30 Gallon Reef Tank- Beginnings

[Mr. Crabs]

My daughter (3) and I recently set up a 30 gallon reef tank. We wanted a smaller tank that would fit nicely in our living room; not breaking the bank on initial set up.

So we bought the following:

1 30 gallon glass aquarium $60
1 150 Watt Submersible Heater $16
1 Berlin Airlift 60 Protein Skimmer (on sale $11 )
1 Air Pump for the skimmer ( had it )
1 Power Sweep Power Head ( had it )
10lbs of dry sand--we only used 7lbs $7
50lbs Fiji Live Rock $60
1 Rena HOB Filter ( had it )
1 box of reef carbon $8
1 bag to hold the carbon--filter sock $1.49
36" of aquarium backing $6
1 Twin T5 10000k fixture $70


We set everything up and stared at the tank for a week--monitoring the temp (79 degrees) & SG 1.026.

We held off on adding the skimmer because, well, there wasn't anything to skim. We used tap water, prime, and Instant Ocean Sea Salt. We may switch to RO if I find a problem with the municipal water. I have used the area water in the past for a larger reef, without much trouble. We will be topping off the tank (Evaporation) with distilled water from Wally World.


After a week, we added the sand and let the tank sit with pumps off overnight. The next day we added the live rock. We had the live rock setting in a bin for 2 weeks. I changed the water (5 gallons of 10) every three days. It was aerated and heated. After adding the sand and live rock, we started up the protein skimmer.

We let the tank sit for 3 weeks and monitored the levels; ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I only had a mini cycle, even when adding a cocktail shrimp. First we added 3 green chromis. We waited two weeks and added the flame angel. We waited another 2 weeks and added 1 gold barred maroon clown.

We also added a coral banded shrimp and five blue leg hermit crabs last night. The tank is doing well and we will be only adding very low light level corals, probably just a few. The idea behind our tank was a simple reef on a budget. Surprisingly, the Berlin Airlift skimmer is running very well. I read a lot of negative feedback on it, but found once set up properly and left alone, it does its job.

We are going to wait another couple weeks before trying a couple more inverts: thinking featherdusters and mushrooms. Thanks for looking.

 

[carey]

Very nice tank! Well done!

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Thanks Carey!!

I went to the fish store today, but resisted, still wanting to give our tank more time to establish. Our list of corals to keep is short. Green Star Polyps, Mushrooms, maybe a Toad Stool Leather down the road and some feather dusters. We also want macro algaes. We already have a nice matt of it that came in on the live rock--seems to be doing well with some new growth. There is a lot of sponges that have hung on and look healthy. Lots of tube worms too, gotta love those.

I did spot these on the rock and I am not sure what kind of anemones they are:

Mojanos or glass anemones maybe? They are kinda cool and seem happy. Any ideas?

 

[carey]

I can't quite tell from the picture, lol, I;m really bad at that. i can see the clear tentacles though just not the rest of it...

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Let me post another couple pics. My apologies, my camera is not that great nor are my photography skills, or lack there of.

Any ideas???

 

[Gti_Leo]

Xtalreef

looks like spionid worms to me but lets let the experts confirm what it is

majano anemones are green

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Well, I have been taking a look at it all day and I think it might be tooth coral??

See that hard round white disc below the tentacles that has jagged edges?> when the tentacles retract they have that kind of base so I am moving away from an Anemone.

Still not sure though. Interesting.

and thanks for the link Leo =-) Saved that bad boy to favorites

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Some updates:

So we decided to hang the lights that we had. For $2.29 from Home Depot, I think it was a worthwhile investment.

All the fish are doing well: Flame Angel, 3 Green Chromis, and the Gold Barred Maroon Clown. The Coral Banded shrimp is funny. He comes out as soon as the food hits the water =-)

We added a small frag of Green Star Polyps for $10 and a small frag of Zoanthids for $10.

The Zoanthids opened the first day. The GSP, on the third day. Love them!!

Again, if anyone can ID this, I would really appreciate it:

I have searched and searched and searched. The closest thing I can find to it are sun polyps. It acts the same but the sweepers are clear. Very cool at night. They get full. At first, I was sure it was a reef pest, but I am embracing their beauty--even still, a mystery. They must be LPS of some sort.

