Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[alexk3954]

those blue spotted jawfish are cool, but they are expensive aren't they? I saw one that my uncle has and it was a very beatuiful fish. I think I will probably get a yellowhead just because of cost.

Does anyone know of a good place to get arag-alive sand? I can find the west carribean reef, but not the bimini pink that I was going to mix it with.

When you only have a clean up crew and live rock, do you need to add any additives like calcium? I will be making a large purchase tonight (wavemaker, powerhead, testkits, sand, etc..) and want to get as much as I can so I can pay shipping as few times as possible.

 

[ToTaLCHaoS13]

Great thread! I am also a nubie and am just a few months into the hobby. My setup is a...

90gal reef ready All-Glass
15gal refugium (Mag 9.5 return pump)
MRC MR-1 Skimmer (Mag 12 pump)
2-150w MH with 2-96w Actinic and 4 lunar
100lb live rock
60lbs live sand
2-Maxijet 900 in tank for circulation
Kent Marine 4-stage RO/DI

I have cured my rock, gotten my tank parameters constant and am ready to start adding livestock. I have done a lot of research and believe my first purchase should be a "cleaner crew". Is this correct and if so what should I make sure is in the "crew"?

btw - I'll try to get some pictures of my setup posted tonight. Thanks.

 

[gary faulkner]

totalchaos13
[welcome]

 

[gary faulkner]

Dudester,

I don't think those are astrea eggs. I have about 50-60 astera snails in my tank. Last night, I witnessed something really cool.

I thought I saw smoke inside the tank, and when I approached for a better look, most of my snails were at the water surface.

Some of the snails were releasing eggs and the others were releasing sperm. That's what looked like smoke.

Well this went on for about an hour, and the tank was completly filled with eggs. The fish went crazy eating all the eggs, but there were thousands of them.

From this observation, I would say that they are definitly egg scatterers, not depositers.

By the way, Iv'e been keeping up with you'r thread and I think It's great. Keep up the good work!

 

[Dudester]

alexk3954 - You should be able to get AragAlive sand from a LFS or any of the online vendors. I can't imagine it would be tough to find. If you don't have a good LFS, check on MarineDepot.com or PremiumAquatics.com. I like both of these online vendors.

Regarding the additives, you probably won't need to add anything for quite some time. Of course this depends on your water change regimen, since salt mixes all contain calcium and this replenishes the tank's needs in and of itself, along with other essential trace minerals. As coralline begins to proliferate in your tank, this will consume calcium and you may need to start adding at that time. Hard corals certainly consume calcium. Just make sure you check your calcium and alkalinity weekly and when you notice their decline, you might have to start adding something. This might be kalkwasser, a balanced 2-part calcium/alkalinity solution, or even a calcium reactor, depending on your system and your goals.

ToTaLCHaoS13 - Welcome to RC indeed, and I'm honored to see your first post here. By the looks of your equipment list I'd say you're off to a great start. A cleanup crew is usually the first addition to a new tank, and this is often out of necessity. I know that as my tank settled in, algae grew over all of the LR and was making a real mess. My cleanup crew took care of it in short order. If you look at the earlier pages of this thread you'll see what I used for a cleanup crew. Also, if you do a simple search here on RC you'll get some great information regarding the advantages/disadvantages of the different snails, crabs and conchs that comprise a cleanup crew.

I like astrea snails for cleaning up the glass and general algae consumption; cerith snails for cleaning the sand, glass and rocks; nassarius snails for stirring up the sand bed; peppermint shrimp for eating aiptasia; emerald crab for eating valonia (bubble algae); fighting conch for really stirring up the sand and eating detritus; and bluelegged hermit crabs for eating my snails. Actually, the hermit crabs do mow down a lot of algae, but they are opportunistic feeders and will kill a snail to steal its shell. Now that I think of it, probably half of my bluelegged hermit crabs are crawling around my tank in cerith snail shells. This is in no way a list that you must follow, but it's what I did and can be a good place to start your research.

gary faulkner - Very interesting about your astrea snails. Hmm, then I wonder what that swirling white material is on the glass? I'll keep a close eye on it and let everyone know if I figure it out.

