First Saltwater Tank 29 gallons

[Obsessed with fish]

You need one mines only 29gallon easy setup. Mine was relatively cheap to set up. Most expensive thing was a light for corals and I bought an AI Prime 16HD from someone on here with a mount for like $150 shipped. If you look for deals you can set one up relatively cheap. Bot as cheap as a freshwater but about the same as a freshwater planted tank.

I'll definitely get a sw tank at some point, I don't think my parents are gonna be on bored with a 4th tank lol, my betta in my betta tank is very old, so when ny betta passes ill covert that tank into a goby tank or smth, bcs its only 5 gallons. I could convert my 20 gallon but I have lots of fish in there and I don't want to give them away, my other tanks a brackish crab tank and that tank tiny, so I think the 5 gallons my best bet. Sorry for intruding your thread, everyone just ignore that.

 

[CrimsonTide]

I'll definitely get a sw tank at some point, I don't think my parents are gonna be on bored with a 4th tank lol, my betta in my betta tank is very old, so when ny betta passes ill covert that tank into a goby tank or smth, bcs its only 5 gallons. I could convert my 20 gallon but I have lots of fish in there and I don't want to give them away, my other tanks a brackish crab tank and that tank tiny, so I think the 5 gallons my best bet. Sorry for intruding your thread, everyone just ignore that.

Np that's whats threads are for! Nano tanks are fun too!

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Np that's whats threads are for! Nano tanks are fun too!

Thankyou for your understanding

 

[CrimsonTide]

Went in with some people on some Live Rock. We got 100lbs from the gulf of Mexico and I took 10lbs for myself. The rock looks really good. I tossed it into a quarantine so I could see if there was anything I didn't want in my main tank. I found a pretty good sized Brittle Star and tossed it in my main tank already. Theres a huge mollusk that is still alive. Ive found a couple of snails but no idea if they are reef safe yet. Ill post some pictures of the live rock.

 

[CrimsonTide]

The live rock has a little macro algae on it and a couple different sponges.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Went in with some people on some Live Rock. We got 100lbs from the gulf of Mexico and I took 10lbs for myself. The rock looks really good. I tossed it into a quarantine so I could see if there was anything I didn't want in my main tank. I found a pretty good sized Brittle Star and tossed it in my main tank already. Theres a huge mollusk that is still alive. Ive found a couple of snails but no idea if they are reef safe yet. Ill post some pictures of the live rock.

Love it, congratulations, you got free sponges

 

[CrimsonTide]

I've been waiting 2 weeks for an order from @AquaSD that was delayed bc of weather and if finally came in today! I love @AquaSD. They have great corals.

Blue wave mushroom

Crown leather coral

Black light torch

Long stem leather

Two blastos on the left and the super Mario Bowerbanki the Merletti on right as well.

The 4 Acans on the rack and then a ice tip two head hammer

 

[CrimsonTide]

Added pictures to the previous post. The leathers are shedding from shipping but everything looks great. I am very happy with everything I had to take all my zoas off the frag rack and cut the plugs and attach them to a rock. They weren't happy to be moved but they're opening back up.

I am probably good on coral buying for awhile. I need to attach all of the acans eventually to a rock and find them a space low in the tank. I moved theyre frag rack to the right side of my tank kinda in a shaded spot so they will hopefully be able to puff up nicely.

I got the crown leather for a steal on their Ebay auctions while I was waiting for my order to ship and ended up with free shipping on it. I am very excited about it. Its getting harder to find leather for cheaper prices. I dont think people sell them as much anymore because they're not the hottest thing like bounce mushrooms and what not. All in all a great day. Took forever to unpack and acclimate everything but very pleased.

 

[kad1979]

Just getting back into the hobby after a fairly long break.

I enjoyed reading this thread. Nice job for your first SW tank.

Keep up the good work.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Just getting back into the hobby after a fairly long break.

I enjoyed reading this thread. Nice job for your first SW tank.

Keep up the good work.

Glad you're back into the hobby! I've definitely enjoyed this tank! I've learned some things and done some things right and wrong but I am enjoying everything. If you need anything let me know. When you start up your tank make a build thread so I can check it out!