Our next buy will be a leather. I really like the Yellow Leather Corals. We are also going to get Blue Mushrooms. I am committed to only buying home grown frags CHEAP. I hope the tank is inspiration to some that have been thinking about starting a reef tank, but were intimidated by the investment. If you look through this thread, you will see that we spent VERY LITTLE and I believe this will be an AWESOME reef in 9-12 months.

Thanks for looking!

 

[carey]

Looks good! It's so clean looking! Is that a painted background or a vinyl one cause it looks so nice!

I'd warn you to place the green stars away from other rocks and stuff, it spreads FAST lol. My frag has overgrown itself and attached to a huge rock. So I'm guess I will have a huge GSP rock in a few months.

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Thanks again Carey!!

It is standard blue background from Petco--black on one side, blue on the other. I love GSP, it has always been one of my favorites.

One of our goals here is to place live rock rubble at the base of the reef in 6 months and allow the corals to move to it. Then trade frags with some area reefers. It is such a great way to get more diversity without spending the aggregeous amounts of money on the crazy prices of corals at the LFS. $60+ for Xenia, Leathers, Mushrooms, or Rics is just plain Nutty. These corals are like plants and I have a real hard time with the fact that they are harvested from the worlds oceans and sold at prices people can't afford, especially in this economy. Sorry for going off on a tangeant, but reefing should be shared amongst anyone who wants to dedicate the time, not so much lots of cash that could be used to pay the bills.

 

[carey]

I agree on your points. In a perfect world we could all get together and share, it would save the oceans some grief and be cheaper in the end.

I have made a conscious decision to not spend any obscene amounts of money on corals or fish. So far my max has been $40 on either a fish or a BIG coral. i did however break that rule once and bought an open brain coral for $69!!! Which promptly bleached and died within 2 months. lol

It's sad that the world is so money dominated these days, 20 years ago it didn't seem as bad...hehe don't get me started on this topic...

 

[ShadoeFox]

Makes me feel better seeing this. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who suffered sticker shock. Heck, I'm light shopping while my salt tank cycles, and the price of those is giving me sticker tazerings

 

[carey]

Lights are the big ticket item. Kills me every time LOL. I just had to find a 6ft t5 fixture, thankfully I got one used. have you checked craiglist in your area? I've gotten some excellent and not so excellent stuff from there...

 

[ShadoeFox]

I'm doing a smaller tank, so everything I'm finding in the st. louis is to big... And not a lot even then. Toying with buying a rig from petco since I am hesitant to get into the difficult corals until I have some salty experience under my belt

 

[carey]

Have you looked at fishneedit.com? Lots of cheap lights...theres also always the odyssea brand from aquatraders.com.

 

[ShadoeFox]

haven't heard of it yet. I'll have to wander over there. Thanks!

 

[Mr. Crabs]

As Carey mentioned, craigslist is a great place to find used fixtures--lots of people who come and go from the hobby with great deals to be had.

Me personally, I like T5's. They stay cool, are inexpensive to buy/run, the bulbs have some longevity, and they give off a nice hue. I only have an Actinic 03 and a 10K T5 on this small reef. I am buying corals that do not require more--believe it or not, there are lots to choose from.

I notice trends in reefing, where some salivate over a new, hot coral that you have to have--requiring high light levels. One of the coolest reefs I have ever seens was an "All Mushroom" 125 gallon tank. Heavy on the actinic lighting, but lit with NO flourescents and the color was UNREAL. Do it, my friend. I figure, I can create art with just as much time/care as others have money/tech.

 

[carey]

I'm also a huge T5 fan. Relatively cheap bulbs and universal.

LOL, @trends I just buy what I like. I'm a bit of an unusual person so I let my freak flag fly when I pick out my fish and corals. As long as its a good fit for me I don't care if it's popular or not.

 

[ShadoeFox]

Yeah, I had a guy at a LFS (to be fair, the man has been EXTREMLY helpful, and does know his stuff, or at least seems to and I've learned enough to feel confident of catching the con artists) try to pitch me a very nice coralife rig with four bulbs and moon lighs and such for 250.00 and I can understand why he'd pitch it... but that's a bit steep for my blood right now. I am sure EVENTUALLY I'd want it, but I ain't ready for the harder to keep corals or anemonies. I belive in testing the water before jumping in head first... no pun intended.

 

[xsmoker_3]

go on ebay and get a 4 bulb t5 just make sure it has individual reflectors if it dosn't dont buy one.