Noob Questions :D

[Bonez]

Hey guys, first post here. I'll give you guys a good rundown as to what I have so far in my 24 gallon nano fish/reef.

Millenium 3000 HOB filter
CPR Bak Pak 2 Protein skimmer
Maxijet 900 powerhead
Aquaclear 30 powerhead
10k 72watt lighting


I do PWC's every week on saturdays...
my tank has been up for about a month and a half - and all my tests are 0 or extremely close...ph is about 8.4

Currently I have about 40.5 pounds of LR, ~15lbs of live sand

1x Striated Frogfish
3x Yellowtail Damsels
2x Large snail
3x hermit crab
1x medium sized star polyp

Now, I'm extremely new to the hobby, and have read a lot, but nothing beats talking to people on forums as far as getting great information and recommendations go. So, here I am.

I want to build this tank for Reef>fish - mostly reef, I'm hoping my frogfish will eat the damsels but I'm thinking they may be too fast for him and they're obviously too smart, they don't like his antenna (lol). Anyhow, I wanted to know what the easier, more manageable polyps/shrooms/anenome/soft coral there is out there.

The guy at the LFS told me the frogfish may not be the best idea for a reef, but I've read otherwise, would like some input on that situation. He hasn't bothered my star polyps yet...but I may be concerned placing more expensive more colorful pieces in my tank.

Is my equipment okay for the size tank I have and what I'd like to put into it? or should I be looking at a better means of filtration? and How much livestock would I be able to place into my tank with the equipment I'm running?


Thanks for glancing at my post, hope to hear back from anyone

Derrick

 

[macman7010]

Welcome to AA!!

First observation would be your Millenium HOB filter. I would do one of two things considering that piece of equipment if you intend to go reef. One would be pull it off the tank altogether and another would be use it only for chemical media (carbon, etc). Personally a better HOB filter for the use of chemical media would be an AquaClear sized for your aquarium.

The HOB filter will act as a debris trap that will become a bacterial breeding ground and work as a nitrate factory. While in FO systems this is alright, reef tanks (especially nanos) require pristine water as nitrate free as possible. The bacteria quickly turns nitrite into nitrate and causes for raised nitrate values. Using only your live rock and a skimmer will have the same effect but the slower bacterial filtration properties of live rock will cause for less nitrates in the long run.

The BakPak skimmer is a good choice for that tank though if it contains the biobale media I would recommend removing that. As for the frogfish I would say, if you are shooting for a reef aquarium he has to go. Not only will his waste throw your water off kilter he will likely go after shrimp and members of your clean up crew.

Since you have such a small tank you will be limited in what fish species you can keep and likely many that will work would end up being lunch for that frogfish.

As for corals go here are some species that would prove hardy:

LPS:

Frogspawn
Bubble
Torch

Soft:

Xenia
Green Star Polyps
Toadstool Leather

Mushrooms:

Just about anything with the exception of Ricordia

Remember to keep your alk and calc values in check. 350-450 calc and around 185 ppm for alk.

 

[Bonez]

Thanks for the welcome!

Okay, so take out the biological filtration from the Bak Pak and the HOB filter correct? Are the slide in debris/carbon filters for the millenium sufficient for chemical filtration? or would it be overkill if I threw in 2 small bags of carbon in place of the bio filtration?

 

[macman7010]

Bonez,

I would get a small bag of chemi-pure for your chemical filtration. IMO it is superior to plain carbon.

 

[Bonez]

Bonez,

I would get a small bag of chemi-pure for your chemical filtration. IMO it is superior to plain carbon.

That will replace the bio filter in my HOB or the debris/carbon slide in?

 

[macman7010]

debris carbon side, I would remove the biofilter

 

[Bonez]

debris carbon side, I would remove the biofilter

Just picked up a small bag, removed the biofilter on the HOB.

 

[Lance M.]

And for your lighting you mention "10k Jebo Lights." How many watts does it put out and do you only have 10k spectrum? AFAIK Jebo is very poor on quality.

And another 10lbs of lr would be good.