 

[CrimsonTide]

So far the new corals i got last month have been doing well. I went yesterday and bought some polyp booster by polyp labs to try to entice my corals to have a better feeding response when I go to feed them. I would like my Acans to have their feeding tentacles out in the day time or evening at least more so they are more willing to eat. Used it last night for the first time and I think it helped a little hopefully continuing to use it will help. Sure made my fish more hungry.

My black clown decided to jump out of the tank again last week and landed on top of the lid. I have a small cut out where my filter and skimmer are and the fish is really good at jumping out at that one spot. It pushed down the mesh so it was partially underwater and partially out of water. It was still able to breathe but got a wicked sunburn on the side out of the water. I caught it after a few mins and tossed it back into the water. The skin peeled but it now has a scarred area on it side. It is healing nicely though. This is the 2nd time it has done this but I guess its better than having them go carpet surfing.

Here's a nice picture of one of the new leathers. I like this one.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Man it's been awhile since I updated on my tank!!!!

First off.... I bought a new house this year. I did the remodeling myself in the new house. Thay took 4months. I had too be out of my house by a certain date and the house wasn't quite ready so I had to move in while still in construction. I knew my tank wouldn't be happy being moved into a 27gallon tub and being on the floor in a construction zone so I got rid of most of my corals.

I got rid of all of my sand and kept the rocks fish and some mushrooms.

I finally finished the house in October. I have set the tank back up. I put black Hawaiian sand. It is a little bigger coarseness than I wanted. I was hoping to by a goby and pistol pair but they aren't going to like this heavy sand.

I bought some new corals from @AquaSD at the new year sale and recently got them in. They seem to be doing great.

I will post some pics but I will have to take some more tomorrow and turn off the blues on the tank.

Hard to see but new purple octospawn

Frags on rack acan, mushroom, alveopora, zoa, and toxic death zoas

New rock flower new. They are happy there and have eaten whenever they have been fed meaty fish or krill.

You can see a crown leather I got in my order there's a finger leather at the bottom and a NPS rdd gorgonian that has eaten every time I have feed phyto or reef roids. I am really hoping I can keep ot alive and happy. I hear NPS Gorgonians are hit or miss but it's too beautiful not to try. Also in the pic is a long stem white tipped toad stool I bought from a LFS and it is happy and the new hosting spot for the clownfish. I've got some duncans under the gorgonian and a small long stem leather down front at the bottom. Theres a couple mushrooms hanging around some rocks as well. Theres also a kenya tree.

Took all these pics right before lights out. I'll try to get more to update better. I had the time to type tonight so I figured I would update.

All in all I'm 4 years into reefing and essentially starting over but I've never lost a fish (knock on wood). However coral has been a learning curve and just when I thought I had it good I kinda had to reset but I am back and up and running. Hopefully I can have some more frequent updates soon.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Ordered another order from @AquaSD And it arrived about a week ago. I love their store hope to one day go when I make it back out to Cali. Great people. I got I think 16 corals. Had to make a new egg crate rack just to fit them until I could place them after they get acclimated.

I will take pics tomorrow. Everything is doing okay. I wish my Acans I ordered would puff up. My tank has an AI prime on it and I think they aren't used to the par in my tank. I ordered an Acan from them on the previous order and it isn't as puffed up as I would like yet but it's getting puffer and used to the light. They're essentially at the bottom of the tank on the right hand side. I can't pit them any further away from the light unless I hide them under a crevice. So I guess I'll give it a week more and make moves if needed.

Bought another gorgonian this one is yellow. I glued it next to the red and so far they're best friends. They still eat like crazy. They love reef roids.

Been dosing phyto the past month and it has helped to reduce aby algae rmfrom really growing in the tank. I really think phyto is some weird magic drug that every tank needs. I used to dose it before and it helped then too.

I've got quite a collection of zoas now that I need to do something with and I guess create a zoa garden on a rock in the tank. I will probably work on moving them this weekend.

I also ordered two candy canes that I need to place for now they're still on the rack.

I have two types of clove polyps and pipe organs that need to be placed as well.

I ordered a nuclear clamored octospawn and placed it finally in a low flow area and it seems happy.

I also ordered a leptastria and it needs to be placed. It is currently not happy on a rack in full light.

I guess this weekend my hands will be I'm the tank. I'm going to try to get some pics of the tank tomorrow when lights are on.

Also ordered two mushrooms a ricordea and another. The ricordea i need to move to less light but the other is happy and huge when the lights are on.

