New 50 Gal - Show and tell with questions..

[JeridJohnson]

Well, I got the SeaClear 50 gal moved in and set up.. I got this one from my buddy who could not maintain it anymore due to a new job that requires a lot of travel.. His loss my gain

Here is the setup which I may be changing over time..

Tank - SeaClear 50 gal System II
Fluval 304 canister filter
Submersable Heater
Live Rock (lbs ?) At least it was live when he bought it..
Live sand lbs ?
1 three dot domino damsel (you can see the white dots in the closeup)
2 blue with yellow tail damsels (hiding)
1 cleaner shrimp. (hiding)
Unknown lighting.. Has 2 florecent bulbs.. one is blueish and the other white..

I saw some worms in the tank system II filter... They look like little earth worms.. Maybe 1- 1.5" in length..

Here are some shots of the setup..

I do have a couple questions though.. Please refrence the shot of the tank where you can see the filter and hoses... Please excuse/correct me if I dont use the correct terminology...

First, I have the canister pickup line pulling from the chamber where the overflow drains to.. Is this OK?

Second, I have the canister return line routing over the top of the overflow gate and height adjustment. Routing it this way doesnt allow me to raize the gate higher and I think the water level in the filter is is too high.. I cant put it in the main opening of the the tank due to the light fixture.. Anyone got any ideas? (besides remove it)

Third, given the current setup do you have any other recommendations.

I would eventually like to work towards a reef but that could be a year out.. I would like to also get a protien skimmer soon..

Anyways.. Let me know what y'all think.. Advice is always very appreciated and I have learned a lot on this forum over the last week or so.. Thank you all.

Cheers,
Jerid

 

[flamingonhot]

Very nice set-up...

my only suggestio would be to add some more colorful lr to the tank. Right now it's just white sand and white rock... or maybe afew pieces of lava rock just to add a bit of pizazz.

 

[DragonForce]

I would ditch that filter you have right now and look into a coral life super skimmer 65 or larger.

Also, if you can afford 40 lbs or so of LR I would look into adding that as well.

You could sit on that for a little bit until you get the reef itch, then get some halides and get ready to become obsessed.

 

[melosu58]

Looks good. I would add a little more LR. The color will get better as the corriline algea takes off.

 

[JeridJohnson]

My buddy told me that this was live rock when he purchased it.. I get the impression that you guys dont feel it is.. I also have my doubts... Is there any way it was LR at one time and then became dead? Is there anyway to tell?

How do you promote the growth of corriline algea should there be any chance of growing it off this rock?

Merry Xmas,
Jerid

 

[StripesTheEel]

Coraline will not grow unless it has somewhere to start from.. buy a few pieces with some growth already on it and give it some time..

 

[flamingonhot]

It could of been..I have some with almost no color on it.

If it is it's most likely base rock. Essentially all rock thats been in a tank for a while is live rock..just the rock that is well...commonly called lr is stuff that comes with bacteria, little critters, algae, etc. has it when it ARRIVES.

Ano sometimes there is no way to tell if it's dead..it seems like it may have been at one time though.. but usually any rock that was purchased live and is stilll has SOME stuff one it like algae or little critters that come out once in a while.