New 30 Gal. Tank Build!

[MKFMedic]

Hi All.

Well it didn't take long for me to get addicted to the "Crack" that is reef building and salt water aquariums. This past "Black Friday," my LFS was running a great deal on a 30 gal, Innovative Marine Tank. This is quite a size upgrade from the current Nano 12 gal Nano tank I was running previously.

I started with a new base of 40lbs of sand, which has given me about three to four inches of sand bed. I transferred my live rock, about 18lbs and added another 18lbs or so of cured base rock. I added about 15 gal of "new" water from the LFS and used all of the water I could get out of the Nano Tank.

Equipment added for the new tank. I purchased two Kyrolia Nano 425's for water movement and the tank came with a 327 gpm pump with the rotating stream.

I tested the water this morning, with the following results:
pH 7.8 - 8.0
AM 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 - 5.0ppm

I used a liquid drop test from API for the above results. I also added a dose of FritzZyme when I transferred most of the original water. During the last two days, I have kept my Percula and Purple Fire Fish with the few pieces of coral of my original tank with some water I held behind with circulation and a heater. Today, I made the transfer of my coral, fish and the remaining water into the tank. I put my CUC in as soon as the water was up to temp and include a fire shrimp, two turbo snails, four hermits, two nassarius snails along with a few others. I also have two emeralds.

A few observations. The glass of the new tank is 8mm and I need a more powerful magnet scrubber. I'm hooked on the larger tank and am excited about the prospect of adding a third or forth fish much further down the road. I'm hoping that with the mix of my original live rock, cured base rock and the original water from the Nano, I won't experience any huge cycling issues, but its going to be a wait and see! After three days of testing, no huge spikes. I can already tell that my little fish seem to love the added space!

The filtration that came with the tank included two racks of three filtration sponges. I kept one of those in place and am using the purigen and chem-pure from my nano in the other. What is convenient about this is their media racks is that they allow for simple and easy use of any filtration medium I want. Any thoughts of "Sponge" filtration?

I'm guessing I'll need to increase the size of my CUC? Any suggestions for something different, or should I just double up on what I already have in the tank, with the exception of the Fire Shrimp?

In addition to the filtration areas, there is a designated spot for my heater, a protein skimmer if I ever wanted to add one (I know that thoughts are mixed), and a place for refugium with a light. Does anyone have thoughts if I should add a bunch of rock rubble to the refugium area? Do you think it will add significantly to the biological filtration of the tank?

I currently am using the lid of Nano tank with 48w CF's for lighting, but should be receiving my new power heads along with a 30W LED Innovative Marine fixture in the mail this week.

If anyone has any thoughts, they are always appreciated!

Best Regards,

Mike

[MKFMedic]

O.K.,

While at work for the next two days, my 30W LED (Innovative Marine 14K) arrived at home with two 425gpm Koralia powerheads. I'm excited that when I get home, I'll be able to install the new LED fixture and powerheads to increase water flow.

My lovely wife was kind of enough to test the water for me and parameter still look good. A couple of questions.

1. According to the Innovative-Marine website specs for the fixture, I should be able to keep LPS coral. Does anyone have any experience with these types of corals with LED lighting? Any recommendations?

2. I currently have two fish, a Percula and Purple Firefish in the tank. I increased the size of my CUC to include 5 or 6 Nassarius snails, several hermit crabs, two turbo snails, and several other smaller snails (Sorry forgot the name). I'd like to eventually look at adding two more fish to the tank and am wondering if any of you have absolute favorites that might work well, or conversely, recommend against?

I'm considering:

Cardinal Fish
Yellow Goby
Six Lined Wrasse
Dotty Back
Yellow Tailed Damsel
Chromi

Thanks for your thoughts, pictures to come soon!

Mike

[bighabeeb]

I would ditch the damsel - aggressive little sonsof....

[Gboy66]

And the dottyback. So is this 7 fiah total? Im not sure how many you have, but have a max of 6 nano fish

[MKFMedic]

Oh sorry, I wasn't clear. The list is for the fish I'd like to consider. I only want to add two to three at most for a total of 5 fish. So it sounds like the Yellow Tailed Damsel and Dottyback should be ditched?

Anyone have any suggestions not on the list that I should look at?

Thanks,

Mike

[carey]

Royal grammas are nice, I liked mine.

I like the yellow goby too, cool little fish. I have the yellow clown goby and the yellow watchman goby, another nice choice.

[jburgi]

Sounds awesome! I would love to see pics!

[bighabeeb]

Originally Posted by carey

Royal grammas are nice, I liked mine.

I like the yellow goby too, cool little fish. I have the yellow clown goby and the yellow watchman goby, another nice choice.