Glad you like the thread, please continue to contribute!

 

[ToTaLCHaoS13]

As promised, here is my tank:

And here is my refugium:

Comments or suggestions?

 

[gary faulkner]

ToTaLCHaoS13

Great looking tank. Looks like you put alot of thought into it.

I don't see much algae. You might want to wait awile on that clean-up crew. They really need to be fed and a good stand of algae will do the trick.

 

[Dudester]

ToTaLCHaoS13 - I think we posted at nearly the same time ... did you see my comments above?

Great start on your tank. I can't make too many comments since I don't know what you plan to keep in there. With 2 MJ powerheads for flow I'd worry if you plan to keep SPS. I'd think it'd be OK with just softies, and if not you could always switch them out for MJ-1200's. Your aquascape appears to be pretty open but it's hard to tell with just one angled view.
I have a few questions about your sump/fuge. How does your sump return water enter your tank, is there some locline along the back that we can't see? Is that a heater in your fuge compartment? If so I'd move it to the return pump compartment, since you'll probably want to put some LR and macroalgae in with the sand. You might also want to consider a second heater for redundancy. What's in the compartment between the fuge and the return chamber, is that a filter bag, maybe with carbon? Your skimmer appears to be drawing water from the return compartment, which is the final compartment of your sump/fuge. In this thread Anthony Calfo recommends improving skimmer performance by positioning the skimmer in such a way that it receives unaltered water directly from the surface of the display tank. In other words, it should be the first thing the water draining from your tank contacts before travelling through the rest of your sump/fuge. Not only would this improve the performance of your skimmer, but the pods that are produced in your fuge won't be eliminated by your skimmer.

Maybe I'm way off base remember, I'm still a noob too) and if so I'd hope that someone corrects me. Overall I think you have a great setup and please keep us posted on your progress.

 

[alexk3954]

What powerheads should I get? I was thinking 3 maxi jet 900's, should I maybe step it up to 1200, or would that be too much? (37 gal. tank). I plan on eventually setting them up on a reefkeeper, so 2 alternate, and one goes on and off independently.

Also, do you guys think that one of the ebo jager temp. sensing heaters could take constant turning on and off by the reef keeper?

Im scrambling trying to get this thing up in a hurry so that I can have it set up and well established by summer. I plan on working at my lfs like 6 days per week, so I will have plenty of cash to pour into this thing. I just want it to be good and stable when I have the money to add stuff. How often can you add soft corals? I know I should only add about one fish per month.

 

[KingfishJohn]

Mike,

You're officially out of "n00b" status as of right now. Your knowledge is DEFINITELY up there and I must say that it's quite exciting. This also means that I'm never going to tell you what a stomatella snails is now . I really stand by the fact that if you can keep a nano, you can keep a big tank. Are you glad we didn't try to build a 400 gallon reef right away :smokin: ?

Flow:

This applies to both Totalchaos and Alex; you can't really ever have enough. What we try to do in the saltwater hobby is replicated the natural environment of the things we collect. If you've ever been snorkeling in the ocean, you quickly notice that you're thrown around like a feather. The limiting factor in the marine hobby however is that almost every current generator available, produces a longitudinal current. No animal anywhere receives a blast of current, 24 hours a day, in the exact same spot. We try to recreate this with "random" flow and wavetimers are a great way to do this.

Totalchaos:

Your tank really looks beautiful right now! I really like the layout but I think you'll quickly see that you don't have enough flow with the two 900's. Also remember that the flowrate through your refugium should be very very low (we're talking like 400 gph or about 200 gph preferably). This means that you probably aren't going to be able to run your Mag 9.5 at full tilt. I'd look into adding two more Maxijet 1200's to the tank and putting the 4 of them onto a wavemaker of some sort. I highly recommend what the Dudester is using (Reefkeeper by Digital Aquatics).

I'd really take Dudester's advice about where the skimmer draws water. You'll see as much as a 30% increase in efficiency just by skimming the organics JUST as they overflow into your fuge. Also remember to clean that collection cup as organics stick to plastic much better than they stick to each other.

