newbee.. a couple of ?'s and want to introduce my new tank :)

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shellygirl55

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Nov 3, 2010
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hello all!
I am not technacally a newbee to this site ( have freshwater) but a newbee to reef/salt

recently purchased a 24 gallon aquapod nano system off craigslist.. they guy who sold it to us was pretty knowalagable, and came and did the physical set up of the tank for us which was great, so we could understand how everything worked.

set up came with sunpod metal halide reef lite (2x 150 watt bulbs)
12x sunrise/lunar leds, a small aquafuge2, a maxijet pump, a heater, and the tank itself, along with live rock and live sand

the guy also threw in a really pretty greenish purple mushroom, and a cool coral frag (zooanthids)

so, anyway i did a lot of reading about how to cycle the tank etc, and went with the grocery store shrimp method, and had the spike and now all is well, perameters are good... so my questions to you guys are as follows:

now what?? i know i need to get a cleaning crew pretty soon, i am starting to have a tiny bit of algae growing on the front of the tank and a tiny bit on a piece of live rock. do i do that first before i do anything with new corals or fish or will they not have enough food yet??

if i can get corals or fish now, what do i start with? the guy at the lfs tried to talk me in to damsels, but everything i read about them are bad!! also, will my lights support most corals?

also, as far as the mushroom that came with the tank, he is starting to aim kind of downward, and even shriveling a little... do they like a lot of light or not so much, i did read that they don't like current, so i am pretty sure i need to move him out of the major current.. love this guy, so i don't want him to die

also, i have these cool anenemonie type things growing out of one of the pieces of live rock, i have looked online trying to compaire pics to these, but can't figure it out... can anyone identify? they don't look like aptasia thankfully!!

haha, that was a lot of questions, but i am just loving doing this tank, it's my ( and my hubby, thank goodness) new baby!! it's all so exciting!!

thanks in advance to all!!
 

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Hi, I am a newbie and very excited that someone who knows what questions to ask is starting up with marine. I'll be following your thread hoping to learn... well things I don't know I don't know. ;-) natascha
 
post all your test results up first,Amm,Trites,trates.
How long have you cycled for,if zero amm and trites check trates and do a pwc to drop any levels down,CUC can go in now and your first fish,maybe a couple of clowns,snowcasso,gold banded maroons,percs,
 
no maroon clowns in a 24 gallon! they grow to 5" and can be super nasty!
i think you should be able to keep whatever you want under that lighting.
the anemones might be majano anemones. just as much a pest as the aptasia.

how long did you say this was set up in your home?
 
If your tank is cycled, then you can start adding livestock but do it slowly. The bioload of too many fish can disrupt the balance in your tank. +1 to Mr. X; Damsels can get nasty. I've always liked clowns (Ocellaris)and they're hardy. You could also go with Goby fish. As for corals, you probably need to wait to let the tank settle/mature a little. IMO
 
sorry!! here is my water peramaters

pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 2.0 low range
Nitrite - 0

does this look ok?

tank has been in the home for 5 weeks yesterday :) first tried to do a fishless cycle, then read about the shrimp idea... had the spike last week

i am thinking i need a clean up crew i am getting green algae on my glass and one rock... any suggestions?
 
What kind of test kit do you have? Mine doesn't measure Nitrate so specifically. Very nice.
Anyway, it looks like you're ready for livesrock. I like Turbo and Cerith snails for CUC. Nassarius are also good for sand shifting.
 
went to the lfs and they tested and wrote everything down for me.. bought the master test kit while i was there which i hear is the best??
 
no. not the best, but it will do the job. salifert, and elos are both more accurate than the API test kits IME, but much more expensive.
 
will the master test kit really be ok? i havn't opened it yet, should i take it back and trade for one of the others?
 
I like Turbo and Cerith snails for CUC. Nassarius are also good for sand shifting.

picked up a few snails today... can't for the life of me remember the name of them, but when i got home and researched them, turns out that if they fall over on their backs they can't right themselves??

what about a black sea cucumber? the guy at the lfs was really trying to push one on us.. said it was the best cuc i could get??? what do you all think of that idea??
 
astrea snail. they are ok. yep,if they are knocked off the glass or rock, they will need help, or they die.
don't get the cucumber. he doesn't know what he's talking about. many of them will nuke a tank if and when they die.
the tiger tail cucumber is supposed to be the only cucumber that doesn't poison the tank during it's early demise.

the API test is good for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
 
ok, thanks for the advice... i appriciate it! the guy at the lfs was really pushing it, and the cucumber was huge too, i don't even think he would fit in the tank!!

any other ideas as to what i can get for the green algae on the glass, it has gotten worse just in the last day.. pretty yucky...

also, how long should i leave my lights on during the day? the dude at the lfs told me 12 hrs, but that seems like a long time??
 
how about an algae scraper?
as for the photo period, i like to try and mimic the natural day, so i run my lights a total of 12 hours, but the daylights about 10. actinic lighting would be used as a morning/evening transition. i believe you have those little leds in that fixture, right?
 
If you are growing a fair bit of algae I would try to get your water chemistry under control before you add too much to the tank. Algae consumes nitrate and or phosphate. Nitrate and phosphate are common to over feeding but I think from reading your thread you are not doing that. Tap water quality usually changes by the season and usually has more phosphates in the spring and late fall. If you get rid if your phosphates and or nitrates, your algae will starve and die on it's own. Lastly your test kit is a master test kit... Is it a hard shell blue case ( made by Hagen) or an API kit? API makes the "saltwater master" and the "reef master" test kits. Hagen makes the big blue "master test kit" IMO... Hagen bad, API better, salifert would be the best dollars spent on a reliable kit without getting crazy expensive.
 
Its the api...maybe I am feeding too much...I only have the 2 clowns and anenomie and 6 snails and 3 hermies
 
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