My First Reef Tank

[rdnelson]

If it were me, I would give it a couple of days after you get the Nitrate down just to be sure it is stable. Would hate to see something go wrong with your first fish.

 

[shimergloom26]

I probably won't stock on Monday I was just saying I could start. The only thing I don't like about using the seachem stability is I have not went through a diatom bloom

 

[shimergloom26]

Day 4 of using seachem stability all of my parameters are 0 except for the nitrates. They were 40 ppm earlier and I done a 10 gallon water change and they are now 20 ppm. I plan on doing another 5 gallon water change tomorrow and see what's up.

 

[texhorns98]

Give it another week (if nitrates read zero). It's hard, but you'll be better off in the end.

 

[shimergloom26]

I found something interesting tonight as I was looking for my two little hermits. I found a basket starfish. It is very interesting to watch catching things out of the water and eating. Also have several barnacles that come out really good when the blue actinics are on.

 

[shimergloom26]

Can I put a bubble tip anenome in my 29 gallon or would the tank be to small for him?

 

[rdnelson]

I would not recomend a anenome of any sort for some time. They need a well established tank. They will do fine in a small tank but if the tank is not well established with near perfect water conditions it will not survive.

 

[shimergloom26]

OK thanks I was just wondering. It will be a very long time before I get anything like that.

 

[rdnelson]

Then you should be fine.

 

[kilralpine]

SPS is going to need quite a bit more flow

 

[shimergloom26]

I have a hydor koralia 750 in my tank plus a whisper 20 power filter. I really don't plan on sps for some time.

 

[shimergloom26]

Here is a few pics of my tank and some of the coral I have acclimating to the halide.

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

I have a pair of clowns, a emerald crab, and several hermits and snail
My coral list
2 heads torch coral
4 heads of purple tip frogspawn
1 head of neon tip frogspawn
It a start but hopefully I can get more when I get more money.

 

[shimergloom26]

Well I had my first loss in my tank. I found one of my hermits dead lying under one of my corals. Could the coral have killed my hermit?

 

[shimergloom26]

How high up in a 29 gallon tank should frogspawn and torch coral be under 150w metal halide? I have had my torch coral for about week and a half on the sand bed. I have had the frogspawn for about a week. When should I start moving these up in the tank? I have been running the halide for only 2 hours a day. The light is about 10inches off of the water.

 

[atlweb]

Hermits can kill each other, I wouldn't be worried about that!

The frogspawn should be fine anywhere in the tank with that much light, so I wouldn't worry too much about placement other than factoring in the flow. I would start running the light at 6 hours, and each week go up one hour until you hit 8. The only time I have ever had to acclimate corals were when they were in bad lighting conditions and went into REALLY powerful lights. 150w halides are pretty standard and should be fine over that sized tank. Let them shine!

 

[shimergloom26]

The frogspawn came from leds not sure of the watts and the torch came from under t8's or poor lit t5's. I have a hydor koralia 750 and a whisper 20 filter on my tank so flow is no big problem.

 

[dsmithdbz]

i have the same sized 29gallon tank..this is my second 29 gallon setup...i only tested the water three times during the five week cycle...and added my clownfishes...that was a year ago and now i have tank full of corals, inverts and several fishes...good luck! have patience ...saltwater requires patience and care and good luck!

 

[shimergloom26]

Thanks dsmithdbz

 

[shimergloom26]

I use the API test kits. All of my parameters are good now. I also had a couple of my lfs to test my water to and the API are running really close to what their readings were.

 

[shimergloom26]

Well I will be adding a new piece of coral to my tank soon. I'm going to be adding a piece of Hollywood stunner chalice. I am getting it from an ARC member. I will post a pic as soon as I get it.