I second the royal gramma which is what i plan on getting instead of the originally planned dottyback: still brightly colored etc but without the nasty attitude.

[MKFMedic]

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions. Carey, I just finished reading your 20 gal rimless thread, from start to finish. Do you still have that one, or did you upgrade that to a larger tank?

Anyone have any experience with LPS corals under LED?

Thanks again,

Mike

[carey]

Yep, still have it. Gonna upgrade it to a 60g rimless in the next few months though I'm using a fish needit light fixture and so far my clam looks good as well as my lps.

[MKFMedic]

A couple of cell phone pics after transferring from 12 gal. Nano into new aquarium.

Carey, I'd love to keep a clam, I know there are some really beautiful options that don't require that don't require feeding and with my new LED fixture, I should be able to provide adequate PAR up to 16" of depth. Do you have any tips, tricks or advice on keeping a clam?

[carey]

I've only had mine for a month, so I don't know too much about them. I have mine halfway up the tank in a medium to light flow area. So far so good...

[MKFMedic]

Thanks Carey. Did you secure the clam in place? Or did you just place it in a secure spot. I'd be worried about one of my CUC's coming along and knocking it over.

Thanks again,

Mike

[carey]

He's nudged into a nice spot between some rocks, I made sure my hermits couldnt knock him down.

[MKFMedic]

So I finally returned home after three days at work and was excited to find my new LED fixture waiting for me to install. Wow! What a difference! I found a great deal on a Innovative Marine 30w 14k LED which matches the tank perfectly! The water has a brightness and shimmer it didn't have before. The two Koralia 425g per minute power heads also arrived and are installed.

My clown seems really happy, but unfortunately, I can't seem to locate my purple fire fish. I am going to be so bummed out if something happened to it. When we made the transition, it seemed to be swimming happily about, so I'm hoping it is just hiding somewhere in the back with the fire shrimp. I don't see any evidence of a body, so I don't know, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.....

My initial observations for the light are good! The fan it has installed on top of the unit is certainly not "Whisper Quiet," but it is not distracting either. It is quieter than the two fans on the 48w CF hood I had on my previous 12 gal nano tank.

The LED light and the two power heads along with the slip stream nozzle seem to be making all the difference! Since I was gone for three days, it's time for a water change and my just measure water chemistry is:

pH 7.8
Am 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 5 - 10ppm

I need to raise my pH, and work on reducing my Nitrates. There is absolutely no algae growth, the glass of the tank is clean, so I'm hoping with a few water changes, I can get those nitrates down. Any suggestions other than a 10% water change? Would any of the experts out there advise on a larger water change based on the above numbers?

Anyway, I'm super excited about the tank and its progress. I'll keep the updates coming.

Thanks again for all of the help!

Mike

[carey]

Glad your lights worked out! we just need some pictures now.

if you really wanna work on those nitrates, I'd do a 20% water change and a few days later do another one. Should get you back to 0 and then you can go from there. That should also help raise your ph as well.

[MKFMedic]

Hey Carey,

You are so great! Thanks for always taking the time to reply! I did a 4 gallon water change today, so probably around a 15% change since the actual water volume is probably around 22 - 25 gallons of water. I'll do another in a couple of days!

My purple fire fish apparently does have a new hiding spot because he has reappeared! Whew. I really like my fire fish!

I'm really looking forward to down the road and hopefully adding a bubble tip anemone and a small clam to the tank!

Thanks again for all your help. I'm going to post a couple of cell phone pics of the tank with the new LED lights in a minute or two!

Mike

[MKFMedic]

[quote="mkfphoto"]hey carey,

you are so great! Thanks for always taking the time to reply! I did a 4 gallon water change today, so probably around a 15% change since the actual water volume is probably around 22 - 25 gallons of water. I'll do another in a couple of days!

My purple fire fish apparently does have a new hiding spot because he has reappeared! Whew. I really like my fire fish!

I'm really looking forward to down the road and hopefully adding a bubble tip anemone and a small clam to the tank!

Thanks again for all your help. I'm going to post a couple of cell phone pics of the tank with the new led lights in a minute or two!

Mike

[MKFMedic]

Originally Posted by mkfphoto

hey carey,

you are so great! Thanks for always taking the time to reply! I did a 4 gallon water change today, so probably around a 15% change since the actual water volume is probably around 22 - 25 gallons of water. I'll do another in a couple of days!

My purple fire fish apparently does have a new hiding spot because he has reappeared! Whew. I really like my fire fish!

I'm really looking forward to down the road and hopefully adding a bubble tip anemone and a small clam to the tank!

Thanks again for all your help. I'm going to post a couple of cell phone pics of the tank with the new led lights in a minute or two!

Mike

[Gboy66]

What!! That looks redonkulusly awesome! Hahah