New to SPS and clams - Need advice please.

[dmw913]

My question: I am setting up a new 30 gal cube and plan to keep SPS and a clam (although I have never had the right lighting to do this in the past - so I'm freaked out). My plan is the following: Please tell me if I'm on the right track:

 

1. Oceanic 30 gal cube (20" x 20 " x 20" x 20") - Glass or open top (suggestions appreciated)

2. 40 lbs. live rock (probably general Figi from the LFS)

3. 20 lbs. live sand (I am planning to use that packaged aragalive - no good real live sand in SLC, Utah)

4. Remora HOB skimmer (I'm breaking it in now on another tank)

5. AquaMedic Ocean Light (250 w 10,000K HQI pendant)

6. Rena xP1 canister filter for mechanical filtration needs

7. Dose with bIonic as directed (used before and I'm a fan)

8. Powersweep for random wave action (probably another powerhead or two to interact with the sweep for better action)

 

I've kept tanks for years, but have never done the SPS or clams and would not want to kill them as a newbie. Thought I'd ask before I got going. Time frame: Light is on it's way from Champion and hanger for pendant is being made by LFS this weekend (mounts on back of stand, etc.) I would like to start the rock cure late next week unless I've really botched something.

 

TIA,

Denise

[SLOreefer]

The tank sounds like a good start, personally i would do a sump but if that is not an option and you already have the equipment stated (remora is a very good skimmer) then go for it. you will need more powerheads though for sps id guess about a 40x turnover. it would be cool if you made one of those hob closed loops so you dont have to drill. i forget who made one but it was cool, might have been crakeur or tiny. the flow is very important for sps or they wont make it,

 

also it is recomended to wait at least 6 months for clams or sps to be introduced, although much easier species such as montipora can be introduced and do well.

 

you sound like youre on the right track, go get that rock and get it filled up! then wait wait wait and do things slowly and patiently, im sure you will be fine

[jasontatro]

Don't bother with the PowerSweep.... they are complete crap. Otherwise, sounds good.

[jasontatro]

The closed loop SLOreefer was talking about:

 

http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/tank/...closedloop.html

[LakerFan]

I know you posted in the Bird's post, but i will answer it here,

 

Everything sounds good, but you may have too much live rock... as for the sand I would up that total since 20 pounds would only give you about a 1 inch sand bed. Also I would suggest looking into the smaller sugar sized sand.

 

On the B-ionic, start at the recommended dose and increase it as you add more clams and corals into the tank. When i used it in my tank 40 Gal, I started at 15ml per dose then as I added more and more corals, I had to increase it to 30 ml daily.

 

Powersweeps are quite a hassle to deal with, you will have to clean them quite often to get them to keep sweeping. I would suggest sticking with Maxi-jets and just pointing them at each other to have some random flow in the tank.

 

HTH,

 

Ben

[birdman204]

lol, i just answered there well, at least most of us agree here... my answers are almost similar.. that sparkling floor service sight is where I got the idea for my closed loop.... Mag5 on a minibow :

[dmw913]

You guys are great. Thanks very much for the info. I'll keep you up to date on the progress. I'm going to take pics for everyone.

 

Denise

[Aiptasia]

You'll need two 20 lb. bags of araga-alive for that tank, but you won't use all of bag #2. I'd just get one bag of araga-alive and a bag of carb-sea seafloor special grade, which is what the araga-live sand starts out as before they infuse it.

 

Ditch the mechanical filter (cannister) you won't need it and it'll become a nitrate engine. Let the LR do the work in conjunction with the skimming.

 

Fiji LR is very porous and hollow, so your weight on the LR sounds about right at 1.5 lbs. per gallon. Hand pick the LR from your LFS for interesting shapes and formation ideas. I'd error on too much LR than not enough.

 

The Remora skimmer is awesome, so is that light fixture. The powersweep is crap, but there are alternatives like the oci-wave. It's a motor you can mount most powerheads to and it manually rotates it around inside the tank with little extra footprint on the sides of your tank. Even if you didn't use any wave stirrer, you could just set up a closed loop with three powerheads and plug them into a cheap wavemaster. That's what I did on my two 20g. reef tanks and it works great.

 

Don't forget a heater @ 5 watts per gallon of water. I like ebo-jagers and visi-therm submersables.

 

Go ahead and cure the LR with the lights off for two weeks. That will keep algaes from blooming during the cure. Trust me on this, why let them get a foothold when you don't have to. When nitrates are trace (0/0/0) you can begin a 10 "on"/ 14 "off" light cycle. I'd also add your janitor crew right away, one snail per gallon (and mix up the species, not just astreas) and one red-legged hermit per two gallons. BTW, don't feed them let them scavenge for food. It isn't cruel, you want your janitors to be hungry so they'll eat the problem algaes.

