The Sink or Swim Method!

[Barrie]

I recently won a saltwater/reef tank from Aquatic Addictions a couple of weeks ago. They had a charity raffle, the prize was a complete saltwater setup. Having NEVER even considered saltwater before, my husband & I have been tossed in the deep end and are paddling for all we're worth! LOL Here's what the set up came with and how we got it started.

-36 Gallon Hex tank with stand and cap
-Fluval 405
-One Hydor Koralia 1
-Rock,sand and livestock (paired clownfish, couple plate corals and couple of ricordeas)
-150W Metal Halide Pendant and all accessories (heater etc.)

I'm not sure how long the tank was set up at AA but it had been taken down before we picked it up (long story short, the first guy that won the tank never showed up, then after a month or so arrived at the store and said no thanks, he pulled another ticket and it was mine! yay!). Anyway, they took the tank apart before we won it, so it was pretty easy to transport it home when the time came. We brought all the equipment home (except the light - that came a couple of days later), bought new sand as the old sand had sat in the empty tank for a time and stunk to high heaven. The Fluval needed cleaning out (dead anemone in it!), so dh (dear husband!) cleaned everything (tank, fluval, Hydor Koralia, etc), we then set it up in the corner of the living room. Once we figured out where we wanted it (which did include buying a new couch as the old one was too big to allow the tank & stand to sit in the corner we wanted it to! LOL), put the new sand and freshly mixed saltwater in. Got the Fluval running with just carbon in it, got the Koralia going, near the top of the tank with the flow aimed at a front wall, heater installed, etc. We bought a hydrometer and brought the metal halide light home and got that hooked up. Here's a quick pic of 'phase 1' (north facing window btw).



We tested the tank every day for the next several days. Once the specific gravity and temperature were stable, we brought home some of the live rock. AA had been holding our tank inhabitants and rock in one of their tanks. So we bring home a box of rocks, start 'aquascaping' the tank. Hubby gets to the bottom of the box, and decides to toss the 'rubble' in for a little interest. Once it hit the bottom, it got up and walked away!! Hermit crabs and snails!! Our first recognized hitchhikers! We didn't even know such a thing existed! Here's a pic of phase 2!

And our first hitchhiker..

And here's a close up of phase 2's rock layout


We kept this setup for a week or so, then went and picked up the rest of the live rock - the stuff with ricordea, anthelia, some feather dusters, etc. It took some maneuvering and fiddling, but got all the rock in place and everything settled in nicely. We found a Halloween hermit crab and an astrea snail amongst the new hitchhikers. The Halloween hermit spent the first week sitting in one spot (okay, maybe a 3 inch diameter spot) at the front of the tank. We didn't hold out much hope for him (there was a big piece of rock sitting on him in the bucket we brought everything home in), but since then he's finally acclimatized and today is the first time he's moved farther since we got him. He made it to the top of the rock pile today, so he's obviously feeling pretty good.

Once we had all our 'free' live rock installed, very well cured rock apparently (so we were told - remember, we don't know much about the saltwater aspect of the aquarium hobby!), we opted to purchase a few more pieces as we needed to fill out the back wall of the tank a bit more - we bought another three pounds from Aquatic Addictions, mostly out of the same tank our original rock came from. We made a quick trip to J&L Aquatics a few days later to pick up a bit of a clean up crew - 5 blue legged hermits, a scarlet hermit, and 5 small snails and two peppermint shrimp (we have some aiptasia that we have been led to understand is a bad thing, and we're hoping the shrimp will keep it inline for a bit). We also picked up a second Hydor Koralia 1, and a few more odds and ends (so much for a 'free' saltwater setup! ROFL!).

We added the pair of true percula clowns on Tuesday this week. They had eaten just before we brought them home, so we fed them for the first time today. WOW! Talk about healthy appetites! They pigged out! I'll get pics of the current set up tomorrow - it's looking pretty cool - though not nearly as amazing as some of the setups I've seen here!!

Now comes the newbie part (and thank you for reading to this point!). I have a couple of questions, and no amount of reading has answered them for me yet.

1) Would you add a protein skimmer to the set up?

2) Given the size of the tank, and the live rock/critters we have, should we be adding supplements of any kind. We have ricordea, anthelia, colt coral (Cladiella sp), feather dusters, and bright yellow polyps (zoa?) that we know of.

3) Do you see anything that we are blatantly forgetting or don't know about? We're reading as much as we can, but my brain is completely overwhelmed with information! We don't want to kill anything, and we are completely fascinated with the whole concept of the saltwater tank system - hubby's already talking about a bigger tank one of these days. Yup, so much for 'free'!! ROFL!

(another great big thanks to Dan, Nikki, Scott and crew at Aquatic Addictions!!)

[fishytime]

Welcome to the dark side of fishkeeping (dark, because its hard to see out of the pile of credit card receipts) and welcome to canreef.....its gonna be a bit of a challenge with your setup, but I would skim if I could....until you get that scape loaded up with goodies I personally wouldnt worry too much about dosing....regular water changes should suffice to replenish stuff.

[Leah]

Congratulations on the tank it looks great. And yes I would buy a skimmer and put on asap.
Not sure about supplements for sure, although I would not with what you have thus far.
It can be rather addicting, good luck hope this answers your questions. I am sure you will
get other answers. Have fun!