 

[artoledo]

Just like Lance said, JEBO is poor. You might want to look into coralife lights. Also depends on what kind of animals you want to put in there. BTW, Welcome to AA!!!

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

Chemi-Pure or Purigen are both superior to carbon because they last much longer and won't leach chemicals back into the water. Neither will work well if water can easily go around the media so make sure you pack it into your hob so the water goes through the media.

I agree 10 more lbs of lr would be beneficial.

www.fantasyreef.com has an excellent database on easy/more manageable corals.

Which species of Antennarius (frogfish) do you have? Some get to 10" and most should be housed in a 55+ gal tank.

You didn't mention it but assume you have a heater. How did you cycle the tank? What do you use to measure sg? What your parameters currently i.e. temp, sg, no3, po4, alk, ca in ppm? Your tank is still very new so I'd go very slowly and ask questions before acting as too much too soon will crash a tank very quickly. With the newness of the tank and the amount of stock currently you will have to keep a close eye on nh3/no2 for the next couple of weeks until your bacterial base catches up.

A lot of your bacteria base is housed in the media in your hob/skimmer which if removed all at once before adding more lr could cause a nh3 spike so I'd be hesitant to remove all of it and only remove about 1/4th if possible per week.

I'd add another ph to get the water circulating more pointing towards each other and towards the surface to ripple the water slightly for good oxygen exchange and convulsing currents.

Jebo lights can be hit/miss with most people but you either love or hate them. If the wattage is high enough (96+W) then you have enough to support the medium light corals. If it's not I would buy a Coralife or Current U.S.A model or build your own with a retro-kit.

Total amount of fish I would add to a 24 cube is about 6"-7" total adult length with no fish larger then 5" as an adult. I'd return the damsels and the frogfish personally. There are tons of other smaller fish that would work better in a reef. Checkout www.liveaquaria.com for more options.

I cover a ton of more detail in the Stock list and tips for maintaining your SW tank post if you haven't read that already.

 

[Bonez]

I have a striated frogfish, he's about 2 1/2" maybe less, he's pretty small.

I cycled my tank using a dead jumbo shrimp with live sand, then added live rock once my salinity was where I wanted it, after about a day or two. Added 10 more pounds of LR each week there after, totaling 30lbs of LR thus far. I will add 10 more lbs of LR as suggested.

My tank doesn't have a heater, I live in california, and 11 months out of the year it's pretty hot, when I leave my house I keep the Air conditioner on at about 78 degrees.

I use a coralife deep six SG dipper.

parameters: temp 78 deg. nh3: 0 , no3:0 , no2:0 , ph:8.4 - I don't have test kits for calcium, alk, or phosphate yet , i plan on getting them tomorrow once i get paid (these results are as of last night may 29, 2007 @ ~ 8:00pm)

Surprisingly the maxi-jet 900 pushes a lot of water around, creating a pretty good surface ripple, I have it aimed at the HOB filter which pours water into the tank - so it collides and makes a pretty realistic current. I'll get another powerhead, maybe a weaker one to put on the other side. I'll post pics of my setup, I was surprised, when I bought the protein skimmer I was really affraid it may not fit with the millenium HOB filter - but seriously , there is about 1/8" between the skimmer and hob filter

I'm not sure about the wattage on my jebo lights - I explicity told the guy at the LFS that I needed good lights because I was going to go mostly reef, and he assured me they were lights that were reef worthy. They're definitely brighter than the tank identical to mine in his shop.


Thanks for the welcomes and advice! pics to come soon!

PICS ** Edit **

 

[Lance M.]

Like tecwzrd suggested, I would suggest another powerhead for extra movement. I have a 20 gallon nano reef with a hob filter (holds just lr) @ 280 pgh, two aquaclear 20's on each side facing each other @ 125 gph each, and a rena xp1 cannister filter (only holds chemi-pure) @ 250 gph and the movement is good. And my tank is open top for good gas exchange.

You will want to go back to your lfs and ask them how many watts the fixture is that they sold you. You can't really rely on how bright they look to you.

Also I'd get a heater just to keep your water temperature stable.