Alex:

Three 900's in your tank might work great, but chances are I'd go ahead and upgrade at least one of them to a 1200 now. Also, check out the Hydor "Flo" on premium aquatics or marine depot. It uses no electricity and generates some GREAT random current from those maxijets. Since they only cost about 10 dollars, these would make great additions to your tank and when coupled with a wavemaker, I'd be very impressed with the results of the flow you got. You should be able to get the sand from any LFS or online like Dudester said. The cool thing about the reefkeeper is that it takes care of sensing temperature for you. It's much much much more reliable than just the heaters internal temp sensor and an ebo would do fine of that controller.

Also the fish and corals thing isn't necessarily about 1 a month. Watching the levels of your tank and allowing it to mature is what all the slow down is about. Just make sure to research your fish very carefully and ask many questions along the way. And yes, blue spot jaws are very pricey hehe.

Gary-

As for the eggs I think you are right as I've never seen astreas reproduce in tank. From your description, there seems to be a very good reason why. I'd have to see the eggs to be sure but I'd almost bet they're either cerith or nassarius eggs. Nassarius "I think" lay eggs in a somewhat random manner, just dumping them in a spot while cerith snails usually make a fancy little pattern.

 

[Dudester]

alex - The only thing I'd add to what John has said is that it seems like you need to slow down a little.

Im scrambling trying to get this thing up in a hurry so that I can have it set up and well established by summer.

Remember this -- Nothing that happens quickly in this hobby is good! If you rush the process, you're going to regret it in time. Trust me on this one and don't be in such a rush to complete everything. Take some time to read more and it will pay off in spades.

John - Thanks for the promotion . And yes, knowing what I know now makes the planning of my 450 gallon office tank a lot more interesting, and a lot more fun.


OK everybody, pictures to follow!

 

[alexk3954]

I didn't want to make it sound like I was in a rush to get it all stocked and everything. I definetly don't want to have problems and will take it as slow as I need to. I just want to get the live rock in there so I can let the tank cycle for a LONG time. I just know that when I have more money I will be itching to stock it, so I want it to be established, ready, and safe for the fish in a few months!

Those hydor flo's make it look like the water will spin in a circular motion and none will shoot forward. Is there a hole on the end so that water goes forward and in a circle around the powerhead?

 

[Dudester]

Sorry Alex, don't know anything about that product.


Here are some pics of the coral frags I got about 6 weeks ago. If you recall, some of them developed STN near the base, but this seems to have recovered nicely. All of the frags have based out pretty nicely, and these photos were taken 4 nights ago.

This first frag is acropora nana. It's actually a little more green than shown here, but the camera's not great for macros.

You can see the plug it came mounted on. The purple stuff below it is Deltec 2-part putty that I used to attach it to the rock. It's kind of bulky and I'm not all that pleased with it. I think I could have combined a smaller amount of putty with some super glue gel, but the good news is that coralline is already growing on the putty and it should be harder to see as the coral grows and coralline accumulates. I'll also mention that none of my frags have budged since they were mounted, so I think the putty is good stuff. You can also see the nice base that this coral laid down over the last 6 weeks. The bad things that you can see are the many types of algae that are growing on the rocks.

This one is acropora tenuis.

This coral has actually grown a fair amount, and is one of the ones previously undergoing STN. As you can see, there's no evidence now of tissue loss.

The next one is acropora austera.

This is actually a beautiful little frag, and unfortunately it's a little out of focus, but you can at least appreciate the color, sort of (purple with green tips).

Here's the left side of the reef.

The upper deck from left to right consists of the small frogspawn, a. tenuis and a. nana. The lower deck contains a green monti cap and the recovering blasto colony.

Here's another shot of the left side.

I've included this one since it looks a little over the top of the "upper deck" revealing some frags positioned more toward the center and right of the tank.

This image shows the right side of the reef.

This shows all 5 of my acro frags. From left to right are a. nana, a. tenuis, a. austera, a. hemprichii, and my first acro - a tricolor that hasn't grown a bit as far as I can tell.

Here's a similar view and I'm including it because the clownfish took such a nice pose.

The acro in front of the sixline is a. hemprichii and it's supposed to be a gold color. It was gold originally but unfortunately it's become quite bleached and white-looking. The tips are still green and the polyps extend occasionally, and I think there's some new growth on it, so I'm sure it's not dead. I hope the color will return over time.

