ShanePike's 5.5g

[ShanePike]

This is my first ever reef tank. It's a 5.5g bow front.

 

 

What's in it:

• 5lbs Totoka Fiji Live Rock (uncured)
  
• CaribSea Fiji Live Sand
  
• Water from the LFS
  
• Coralife 11" T5
  
• Marineland Maxi-Jet 400
  
• 7.5W Tank Heater
  

So for Christmas, my 9-year-old got a betta. We heard that bettas were easy. Cool. We can handle that.

 

I killed it.

 

Figured out I was doing some things wrong. Fixed those things. Bought another one.

 

Killed it.

 

Fixed some more things. Bought another one.

 

It lived almost 5 days. Getting better!

 

Fixed what I thought was everything. Bought another one.

 

6 days later, played fish hospital all day long. Fish died during the night.

 

At that point, I gave up. VERY frustrated with the people at the chain store who had no clue what I needed to do to actually keep these fish alive and healthy, I put everything in the closet and began to read...and read...and read.

 

Somehow I ended up here. Over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, I read every article in the Library multiple times. Then I read the entire Beginners advice thread. Between all that and the stuff I had read elsewhere (including a couple of Julian Sprung's books), my brain was full. It was time to just start trying to do it.

 

So today, I headed to an LFS that I had been to a few times. It came highly recommended, and I had been very impressed the times I had been there. The experience was outstanding. They didn't try to sell me anything I didn't need, and their prices were comparable to online prices that I have seen.

 

I came home with everything I needed to retrofit an old 5.5g bow front that I had. It's smaller than I would have liked, but I had it and I knew that this was all going to be a huge experiment anyway. I'll go larger if I discover that I actually like this and can keep from killing everything again.

 

Why uncured rock? I just wanted to see what all would be on there I've got all the time in the world, so I don't mind the tank taking longer to cycle and maybe having to fight some battles along the way.

 

tl;dr: I'm brand new to reef tanks, and the 5.5g is simply because I already had that tank. I've read my brains out, and now I just need to do it and see what happens.

 

I'm open to any and all comments. I have thick skin, so I don't mind you telling me where I totally screwed up It's the only way I'm going to learn.

[andrewguilfoy]

You're in the right place. I like the dimensions of this tank!

[JamesHL88]

That is some narly looking rock, nice scape too. You seem to be goin by the numbers and ill be following this tank.

[ShanePike]

Alright. Free Ammonia, Total Ammonia, and Nitrites are all 0 now, and Nitrates are around 3.5 mg/L. (Nitrites have been as high as 25 mg/L, and Nitrates as high as 13 mg/L.)

 

Going to give it a few more days and then test again. If Nitrites and Ammonia are both still 0, I'm planning to add my CUC.

 

Not too late to talk me out of it if that's a bad plan

[asting]

If ammonia and trites are 0, do a large WC then add your cuc.

check out www.reefcleaners.org john will hook you up. add the 1 penny macro and check out his food. it's pretty good stuff.