 

[Bonez]

Like tecwzrd suggested, I would suggest another powerhead for extra movement. I have a 20 gallon nano reef with a hob filter (holds just lr) @ 280 pgh, two aquaclear 20's on each side facing each other @ 125 gph each, and a rena xp1 cannister filter (only holds chemi-pure) @ 250 gph and the movement is good. And my tank is open top for good gas exchange.

You will want to go back to your lfs and ask them how many watts the fixture is that they sold you. You can't really rely on how bright they look to you.

Also I'd get a heater just to keep your water temperature stable.

Can I put chemi-pure and LR both in my HOB? I have chemipure in it right now

 

[Lance M.]

Yes just put some rubble in the space left over, make sure it's underwater.

 

[tecwzrd]

Born and lived in La Jolla, CA for 21 years before moving to VA. I know just how stable the temps can be in CA but nights often drop down to 50-60 for at least 4 of those months and your tanks temp can swing 5+ degrees during the night with lights out. You're going to need a heater to keep temps from swinging more then 2 degrees in 24 hours and I wouldn't ever attempt any tank without one. 75-100W is fine and I like Titanium heaters which tend to be more reliable and not breakable like glass.

Your Frogfish is adorable but will reach 8"-9" which IMO is too large for a 24 gal tank, especially since you want a reef tank and maintaining water parameters is going to be difficult with such a large fish in the small tank down the road. Unfortunately you will have to return it eventually but at 2.5" now you still have around 4-6 months it you want to wait.

 

[macman7010]

I dont know that I would bother adding a heater in that size tank. During warm summer months I ran my tank without a heater for a long time since it stayed around 75 degrees with A/C on. You could add one for temp stability though if you dont notice major fluctuations then it might just be a waste of space, which in a tank that size is at a premium already. I did finally put a heater in my tank after one night I left the A/C on and the outside temp dropped to 50 and my fish room's temp was a dismal 61 and the digital thermometer was beeping. My tank is large though and fitting a heater in there was easy.

Perhaps add a smaller then average heater that is easy to retrofit into a tight space, that way you aren't wasting too much on something that is just a stability keeper. As for the frogfish I am with tec on that one. He has to go. They are not really reefsafe and he is just too big for that aquarium. You could hang onto him for the 4-6 month period tec described but I would get rid of him now. There are some sweet smaller fish you can use to stock your tank with. If you are looking for something rare and out of the ordinary check out the diver's den on live aquaria. They get tons of rare firefish and pygmy angels, both species would do well in your tank! Though I will warn you the diver's den is not cheap.

 

[Lance M.]

I have a 20 gallon with 100 watt heater and you can't see the heater unless you are behind the tank since I have ~45 lbs of lr rock built up still with plently of swimming space. The only downside is less water in there... but I keep the water params in check.

 

[Bonez]

Thanks for the great advice guys...I just added 10.5 lbs more live rock, I think that brings me up to 40.5lbs total... I also bought an aquaclear 30 Powerhead aimed at the maxijet 900 from the other side of the tank. Just did a weekly cleaning and PWC + added some Kents stuff for the polyp. I really appreciate your help - Oh btw, my lights are not jebo, and they're 72 watts. I hope that's enough to support soft coral and polyps :x

 

[Lance M.]

That light will be good for low light corals- polyps and mushrooms, I wouldnt get any ricordea. They would do ok but they really like more light. You have 3 wpg. I have a 130 watt fixture over my 20 so about 6.5 wpg and my leathers/polyps/ricordea/bta and other softies do well. O I have a blasto frag and ruffle ridge coral that also do well.

 

[Bonez]

That light will be good for low light corals- polyps and mushrooms, I wouldnt get any ricordea. They would do ok but they really like more light. You have 3 wpg. I have a 130 watt fixture over my 20 so about 6.5 wpg and my leathers/polyps/ricordea/bta and other softies do well. O I have a blasto frag and ruffle ridge coral that also do well.

So, just start with shrooms and polyps for now until I can afford more lighting... gotcha! thanks!