Taking the plunge...

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Well, I haven't figured that out yet, lol. Working on getting the basics up today. Then once everything is settled have to get some live rock and build it up. I'm thinking easy corals and a few BRIGHTLY colored fish. I'm more interested in having a lot different corals than a bunch of fish. Right now anyway.

I'm open for suggestions as this will be my first SW tank. :D
 
Sounds like a sensible start. What lights do you have?

You'll want to keep your water nice and clean and your parameters stable for a really good reef. Go with an auto top off, a good protein skimmer, LED's, live rock and good flow.
 
I picked up today: Salt mix, hydrometer, marine water conditioner, Coralife Aqualight High Output T5 Dual Lamp Fixture (will end up needing another one of these I think), substrate sand.

Now I have to run up to the hardware store to get some lumber to finish the tank stand. It has been being used in an unfinished state for a year, time to clean it up.
 
Tank stand is done, I'll put the trim on later. Tank is setup now, carrying all of the RO water in the house was a pain. :) Heater on, filter ... filtering, light lighting. Of course it looks like milk right now because of the sand. Doing a bunch of reading, kind of nice to have something new to come up to speed on.
 
Okay the temp is hanging right at 77F. My hydrometer is not floating in the green range though. I've already mixed in more salt than the instructions say to but I'm not at the correct salinity yet.

Is it okay to keep adding salt mix?
 
zparticle said:
Okay the temp is hanging right at 77F. My hydrometer is not floating in the green range though. I've already mixed in more salt than the instructions say to but I'm not at the correct salinity yet.

Is it okay to keep adding salt mix?
Click to expand...

Yeah its fine to mix your water in the tank, just make sure the powerheads dissolve it well. Also, look into refractometers... Got mine for 30 bucks on ebay and it hasent failed me yet.
 
Okay I'm getting super frustrated. Dealing with too many things at the same time (not just this) and getting totally mixed messages from the various LFSs around here about SW.

One store told me I could use an HOB filter in a SW reef tank. So I figured cool, I have an extra Penguin laying around. I put in on the tank last night and I think it is now toast from the SW.

Another store tells me you can't do corals, even "easy" corals with an HOB. You have to have a refugium.

Another store basically tried to talk me out of it completely. "You should just go buy a tank that is already running on Craigs List."

Every question I asked seem to annoy these people more. I like being able to talk with people face to face when I'm learning things and this attitude and opposite info I'm getting is making wonder if taking this step is a big mistake.

1> Can I use HOB on SW reef or do I HAVE to have a refugium?
2> I picked up one small power head (marineland maxi-jet 400), for a 29g tank is that okay?
3> Should I just stick to FW, with which, I've had great success and have never had to deal this kind of behavior from LFSs?

HELP. :banghead::(
 
Don't be discouraged! What I have found is that everyone has an opinion as everyone does things differently. There seems to be no set rule when it comes to SW, that's why this forum is so good - you can hear people's opinions based on experience. As for filters, you don't NEED either. I run a 55g with no filter, just plenty of live rock, 2x power heads and a good quality large skimmer. I don't have a full blown reef but do keep some corals. I have a pufferfish, eats corals ;) if you go down this road you just have to keep up with the weekly water changes, which you have to do anyway...
 
Bectan01 said:
Don't be discouraged! What I have found is that everyone has an opinion as everyone does things differently. There seems to be no set rule when it comes to SW, that's why this forum is so good - you can hear people's opinions based on experience. As for filters, you don't NEED either. I run a 55g with no filter, just plenty of live rock, 2x power heads and a good quality large skimmer. I don't have a full blown reef but do keep some corals. I have a pufferfish, eats corals ;) if you go down this road you just have to keep up with the weekly water changes, which you have to do anyway...
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch. I was just in a very not happy place because of these people. I found another place near by that is SW only. After talking with the guy up there and asking tons of questions. I felt he answered them honestly and straight forwardly. Nice guy never left me or looked annoyed even though there were many customers. I calmed down a lot. :)

So, I ended up installing my power head, a number of small pieces of dry rock and a few large pieces of incompletely cured live rock (after cleaning it up a bit). I've decided to look around for refugiums (probably one that I can hang on the back) while the tank is cycling. Right now I'm fighting trying to get the salinity at just the right place. It wasn't far off so I didn't feel I was risking anything putting the rock in now.
 
So the cycling process I'm going to be using is basically the same fishless cycling I did with the FW stuff. Using ammonia doing the testing for the nitrites and trates. Any objections? I'm going to go read some more on SW cycling, but figured it was worth asking here as well.
 
Okay the tank has cleared up quite a bit since I put the LR in. I picked up some more today and put it in. Added ammonia last night but added too much so had to do some serious WCing. Salinity is right on target and so is the temp.
 
Well, it's a start, long road to go. I have a lot of work to do on the rock placement.

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Ammonia is still at around 4 ppm which isn't surprising given that I completely over did it on the dosing.

Nitrites are off the chart. (Good I didn't kill everything with the ammonia)

Nitrates are at roughly 10 ppm.

This cycle might go faster that I expected.
 
I have a 29 as well. Here is the link to my thread. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/here-is-the-plan-223910.html

29 gallon, natural filtration(40lbs of sand idk how many lbs of rock. Will be adding some more rock though when I move), voyager 3 powerhead from sicce, and a fluval heater. My parameters are always perfect. Plus it is fun to show people a tank with no filter hanging on it. I have 7 fuzzy mushrooms(they keep dividing started with 4), some zoas(not sure of the exact colorings name), orange ricordea, montypora capricornus(growing pretty quickly), alveopora, pulsing xenia(finally starting to grow), blastomussa wellsi(just grew 3rd head). All are happy I am asssuming, since they are growing. I do only have a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp in there as well as a mexican turbo, nassarius snail, some hermits and a TON of stomatella snails(gonna start giving them away). Oh and a sea urchin. Do not get frustrated just do what you want to do.

Make sure that rock is resting on the bottom and not on the sand. If you get something like a pistol shrimp or another digger it will pull all the sand out from under the rocks.
 
tampa_nick said:
I have a 29 as well. Here is the link to my thread. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/here-is-the-plan-223910.html

29 gallon, natural filtration(40lbs of sand idk how many lbs of rock. Will be adding some more rock though when I move), voyager 3 powerhead from sicce, and a fluval heater. My parameters are always perfect. Plus it is fun to show people a tank with no filter hanging on it. I have 7 fuzzy mushrooms(they keep dividing started with 4), some zoas(not sure of the exact colorings name), orange ricordea, montypora capricornus(growing pretty quickly), alveopora, pulsing xenia(finally starting to grow), blastomussa wellsi(just grew 3rd head). All are happy I am asssuming, since they are growing. I do only have a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp in there as well as a mexican turbo, nassarius snail, some hermits and a TON of stomatella snails(gonna start giving them away). Oh and a sea urchin. Do not get frustrated just do what you want to do.

Make sure that rock is resting on the bottom and not on the sand. If you get something like a pistol shrimp or another digger it will pull all the sand out from under the rocks.
Click to expand...

Just got done reading through your thread. Lots of interesting stuff in your tank. :) Good tip on the diggers, thanks.
 
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