A few questions to the old timers...

[wisebonzai]

Oh ye beneful and knowledgable obee wan reef-obees...

(Did I tell you I like Star Wars?)...

Anyway, I took apart the Eclipse 2 tonight and put all the rock into the 29. I set up this tank about a week ago on the live sand, but the sand had sat with water on it, but no heater or circulation for about a month since I purchased it from a reef club member, so I assume it's not "live" anymore.

1.) Is the sand alive still possibly?

2.) I added 2 rocks, totalling approximately 7 lbs, and I put them in with over 25 lbs of rock that is live, out of the Eclipse2. Do I have to wait for them to become "live" before I put my fish in and if so, how long till I should transfer the fish?

3.) The corals are in. They are doing excellently under the new lighting. Unfortunately, on a rock was my precious pet BTA (my much adored pet) and he was stuck and I didn't want to hurt him, so I didn't make him get off. He's in the new tank, with half old water, half new and with the 2 new rocks and maybe live sand. Is he in danger? Should I pry him loose and put him loosely into the Eclipse?

4.) I put the snails in. That is 1 huge snail and 1 small snail at this point. I put in 2 cleanup blue claw hermits. They have been in 4 or 5 days now. They seem healthy. Should I put the other 10 in?

5.) One coral banded shrimp and 2 peppermints who breed...should I put them into the 29 now or wait?

This started as one more question, but turned into several...so sorry in advance...

Is 30 to 40 lbs of rock enough for a 29 gallon aquarium?

What amount of fish would you say is just right? I have 2 maroon clowns who are a mated pair, one sleeper goby and I want to add a blenny if I can find a big, fat one to put in.

Would this be too many fish for this aquarium? I do not want the nitrites/nitrates to get high and I want the tank to run stable.

Right now, what is on it is the 4x T5 VHO 39watt setup with 2 blue 2 white and the little feet that it stands on. I have a Whisper double filtration bio-filter on the back till I get the "fuge" set up and I still may leave it hooked up along with the fuge which I built last week...I have no skimmer on till the fuge is up, but will have it on there, as I've already purchased that. I have a 350 watt heater, set to 78, and I have a UV Filter powerhead which filters 250 gallons per hour of water through UV light, and a 1200 powerhead on the other side. So, the outflow is 2 outflows from the bio-filter and one from each side from a powerhead. At this point, should that be sufficient or should I consider stronger flow?

In the tank is pulsing Xenia, colt, kenyas, red sponge, montipora, several different types of star polyps, clove polyps, gorgonian, mushrooms and ricordea yuma.

Until I put the fish in, should I just feed it phytoplankton and if so, what dosage would you go with? Right now, I use reef food, phytoplankton 2x weekly, one capful for the Eclipse2, and I change the carbon filter every other week. Do you think I should stick with this same ritual for this tank?

I am considering adding one Halide to this tank. It is a pendant, Josh's pendant, and it is 150 watts. I have the 4x T5 unit on there. There is approximately 3" of space left...would this be a bad move? Do you think it could overheat the tank or ruin the T5s? Which unit would you use if you chose to with the types of corals I have?

I can't think of anything else at this point, and I apologize for so much, but I do not want to do the whole crying over dead fish thing. When I burried my female clown I had for six months since she was a baby, I think I made up my mind never ever to put fish in too early again.

So, with all of your very knowledgable advice, I think I would like to do this right this time.

I await anxiously for responses.


PS- Thankyou for taking time to read my many, many newbie questions.

 

[boviac]

1) maybe. I would wait before you do anything else to this tank and keep a close eye on Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates to see if anything is cycling and if it is, tell you when it is done. Test daily. Are you using RO/DI water?

2). No but if those rocks were live at all or not soaked/rinsed before you put them in, I would too wait for the cycle to complete. Are you skimming this tank? This will help with LR/LS cycling. LR and Dead rock mixed in a tank will cause the Dead rock to become live over time (as long as the rock is not toxic to begin with - some porous scoria (red lava rock) can leach toxics into your tank long time

3). Your BTA will find exactly where he wants to be. If not happy, it will continue to move around. No do not try to remove it from the rock. Most die shortly after this is done. Due to the nooks and crevices in the rock, it is not easy to safely remove an anemone. Leave him alone - as long as the water stays clean (i.e. no ammonia, no nitrites, all other parameters ok) he'll be fine.

4). Add your cleanup crew as necessary. Too many at once and you'll see them die off shortly after the tank is 'cleaned'. You won't need many for a 29. I'd keep just the two for now. 10 maybe too many.

5). Again, don't add anything until you're certain the sand and rock are not cycling.

YMMV good luck. I'll try to think more about the rest of what you said and post more later.

Take things slowly. Only things that happen fast in this hobby are bad - like tank crashes.

 

[wisebonzai]

Thanks so much for the answers. I lost the anemone today. Cried almost all day. Stupid me...I didn't see the bottom of the powerhead pop off and I shut off the lights last night after messing around with the order of things inside and went to bed. By the time I got to him this morning, he had sucked so far in that even with spending almost an hour trying to free him, he was in so many strings and pieces I finally gave up and had to cut him out.

I have one small shred of him in the tank, about half an inch that was still moving after I cut it loose. I have the bottom part back on the powerhead...a rock must have knocked it off and it went un-noticed last night. I am covering it with sponge tomorrow so nothing like this occurs again.

Other than that, things seem fine. The new rock is black lava tube lava rock. So it isn't that red stuff that's so bad for the reef. The Vic Hannen yard I got it from used it in his own aquarium 20 years, one of the men there did. So, it should be okay, I assume.

There is so little of it when in comparison to the amount of live rock I put in, I am anticipating it won't be bad for the tank.

I thank you so much for helping Bob. I don't have the skimmer on yet. I have to get an overflow box so I can put the "fuge" on there and run it out of that and I don't have one yet so I am waiting to find an affordable one first.

Renee