apgaug's 29 gallon

[apgaug]

FTS 5/7/11:

 

Hello everyone. My girlfriend and I decided to start our first nano reef together and I stumbled across this site during my research. We have been putting our first tank together over the last two weeks and finally filled the tank with water on Friday night. Live sand and 35 lbs of live rock then went in on Saturday afternoon.

 

Current Livestock:

 

Black and white occellaris misbar

Yasha goby

Tiger pistol

Assorted CUC

Frogspawn

Neon green toadstool leather

Green Trumpets

Duncans

Assorted Acans

Assorted Zoas

 

 

Equipment:

 

Koralia Nano 240

Koralia Nano 425

AquaC Remora Nano

Whisper 40 power filter

30" aquatic life 4 bulb t5ho

ViaAqua 150 watt titanium heater

and a digital thermometer

 

I'm using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals for my salt and RO/DI water from the LFS.

 

Day 1 (saltwater only):

 

 

Day 2 (cloudy after adding live rock and sand):

 

 

Day 3 (current):

 

 

Day 3 with moonlights:

 

 

 

 

I immediately regretted not painting the back glass.

[amored]

two bulbs isn't going to put out enough PAR to reach the lower 2/3 of the tank. i'd really consider adding another 2 bulbs to this. also, instant ocean salt is fine for fish and inverts, but corals need a better salt mix. otherwise, you'll wind up having to dose 3x a week.

 

however, if you don't want to make any changes, you can still keep soft corals and fish in this tank. so, all in all, a pretty good start

[Coastie]

.... It's not too late? Be creative there are a million different ways to do things that no one has thought of yet.

 

You could probably paint it with a brush....

 

Anyhow nice stand... Walmart special! I have the same one and I love it wayyyy more than most of the ones at the pet stores. I added a shelf inside mine, I need to fix it but it works well. I am also about to toss a 10 gallon sump in there as well! It's a tight fit but it seems like it'd work.

 

*edit* what are you planning to keep in the tank?

[apgaug]

Yep, Walmart special. Couldn't beat the price though. I paid less than it was going to cost me to make my own like I initially planned. I reinforced it with a few 2x3s because the max weight was 290 lbs and I didn't want to have any issues. Thought about putting a shelf in it and probably will later. You are right about painting with a brush which I definately will consider.

 

About the lighting, could I put a second of the same light on there and it be good? The guy at the LFS seemed to think it was enough light. I'm a total newb so I agreed. The light wasn't too expensive, and I have some time before I will be adding any livestock, so I should be able to add a second light by then.

 

As far as what kind of livestock I want to keep, I'm not 100% positive yet. The girlfriend really wants clownfish and they seem to be a popular choice. I am more interested in corals, but as you can tell from my apparent lighting dilema I don't know a ton about keeping them. We are taking it slow (especially after how expensive it was to get started) so we have plenty of time to learn.

[amored]

Yep, Walmart special. Couldn't beat the price though. I paid less than it was going to cost me to make my own like I initially planned. I reinforced it with a few 2x3s because the max weight was 290 lbs and I didn't want to have any issues. Thought about putting a shelf in it and probably will later. You are right about painting with a brush which I definately will consider.

 

About the lighting, could I put a second of the same light on there and it be good? The guy at the LFS seemed to think it was enough light. I'm a total newb so I agreed. The light wasn't too expensive, and I have some time before I will be adding any livestock, so I should be able to add a second light by then.

 

As far as what kind of livestock I want to keep, I'm not 100% positive yet. The girlfriend really wants clownfish and they seem to be a popular choice. I am more interested in corals, but as you can tell from my apparent lighting dilema I don't know a ton about keeping them. We are taking it slow (especially after how expensive it was to get started) so we have plenty of time to learn.

 

 

sure you could add another two-bulb fixture. if that's cheaper then it works. you can get some really basic ceiling-mounted 4 bulb fixtures for around $60. see about getting ahold of a PAR meter. most LFS's have one you can rent. this way you can check and see how much light is getting where. SPS (hard branching corals with small polyps) require about 400 PAR. most LPS's (large polyp corals like hammers and brains) are fine under 200-250, and soft corals like zoos and xenia are good under about 100.

