New SW Tank, Review and Suggestions please

99light

New member
Hello all,

A little back ground on myself, I have been in the freshwater circuit for about 10 years. I recently brought my 150g tank into my works new building and they liked it so much they purchased it from me. Being fishless for the first time in a decaded i decided it was time to take the jump into Saltwater. Not wanting to spend a fortune i decided to scour Craigslist for deals.

I found a gentleman moving who was selling his 65g tank with sump for a good price. It was a bit of a drive but turned out to be well worth it. I went to get what i thought was a torn down system, on arrival the tank was still up and running, which solved the issues of wondering if all the equipment worked properly. We got to talking and i ended up taking his entire system minus the live rock. A friend of mine with a existing SW tank took all of the fish and corals i took everything else.

My tank includes the following. 65g tank, roughly 3'x2'x2 drilled overflow into a 29g sump tank. ASM 1gx skimmer, mag 9.5 return pump, Coralife T5 HO light ( 4 bulb) with led moonlights, and a 2" deep bed of crushed coral. I was able to transport not only all of the equipment but all of his water as well. He was kind enough to give me 2 small pieces of his live rock so i could use it to seed my base rock.

i transported everything home, and set it up, once the water got up to temp, i put 3 of his blue-green chromis in there along with the half dozen or so crabs and 2 snails to keep the tank active. I have 60lbs of BRS Pukani base rock and 10lbs of rubble being delivered today that will go into the tank. the Lights, Skimmer and return pump are about 6 mths old, Reading that T5 lights start to weaken in the 6-9mth range, i ordered new ATI bulbs, 1 Aquablue special and 1 blue plus for daylight bulbs, and 1 each of the blue plus and purple plus for the dawn/dusk bulbs. I have an Apex JR controller that should be arriving friday, with the bulbs so that i can have them ready to go when i do my aquascaping with the base rock this weekend. Also ordered 2 Koralia 750 gph circulation pumps.

Ok ok, enough of the longwinded stuff!
I browse the SW section everytime i stop at the lfs. I know i want a Flame Angel, Flame Hawk fish and a pair of Ocellaris clownfish. I know this might put me near the max fish i can have for a tank this size, but if not, i would love to hear some suggestions for fish that would help contrast against the red and orange i have picked out.

I am also looking for any suggestions for coral, I understand with my tank depth and only a 4 bulb T5 HO system i may not be able to have a overwhelming amount but any suggestions to look at would be appreciated.
 
One word of warning... Just to make sure you are not going to loose anything.

Let it set for a minimum of 2 weeks. All that moving has sloshed up some gunk and other stuff that might cause a mini-cycle. The loss of the Live Rock, to your friend, has also changed the bio load and needs to recycle some anyway.

You should most likely add some new DRY rock to it and let it start seeding it.

Compared to your fresh setup where water quality was not a high worry, salt/corals need a bit cleaner water, all depending on what you have in it.

SO...

Get it running and make sure it is all good. Get some test kits (if none came with it) and start testing it to not only get used to it, but also to know the parameters and what to look for.

Do not use tap water and a dechlorenator, like we all have done for our fresh.

In the top of this section (New to the Hobby) there are some sticky threads. Read through them and see some of the worries, concerns, highlights, and fatalities that others have experienced.

Sounds like a nice find!

Welcome to ReefCentral.com
 
Oh yes, i am not adding new fish, I am hoping that since i was able to keep so much of the original water and coral bed that the cycle will be minimum. I don't intend to add new fish yet. I still have plenty of work, and i am sure rework on the aquascaping and getting the new base rock going. I am just trying to research suggestions for fish and corals so that i can incorporate their needs into the aquascaping
 
First thing you need is a quarantine tank and commit to using it with all fish. If you moved the water to save a few bucks, that's fine. But some folks move water (a giant PITA) thinking water is "cycled' and will speed things up---it won't. Water isn't cycled, a tank is. the bacteria that make things possible colonize in the LR, substrate, etc., not the water column. Using the water, or anything wet, means you'll have to keep everything fishless for 9+ weeks to prevent ich and other parasites.
 
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