Intro and Equipment list
 

Hello All I am new to Canreef but have been over on reeef central for about a year though took a break from it for about 9 months after I decided not to switch my 90 gal from fresh and instead sold it. I have since then decided to switch over my 55 gal cichlid tank.

So for a bit of info about myself. I am a 24 year old married mother of one with another one in the oven. I have a 20 month old daughter and I am almost 22 weeks pregnant with what we are told is a boy. I am a huge huge animal lover and have owned many pets in my short life already from cats, dogs, mice (still have), gerbles, a dove, snakes (still have two adults that I am selling to get into the salt water hobbie) That i have bred once.
Currently the pets consist of three remaining baby snakes, one of which is sold the other two were trouble feeders that are not ready to go yet. I also still have the parents of these babies but am trying to sell them, I also have a ragdoll x cat and a 55 gal cichlid tank that will be my saltwater tank after the switch over is made. So on to the planed set-up.

The tank currently consists of a 55 gal that was your basic starter kit. So stock lights, heater and penguin 350 filter. The tank is set-up with 50lbs of pool filter sand and aprox 100lbs of reef rock (sold in the rock department of fish stores). Everything currently part of the tank will be used in the new set-up to start the lights of course will be upgraded as soon as possible (hopefully after xmas). In addition to all this I have compiled the following list from Mops aquariums supplies which is where all the equipment will be purchased from.

Medium Size Floating Algae Magnet for Glass 1 $ 13.53 $ 13.53
Aqua Gloves 1 $ 16.95 $ 16.95
Pisces Pro Acclimator 1 $ 9.56 $ 9.56
Black Diamond Carbon [1.87L] 1 $ 14.17 $ 14.17
Filter Media Bag - Small [3" x 8"] 2 $ 1.07 $ 2.14
Aragamax Oolitie Select [30 lbs] 1 $ 32.31 $ 32.31
Stealth Submersible Heater [100 watts] 1 $ 28.68 $ 28.68
Instant Ocean [160 gal mix] 1 $ 49.99 $ 49.99
Maxi-Jet 1200 Power Head [295 gph] 1 $ 26.95 $ 26.95
Koralia 3 Circulation Pump 2 $ 49.91 $ 99.82
Remora with Maxi-Jet 1200 1 $ 188.92 $ 188.92
Remora Surface Prefilter for Maxi-Jet 1 $ 35.94 $ 35.94
Reef Master Test Kit 1 $ 28.85 $ 28.85
Salinity Refractometer 1 $ 54.95 $ 54.95
Hand Held TDS Meter w/Vinyl Case 1 $ 31.88 $ 31.88
PinPoint Wireless Thermometer 1 $ 35.52 $ 35.52
Digital Thermometer 1 $ 8.23 $ 8.23
Flo Rotating Water Deflector 2 $ 16.15 $ 32.30
Actual Freight Charges 1 $ 25.95 $ 25.95
Shipping $ 0.00
Sales Tax $ 95.75
Grand Total $ 832.39

To this I will add about 10 lbs of live sand and 10-20 lbs of live rock depending on what I end up paying for it and how much rock I get for the price since I have a fair amount of rock in the tank already. I will also be setting up a 10 gal QT that I am getting from my inlaws for free.

The stock list plans are as follows
2 false perculas
1 fire fish
1 bi color blenny
1 neon goby
1 royal gramma
5 blue green cromis
1 tailspot blenny
2 porcelain crabs

CUC
5 cerith snails
3 nassarius snails
2 trochus snails
5 scarlet hermit crabs
to start will add more as needed

Any thoughts on this stuff am I missing anything?

your gonna need to add alot more cuc for the amount of fish your planning on. just my opinion. but what you have listed would barely be adequite for a 25 gallon. everything else sounds alright though

Ok so any sugestions for a starter clean up crew?

the jl aquatics site has packs that are pretty good. i usually kinda overdue it with the hermits but they kinda disappear after a while anyway.

There's been some discussion here and there about the value of crabs compared to snails - you may want to go a little more snail-heavy. J&L still look to be crab fanatics in their packages, so I don't want to stir that pot...

Welcome to Canreef...ask lots of questions there are some people here actually qualified to answer them. I have found with clean up crews the crabs eventually kill off a certain fraction snails for the shells. JL's recommended Janitor crew list is good. That is what I started out with. Later on you may want to get a few more snails

Along with AJ77's comment, the Ocean Aquatics site on here has CUC packages that include less hermits, more snails.

[quote=AJ_77;347803]There's been some discussion here and there about the value of crabs compared to snails - you may want to go a little more snail-heavy.

I agree, go with more snails. And welcome to Canreef.

Ya I plan to go more snail heavy but didn't want to start of with too much I figured I would have just the 5 hermits and that would be it unless they all die then i might add more but was planing on adding more snails after a couple months. Does anyone have any better numbers to start with for the snails to go with the 5 hermits?

OK my suggestion would be to skip the Aquagloves and TDS meter.

I would skip the Remora skimmer and instead use the money to find a used skimmer of better quality, maybe a Tunze or Deltec.

I would cut down your fish list and consider just getting the two clowns for the first few months as they are easy to care for feed etc and are hardy. Overall your fish list looks overstocked to me.

Good to see you are ordering from MOPS. I have bought from them a bunch of times and the guy who runs it is great, I forget his name, although usually I stick to J & L and OA being more local.

Well since i plan to buy my ro/di water from a distributer for the first while I want to be able to test the quality of it so I am getting the TDS meter.

With regards to the skimmer aren't the two you listed in sump models? I don't have a sump so if so can't use them.

I have not heard any issues as of yet for my stock list over on reef central and have actualy had it confirmed as ok already by a few people. I assure you I have done plenty of research and all fish will be put through a one month- six weeks QT period with a max of two fish at a time being added so there will be a month -six weeks between additions to the DT.

Ya mops is more local to me thats why I chose to go with them plus there prices were good.

I'd suggest buying an Aquasafe RO/DI unit off ebay, for the price of the TDS meter and bottled water you can have your own RO unit. I bought a TDS meter to use with my RO/DI unit but since it always reads 1 ppm I stopped using it.

Tunze makes in-tank skimmers which I believe can also be run in a sump. Deltec makes both in-sump and hang-on skimmers I believe. Anyway I'd get a used $400.00 skimmer for $200.00 instead of a new $200.00 skimmer.

I may look into the used skimmer but never have seen either of those brands for an HOB used in my area. Also I have the RO/DI picked out that I will be getting the distributer RO water is just for a month or so till I get the extra money.

Clean up crews are in a way just Phoshate cicling criters.
What i mean is that they do eat algae but then they poop this out in form of Po4 remaining plants us it as food and cicle starts over.
so you might consider investing in Two Little Fishies Phosban (Phosphate Removal) Reactor Po4 reactor form day one, so you will have a good protection from the get go.

Here is good read on how to control Hair Algae in first place
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44473

i have actually beeen considering ordering a phosban reactor with the rest of the equipment to help prevent some of the algae since this tank sits in our living room and is the first thing you see when you walk in our door. Also the added fact that I am sure the hubby would rather not have an algae filled tank.

I think the phosban reactor is a must, mine has more than paid for itself. Definately helped more than some of the equipment I have bought along the way. Just my 2 cents.

Jason

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