New 30 gallon Reef in the making thread....

[Guest]

The time is finally here. I filled up my new tank today. Tomorrow I pick up my LR at the airport from TampabaySaltwater. I hope you can all help me on the way because I am nervous.

1. I bought a glass canopy. I left the back plastic strip off. Will this be enough for gas exchange?

2. I REALLY do not want to get mantis shrimp in my tank. The LR from TampaBay is really live and many people get a few mantis along with many other critters. Someone suggested a Hypersalinity dip for 1 min. per rock. Rich from Tampa Bay told me I will kill the rock. I ordered 20 lbs of deco and 25lbs of coral rock. What do you think?

3. My hydrometer is reading 1.020-My Refrac is reading 1.024. I should trust the refrac right? Is 1.024 good?

4. I should wait to add sand until after LR right?

EDIT: when should I start running the skimmer? few days after LR?

Here are the pics as of today. I love the moonlights. One of the 50/50 acintic bulbs arrived damaged. I called Dr. Fosters and they overnighted me a new one for tomorrow.

Please comments, more pics of the TampaBay LR coming tommorow!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Awesome looking, Mike! Can't wait to see it all set up.

1. I leave my glass top open. I don't know how you would fare with it on, to be honest. I would be concerned about o2 exchange, as well as temperature and lighting problems. Eggcrate would be a good alternative.

2. Not HYPOsalinity, but rather HYPERsalinity. Hypo is less, Hyper is more. Many many people use this method. It will kill some things, but it will also save your tank. Your other option is buying a mantis shrimp trap as well.

3. Use the refractometer. 1.024 is great.

4. It's up to you. Some people and others add sand first. Only problem is that it can creat potential dead spots in the sand bed and the rock can shift on the sand, shall it want to fall. Placing it on the glass and adding sand around it helps keep things more stable.

HTH!

 

[Guest]

My replacement 50/50 lamp just got here.

Also just called the airport and I will be picking up my tampabay LR at 3:30! I am going to take a lot of pics so I can get some critters ID

UPDATE: I do not like the CSS 65 skimmer because it is way to big in my tank. I ordered the Bak Pak 2 Reef Ready skimmer last night. Ths skimmer will be ok for my 30 gal?

 

[Guest]

Live Rock from Tampa Bay

Well here are some really bad pictures of my new LR. I freshwater dipped every piece but still got a few mantis in the tank. Hey what can you say for LR that is REALLY live. Tons of critters, corals, crabs, feathers, stars.......I caught 1 mantis tonight because I luckily spotted its eyes in a rock. I took the rock out and it took me a long time but he came out.

I will get better pics. when things clear up. I added the sand after LR so it was very cloudy.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Lookin good! More than one mantis huh?

The bakpak should be just fine. Its a lot more streamlined than the CSS. And I've definitley benefited from your experience. I was going to get the CSS for my 29 gallon. Now I won't. Anxious to hear how the bakpak works out.

Btw, what's the "three pronged" thing on the right side of the tank? Is that a rock?

 

[Guest]

LR

I do think there is more than 1. The 1 that I got was the loud clicker though. I learned something very important. Everything I read told me that the single clicks were a pistol. Just another example of how it is impossible to tell from noise alone. The minute I spotted his eyes I knew it was a mantis.

The 3 pronged thing I was hoping you could tel me LOL It is some kind of coral. I am going to post some more pics of my corals in the ID forum.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good Mike! Is this your first SW setup?

Great start!

 

[roka64]

The 3 pronged thing I was hoping you could tel me

It looks like a type of dead coral. I have a piece in my tank.
I would suggest moving your LR around, make a cave or two. If you are like me, you will end up moving them more than once! LOL!

 

[Guest]

Rok, that is what I planned on doing but I want to make sure I am done pulling rocks out to catch shrimp first then I will arrange. I don't think that coral is dead because it was opening and closing last night.

Yes this is my first setup so I am learning a ton from all you and the tank.

 

[roka64]

I actually didn't look at it that closely. It looks like a live coral! LOL!
You might want to tak a pic of just that and post it on the ID forum, then you should get a good ID.

 

[Guest]

I tested my water today, day3 and the amonia is off the chart as expected. I had always thought with a fishless cycle that I didn't have to do PWC to speed the cycle, however I have a lot of hermits, feathers.....should I be doing PWC to keep the amonia down?

 

[nycpassat]

Tank looks great. Lots of luck to you and please keep us posted with the great pics.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Mike, I'd do small water changes but I wouldn't really try too hard to keep ammonia really low, because you will just cause yourself alot of hassle. I don't think you'll have alot of trouble keeping things alive. I cycled with blue hermits and hithchiker snails and never lost a one.

 

[Guest]

I have another question---big surprise ha?

After I added the LR I added the sand. I didn't use much at all because th LR took up so much space. Is this ok? And it is ok when I build a rock wall to have LR leaning on the back glass?

 

[roka64]

is ok when I build a rock wall to have LR leaning on the back glass right?

Sure, make sure it won't fall (the wall) and crack the glass. If you have it leaning up against it you should be fine.....

 

[Guest]

Hey all,

I forgot. I have alot of different worms in the tank. I will take pics when I get home at 11pm and put them in the ID section. I know maybe 1 worm that is bad. Does anybody know a site that shows different worms so I can try to ID some.

AGGRRRRR There is absolutely another mantis so I am on the hunt. This one just does not click as much as the other but it is coming from the same side of the tank. Hopefully I can spot this one to!

 

[Guest]

New tank

I forgot that I didn't post any pics of the critters I am finding on here. All in the id forum

Here are just some snails, hermits, a BIG worm, and the mantis that I caught and some corals up close.

I am still finding a lot of life and it is stressful with more than 1 mantis...Would I order from them again? I will tell you if this works out ok. IMO this is the best LR around but it is a little hard on a beginner with so many hitch hikers. The only issue I have is that it is very dense. I plan to add some other more pourus LR to build it up.

I promise the tank will look better in the end. I am not going to rockscape and clean the tank until I am down sifting through all the LR for bad hitch hikers.

I am going to post my water parameters tomorrow (day 5)

 

[Guest]

I tested a few parameters today just to make sure I am cycling. Day 5, looking ok? PH going to be high enough?

PH 8.0
NH3 Off the charts
NO2 0.1


Also just a pic of a cup coral. Have found many of these.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Awesome. Everything looking good. pH is fine too. I have many of those cup corals as well, pretty cool things.

 

[Guest]

Well things are not going to good. I am now going crazy over another LOUD Mantis. Today I removed half of the rock into buckets of saltwater. I moved one piece until I heard the click from the tank and so on. I am left with half in and half out.

I figured I just may as well get this done with a 5 day old tank. Do you think this is bad? Start cycle from day 1? I am worried about damaging the rock but I got but I got to get him out!!


Just a quick line from my first post:

"I REALLY do not want to get mantis shrimp in my tank."