newbie kicks off w/ 15 gal

[Bred]

Hi! I'll preface this with an intro before coming to a question.

I'm new to reef keeping. I'm basically a freshwater puffer keeper who bought a skimmer a few months ago in the hopes it would encourage him to get into the hobby.

Well i've been holding out for the 'dream setup' since then, and i realized it ain't gonna happen any time soon! So forget the hallides, forget the 90g tank, even forget the sump for now, and let's use what I've got!

- 15 gallon tank (12"x24"x12")
- 50W heater
- Coralife Super Skimmer (120g model)
- An All-Glass 110W 36" CF fixture
- Misc other junk.

So I chopped the 36" light in half to fit over the tank and retrofitted it into a custom canopy. There's lots of light in the tank now!

I've got the CSS returning water to a modified penguin 330 HOB filter... basically just to trap bubbles and as a coarse mechanical filter.

For livestock, I imagine a few turbo snails, a cleaner shrimp and a cute little fishie. A clown or some other damselfish, probably.

Question: What starter corals do you suggest for a 15g tank w/ about 7WPG of CF light? Where's the limit on what I can grow with this setup?

This week I buy some live rock and begin the curing process, but as you can imagine I'm excited about the road ahead! Any input gladly received.

 

[pufferpoison]

a folded brain comes to mind. Doesn't need lots of light and looks really cool.

 

[James11]

Welcome to ReefCentral

 

[hgbarwick]

Looks like a good start. You could grow soft corals and leathers. Welcome to Reefcentral.

 

[Bred]

Well I managed to electrocute myself with the lamps. That was fun...
But I've got the live rock in and, as a total newb, I'm blown away by how much has started growing in the first 24 hours.

Microbubbles are a bit of a problem though... Boo!
I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting with my DIY HOB overflow bubble baffler.

Will post pics soon...

 

[chocolateblnt]

Let me know where you're experiencing a micro bubble problem ... I went through this and can help fix your problem. A picture of your setup can really help!

As far as coral's I would say keep only soft corals before you learn how to keep your H20 parameters perfect... they are much more forgiving. I would think the limit would be medium light hungry SPS and they'd have to be positioned medium to high in your tank ... I started with soft corals in my 29 and am moving towards SPS ... I did so and managed to frag a lot of my softies and make some extra cash for SPS.

:lol2: Saltwater is a great conductor of electricity WATCH OUT

Good Luck!

 

[Bred]

Thanks chocolateblnt, the microbubbles are a bit of a problem still. What I've got is a CSS 120 draining into a small HOB filter, which is hanging on the back of a larger HOB filter. (Neither is plugged in, they are just being used as troughs.)

So the water comes in the top-most HOB, drains into the lower HOB, then passes through two sponge filters before draining into the tank.

Two things have helped with the microbubbles:
1) I placed the skimmer needlewheel pump closer to the surface to actually skim the surface of the water.
2) I put in a Seio 620 to increase overall flow.

Any other tips you can think of?
Is a Seio 620 in a 15g too much flow?

 

[Daemonfly]

Softies & many LPS.

The Seio shouldn't be too much, but you can always try to break up the flow if it's blowing a bit too hard on something.

 

[Steven0000]

good start!
a lot better than i did when i started