Still new to reef aquarium set-up

R

Rye323

New member
Hi
I live in Stow Ohio. I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank and have just recently aquired a 60 gallon hexagon tank for my girlfriend. She had a 29 gallon salt water before and the corals we had in it were doing well. However since we switched to the 60 gallon, we have had problems, and have lost some coral.
I am doing my best to learn more on the care and upkeep of reef tanks and could use suggestions. E.G. what is the most important feature in a reef tank for keeping coral happy and aside from phosphate lvls, calcium, nitrates...what else should i be checking

On the tank I have a protein skimmer that worked great in her 29G but i question its viability on the 60g. I do not have an overflow. I live in an apartment complex on the third floor so I am trying to keep the setup a little less complex till we graduate college and find a place.

Also, I would love to hear of some places to buy nice corals and more live rock. There are only a couple of places I know of right now.
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Welcome to the board!

You've come to the right place. You may have to answer some questions first; such as, what lighting do you have? This may dictate to some degree your success with different type of corals.
Also, what corals do you have now? What type have died? What is your water source (for example, tap water vs ro vs ro/di)? Are you using test kits to monitor the alk/ca/mag/no3/phospates etc.? Sounds like you don't have a sump on this tank. That's okay. But not ideal. A sump is an ideal place to grow macro algae, and then harvest that algae for nutirient export. It also sounds like you should upgrade the skimmer. What are you using now?

I know...lots of questions, but the more precise you are with information, the better advice you will receive from this forum. Sorry you're having difficulty, btw. Oh yeah, some more questions come to mind. What substrate (sand) are you using? How much? What fish are in this tank? Did you move over old substrate to the new tank? Are the fish doing well. When did you make the switch?

There are lots of great people here with tons of experience. You will get what you need. :)

As far as purchasing live rock and corals there are a few good possibilities. The two that come to mind immediately are Aquatic Technologies in North Roylaton and The Salty Critter in Vermilion. I've spent a bunch of money at both places (bought live rock from both places, too). I have been very pleased with my experiences and my purchases, although FWIW, most of my cash has gone to The Salty Critter. These two stores are worth knowing. They are very different.

Best of luck!
 
well said fambrough it would have taken me forever to type that. +1 on what he said give us more info and your questions will be answered.
 
Hi Fellow Stowite,

Let me know what specifics you need help with, I'm about as close as you can get for help. PM me as needed..........

Dave
 
I unfortunately lost some fish in the transfer process (an arc eye hawk fish and a fiji angel). More recently we had a yellow tang die. I think it ate something that tore up his intestines because he showed signs of internal bleeding towards the back of his dordal and ventral fins).
The fish that are still in the tank however are doing great. There is a pair of mated percula clowns, a saddle back puffer (has never bothered the coral), and a green file fish which is eating brine shrimp.
I don't remember the make of thi light but can look further for the name later. It has a 96watt daytime light + a 96 watt actintic light.
I did transfer the old substrate, which is live sand, and there is 30lbs of it in the tank. I am sure some nitrates/ites were brought out into the water then ,but I have tried to do water changes reularly to lower their lvls in the water. I've tested for them and the nitrates are still slightly high but the phopshate lvls are 0. I use a red sea test kit.
I am using tap water, which I know is unfortunate, but this didn't give me any problems with the coral till I switched everything to the 60G. The skimmer I bought from a store is the same as this linked one :
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~protein_skimmers_viaaqua_multi-skimmer.html

I also have a fairly healthy supply of live rock but would like to build it up more.
The mushroom polyps I have seem to be doing fine again but my leather toad stool, eagle eye polyps, some ricordea, and some other zooanthids aren't all opening.
I did the tanks switch almost a month ago now. The closed polyps seem to be "hanging in there" but they look a little worse each day.
I can post some pics shortly.
 