[apgaug]

sure you could add another two-bulb fixture. if that's cheaper then it works. you can get some really basic ceiling-mounted 4 bulb fixtures for around $60. see about getting ahold of a PAR meter. most LFS's have one you can rent. this way you can check and see how much light is getting where. SPS (hard branching corals with small polyps) require about 400 PAR. most LPS's (large polyp corals like hammers and brains) are fine under 200-250, and soft corals like zoos and xenia are good under about 100.

 

Ok thanks for the info. I live in an apartment and don't think I can hang any anything from the ceiling, so I will probably get a second two bulb fixture. Do you think I would at least be able to do soft corals with this setup?

[apgaug]

two bulbs isn't going to put out enough PAR to reach the lower 2/3 of the tank. i'd really consider adding another 2 bulbs to this. also, instant ocean salt is fine for fish and inverts, but corals need a better salt mix. otherwise, you'll wind up having to dose 3x a week.

 

however, if you don't want to make any changes, you can still keep soft corals and fish in this tank. so, all in all, a pretty good start

 

I am using the Instant Ocean Reef Salt not the regular Instant Ocean. Does this make a difference? The guy at the LFS said that this was the salt I wanted for corals. I'm hoping that maybe you overlooked that detail otherwise that makes two bits of bad advice that I have received from this store. If this is the case then it is starting to look like I can't trust them.

[apgaug]

So I'm assuming that I am having a diatom bloom? The tank is 1 week old today and I just finished a round of water testing.

 

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite- <2

Nitate- 40

Phosphate- .25

PH- 7.9-8.0

Alkalinity- 3.5

 

After another week if my ammonia and nitites are at zero does that mean I should do a partial water change to bring down the nitrates and that my cycle is complete? Isn't it kind of early for that? That would put me at two weeks. According to what I've read on this site my tank appears to have almost completed it's cycle, but I'm not sure. Any input would be great! Here are some pics of the diatoms (the first two are from above the tank and a little blurry from the water movement):

 

 

 

[bananahands]

assuming you mean IO Reef Crystals then yes, that'll work. As for the lighting, if I were you, assuming its not too late to return the light to the fish store, I would return it and get one fixture with 4 bulbs. It'll make your life way easier having to deal with fewer plugs and wires. I'm sure you can already tell wires and plugs add up quickly in this hobby.

[apgaug]

assuming you mean IO Reef Crystals then yes, that'll work. As for the lighting, if I were you, assuming its not too late to return the light to the fish store, I would return it and get one fixture with 4 bulbs. It'll make your life way easier having to deal with fewer plugs and wires. I'm sure you can already tell wires and plugs add up quickly in this hobby.

 

Yea I think that it is too late to return the light. It has been in use for a week now. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask though. Maybe I will just try to get a 4 bulb fixture for Christmas and try to get as much as I can for my current fixture.

[Squared]

I have a 2 bulb HO over my 29g. On the bottome i have some mushies and softcoral (like a toadstool) and they seem to be fine. I have a 24w aquatic life actinic bulb and a 24w giesemann daylight bulb. I think it is 12k.

 

and about 10" from the light I have a torch coral that is always nicly expanded and green (maybe just a little brown, but is still a nice color)

[apgaug]

I have a 2 bulb HO over my 29g. On the bottome i have some mushies and softcoral (like a toadstool) and they seem to be fine. I have a 24w aquatic life actinic bulb and a 24w giesemann daylight bulb. I think it is 12k.

 

and about 10" from the light I have a torch coral that is always nicly expanded and green (maybe just a little brown, but is still a nice color)

 

Ok well that is good to hear. I think I can make do with the current lighting for now and just keep soft corals until I am ready to upgrade. Thanks for your input.

[Squared]

You can always upgrade later. But for now I think your light will be just fine for any beginer corals or even nice LPS.

[apgaug]

Haven't updated in a while, so I guess I better get on that. About two weeks ago I added my cleanup crew. I went with the 29 gallon quick crew from reefcleaners.org. The CUC was doing great and my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates have all been reading zero for some time now. Went to the LFS last night to get our first fish. I had already picked out a Black Ocellaris Clownfish and had him waiting for me. The girlfriend wanted and orange one as well, so we brought home a regular Ocellaris to be a companion.

 

So far after 24 hours they seem to be doing great. The black one came out of a tank with about 15 others (they came in last week and are very young) and the orange one was in a tank by itself, so I was expecting them to be friendly. They have been getting along great and already don't leave each other's sides. They are very active and I haven't been able to get any non-blurry pictures yet, because they won't slow down enough. As soon as I can get some pictures I will upload them.