 

[CrimsonTide]

A little toadstool fun pic I took last night. This thing is getting to a good size now. The clowns love this thing in the day time. Its like their garden to play in. At night when it shrinks they have to sleep somewhere else though.

 

[CrimsonTide]

Went to a reef show yesterday and picked up some cool new additions to the tank. Some of my favorite and odd picks came from @EyeCandyCoral. They were great at hosting the event and had some great prices and selections.

I got a really cool frogspawn thats a 3 head with purple gold and peach coloring.

I also got a gold hammer that is essentially one head splitting into two.

I got two small blasto merletti colonies. One is red the other is kind of teal.

I got a really cool photosynthetic gorgonian rod I had never seen before with long polyps. It was truly weird and I had to have it. It goes well in the gorgonian garden I have started.

I got a lepto, zoa, and acan as well.

Also got a new jawbreaker mushroom as well.

It was a good day.

I have been trying to test the tank more to control fluctuations. I think my calcium is a little high right now. I'm hoping something will use it up a little more but next water change should fix it close to the number I want. I am trying to keep my Alk at 10. It just seems like a nice number to keep it at.

I have been having problems with Acans receding. Everything else seems fine. I would love to figure out what the issue is with them. They are never puffy.

Going to check nitrates in a few and see what I can do.

They are essentially on my sandbed connected to a rock.

I lowered my lighting quite a bit a little while back bc I thought the light might be too bright. I had my AI on like 60-80% blues ramping up and down over 12hrs but during peaks times it was 60-80%.

Had to buy new reagents for my hanna checkers bc they had gone out of date. Used salifert tests earlier this week and remembered why I liked Hanna so much better.

I'm having a big aptasia problem. I have been every since I set this tank back up after I moved. I have hit them with aptasia X twice and it does take out the ones I hit but more have popped up. I bought 2 peppermint shrimps but they live in a cave most of the time and they also eat fish food so they have little motivation it seems to eat aptasia. If I could find some nudibranchs they would live awhile eating aptasia in my tank. Also bought an emerald crab to deal with some bubble algae. I saw him the other day working on some algae and I was happy but I have enough that it would take him awhile to take a lot out. So I need to scrub better on the next water change and maybe get another emerald for giggles.

That's about all for now. Off to check nitrates and retest alk to see if I'm at the right number now.

 

[CrimsonTide]

So I bought a 3rd peppermint shrimp about two weeks ago that I know had eaten aptasia from a tank at my LFS. It seemed more interested in fish food like my other 2 I had are.

Sooooo I finally got the LFS to order some Berghia Nudibranchs and I bought 3 today. They would only sell them in packs of 3 and I didn't want to spend the money on 6. I really wanted 5 but they were $20 each essentially. The pack of 3 was $60. I could have bought a nice coral for that much. O well. I need my aptasia gone. I do think that maybe the peppermint has eaten a couple but there's still way too many. Hope they live reproduce and take put my aptasia.

I put all three of them on the same rock so hopefully they can find each other and take out aptasias together. I'll keep this posted if I see any success in a few weeks.

I also bought a $30 hammer from the LFS the other day while buying a New Hanna phosphate tester. It was supposed to be $60 but somehow slid into the $30 corals. It has 2 heads and looks great. When I bought the bergia today I also bought a $10 zoa frag. Not sure exactly what the zoas look like in blues yet bc I put it in and they are partially closed.

New hammer. I thought it was a steal for $30, especially at my LFS. He charges pretty high for corals. I know he has to make money but it usually just grab stuff from the discount corals area when I seek something like the Hammer or zoas or mushrooms for like half off.

I also ordered new cartridges for my RODI this week and installed them. I tested and it was running 30TDS and recently it was not. So now it is running 0TDS again and we're back to normal. I need to retest calcium bc I used the not good RODI earlier this week and I think that made the test weird bc it said my calcium was 500 and that's not really possible. That's how I knew to test the RODI in the first place.

I need to lower my phosphates. I put phospoguard in my filter this week I will change that out and put some new in and retest probably tomorrow or Sunday.

I cut some of my GPS today off my rock and glued it to my back wall. I am hoping I can get it to start growing there. I like the back walls with GPS. I dont love them taking over all the rocks in a tank but the back wall is cool. I'm trying to keep my GSP rock isolated as long as possible.