Here is the plan.

[tampa_nick]

My little brother decided to upgrade his 29g to a 55g. The 29G was a salt so I decided to use it as a salt also. This will be my first saltwater tank. I am going to try my hand at natural filtration so here is the plan.

Lighting: Deep Blue Solarmax T5, its a twin bulb actinic and 10k-48W bulbs.

Figure I will start with:
4-5 inch sand base
40lbs of live rock

Goal is to have:
3 small fish (1 clown the rest undecided)
hermit crabs
cleaner shrimp
cucumber (till its too big and then gets transferred to my brothers 55)
couple soft corals
sponges

I am hoping this combination will help in maintaining each other in conjunction with the live rock and sand. Let me know if theres anything that i should add or remove. This has been decided off a day of research and reading so more advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Saltwater reef]

Can't add starfish to a soft coral tank, usually eats the soft corals with the hermit crabs add in blue leg dwarf hermit crabs very in expensive and are very useful!

 

[tampa_nick]

Ok minus one starfish thanks. Just got a Sicce Voyager 3 Powerhead, now I have to get a stand. I do not trust the dresser I have and the tank does not fit in the entertainment stand i have the opening is too small by a couple mm. Bum luck

 

[tampa_nick]

Stand is together and I have 40lbs of sand in the tank. I used instant ocean reef crystals it is at 1.025. Just gotta wait till next weekend to go pick out some live rock, base rock and get some more sand. Tried posting a pic but it did not work. Its on my profile though.

Is there a post limit I need to hit before i can link pics?

 

[carey]

Dont have the answer for the picture posting sorry but just so you know there are some reef safe starfish. Having said that, if you want a starfish i would go with a serpent star. reef safe and easy to keep as well as being a hardy little critter. I have one in 2 of my tanks and they are very cool. watching them curl up their legs with food attached is an awesome sight!

Good luck with your new project!

 

[tampa_nick]

serpent will be ok in a 29g?

 

[carey]

sure, why not? lol I wouldnt get one of those super big ones that are like a foot across but a regular serpent should be fine.

 

[danbstrong]

sure, why not? lol I wouldnt get one of those super big ones that are like a foot across but a regular serpent should be fine.

My serpent does well in my tank dont bother anything imo id add some tongan nass snails great for keeping sand stirred and great scavengers also no food will get left uneatin if it hits the sand i have 25 in my 55g

 

[tampa_nick]

Got some rock from a friend. It was dead so I scrubbed it and cleaned off some of the dead stuff in some distilled water.

Got it all set and nicely balenced so I can get some larger pieces of live rock from Tampa Bay saltwater, set them on top and create some caves underneath it. Will need some type of support in the back right hand corner. Any advice on the current set up? Remember this is my first salt tank. Rock on the left im gonna rotate to the left 90 degrees.

Also, water turned somewhat yellow and has an interesting odor to it. I pointed the PH up to create ripples to add some more O2. Should I put a bubbler back in? I have an extra air pump. Water change or just let it ride?

 

[tampa_nick]

oh and the tank smells weird. It is an indescribable smell.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Its a smelly smell....a smell that smells.... Smelly. Quote from a great movie.. Lol.

But really, whats it smell like? My tank smells like a tide pool!

 

[Rutrag]

Got some rock from a friend. It was dead so I scrubbed it and cleaned off some of the dead stuff in some distilled water.

Got it all set and nicely balenced so I can get some larger pieces of live rock from Tampa Bay saltwater, set them on top and create some caves underneath it. Will need some type of support in the back right hand corner. Any advice on the current set up? Remember this is my first salt tank. Rock on the left im gonna rotate to the left 90 degrees.

Also, water turned somewhat yellow and has an interesting odor to it. I pointed the PH up to create ripples to add some more O2. Should I put a bubbler back in? I have an extra air pump. Water change or just let it ride?

You generally don't want to use air pumps in saltwater. They tend to just create salt creep everywhere.

As for the smell, are you cycling with a dead shrimp, or do you think it's die off from the rock? I'd get some ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings.

 

[tampa_nick]

Ok no air pump. I am not using shrimp, its die off from the rock. ammonia was around .5 when i tested earlier have not tested nitrate or nitrites yet.

 

[tampa_nick]

Woke up this morning and yellow hue is gone and the smell has mostly gone away. Gonna test the water tonight when i get home.

 

[tampa_nick]

ammonia is at 1ppm. should i do a partial water change? I have 40lbs of ocean carib live sand bought from petsmart and 10lbs of rock that died and i cleaned off.

 

[tampa_nick]

I will just keep talking to myself here. LOL. Added a small piece of live rock to seed the rest and help with my cycle. I will keep that for awhile now and when levels drop off I am gonna get some rock from TBS. Will I have a huge cycle when I add more rock or will it do alright. I want to try and keep the good stuff that comes with it alive.

 

[obscurereef]

Haha, well I'll be following as it's interesting how you're not using a filter at all? Just using LR as your filtration? Cool method, really want to know how everything turns out! Probably shouldn't do a water change until your cycle is coming to an end. Did you add your sand yet? If you add it too late and your sand has gotten colonized with life they would most likely die from the added sand. Anyway, looks awesome

 

[Capncavey]

I used 26 lbs LR in my 28gallon nano and 2 bags dry substrate over 2 week period and was lucky to have very little cycle. I believe, from what i've read, the more LR you have quicker it will cycle. Correct me if I am wrong please.
Not sure about the whole live sand thing but I got a cupful from lfs to seed bed.
Even if no one responds it turns into your own public journal.

 

[tampa_nick]

Started with 40lbs of live sand, added some rock I got from my buddy it was live until it sat in a dry bucket for a couple weeks. Scrubbed it off and rinsed it well with ro/di water. Sat for 2 weeks and I just added a small amount of live rock to seed what I have and prepare so I can add the TBS rock and try to not lose the life on it.

 

[Paulm87]

Sounds good so far, don't be doing a water change til your cycle has finished cos it's just getting rid of the ammonia source if you did change the water. What are your readings?