 

Now the last bit of advice, not all SPS corals and clams come from high light environments, so make sure you're getting top water corals and clams for this tank. This tank is suitable for Maxxima and Blue crocea clams but may be too intense for derasas, squamosas and hippopus clams without acclimating them to the light first.

 

Any new corals or clams you put in the tank, put them on the bottom of the tank under a cliff or overhang away from the direct beam of that strong light. Give them a period of a few weeks to acclimate to the light, then gradually move the coral/clam where you want it to be. Clams will often scoot around the tank by opening and closing their shells, so let them, just watch them for bleached out looking spots on their mantles as a sign of light burn.

 

Same with the sps frags/coral heads. Start them out low at the base of the tank for a week or two, then move them where you'd like them to be. If they show signs of bleaching or tissue recession under the light, move them back down and try re-acclimating them.

 

I recently half bleached out a 4" frag of green sps staghorn coral, and I only have 130 watts of C.F. lighting on the tank. The frag was neon green and I thought it could handle it, because "hey, it's acropora!" Within two days, half of it was bleached out and dead. So, it's been sitting at the bottom of the tank protruding from the sand for the past two weeks and has completely re-grown it's lost tissue. It's now put out two new white corralite tips from it's base and it couldn't be happier.

 

All i'm saying is, go gradual. SPS corals are easy to feed with a plastic feeding syringe and phytoplankton and zooplankton foods. I feed mine twice a week (once with each food) using kent marine's phytoplex (chromaplex) and kent marine's zooplex (same as cyclop-eeze). I keep montipora, acropora and pocilliopora SPS corals and they're all adding new growth and look bushy with polyps.

 

BTW, did you know photosynthetic clams love nitrate? They can actually pull nitrates from the water. Clam keepers are experimenting with "clam sumps" in which their sumps are stocked with multiple photosynthetic clams to remove nitrate. I've had a derasa clam in one of my tanks that's had nitrate troubles and it just loves it. It's doubled in size inside of three months, so much so it's hard to keep up with the calcium level demands with two part additives.

[birdman204]

Originally posted by Aiptasia

SPS corals are easy to feed with a plastic feeding syringe and phytoplankton

 

Most SPS in studies have shown to reject almost all phytoplankton material. The Kent's chromaplex will be to large for most SPS as well. I would try to find a supplement smaller in size.

There is no doubt that the rest of your tank benefits from these additions tho. If you can , I would suggest using cyclopeeze over kents if you can get it. The frozen has the best , meatiest sized animals. the liquid life stuff seems kinda like the animals are dilute. Thefreeze dried , after re-hydrating w/ seawater get nice and plum. Just a suggestion as I used to use kents. too much waste excess liquid in the tank w/ that stuff.

[ReefinReefer]

Originally posted by birdman204

 Just a suggestion as I used to use kents.   too much waste excess liquid in the tank w/ that stuff.

 

not to mention that you add chemical preservatives (to give the product shelf life) as well as the cellular debris and crap that its supposed to have.

 

i stay away from kent's off the shelf preserved food products, crap-oplex or whatever you call it. :|

[matt the fiddler]

bird- last i heard the jury was still out on if cyclopeeze is sps sized. what is your take? some of it might be eaten by the sps?

[SLOreefer]

i have personally seen sps east cyclopseez in abundance, the polyps were taking alot of it in. it was pretty amazing, i tried to tak a picture but have no digi photo talent so you couldnt see anything

[matt the fiddler]

well it is what i feed them.. i spot feed them once a week.. adn do tank feedings daily with it... my 60 nass snails clean up my overfeeding :-)

 

polyps close... not sur e if they are eating it lol but no sence not trying...

 

i hear both sides of that issure though.. it would be nice to see some real documentation on stuff. :-)

[birdman204]

Matt, try this...

SPS polyps will close if they detect "pollution" start with very small amounts released ABOVE the corals, not at them, with the pumps off. If you bombard them with it, the WILL close cuz they think its pollution.

I try to feed my SPS at night as that is when the MONSTER sized polyps come out to feed.

I witness larger zoos , palys, almost all LPS consuming it, not to mention the microfauna can feast on it. The animal size is relative to full grown artemia, and the packaging even suggest it can be used as an artemia replacement.

[matt the fiddler]

ok. good advise

 

i usually feed at, sometimes above.. i got pleny in the tank, i know they are getting some, but know spot feeding , they will get more....