And one last shot, down at substrate level.

Just to the right of the clownfish's tail is an acan lord frag that is doing much better now, and above it you can see a lettuce nudi crawling over some zoos.

 

[melev]

Very nice. Thanks for the update.

Alex, that Hydor rotating device shoots water at an angle. As it rotates, the angle is pivoted with it. You will not have a jet of water, and the flow will vary as it pivots 360 degrees. If it is near the surface, you'll see a small mound of water as it moves from 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. They don't cost much online, and quite a few people use them.

 

[alexk3954]

Wow, your tank is really looking good! I especially like that six line wrasse.


Melev- Thanks for the clarification. I couldnt really figure out from research what direction it made the water flow. If I am going w/ 3 maxi jet 1200's do you think that I should get one for all of them, or should I wait to see how I set up my rock and powerheads, and then decide how many to get?

 

[melev]

I'd probably get two, if I were you. Use them as you see fit. If you don't like them, store them for a later use because there will be a time when you'll find their usefulness of value.

 

[alexk3954]

Ok , I went and bought the following at the lfs:

2 hydor flo's
4 MJ 1200's ( 1 for the aquaC remora which I already have)
1 ebo jager
test supplies

I already have the tank and skimmer.


Now for the questions:

Anything else I need before adding sand and rock?

I had a 20 long on my stand, and replaced it with a 37, will the stand hold it?

What can I use to paint the back of the glass blue? I hate seeing wires and stuff on the back.

 

[melev]

You need salt for saltwater. Hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity. Thermometer. Lighting.

For the background, you can buy blue background from your LFS by the foot, or you can paint the tank, or you can get blue sign material from your local hobby shop and velcro it to the back of the tank.

The stand may be able to support the new tank if it is built well and remains stable.

 

[alexk3954]

I am buying saltwater from the lfs and their RO for top-offs. I have the lighting, just forgot to mention it! Here is my question about the hydrometer: I dont want to spend a whole lot of money on a refractometer, so can I just buy a cheap hydrometer? I would measure the salinity right when it gets poured into the tank, before there is any chance of evaporation, and mark where the salinity should be w/ a sharpie (probably not good, what should I mark it with?). Even though the hydrometer would measure off a little, I would still know where the salinity should be, will this work?

What do most people use to paint the glass?

How do I know if the stand is well built? Any specific things to look for?

 

[melev]

To be honest, I'm happy to answer your questions as are others here. However, it is unkind to hijack a thread with an abundance of questions for your own tank. This thread in particular is a diary thread, so a few questions to the original poster are usually a non-issue, but that isn't what is happening here.

So start a new thread, and ask your questions. You'll get answers.

Now, since I'm typing, I'll answer what you've asked, but then we have to give the thread back to its rightful owner.

A cheap hydrometer is better than nothing at all, but they can be very inaccurate. You can get 5 off the shelf at the LFS (local fish store) and test one of their tanks and get 5 different readings. So whatever you get, consider it a temporary purchase rather than the tool you'll use for the next year to 18 months. I see refractometers up for sale around $40 on various e-tailer websites regularly. Matter of fact, in your own thread, just ask if anyone has seen them on sale, and links will magically appear over time.

Rather than using a sharpie to mark your tool, learn which number you are aiming for. My reefs run at 1.026sg (specific gravity). You might run yours a little lower since you are new to the hobby, and might not realize your salinity is getting too high too quickly. So 1.023 would be a good range, especially if your hydrometer is off Some think their tank is 1.026 only to later find out it is 1.030 once they get a refractometer.

I've never painted a tank, so I can't say from personal experience, but I think you want Krylon Fusion paint. I think a background from the LFS is easier to apply, just taping it in place. If you go that route, be sure to run a full strip of tape along the top of the background attaching it the top trim. You want to create a barrier so no water or salt creep can drip between the background and the glass.

Make sure you top off daily, not every few days.

With the tank you have now, is the stand stable or shaky? With a larger heavier tank, shaky would translate into future disaster. I'd look at how it is built and analyze if the wood could handle the load.