First tank please critique.

[MisterrBee]

Hi all,

I am new to saltwater tanks. This is my first attempt. I have been through a short ugly spell of diatoms but quickly cleared it up. The tank is only 7 weeks old so still young, I know I have probably gone a bit mad with the amount of corals I have added so quickly, but I'm quite impulsive and I ******* love this hobby!

Can you pleasle give me your opinions on the combination of corals and their placement in the tank.

Thank you

 

[shakacuz]

coral placement seems good for now. what you need to focus on is water stability. adding too many corals at once in a new system might be grounds for a lot of losses if you're not able to keep up and keep the water stable. make sure to check ALK/CAL, NO3/PO4, temp/salinity daily. or twice a week at least to make sure things are in line

 

[kevgib67]

Your tank looks great. Diatoms are self limiting, you have many much more difficult uglies to come. Like @shakacuz said , stability is key. Take it slow heading forward.

 

[MisterrBee]

Things seem to be stable so far. My skimmers working well and the refugium seems to be keeping the cheato alive. I have been keeping an eye on salinity, amonia levels. Salinity was around 29.5 so I have been slowly increasing it to try and get closer to 35 ppm. My LFS recommended for me to use sea water seeing as we have a clean supply where we are. I also used a combination of live and dry rock.

 

[mdpitts]

Hi all,

I am new to saltwater tanks. This is my first attempt. I have been through a short ugly spell of diatoms but quickly cleared it up. The tank is only 7 weeks old so still young, I know I have probably gone a bit mad with the amount of corals I have added so quickly, but I'm quite impulsive and I ******* love this hobby!

Can you pleasle give me your opinions on the combination of corals and their placement in the tank.

Thank you

You are a lot like me! I set up a tank last October and I'm starting to wonder if I'm going off the deep end. ALL I do (or whatever If can get away with) is look up corals and fish and research how to keep my tank healthy. I've never been so in love with a hobby. My dogs are lonely because I sit in front of my tank watching everything more than I do anything else in my down time. I have 10 freshwater tanks so I'm pretty fish focused but the saltwater takes the cake. I went crazy adding corals too. Some are not beginner corals but I didn't know that when I bought them.

I've been wanting to post an image of my tank too asking what more experienced people thought of my coral placement and was curious to see what kind of replies you received. I've been told by everyone that I just need to focus on stability. I was hoping you had gotten some good constructive placement advice. Maybe I won't put a post about my tank. I think I'm doing pretty good. My corals have doubled in size, my parameters aren't perfect and I'm working on it but all my corals look great except for one and it is getting better every day.

All that being said, I think your tank looks great. Good for you! Are you enjoying your clown fish? Mine was the last fish I got and I hadn't planned on getting one at all. Go figure, I love that clown fish so much it's like he/she is a dog or a cat. He is so spunky and happy playing all the time in the flow.

 

[kevgib67]

Things seem to be stable so far. My skimmers working well and the refugium seems to be keeping the cheato alive. I have been keeping an eye on salinity, amonia levels. Salinity was around 29.5 so I have been slowly increasing it to try and get closer to 35 ppm. My LFS recommended for me to use sea water seeing as we have a clean supply where we are. I also used a combination of live and dry rock.

The live rock will work in your favor.

 

[lil sumpin]

Placement looks good, tank looks great! I'm fairly new to this hobby as well and one thing I recommend is testing frequently in the first few months. This could be every other day but aim to at least 2-3 times a week. Figuring out your tank's consumption of alk and cal will help you going forward. Since your tank seems to be smaller, you might not even need to dose anything and might be able to rely solely on water changes to upkeep the tanks demands.

 

[MisterrBee]

You are a lot like me! I set up a tank last October and I'm starting to wonder if I'm going off the deep end. ALL I do (or whatever If can get away with) is look up corals and fish and research how to keep my tank healthy. I've never been so in love with a hobby. My dogs are lonely because I sit in front of my tank watching everything more than I do anything else in my down time. I have 10 freshwater tanks so I'm pretty fish focused but the saltwater takes the cake. I went crazy adding corals too. Some are not beginner corals but I didn't know that when I bought them.

I've been wanting to post an image of my tank too asking what more experienced people thought of my coral placement and was curious to see what kind of replies you received. I've been told by everyone that I just need to focus on stability. I was hoping you had gotten some good constructive placement advice. Maybe I won't put a post about my tank. I think I'm doing pretty good. My corals have doubled in size, my parameters aren't perfect and I'm working on it but all my corals look great except for one and it is getting better every day.

All that being said, I think your tank looks great. Good for you! Are you enjoying your clown fish? Mine was the last fish I got and I hadn't planned on getting one at all. Go figure, I love that clown fish so much it's like he/she is a dog or a cat. He is so spunky and happy playing all the time in the flow.

Yes it's fully addictive. I have 2 freshwater tanks already but can't take my eyes off the new reef tank. As far as I can see if everything's alive and looking healthy we aren't doing a bad job.

I had one issue when I introduced a rock flower anenomy last week. I was a bit worried about my placement of him so decided to try and move him. Whilst doing so I forgot to turn the power head off so he blew across the tank into one of my mushrooms! it melted him in half almost immediately, I could barely sleep all night worrying about the little shop of horrors downstairs! Anenomy has not moved since and the mushroom is recovering well as 2 mushrooms now so I'm feeling a bit more in controll again.

 

[Otto]

Looks good! Are you using sea water now or going to switch?

 

[MisterrBee]

Looks good! Are you using sea water now or going to switch?

Started with RO saltwater but have done 2 X 30% water changes with saltwater. The temp was running at 26° but I have gradually reduced to 25° now. The corals seem to be happier with 25° and saltwater.

 

[mdpitts]

Yes it's fully addictive. I have 2 freshwater tanks already but can't take my eyes off the new reef tank. As far as I can see if everything's alive and looking healthy we aren't doing a bad job.

I had one issue when I introduced a rock flower anenomy last week. I was a bit worried about my placement of him so decided to try and move him. Whilst doing so I forgot to turn the power head off so he blew across the tank into one of my mushrooms! it melted him in half almost immediately, I could barely sleep all night worrying about the little shop of horrors downstairs! Anenomy has not moved since and the mushroom is recovering well as 2 mushrooms now so I'm feeling a bit more in controll again.

Wow! Note to self. That’s crazy because I have 2 bubble tips just below a beautiful orange rhodactis mushroom. I’m sorry that happened but it’s good to know what I need to be careful of.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hi all,

I am new to saltwater tanks. This is my first attempt. I have been through a short ugly spell of diatoms but quickly cleared it up. The tank is only 7 weeks old so still young, I know I have probably gone a bit mad with the amount of corals I have added so quickly, but I'm quite impulsive and I ******* love this hobby!

Can you pleasle give me your opinions on the combination of corals and their placement in the tank.

Thank you

Tank looks good!