Leah

[Dez]

I might beg to differ on the skimmer. I've had a 5 gallon nano for 3 years skimmerless. I had one little clown fish a few snails and some coral. Our local fish store here has a 10 gallon nano absolutely FULL of coral in it. (This has been running for 5 plus years and looks gorgeous). The one this is that hang on back skimmers are kind of annoying and then to add noise to the general system that's more audible than say an in sump skimmer. If you keep it simple with lots of flow and regular monthly water changes you should be fine. You could probably even get rid of the fluval (or take all the media out and use it just for flow). Our local store with the nano still has the same fish and coral and my nano did really well (and I'll have to admit - I don't think I ever did a water change on my nano cause I didn't even own a hydrometer - shame on me) but I didn't kill anything. Just topped up evaporation every couple of days. This is just another opinion worth considering. Hope this helps.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Dez

(and I'll have to admit - I don't think I ever did a water change on my nano cause I didn't even own a hydrometer - shame on me) but I didn't kill anything. Just topped up evaporation every couple of days. This is just another opinion worth considering. Hope this helps.

Dez, sorry, but I gotta say this is probably not a good opinion worth considering, seeing as this is the first plunge into reef keeping. While it may work for you ok, without killing anything, more of a structured approach might be better for beginners, no?
Barrie, please do water changes WITH the use of a hydrometer. Supplements are not needed yet, if eve,r with that setup, water changes should handle it. If you do frequent enough changes, a skimmer is not neccesary, especially since most that you would get as hangon would not really do all that much anyway.
Overall, looks like a good start, good luck and welcome to the board!

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Dez, sorry, but I gotta say this is probably not a good opinion worth considering, seeing as this is the first plunge into reef keeping. While it may work for you ok, without killing anything, more of a structured approach might be better for beginners, no?
Barrie, please do water changes WITH the use of a hydrometer. Supplements are not needed yet, if eve,r with that setup, water changes should handle it. If you do frequent enough changes, a skimmer is not neccesary, especially since most that you would get as hangon would not really do all that much anyway.
Overall, looks like a good start, good luck and welcome to the board!

Oops, I guess I was unclear. My suggestion was skimmerless WITH lots of water changes. Not no water changes without a hydrometer. I was just sharing my poor husbandry experiences (and not too proud of it myself). But I still believe that if you keep it simple without a skimmer and frequent water changes that the livestock will still be in good hands. I have just found that I've tried too many hang on back skimmers in my time and they are just loud and if there is something in the water that the skimmer wants to go crazy then it overflows. As long as you aren't heavily stocked I would still personally go skimmerless on tanks without sumps.

And please do NOT follor my past poor husbandry experience without water changes and a hydrometer

[Barrie]

Thanks for the we;come and opinions you guys, this is exactly what I was hoping for. I do believe we'll be getting a skimmer this weekend. I personally am all for the simple skimerless method but as my wonderful husband is the one who does the maintenance and 'fiddling' with all our tanks, I will defer to him on this one. He's absolutely immersed in the research and LOVES all the technical crap that bores me to tears!!! LOL Fortunately (well probably UNfortunately for our bank account!) we live close enough to J&L Aquatics that we can go into town this weekend and get a half decent HOB skimmer. With all the other noise in this room, what's one more gadget?

I'm glad to hear about the dosing, though I know once he's done the research we'll be progressing there eventually too but in the meantime we probably won't kill anything.

There's a frag swap in Vancouver next weekend I think - should we go or would it be too soon to even consider adding a frag or two (remember this is all cured rock and whatnot - though we did just add the clowns this week).

[Lance]

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your new hobby. (A warning though, it's addictive!) Feel free to ask lots of questions as you'll get some pretty good advice on this forum. Good Luck and Happy Reefkeeping.

[danny zubot]

Welcome to Canreef!

I agree that dosing won't be needed yet. Wait until you get into some more advanced corals, and you WILL get into them eventually. The only thing I really think is missing other than a skimmer is more flow. 1 Koralia #1 doesn't seam like enough flow for that tank. Round and Hex tanks are a bit of a challenge when it comes to flow. If it were my tank I'd add at least one more Koralia #2 or even a #3. It will help with nutrient export and your fish and corals will love it.

One question; what are you running in your Fluval?

[Barrie]

Sorry, I wasn't clear! We added a second Koralia and have the Fluval outflow on quite high power (near the surface, churns the water a bit). Both Koralias are on one 'wall' about 4 or 5 inches from the top of the tank, facing the opposite wall a bit further down - making the current swirl the zoas (I think that's what they are) quite a bit. There's current from top to bottom without it being directed right at the rock. We read that directing it at the rock will scour it - not good, right?

As for media in the Fluval - here's where I have to curb dh a bit now & then. Last night, he added foam filters to the canister along with carbon. It had been running for a while empty - read somewhere that carbon is good. Not sure why he added the foam filters, but they'll be coming out tonight for sure. We're going to leave the carbon in for now (something about water clarity?). We're open to suggestions, believe me!! But I think everyone will agree with me that the foam needs to go asap.

How do you guys deal with something that dies and you can't reach it without completely dismantling the aquascape? We have a snail that looks like its not going to make it (upside down at the back of the tank for more than a day). So far our nitrite and ammonia are 0, nitrate is 5ppm. I'm going to take a quick video tonight to show the way the current rolls through it. Any excuse to look at the tank! LOL

Yup, we're hooked!! Thanks for all the information, much appreciated!