After much debate and research, I have finally decided to plunge into Saltwater after many years of Freshwater tanks. I've seen a ton of controversy as far as "What size is the easiest to start off with?" With many people saying smaller is easier, and others saying that maintaining a reef setup in a smaller tank is much more difficult. Anywho, I decided on a smaller tank to start off with to avoid the higher costs involved considering the price of rock and the equipment required for larger tanks.
I'm still in the 6-week cycling stage right now and only have my basic setup but can't wait to start adding coral after the cycling period. I have all of my necessities, so this isn't a help thread, just something to document my journey.
So far I have: Live Sand, Live Rock, Lights (2x 36W 1x 10k & 1x Actinic) My Heaters, Filters, Power Heads, and some simple base rock I used to build on.
I still have to get my circulation pumps installed and test for dead spots, but so far I'm having a pretty good time (despite the expenses).
I have a few low-res pics from after adding the live rock, it's a little stirred up due to the sand though.
Looking forward to documenting and sharing this experience with you guys ;-)
Any suggestions or recommendations? Feel free to tell me, I'm pretty new to SW so I'll be happy with any advice you can offer!
Just a minor update; My camera hasn't been focusing well lately so I haven't been able to take any nice pictures, one of my T5 bulbs blew out so I'm running 2x blues and 1x white right now until my replacement gets here so the corals aren't bustling like they usually are.
Andrews Back! Is that a happy fungia in the top pic? All these corals look real healthy,and look at that sarcophytons size,won't be long until you need that bigger tank.
It is indeed a Fungia, I was a little skeptical at first with it being my first LPS, but it turned out pretty great in the end and he's happy.
The sarco grew quicker than I expected, when I first got it I could stick it in any random place and it would be a nice fit, after my tank move a few months ago I realized while I was reassembling the tank that he no longer fit anywhere, so I had to wedge him between those two rocks and he finally took root and stuck to it.
I've started the planning process of my larger tank, perhaps I should document it as I did with this one in a new thread :hmm:
It's time to upgrade. I'll split this into a new thread at some point, I'm starting to make the move from the 20 tall to a 33 long. My lights will be here next week and I'll start moving everything, I've already got the tank and stand setup and I'm moving just about everything from the old tank except the sand (water, rock, pumps, etc).
Store bought RO water, since my RO housing unit is cracked for now. I'll be using it to top off after I add my current 20 gallons to the new 33, this way it's basically just a "water change" instead of a tank move.
Salt & Live Sand, since I'm not keeping all of my old sand since the bed is about 3" deep and I'm not risking taking anything on the bottom of it.
Yes, the stand is not pretty. I do not believe in over building my stands nor spending money to make them pretty.
Anywho, I'll keep everyone updated.
In addition, the tank was cut with a hand saw, I do not recommend this for anyone who isn't cheap like me and can afford a skill saw, it was extremely hard to get straight cuts and it took forever.
That's the main reason I went with the 33 instead of a 55, less water capacity but same amount of floor space, I won't have to spend as much on live rock as well, which was a big bonus ;-)
Correct, it's going to be a reef tank. I'm swapping everything in my 20G reef tank to this new tank, so it is essentially going to be the exact same tank, just bigger.
Be careful if you use sand though as you will have no room for the circulation pump to go but up without stirring sand into filter components. I have a 33 with sand and did not realize this until later on.12 inches depth of tank then after substrate it is more like 10ish so not alot of room to work with the circ pumps.
Hrm, I didn't anticipate that at all. Perhaps I can arc is properly to avoid disturbing the sand bed, I already bought the sand and I'd hate to not use it since I can't return it. :shock:
So my lights came in today, and I can say that I'm less than satisfied. The condition of the lights are absolutely disgusting cosmetically, but internally they appear to work find (lights come on, timer works, etc), so I've decided to use them despite the cosmetic damage. I'm just posting up some pictures of the lights, I'll be starting the move process later tonight and I'll keep everyone updated.
The move is done, was is successful? I have no idea, only time will tell. Everything is at the front of the tank because I couldn't see anything due to the new live sand, therefore I didn't want to risk pounding rock on top of my corals, I'll scape it once it clears.
I did some minor aquascaping today after it cleared up just to get everything partially in order, nothing appears to be stressed from the move and we appear to be solid, thankfully everything went well. I took a few photos of how it looks today.
New lights,new sand, new water,things look crisp. Corals look healthy and happy, I bet you are pretty stoked yourself. I love a good upgrade,more room for corals.
I have many corals I can cut...In fact I think I have one or two I can give you. I need to start a thread for a DBTC coral incentive here.We do it frequently here in Oregon.
Got rather bored today and decided to clean up my entire office and setup a frag aquarium under my 33G reef with some extra equipment I found in my closet.
Used my original PC lights (1x 10k and 1x actinic - 72W Total), which should work pretty decent on a 10G aquarium.
Yeah I had concerns about the heat build up as well, but since it's a "use what I already have" job, I used it for now.
I want to plumb it into my 33G, but I'm not entirely sure yet. It's not predrilled and I have concerns about the HOB overflows, so we'll see what ends up happening in the end.
I'm not sure, you sent these to me on two different pieces a while back and classified them as purple pavona. I don't remember you sending purple star polyps though.
I did some checking and they kinda look like both except these don't have the white centers like the purple star polyps.
I have a lot of growth on my circ pumps, but not much on the glass yet.
I'm trying to decide on a good ATI bulb combo right now, I'm thinking probably the ATI purple and the ATI blue special w/ the 2x acintics I already have.
And, by far my favorite coral in the aquarium, the Yuma Ricordea I got from Bert a long time ago.
---
All of the corals above (except for one) were purchased from badxgillen (a well known reefer here). I highly recommend him for corals and he's always sent me top notch corals!
Enjoy!
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Tropical Fish Keeping
597.8K posts
83.7K members
Since 2006
forum community dedicated to tropical fish owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about species,breeding, health, behavior, aquariums, adopting, care, classifieds, and more! Open to fish, plants and reptiles living in freshwater or saltwater environments.