My First SW Tank (Pictures!)

[Animal-Chin]

Nice!

Hey, one peice of advice. that liverock with polyps you have has some hair algea on it. Take that rock out, put it in a bowl of tank water and scrub it off! If it gets going in your tank you're really gonna hate it.

 

[DRock]

I'll be taking that rock out to scrub asap now that I have the new lights in place, thanks for the advice!

 

[DRock]

Quick update;

Picked off as much of the hair algae as I could, seems to be gone for the most part. Also, did my first water change as well, about 4 gallons, and the nitrates are way down. I got my new LED's hung up yesterday and absolutely love them, thanks to everyone for recommending them. Now I just need to organize those pesky wires!!

Question for you guys, would I be ok to go ahead and add a few small softie frags, maybe an acan, and a small CUC?

One pic with whites and blues, one with just blues.

Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[Animal-Chin]

As long as the amonia and nitrites are gone id start adding stuff. The lights look great, they should keep anything alive. If your starting with acans youll want turn those way down, maybe 40% power so you dont shock em. Those leds pack a punch...

 

[DRock]

Update!

So today I took a trip to the LFS and ended up buying more life for my tank.

I added

- 1x Emerald Crab
- 3x Snails (Margarita and Astria?)
- 2x frags (1 candy cane & 1 zoa colony)

Zoas are opened up now and the candy cane head seems fine. This emerald crab is doing work on the small amount of green hair algae I missed, and the snails are busy as could be!

I also currently have 2 damsels in the tank, a black and white and a blue(hiding in the cave in my front shot).

Probably going to trade those in at the LFS and add a clown pair to the tank in a few weeks though.

One question, in the picture of my live rock i shared, there are these small gray, almost moss like things. Are these harmful/beneficial? Didn't notice them until I put some macro tubes on my DSLR.

Thanks!

 

[Stinky Pete]

I can't see the gray things.
Those damsels are gonna be tough to catch. If your gonna do it try before you add anymore rock. Oh and try not to pull your hair out

 

[DRock]

All the gray stuff was easily brushed off of the rock and siphoned/netted out with a water change. I also have since added a small Aquatic Life protein skimmer, and it is already pulling plenty out after only about 2 days. It is currently in the DT but I am almost ready to baffle my sump and get it running.
I built and tested a PVC overflow and it works awesome, even with a tested power outage. Now to install those baffles and clean up my DT!! Pics to come on Monday I hope, thanks for all the help and advice guys!

 

[DRock]

1 month Tank Update

So my tank has been running for just over a month now, my levels are stable, I managed to catch the damsels and not pull my hair out lol... As of today I have added a few things so my current stock list is as follows;

Emerald crab x 1
Peppermint shrimp x 1 (Just molted and happy as can be)
Snails x 3
Hermit crabs x 4 (Tiny!)
Ocellaris Clownfish x 2 (bought today)

Corals; see video

Xenia
Colt
Zoa's (did my first fragging, picture attached, has fishing line holding it onto the rock)
Candy cane
Green star polyp

GRRR at my DSLR for constantly purpling out my pics from the tank if the blue LEDs are on... I'll turn em off next time lol

Done stocking for now when it comes to fish. I will more than likely add a branching hammer or an acan in the next two weeks.

Thanks for all the great advice you guys share on this thread and the countless others!

D