certain pieces of shells/rock and whatever it found and build its burrow with it, as well as around the hole outside its burrow. it is very well possible this is what your fish is doing, its just that the shells it is choosing are walking away by morning.
The camera is a kodak easyshare C813. The the zoos are actually supposed to be Candy Apple, lol. I know they dont look like the picture did when I ordered them. Im hoping they look like that later on though. Thanks for the tips on the mushrooms. They came glued to these rocks they are on. I was actually talking about gluing the rocks to my rock.
I think this camera just doesnt do well with low light. I have it tripod mounted when taking pics. Im not much of a photographer so it might be more me than the camera? Ill try to get some better pics when the daylights come on in an hour.
Bought a new camera today, heres a couple pictures.
Even though this is a better camera its still not the greatest. This will be the last one I buy before purchasing a DSLR. The new one is a Canon Powershot SD1200 IS. Its good enough for what I need but within the next couple of years I will have a real camera! I just cant justify spending the money on one right now haha.
Well, Ive had some serious issues with salinity lately. I calibrated my refractometer this morning and salinity was HIGH. Tested it against the hydrometer which said 1.025. I added some RODI to bring it down a bit and the fish started acting weird. Well the shrimp did too. I got 10 hermits and I cant find any.... That darn goby is wreaking havoc on snails and hermits. Not sure what to do about it if anything. So right now Im really nervous about the state of my tank. Ill run a full line of tests tonight and see what they say.
I checked calibration on the refractometer again this afternoon and it was off again. I dont know whats going on.... Corals look ok and fish seem to be acting normal now. Salinity is still reading 1.025 with the hydrometer. Ill check again with the refractometer tonight when I run my tests. Its been a stressful day.
I just calibrated refractometer to zero, tested salinity and got 1.027. Rechecked calibration, zero. Tested with hydrometer get a reading of 1.024.5 Which one should I believe????????
Temp is 76.5 LFS is 1.5 hours away so its not convenient to do so just to test salinity. I will add another small amount of RODI water tomorrow and bring it down a bit more. Both are reading high anyway, well 1.025 is on the high end anyway. As long as things continue to look ok Im not terribly concerned. I figure one more small adjustment will put me within safe zones on each piece of test equipment. Man my salinity may have been off for some time now....
I would hate to have to buy another refractometer as this one is only a month old but Im not wanting to trust anything right now. This is a stressful hobby!
EDIT: Hmm, well I was being a little dumb about calibrating the refractometer. The distilled water I use to calibrate it is at room temperature, that could be different than the tank temp. Ive got some in a ziplock floating in the tank right now to try this one more time. Ill retry in 30 minutes and let you know how it goes.
Man your coral's are looking great. i'm going to get some coral's in the next few week's theres a coral farm/factory about 1.5 hrs drive from my house so just going to go and pick some. How's your salinity doing.
I just tested again and checked calibration with distilled water that was at same temp as tank water. Calibration was right on, Salinity is 1.027 by according to refractometer. Making small adjustment right now.... Ive got my fingers crossed everything survives. Thanks for the comments marine666 I hope they all make it through my troubles.
I'm sure they'll be fine, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for you just in case. remember once they have settled in to get some pic's on just shows you that other peoples salinity must be incorrect when they only use a hydrometer.
Just a quick update. Everything is still doing good. Ive decided to trust the hydrometer for now until Im able to get a new refractometer. I just cant trust one that needs to be calibrated daily for some reason. Any recommendations on a good quality refract? Ive glued the ricordias down to their permanent home but the mushrooms are still sitting on the sandbed.
For anyone who might read through this thread while decided whether or not to start a SW tank, please think about the size tank you want. While a 29 is completely doable, take it from a 29 owner and go with a bigger tank! Youve just got so many more options when you go with a 4 or 6 foot tank. But dont let a smaller tank stop you! Its great fun no matter what size.
Ill try to get some pictures up in the next couple of days.
Yeah i think mushrooms can move, i read some where a while ago that if you want to try and propagate your mushroom without cutting them up, if you aim a powerhead at them they will move because they dont like being in a high water flow area, and when they move they leave small foot prints which will grow into more mushrooms or time.
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