New 90g reef ready tank

[mrwizard]

Clowns are must have lol, other than that here are my thoughts. Copperbands eat aiptasia and from what I have heard they are finicky- eating prepared foods fine then just decide to not eat them anymore. Kole tangs are awesome but like other tangs are sensitive and ich prone, I opted to get a fox face instead but that's just me and fox face are algae grazers also.

Yeah definitely have to have the clowns I think my son will enjoy watching them.
I think the copperband is out then, I'm a fussy eater and I do my own head in I can't be having a fish that's worse than me haha.
And the sensitivity of tangs is what puts me off them, saying that, I have one being saved for me at my Lfs, it's in quarantine at the moment so I'm hoping I can take it straight from his quarantine tank in a few weeks, it's one less tank it'll have to go in that way.
I like the foxfaces only thing put me off them was the venomous spikes, I just thought of worst case scenario and it jumping out the tank and then my little one getting hold of it.
Gonna do some more searching tonight so hopefully I'll have a few more to add to the list.

 

[mrwizard]

So an update on the stock I want in this tank,

Certain
2xclowns
1xkole tang
Yellow watchman
Bicolour blenny
cleaner shrimp

Maybe's
Copperband butterfly (will swap with kole tang if I decide to go with the copperband) or could I have both?
Pistol shrimp. Will this pair up with the yellow watchman? And will it be ok with my cleaner shrimps?

Open to ideas for fish so if you have one, let me know

 

[mrwizard]

Think I'm cycled ammo and nitrite are both at 0 today, nitrate is thru the roof tho so need to bring this down. Does it matter if the water I change isn't temp matched? I have no livestock except the two hitchhiker crabs but I'm not that fussed on them anyway tbh. The reason I ask is because I was gonna do about 5 5gallon water chances to try get the nitrate to a readable level, is that a bad idea?

 

[Hondatek]

I would think you need to do a lot more than 25 gallons to get the trates down. As far as the temp matching it might mess with your salinity a little I would get it as close as possible . Congrats on the finished cycle!!!!

 

[mrwizard]

I would think you need to do a lot more than 25 gallons to get the trates down. As far as the temp matching it might mess with your salinity a little I would get it as close as possible . Congrats on the finished cycle!!!!

Yeah I thought that too, was gonna do the 25gal then see if the nitrates are readable, I think I have to wait til the weekend now, I need to get more 5gal barrels from my lfs, plus I need a new refractometer as I just broke mine so can't check salinity
And thank you, I'm not gonna get any fish til next week tho, gonna keep dosing ammo just to make sure I'm fully cycled.

 

[kdpuffer]

A worthwhile investment is to skip more 5g pails and go to Walmart or somewhere similar and get either a brute garbage bin or a rubbermaid bin. I personally have a few Rubbermaid I use, 1 for rodi water, 1 for mixing and 1 for draining. The mix and drain bins are identical so I can remove the same amount of water as I have mixed and the rodi bin is larger. The Rubbermaids work well for me but they only hold a max of about 18g each. A garbage bin holds more (in the range of 50g) which may be more ideal for you especially with having to mix up a big water change.

 

[mrwizard]

A worthwhile investment is to skip more 5g pails and go to Walmart or somewhere similar and get either a brute garbage bin or a rubbermaid bin. I personally have a few Rubbermaid I use, 1 for rodi water, 1 for mixing and 1 for draining. The mix and drain bins are identical so I can remove the same amount of water as I have mixed and the rodi bin is larger. The Rubbermaids work well for me but they only hold a max of about 18g each. A garbage bin holds more (in the range of 50g) which may be more ideal for you especially with having to mix up a big water change.

That's a good shout, I already have a 200litre water butt for my ro water but at £50 it's a bit too much to buy more. We haven't got a Walmart over here but we have somewhere similar so I'm gonna go check them out later. Thanks, again. Lol

Also if I was to do a big water change later and match temp and salinity to Get the nitrate down, would putting some hermits, snails and maybe a cleaner shrimp keep my bb alive til next week when I get fish? Or do u think it'll be better if I wait til next week and get them all Together?

 

[kdpuffer]

A cleanup crew would be a good idea, never hurts to have one. What are you getting for fish?

 

[mrwizard]

A cleanup crew would be a good idea, never hurts to have one. What are you getting for fish?

Yeah I like the clean up crews, i find them interesting to watch. I was just gonna start off with a pair of clowns, gonna stock slowly, I've waited along time for this tank to be ready so no point rushing it all now.

So do you think the clean up crew will keep enough of the bb alive til next week?

 

[kdpuffer]

If it were me I would add the CUC and dose ammonia or feed the tank somehow just to be sure.

 

[Grizz]

If it were me I would add the CUC and dose ammonia or feed the tank somehow just to be sure.

+1 just drop a pinch of flake food in the tank every other day you'll be good to go Dont dose ammonia if you add/have a CUC

 

[mrwizard]

Hi all, I was gonna go get some clown fish today and maybe a small clean up crew, my parameters are all in check,
Ammo 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 8.2
My problem is with sg, it's currently at 1.021 will I be able to get the fish then slowly raise it back to 1.025?

 

[Supra]

I would raise salinity first

 

[mrwizard]

I would raise salinity first

Yeah thought that would be the answer lol, I raised it to 1.024, on the way to get fish now

 

[kdpuffer]

That should be good to add livestock, you can gradually increase it further when doing water changes.

 

[mrwizard]

That should be good to add livestock, you can gradually increase it further when doing water changes.

That's reassuring, I've just added two clowns I floated them in the bag for 15mins then drip acclimated them for an hour, hope they'll be ok. I'll add pics shortly

 

[mrwizard]

Can't upload photos for some reason, says I've exceeded my allowance, I'll have to get on the laptop later to delete some. Here's a vid for now

 

[honeysuckle11]

Great looking tank. Love the kids laughing to its really cute. I put 2 black and white clown fish in my tank for my brothers kids for when they come over too. lol

 

[mrwizard]

Great looking tank. Love the kids laughing to its really cute. I put 2 black and white clown fish in my tank for my brothers kids for when they come over too. lol

Thank you yeah the main reason I done a reef was for my boy, he loves watching the tank and plus it helps put him to sleep hahaha.
I was gonna get a black and white clown but they didn't have any at Lfs yesterday so opted for those two instead.

 

[honeysuckle11]

Yea I want to do a 125 gallon tank but ionly have a 30 right now and a 55 gallon fresh water. I'm actually getting ready to build a 20 gallon sump for my tank now. Did u buy urs build already or did u build it?