Hi! First time reefer here

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Hello and welcome to R2R :)
It's a pleasure to have you here with us ;)

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Jorda320 said:
Hi! I have been lurking in these threads for months trying to get a good idea of what I would need to do to start a saltwater tank. I've been keeping fresh water tanks for a couple years now and I'm looking for more of a challenge or maybe just something new to be honest. I have three little kids, ages 5 to 3, and they enjoy this as well so I'm hoping to introduce them to something that they might like as they grow up.

Anyway, as far as my plans go I currently have a 36 gallon bowfront which I'm scrubbing and cleaning as it was used as a freshwater snail breeding tank. I have about 40 lb of Reef Saver dry Rock curing right now and 2 clownfish in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. Chances are I'm going to leave everything as is for about a month longer before I buy sand and equipment. Since I don't have space for a sump I'm strongly considering the CPR aquafuge2. This will give me enough place to grow some algae and pods. My only current issue is lighting. This is a 30 in tank with a pretty thick Center brace and I'm concerned about shadowing.

I'll be posting pictures along the way as well. This is a quick picture of my two little clownfish in quarantine. I got them a few weeks ago from LiveAquaria they were about half an inch long. So far they've almost doubled in size. Some crushed Coral in there just because of pH issues.

20181030_112407.jpg
Click to expand...
Welcome to R2R! Nice clowns, can't wait to get some when I get my next tank set up. A word of advice from one bowfront ownder to another, I feel like one of the reasons my tank fell apart was largely the aquascape. Bowfronts can be misleadingly small in their footprint and it's important not to over crowd them with rock. I see you have 40 pounds, I don't suggest using all of it. Caused me a lot of trouble and I always wished I had used less rock.
 
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BRS
Wow, tons of replies and advice in just my first day!

To answer some of the comments I'll start by saying that the center brace is about 3 in wide directly in the middle of the tank. This is my biggest issue as it leaves me with two 12-inch sections. I was hoping to get something simple such as one or two LED strips as I'm only aiming for low to medium light. Additionally since I rent I'm not allowed to drill anything in the walls to mount the lights and my wife is terrified that our youngest might try to pull on the gooseneck any Spotlight type LED might have and asked me not to get any gooseneck or mounting brackets of that style. Because of this I am more or less left with something that will be mounted directly on top.

Regarding the scape I bought some extra dry rock just in case I needed down the line. Currently my plan for aquascaping is something similar to a two tower design with one large Tower and a second tower consisting more of scattered rubble rather than an actual Tower.

To answer the question regarding the livestock I plan to have about 2 LPS and two or three softies at the max. I don't want to over stock but at the same time I would like to have at least one Duncan, one Hammer, one Kenya tree/leather and one or two zoa's on the scattered rubbel of the second tower to isolate them from everything else. If I end up with additional room and water levels are good I might consider something like a Scoly or Acan lord, but that is just a maybe.

I think that answers about everything. Thanks for all the input so far!
 
Deltec
Jorda320 said:
Wow, tons of replies and advice in just my first day!

To answer some of the comments I'll start by saying that the center brace is about 3 in wide directly in the middle of the tank. This is my biggest issue as it leaves me with two 12-inch sections. I was hoping to get something simple such as one or two LED strips as I'm only aiming for low to medium light. Additionally since I rent I'm not allowed to drill anything in the walls to mount the lights and my wife is terrified that our youngest might try to pull on the gooseneck any Spotlight type LED might have and asked me not to get any gooseneck or mounting brackets of that style. Because of this I am more or less left with something that will be mounted directly on top.

Regarding the scape I bought some extra dry rock just in case I needed down the line. Currently my plan for aquascaping is something similar to a two tower design with one large Tower and a second tower consisting more of scattered rubble rather than an actual Tower.

To answer the question regarding the livestock I plan to have about 2 LPS and two or three softies at the max. I don't want to over stock but at the same time I would like to have at least one Duncan, one Hammer, one Kenya tree/leather and one or two zoa's on the scattered rubbel of the second tower to isolate them from everything else. If I end up with additional room and water levels are good I might consider something like a Scoly or Acan lord, but that is just a maybe.

I think that answers about everything. Thanks for all the input so far!
Click to expand...

Sounds great! Welcome to the forum!
 