 

The LFS was doing a special where if you spent $50 you could get five free crabs/snails of your choice, so I added 5 dwarf red legged hermits since I don't have any crabs.

[apgaug]

Tragedy struck last night as my ocellaris clownfish died unexpectedly. The black ocellaris is doing fine and I'm clueless as to what happened. I had fed them earlier in the day and they were both eating fine and very active throughout the day. I came out in the morning and he was floating No signs of struggle or anything. Water params are all good too. I guess it was just bad luck and I don't think I'm going to get any new fish for a while. I'll just make sure that my black ocellaris continues to stay healthy and then in a few months if everything is going good I am going to go with a shrimp-goby pair.

 

Added some new corals recently as well. A zoa frag (believe they are reverse gorilla nipples), an Acan frag (still trying to find a name), and a neon green toadstool.

 

Acan:

 

Zoas:

 

Don't have any pics of the toadstool leather yet. Will get some up soon.

[flick]

Sorry about the occellaris loss, but would love to see an updated FTS with black clown pics

[apgaug]

Sorry about the occellaris loss, but would love to see an updated FTS with black clown pics

 

I'll try to remember to take one tomorrow when the lights are on. Not much to look at yet. I'm still trying to figure out a way to paint the back of the tank.

[apgaug]

It's been a really long time since I have added anything to this, so I suppose now is as good a time as any.

 

A lot has happened since January. I had to move in March and breaking down the tank was quite the experience. Fortunately, everything made it. Not something that I'm looking forward to having to do again.

 

I had a small battle with aiptasia. Found one little guy after adding a frag and took care of it right away and have yet to see any more. It's been over three weeks since then, so I'm hopeful that that is over.

 

One of the perks of my new job was that I could spend a little money on the tank. First I grabbed a a RO/DI filter from bulk reef supply. Then I upgraded to a 4 bulb aquatic life t5ho fixture. My corals are really perking up lately.

 

Well. . . not much more to add, so. . . pictures!

 

FTS:

 

Duncan:

 

Leather and Mushroom:

 

Blasto:

 

Acans:

 

Zoas:

 

Trumpets:

 

Black Ocellaris:

[GOODgREEF]

Nice tank, I would add more live rock and get more vertical scape.

[apgaug]

Nice tank, I would add more live rock and get more vertical scape.

 

 

Thanks. I haven't gone any higher with the live rock because I am going to have to move the tank again in about 15 months. I already have 35lbs of rock and it was a real PITA to move it before, so I'm holding out until I finally buy a house.

[apgaug]

Added a new acan frag recently as well as a frogspawn. Also picked up a yasha goby and tiger pistol pair for $40 at my LFS.

 

 

 

No pics of the goby-pistol pair. I'll try to get some soon.

 

That pic of the frogspawn was right after I put it in. When I get pics of the fish I'll have to get a pic of the frogspawn fully open.

[daydreamer]

Added a new acan frag recently as well as a frogspawn. Also picked up a yasha goby and tiger pistol pair for $40 at my LFS.

 

 

 

No pics of the goby-pistol pair. I'll try to get some soon.

 

That pic of the frogspawn was right after I put it in. When I get pics of the fish I'll have to get a pic of the frogspawn fully open.

 

I'm always surprised how huge frogspawns get when fully expanded. You should get another Ocellaris so you can have a pair. Just get one that's smaller than yours. Yours might be female now if its been alone for a while. I've had good luck with my Ocellaris clowns hosting a frogspawn.

 

Have you thought of painting the back or putting a sheet of blue or black on the back of the tank? It will hide your cables and filter in the back and make your corals stand out more.

[apgaug]

I'm always surprised how huge frogspawns get when fully expanded. You should get another Ocellaris so you can have a pair. Just get one that's smaller than yours. Yours might be female now if its been alone for a while. I've had good luck with my Ocellaris clowns hosting a frogspawn.

 

Have you thought of painting the back or putting a sheet of blue or black on the back of the tank? It will hide your cables and filter in the back and make your corals stand out more.

 

Yea, the frogspawn opens up really big. Still no pics of it though. I keep forgetting lol.

 

Ive thought about painting the back of the tank but I havent made up my mind about it yet.

[apgaug]