New 30 gal Saltwater setup

[Ingy]

Hello folks. I am new to the saltwater aquarium but have had freshwater ones for decades. I have the following equipment
30 gal tank
Whisper 20-40 filter
Aquion 700 circ pump
125 w heater (I think, but it's plenty for my tank)

I went with a "au natural" start to my tank by getting clean sand from the ocean beach near my work. The beach is not accessible by the public and so there is no worry of local pollution. I also got the water from the ocean as well. As I live in Canada and on an island, there is almost no boat traffic here either. Clean water and clean sand. A nearby neighbor was closing down her 90 gal reef tank and I got about 20 lbs of live rock to add once the tank had been up for a bit with another 5 lbs from the start. I also ended up taking 2 damsels as well. I know I didn't cycle the tank properly but I am hopeful with all the live rock and live sand I got that it will be ok. I'll watch the levels closely.

In addition there are plenty of brittle stars, small snails and feather dusters. But I also got 2 caterpillar looking worms with the big one being about 4" long. What are they? They appear harmless. Are they?

Bauer I'll have lots of questions once i see if all goes ok to start

 

[Ingy]

Big worm

 

[Readingexcalibur]

That is a bristle worm. There is lots of debate on this guys as beneficial or not. I believe they are good for the aquaria as they eat other pest. However, if you find a big red one (can't tell by your pic) they can be aggressive, more so, they can get big enough to attack your fish and inverts.

What are your water levels (ammonia and nitrites) . There is a good chance you are going to cycle anyways. Ammonia spike would more than likely kill the fish.

 

[Ingy]

Ammonia was 0.25 ppm last night. I will keep a daily watch on it. I'll post if it starts to climb quickly.

 

[Schism]

.25 is already elevated, it will get higher. I would test that real ocean water first. Its not clean in all areas. Boat traffic is only part of the problem. If collecting natural saltwater it is advised to collect as far from shore as possible and not from an inland area. Pesticides etc. from run off and thousands of other concoctions leech into the ocean from land. And its advised to test from the area you collect for everything you possibly can. Ocean water is not all the same, especially near land.

Chances are your water is fine, but just letting you know there is a reasonable chance its not good enough also.

The damsels stand a high chance if dying. They are very hardy so they can live through a cycle if the spikes dont get high enough. However its kinda cruel in my opinion you use a fish in this way. Other ways of doing it. But we all learn and move on.

Your going to want more live rock especially if your planning a reef tank. If a reef tank is planned general guideline is 1lb per volume of water so in your case 90 lbs. if fish only with live rock about half or more is generally recommended. Depends on rock density and surface area.

 

[Ingy]

Test of water at collection was:
Ph 8.0
Calcium 340
Carb hard 130
Phosphates, amm, nitrate, nitrite all 0

Last night
All the same Exocet amm 0.25

My tank is 30 gal. Got stuff out of a 90 gal tank

 

[Schism]

Ph calcium and alk are kind of low reef tanks. It wont become a problem until you ger corals that begin sucking the alk and calcium out of the water. Keeping it between 400-500 helps and you may find yourself dosing a lot. Depends what you plan to keep tho.

 

[Ingy]

This tank is my practice tank. I will be custom building a 90-120 gal unit beside my fireplace. When I get to work on that I will be hitting you guys up for advice. For now it's a FOWLR tank to practice on. So i haven't bothered with the reef needs.

 

[Schism]

Your right i forgot you were doing fowlr just threw me off cuz you posted the calcium lvls lol. Yeah you will be fine with that water, assuming nothing else is in it you dont know of such as toxins or pests.

 

[Ingy]

Amm level probably around 0.2 now. Just off the .25 colour to the good side

 

[Ingy]

Amm almost at zero now. Nitrite at zero.

 

[Ingy]

OK, I have found 3 new inhabitants to my tank I am concerned about.

The first appears to by some type of anemone. It comes out from under by bottom rock (which was also a bottom rock on the tank I got it from and is oriented the same way). It looks like a tube anemone but seems to come out during the day rather than the night. In the Pic, it comes out from behing the feather dusters in the front. It seems harmless enough, but am I going to need to make iodine additions to my tank if I'm right about what it is?

Next is a small starfish. It is eating the stuff off the rocks. Eeek. Should I remove him? Sorry for the focus, best I could do.

The final things are a bunch of small shrimp. They come out at night and are attracted to a flashlight. Could be relatively easy to catch as they get bigger. I saw some very tiny ones after I fist set up my tank (less than 1mm and my youngest had to find them because my eyes were too old to notice them at first). Some are getting larger (2mm+) but the Damsels aren't eating them. Should I wait and see if the fish eat the shrimp?

Cheers
Ingy

 

[Schism]

The nem is an aiptasia, they are a pest and reproduce rapidly. Get a bottle of aiptasiaX by Red Sea to kill it.

The second is an asterina star it looks like, they are harmless, actually good as they scavange on detritus and such

The third are copepods, they are small crustaceans and are good, they are detritivores and many fish depend on them as a food source. The more the better, they come in all shapes and sizes.

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I bought a peppermint shrimp. He gobbled all my little aiptasia. Won't touch the big ones. I pulled the rock out and used a torch to kill them!

 

[Schism]

Lol that works too.

 

[Ingy]

Ok. Next Question. One of my rocks has a yellow algae that is covered by a clear film almost like a web covering it. I say almost because it looks like it varies in thickness but when I poke it it easily moves in to the rock (not gelatin like). Brittle stars even live under it in the rock.
Should I worry?

 

[Ingy]

Nuther pic

 

[Schism]

Possibly a type of sponge which wont hurt anything. Second guess would be a biofilm of some sort. In either case i dont think its anything to worry about unless you notice a negative effect.

 

[Ingy]

The damselfish are reeking havoc in the sand under my rocks. They have undermined almost all the rocks with their eternal digging and started to bury the one Rick they are not digging under. Is this normal nesting behavior or are they searching for food?

 

[Ingy]

Anybody know if this is normal digging behavior for the damselfish?