I don't have any experience with any of the less expensive LED strips that sit on the tank, but I am sure others can make some specific recommendations on brands and morels. Probably best to start a thread under one of the hardware forums with a specific question. (maybe the lighting one)

Thinking about the center brace, if it were me, I would just aquascape and place corals with the brace in mind. I would probably just build the rock into two peaks, one centered in each of the 12" open sections of the tank, and put higher light corals under the open sections and lower light corals or even open space under the brace. If you place corals lower in that section under the brace it will probably work better than placing them higher as the maximum light interference will be towards the surface of the water.
 
jolt said:
I don't have any experience with any of the less expensive LED strips that sit on the tank, but I am sure others can make some specific recommendations on brands and morels. Probably best to start a thread under one of the hardware forums with a specific question. (maybe the lighting one)

Thinking about the center brace, if it were me, I would just aquascape and place corals with the brace in mind. I would probably just build the rock into two peaks, one centered in each of the 12" open sections of the tank, and put higher light corals under the open sections and lower light corals or even open space under the brace. If you place corals lower in that section under the brace it will probably work better than placing them higher as the maximum light interference will be towards the surface of the water.
Click to expand...

That does sound like a very reasonable option considering how thick that brace is. I'll definitely be giving that a shot.

Also, I was considering modifying the brace. I know you should never remove the brace from a tank but in the past I have broken one brace and as a sort of DIY fix I used a half inch wide piece of stainless steel that ran from the front to the back of the tank. I bolted it on top of the cracked brace and it has held sturdy for years. I'm thinking that if I do this with the 3-inch brace I could realistically shave away the plastic of the rim until it was only half an inch thick. That's just a thought.
 
I wouldn't do anything to the brace.
Adding any metal to a salt water tank is pretty much a bad idea.

Stainless steel is just as much of a 'name only' as the 'dry' suit I work in under water.
(Tighten your grip and watch the inside of your wrist make a channel. Not bad, just damp.
[emoji6]
If the water isn't too cold yet you can be hotter and wetter from the sweat that has no place to go.)

We have used a glass top for years. Jumping fish are depressing.
A couple of strip lights and cheaper flat LED lights are effective for hammers and easy softies.
Lol, keep in mind that even though the lights are cheap junk in terms of SPS, they are sitting right on your glass top.
That puts them within inches of your corals.
The PAR gradient works out to be a little extreme between the sandbed and the rocks near the top.
If you are doing a mixed reef, this works in your favor.
Just make sure you don't switch the places of the low light and higher light corals because they look better that way aesthetically.
[emoji4]
If you can limit the number of fish to a very reasonable level you will have an easy tank to take care of.
[emoji4]
 
norfolkgarden said:
I wouldn't do anything to the brace.
Adding any metal to a salt water tank is pretty much a bad idea.

Stainless steel is just as much of a 'name only' as the 'dry' suit I work in under water.
(Tighten your grip and watch the inside of your wrist make a channel. Not bad, just damp.
[emoji6]
If the water isn't too cold yet you can be hotter and wetter from the sweat that has no place to go.)

We have used a glass top for years. Jumping fish are depressing.
A couple of strip lights and cheaper flat LED lights are effective for hammers and easy softies.
Lol, keep in mind that even though the lights are cheap junk in terms of SPS, they are sitting right on your glass top.
That puts them within inches of your corals.
The PAR gradient works out to be a little extreme between the sandbed and the rocks near the top.
If you are doing a mixed reef, this works in your favor.
Just make sure you don't switch the places of the low light and higher light corals because they look better that way aesthetically.
[emoji4]
If you can limit the number of fish to a very reasonable level you will have an easy tank to take care of.
[emoji4]
Click to expand...

I do intend to add a 1/8 inch mesh screen from BRS with a DIY curve for the bowfront as opposed to the glass top only because I find cleaning the glass to be very tedious. I saw plans for one on a thread here ar R2R. As far as the brace modificartions go if that is not a good idea then no worries. I wont do anything that may cause trouble down the line.

Im looking for a relatively easy experience so I do hope to understock and rely on the fuge, skimmer and decent size water changes.

My plans for adding fish down the line are an orchid dottyback, a sand sifting goby, and a small school of cardinal fish. I think that would be about as much as I would want to put in there. Maybe some snails as well just for cleaning
 
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