Starting a new 29 gallon

racingtiger03

This will be my first saltwater venture and here is my setup so far...

30 Gallon tank - 12.5"x30"x19"

Skilter 250 (Mainly temporary for the cycling process, any recomendations on an upgrade later? For now it seems to be doing great)

200w topfin heater

Hydor Koralia 2 powerhead

Glo T5HO 24" light setup (Currently running an actinic bulb and looking for a second base to put a basic white light into)

8lbs LR

3 clams (Shocker to me! they were on the LR and I assumed they weren't live because of everything that was growing on them)

Small anenome that looks like aiptasia underneath the largest clam (going to kill it off with the concentrated lemon juice I read about as soon as I can find out where the base is unless someone else has a better idea?)

10 blue leg hermits

1 sand star

Future plans :
get some dry rock and let it cycle to get a total of about 30lbs rock in the aquarium
Start out with some small soft coral
as for fish....
Flame Angel
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pistol shrimp
2 ocelaris clowns.

If that would be too much I would ditch the shrimp and goby for the 2 clowns.

onefish2fish

the sandsifting starfish will need to be spot fed some food from time to time.
the "clams" on the live rock, what exactly do they look like and/or can you get a picture?
the aptasia your going to want to shoot the lemon juice into its mouth and not its stalk.

welcome to the forum. post pictures when you can.

racingtiger03

I got a few pics of the clams actually.. before I new they were alive, and one video i can upload if it will help you any. Here are the pics though.

Here is the whole setup as it sits right now. I need to get some sort of bg, but that hasn't been main priority yet.


One overexposed shot of the LR so you can see the clams.

The one on the far right has been the most active, (also the one with the aiptasia underneath it on the backside) What are those white buildups on top of the clams with brown centers? They have been shooting out some white fluid as well as the first clam on the right.

What should I be spot feeding the star, and how often? my room-mate did most of the research on it, as I've let her claim it has hers haha.

Thanks for the bit about shooting it into its mouth instead, that'll be a lot easier. Does that also mean I don't need a needle and syrenge?

onefish2fish

these look like filter feeding clams with some sort of sponge or tunicate hitching ontop.
your going to want about 1 to 2 pounds of rock per gallon. live rock and flow will be the basics of your filtration along with a few other things but you shouldnt need the hang on back ( HOB ) filter. what media do you currently have in it? the sand bed should be either less then an inch or 4 - 6 inches, anything in between tends to trap debris and detritus.

that also looks like some grape caulerpa and halimeda macroalgaes

racingtiger03

That actually is what I'm currently using as a skimmer. It is a filter/skimmer combo, and up till today I've been running the filter pad it came with. I will be replacing that with just a bag of activated carbon soon. The sand is roughly 4" in some places and very little in others.. Should I think about adding more? I liked the look the best with very little in there, and added more for the star and nitrate cycling, but if more still is needed then I'll add it in.

onefish2fish

your going to either want to add more sand until you have a 4" - 6'' sandbed or take some out until you have a less then 1'' sandbed.

Pasfur

For rock, you may want to look into Marco Rocks The finest aquarium rock available, base rock, live rock, reef rock, marco rock, reef tank saltwater fish, live corals, Marco rocks, Fiji live rock, Tonga Live rock. They are a dry rock provider and the quality is great. In my 180 gallon I used 200 pounds of this dry rock, "seeded" by 40 pounds of experienced live rock. A short 4 months later and all of the rock is covered with life. For your tank, you could order a 25 pounds shipment for $75, and use the money you save to upgrade to a better protein skimmer.

racingtiger03

I had been considering that actually. Any recomendations on a good protein skimmer to upgrade to?

Pasfur

For a 30 gallon, you don't need to spend over $100. In my opinion, you will get the best bang for your dollar out of the Coralife hang on:
Super Skimmer with Needle Wheel - Up to 65 Gallon | Venturi Models | Protein Skimmers | Aquarium - ThatPetPlace.com

racingtiger03

wowza, that one is 170 at the fish store I was going to :P. Thanks for the link!surprisingly after nearly a week in the tank my clams are still alive, and I just added two percula clowns :). They're doing great so far, and have a nice hiding place until I get some more dry rock to cure up in a few weeks.