First Saltwater Setup

F

Frostslasher

New member
Hello everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself as I've finally completed setting up my first saltwater tank. My name is Dean, and I currently reside just outside of the Utica area. Here's a list of my equipment:

- 75 gallon RR Aqueon w/ Herbie overflow
- 29 gallon custom sump, no refugium
- Custom stand
- Omega Vertex 150 Skimmer
- Jabeo WP-40 powerhead
- Tunze silence 1073.05 return pump
- Jager 300W heater
- Kessil 350N LED's x2
- 50 pds of BRS Fiji Dry LR, 50 pds. of special grade aragonite
- Neptune Apex Lite controller (coming Wednesday)

I cycled the tank about 6 weeks ago with a raw shrimp. I got a clean up crew from Reefcleaners about a week ago, and on Wednesday I got my first two fish. I picked up two ORA Picasso clownfish from ABC reefs in Solvay. I was a bit hesitant considering the price for the two (they didn't have any non-designers) in stock, but the fish seem to be doing quite well. I currently feed them mysis shrimp and cyclop-eeze on rotation once a day.

My goal is to have an LPS-dominate mixed reef. In the coming weeks, I'd like to slowly incorporate some more livestock, including 3 blue reef chromis, a yellow tang, a dwarf flameangel, and possibly some gobies or 6l wrasse if I purchase a top net.

I'm open to any and all suggestions or tips, and look forward to possibly meeting some people at some upstate frag swaps.

Thanks for reading!
 
Welcome, the only thing I would suggest is using two smaller heaters instead of one big one. When you set up your controller set the the thermometer on the heater at 2 degrees warmer than what the controller is set for. That way if the controller temp probe gets pulled out of the water or water level drops for some reason it will not over heat your tank. Make sure to set low temp alarm in case of heater failure. Sounds like your doing things right. I wish you the best of luck.
 
I like the equipment list a lot! My suggestion would be to start quarantining now, right at the beginning. Please, please, please, from the start quarantine all of your fish. It will save you a lot of headache, heartache, and money in the long run.
 
Hi, and thank you everyone. Here's a few pictures.

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Blanden.adam: I really like the variety on how well things appear to be maintained at ABC Reefs and plan on using them in the future for all my livestock orders. With that said, I originally was planning on not QT'ing the first few fish past the clowns until I got a yellow tang (ABC sources all their fish from the same hatchery in Maine), but as you say that, I may stick with my original plan and QT each fish with a light dose of copper in my extra 20g tank. Despite them rarely having ich or any other outbreaks, I'd rather not crash the tank so early.
 
ABC reefs is definitely an excellent LFS, and I use them exclusively for my fish as well. They source all of their fish from Quality Marine, their fish are typically in excellent health, and their fish-only tanks are treated with a low dose of copper and maintain specific gravity a little low, so they do a good amount to keep disease out of their tanks.

That said, things happen. Mistakes get made, diseases are not in the proper stage when they transition from tank to tank to be killed by the copper, maybe you buy the fish soon after it has arrived at the store (or right out of the bag), etc. The best way to protect yourself and your tank is to QT. I definitely agree with your original plan to QT each fish, at least for observation (for the appearance of disease), de-stressing, getting them eating and putting on weight, used to your lighting schedule, and used to you without having to worry about competition with the rest of the community.
 
+1 on quarantine. If it is an option for you it's the way to do it. Also maybe I misunderstood but I would feed 3-4 small amounts per day over once per day and I don't know what kind of mysis you feed but I highly recommend PE brand mysis.
 
Welcome! Your setup looks looks lovely so far. Those clowns are very pretty. I am also pretty new to the hobby but I must agree on a quarantine. I didn't when I first started back in March and I lost over $250 of fish from one small sickness. Not fun and very discouraging. Tank is just now getting so I can stock fish back in it and although coral keeping is almost as fun, haha, a fish tank with no fish is a bit lonely.
 
Welcome,

Please qaurantine all new fish, no exceptions .You'll be happier and our fish will be happier if you do.
 
I took a look over the QT guide that bnumair has in the New to the Hobby section and will get a permanent QT cycling right away.

Should this process also be repeated for introducing corals to my tank? My fear is that I'll take all the necessary precautions with introducing livestock, but something will hitch onto a coral instead. How do you safely go about introducing frags and corals to your DT?
 
Awesome tank. So clean! Can't wait to see it mature over the coming months.

For corals you can dip them. There are many different dips online you can buy but your LFS probably carries them too. Coralrx and others... Best of luck! keep the pictures coming!
 
A quick update for everyone, and of course, a few questions. I unfortunately came back from the weekend and one of my two clownfish decided to jump over the back of the tank. I was surprised to find him behind the stand the next day, which was a bit depressing considering I bought the two as a pair and they got along great (not to mention expensive). I wasn't exactly sure what may have gone wrong, but I'm going to be doing a 20% water change tomorrow just in case. I tested the cal and mag which were a little low but not bad.

On a more positive note, I made a few purchases as well. I bought a PH probe to connect with my Apex Lite controller, an Ecotech MP40, a WP25 for my QT tank, and an Elite Sump series from Tyler at Elite Aquatics. Right now I have a simple 2 section sump I cut and siliconed myself on the fly. I wanted to purchase something that was very nice quality, easy to maintain (two toilet bowl style filter socks), and fit my stand better. It's a brand new model and haven't been assembled yet, but I'm excited to see how it turns out and will be sure to post a few pictures.

On that note, I wanted to ask, would it be overkill to try and incorporate a small piece of liverock and some simple macroalgae such as chaeto into the sump? I understand that it may be redundant with my Vertex Omega 150 skimmer which may be considered oversize for a 75 gallon tank. If it isn't redundant, is it possible to grow macroalgae in the same compartment/section as the skimmer, or the pump? The Elite Series wasn't designed for a refugium, which makes me think it isn't even worth doing if its too much hassle or unnecessary. Any feedback is very much appreciated.
 
It is certainly not overkill to grow macro in your sump (almost everyone has a skimmer, and a lot of people also have a refugium), BUT, you should have a dedicated compartment for it. If not, it can get sucked into your skimmer/return pump relatively easy and clog it. You might be able to fashion something with egg crate to keep it still, and that would be fine, but it would be inadvisable to let it free float in your skimmer compartment.
 
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