Newbie 60g Build Thread with pics

pscott99 said:
How are your tests going. Have you put the clowns in yet ? Nice corals to start with. If they are happy and your CUC is happy you are good to go.
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Tests are going good. Right now they're...

1.022 CG
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
0-5 Nitrates

I don't have test kits for KH or Calcium but I ordered some.

The corals looks basically the same since I put them in so I think that's a good sign.

I haven't put the clowns in yet. I tested their water and it was 0 ammonia and .25 nitrites. Did a 40% water change. Maybe the tank wasn't cycled or they caused a mini cycle. They seem to be swimming around nicely and I don't see any visible problems with them. They are tank bred ones. Basically I want to verify they don't have ich. I know the LFS uses copper on the fish so I'm not sure if I need to watch for this or not. You think it's ok to transfer them now or should I keep waiting? They've only been in QT for about a week.
 
Edstewart5 said:
Nice tank. The one you called a brain coral looks like a frag of Acan to me. If you feed them (I feed mine mysis and brine shrimp when feeding the fish every other day) they'll grow much faster. But it's not needed and they're very forgiving. Should expand when it's nice and happy!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think you're right. I image searched Acan corals and the matches seemed be be more correct than the brain corals. Happy to hear they're forgiving :)

maddmaxx said:
off to a good start. nice clean setup...
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Thanks maddmaxx

erickcooper said:
Looking great!
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Thanks eric
 
Your salt is low at 1.022 do some reading on that. Most say 1.024 or 5. If you want to follow the quartine rules they say longer. The least shock is same temp and similar salt. PH should also be close. Since they are your first two fish "I" would put them in and then SLOWLY bring up the salt. Alk , Ca, and Mg are least important at this stage. Your corals will tell you. Water changes do wonders with good salt.
 
I was actually planning on keeping salinity at 1.024 (1024 being a nice # for a computer guy). Before i got my CUC i took a water sample to the LFS to have them verify. Everything checked out but they said my salinity was 1.026. They used a refractometer and I used a hydrometer so i assumed my measurement was off. I've been keeping it at 1.022 assuming it was a touch higher but wasn't sure.

I'm using IO reef crystals. The way i mixed my original salt it was hard to test the accuracy of my hydrometer. Your comment got me to wondering if my hydrometer was off or the stores measurement was off. Today i mixed up a 3 gallon batch using 1 1/2 cups of reef crystals. After mixing for a few hours and heating to 79 degrees it measured the anticipated 1.021 per reef Instant Ocean's instructions.

This has me thinking the stores measurement was off.

I added this batch to my newly working ATO (more on that when i have time to post pics).

I'll plan on trying to get the tank up to 1.024 via top off and do the same with the QT tank. Once they both measure the same i'll plan on moving the clowns if they look good this weekend :)

Thanks again for your insight pscott.

Send me a PM once you get some pics of your 80g up.
 
A good refractometer can be had for $ 40. Was the first thing I bought. It is fun and very easy to use. My first pics are up, enjoy. If you get to measuring Ca and Mg at some point you may want to consider "better" salt. I am not going to get into it but you can read lots of threads on it.
 
Very nice build so far. It's hard to tell but are you using metal pipe clamps on your plumbing? Your going to want to replace these with plastic clamps if they are. I would hate for you to get heavy metal poisoning later on down the road from these.
 
pscott99 said:
A good refractometer can be had for $ 40. Was the first thing I bought. It is fun and very easy to use. My first pics are up, enjoy. If you get to measuring Ca and Mg at some point you may want to consider "better" salt. I am not going to get into it but you can read lots of threads on it.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing on the refractometer. I ordered one yesterday from BRS, hopefully it'll be here Friday.

I have Ca and Alk tests now but not Mg. Once I get the salinity where I want it I'll test these levels.
 
Deadcalm said:
Very nice build so far. It's hard to tell but are you using metal pipe clamps on your plumbing? Your going to want to replace these with plastic clamps if they are. I would hate for you to get heavy metal poisoning later on down the road from these.
Click to expand...

I am using 3 metal pipe clamps to secure the flex pvc. The lowest one is still a couple inches higher than the sump. I thought these were was safe since they weren't touching the water? Anything in the water that's clamped is using pvc or plastic.
 
Soolaimon said:
I am using 3 metal pipe clamps to secure the flex pvc. The lowest one is still a couple inches higher than the sump. I thought these were was safe since they weren't touching the water? Anything in the water that's clamped is using pvc or plastic.
Click to expand...

The rule of thumb is not to have any metal in your sump area above the water where it could potentially contaminate your tank.

The metal clamps will rust pretty quick where you have them. And if the metal is zinc plated or galvanized it can cause major issues down the road.
 
Thanks for the head's up. I'll make sure to keep an eye on these clamps and replace them with something different once they start to rust.
 
pscott,

nice 80g. I finally figured out how to look at your pics (in your album instead of a thread). Love the tank and fish. Is that a glass tank?
 
Update....

I think my wife and I have decided against an anemone for now. We mainly wanted it for the clowns but since they may host in other corals that is fine as well.

We picked up a new frogspawn coral the other day. We're hoping that when we put the clowns in they will make this their home. If not oh well :)

Here's a pic of the new coral...
frogspawn.jpg


Also I posted a separate thread on the ATO system. If interested in this here's a link to it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2392196
 
Soolaimon said:
pscott,

nice 80g. I finally figured out how to look at your pics (in your album instead of a thread). Love the tank and fish. Is that a glass tank?
Click to expand...

Yes 1/2" glass, no starfire. The sump is acrylic.

anenome need a mature tank I keep losing them. may try now in the 80gal
my clowns are hosting in the pink elegance. I have also had them host in a green hammer.
 
1/2" is very sturdy. I like that it's doesn't have top trim.

I had an anemone in my last tank (~10 yrs ago). Must have had beginner's luck with it because i had nothing setup 'correctly' and it did fine. Took it back to the fish store when we had to tear the tank down.

The refractometer came in yesterday. It measured 1.0265 -- I'm glad it came in because i was planning to add more salt top off water. The pos hydrometer was still testing around 1.022. It's in the trash now. I drained 1.5g from the tank and replaced with RO water. It's now measuring 1.025. I'll keep it there for the time being.

I did some more tests today...
CG 1.025
PH 8.1
KH 8.3
Calcium 420
Ammonia 0

Also added the clowns. I'll try to upload a pic in a day or two.
 
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