Welcome to the board. The guys and gals on here will give you more than enough advice to make sure everything correct with your setup, so I won't dwell on that too much. But as far as rocks are concerened, the best place to buy at the moment, is Captain's Larry's in Akron. His rocks are the cheapest in the area the last time I checked. Hope that help you out a little.
 
I was going to put some pitures up but have currently given up due to the 50k size limit of each piture. I'll have to reduce their quality ad post them later or I can email them.
I meant to mention that I also have a long tentacle anemone. It also was doing well before the move but has since shrank and refused to return to its normal size.

Also I want to thank those who have welcomed me, and thank you all in advance for the help and advice you can offer to me.
 
Hi, welcome. light and water motion are very important to corals. If I can help LMK get together check out what you have and we can go from there, alot of great help and advise in this area. some nice shops to if you like to travel a bit,
Paul
 
[welcome]
the redness on the tang sounds like a bac.infection!
you can download photos on photobucket.com pretty easily.
 
did you use your old sand when you switched everything around ?? old sand can slow a tank down a few gears for a bit till the water gets back to normal , theres badddd stuff in old sand when people re use it ,,,

try to find a smaller Euro Reef or AMS G-1 skimmer for the tank , both easy and do a great job ,,,
 
Using tap water will be an issue in the short and long term. Until you can set up a ro system (at the least) for water changes, try Discout Drug Mart or Acme, some of them have ro water dispensers (25 cents/gallon) in front of the store. I know for sure the DDM on 91 in Hudson has one.
HTH's.
John
 
I just did a large water change today. I bought 20 gallons of distilled water and put in 18 gallons. There is a RO water dispenser at the drug mart nearest me, but I didn't have any containers. Now I have 20, haha.
I did put my old sand in the new tank. After reading what some of you said I wish I hadn't. Some very few of the polyps would come out daily and perhaps a few more would join them every once and a while. I do hope this water swap will encourage some additional recovery.
Also, I did use my old water too, or the 29 gallons that were in the old aquarium. I thought this was a good thing to do since everything was doing fine it, and I wanted to minimize the time it would tank to get the new set-up cycling properly.
 
Old sand is fine but you have to rinse it well IME... Like until the water is clear when you swish it in a bucket w/ some tank water. Worked for me every time!
 
The corals are looking a little better today after the large water change. Many of them are still closed up, but the ones that are out look promising.
 
Welcome aboard, when I changed my tanks around I went through a mini- cycle. It took about two weeks to get it leveled out. Lots of little water changes. I'm in Ravenna if you need a hand. I get all my water from the Clear water dist. on 14 .25 a gallon for ro. It is a bit of a hump but it keeps me in shape.lol
 
I plan to do another water change today. I'm trying to dilute out my tap water error. I found that the discount drug marts sell the RO water thanks to another contributor. I bought a lot of distilled water earlier this week, so now I have containers to get it in.

The coral seems to be making some very slow progress, and I'm happy to see it.
Once I'm sure the tank is definately reocvering, I plan to go visit some of these stores you all have told me about (The Salty Critter and Aquatic Technologies). I just wish they weren't such a journey. They're each about an hour away from where I live in Stow and in opposite directions.
I was going to check out Captain Larrys yesterday, but google has 3 listings for them and only one is accurate. If anybody else goes to check them out make sure you call and ask about hours because they are only open from 4-8pm on weekdays and 12-4pm on Sunday. I'll give my opinion on them later this week.
Lately I have done most of my shopping at Pet Junction in Stow. They use to have an extremely limited salt water selection, but have vastly improved on it in the past year.
 
you can make the aqua tech and salty trip easy in a few hours from your place ,, AT and salty both in Lorain county and about 20 mins apart from each other
 
I've done all the water changes I dare do for now. i will continue my 10% water changes each week and hope I can keep up with my currently high nitarates.
I aquired several nice corals thanks to itZme.
I just bought a couple of Koralias that hopefully be here in a few days.
I think I need better lighting, thou I meet the 3 watts per gallon minimum.
I hope to see some recovery of my reef in the next week or so....really hope!
 
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