I've been away from the hobby way too long. I was in high school when I started. I had 5 gallon tanks - building my own pond, freshwater fish and saltwater, never a reef though.
I stopped the hobby when I left for college and now I'm 30 and back at it but on a much smaller scale. I moved back to NJ and now reside in Weehawken, NJ, right outside of New York City. I purchased a Fluval Spec V and fell back in love, this time with reef. I started this tank about a month ago. I am very new to corals and the reef world. Any suggestions and speculation is welcome. Below is what I've done and have so far:
Fluval Spec V:
- Stock pump, hood, exhaust nozzle
- Finnex FugeRay Marine and II Aquarium LED Light, 16"
- Matrix media, filter floss, and chaeto algae in the filter
- Fluval Spec Media Basket by inTank
- Hydor Koralia Nano 240 Water Circulation Pump
- Aqueon 50 watt Pro Heater
Started my tank with just the following:
- Carib Sea ACS00905 Ocean Direct Natural Live Sand for Aquarium, 5-Pound
- Nutri-SeaWater from LFS
- Live Rock 4 lbs from LFS
Supplements and chemicals:
- Revive for any new coral I'm introducing
- Seachem Stability 250ml
- Chemipure Elite for Aquarium, 11.74-Ounce (have not used yet)
- Seachem Reef Plus 500ml
I've slowly introduced live stock to the tank within 1 month. I know that's not slow but with all the live water, rock and sand I didn't know if I should have started slower.
Week 1 - Anyhow, within 3 days of setting up the tank, I added an ocellaris clown. He seemed fine for a week and I would check my water every other day. Everything checked out, no spikes in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. PH was at 8.0 and salinity 1.024.
Week 2 - Then I purchased a frag star-polyp from the LFS, also seemed to be doing well for the next week. Checked my water quality, everything checked out at 0. I also put in 3 hermit crabs and 2 snails to keep the tank clean.
Week 3 - Couldn't say no. My uncle lives 3hrs away and has a 175 gallon reef. Sickest tank I've ever seen. He was coming to see family and I asked him for 1 anemone. I saw him and he had a 1 quart cup with about 40 anemones ranging from .5in to about 2in each. Needless to say I was hesitant to take them all but I had no choice. They were in the cup for about 7 hrs total and I didn't know if they were going to make it. Got home, threw everything into revive for about 5-8min and put everything in my tank. Even threw some down the drain by accident :/ Anyhow, it looks like all of them survived and are doing great!! I am willing to trade if anyone wants to. I'll post some pictures. They are beautiful!!
Week 4 - Water parameters are still at 0 and everything looks great. No spikes. I add another ocellaris clown, a bi-color blenny and a cleaner shrimp. At this point my fiance wants to kill me for buying so much stuff. I put some cheato algae in the back filter, I hope it lives. It has some light but not direct light. I know I don't have a protein skimmer but I didn't want to have the tank look so crazy. Hence more water changes and chaeto algae. Everything was fine but then after 2 days I had an algae bloom. The tank water became cloudy and the glass was tinted green. I was about to purchase a HOB UV filter but I decided to wait. I turned off the light for 1 day and didn't feed them. The next day it was almost all clear and the following was crystal clear. Clean up crew and no light did a great job to get rid of the algae. BTW water parameters were still at 0 but my PH did increase to about 8.3. I think it's still ok. Currently, everything is still alive except a snail and my water is still great! I guess I got lucky. But who's to say, it's only been 5 weeks.
Live stock in the tank:
- 2 ocellaris clown
- 1 Bi-color Blenny
- 1 green star polyp frag
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 2 snails, 3 hermit crabs
- ~40 unknown anemones, I think they are bubble tip but not sure, any suggestions?
- 1 coral, I'm not even sure what it is but it made the long journey
I stopped the hobby when I left for college and now I'm 30 and back at it but on a much smaller scale. I moved back to NJ and now reside in Weehawken, NJ, right outside of New York City. I purchased a Fluval Spec V and fell back in love, this time with reef. I started this tank about a month ago. I am very new to corals and the reef world. Any suggestions and speculation is welcome. Below is what I've done and have so far:
Fluval Spec V:
- Stock pump, hood, exhaust nozzle
- Finnex FugeRay Marine and II Aquarium LED Light, 16"
- Matrix media, filter floss, and chaeto algae in the filter
- Fluval Spec Media Basket by inTank
- Hydor Koralia Nano 240 Water Circulation Pump
- Aqueon 50 watt Pro Heater
Started my tank with just the following:
- Carib Sea ACS00905 Ocean Direct Natural Live Sand for Aquarium, 5-Pound
- Nutri-SeaWater from LFS
- Live Rock 4 lbs from LFS
Supplements and chemicals:
- Revive for any new coral I'm introducing
- Seachem Stability 250ml
- Chemipure Elite for Aquarium, 11.74-Ounce (have not used yet)
- Seachem Reef Plus 500ml
I've slowly introduced live stock to the tank within 1 month. I know that's not slow but with all the live water, rock and sand I didn't know if I should have started slower.
Week 1 - Anyhow, within 3 days of setting up the tank, I added an ocellaris clown. He seemed fine for a week and I would check my water every other day. Everything checked out, no spikes in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. PH was at 8.0 and salinity 1.024.
Week 2 - Then I purchased a frag star-polyp from the LFS, also seemed to be doing well for the next week. Checked my water quality, everything checked out at 0. I also put in 3 hermit crabs and 2 snails to keep the tank clean.
Week 3 - Couldn't say no. My uncle lives 3hrs away and has a 175 gallon reef. Sickest tank I've ever seen. He was coming to see family and I asked him for 1 anemone. I saw him and he had a 1 quart cup with about 40 anemones ranging from .5in to about 2in each. Needless to say I was hesitant to take them all but I had no choice. They were in the cup for about 7 hrs total and I didn't know if they were going to make it. Got home, threw everything into revive for about 5-8min and put everything in my tank. Even threw some down the drain by accident :/ Anyhow, it looks like all of them survived and are doing great!! I am willing to trade if anyone wants to. I'll post some pictures. They are beautiful!!
Week 4 - Water parameters are still at 0 and everything looks great. No spikes. I add another ocellaris clown, a bi-color blenny and a cleaner shrimp. At this point my fiance wants to kill me for buying so much stuff. I put some cheato algae in the back filter, I hope it lives. It has some light but not direct light. I know I don't have a protein skimmer but I didn't want to have the tank look so crazy. Hence more water changes and chaeto algae. Everything was fine but then after 2 days I had an algae bloom. The tank water became cloudy and the glass was tinted green. I was about to purchase a HOB UV filter but I decided to wait. I turned off the light for 1 day and didn't feed them. The next day it was almost all clear and the following was crystal clear. Clean up crew and no light did a great job to get rid of the algae. BTW water parameters were still at 0 but my PH did increase to about 8.3. I think it's still ok. Currently, everything is still alive except a snail and my water is still great! I guess I got lucky. But who's to say, it's only been 5 weeks.
Live stock in the tank:
- 2 ocellaris clown
- 1 Bi-color Blenny
- 1 green star polyp frag
- 1 cleaner shrimp
- 2 snails, 3 hermit crabs
- ~40 unknown anemones, I think they are bubble tip but not sure, any suggestions?
- 1 coral, I'm not even sure what it is but it made the long journey
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